[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was looking, I was like, is this now genuine or is he pulling a Niko, you know, and saying the complete opposite of what he's feeling. But I think it was pretty genuine and in which case I was thinking, it's a little bit too, uh, seems a little bit too...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, nice guy somehow, because he already, on the strategy already, he lost out the day before by allowing the team to give Carlos a slipstream twice in the end of Qualify.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rather than it being split, you know, it should have been one person, one first run, the other person, the second run. And yet he allowed Carlos to have double slipstream in the qualifying already.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not sure, maybe, uh, either he's a super, maybe he's just a super nice guy, but that would be a little bit too nice, I find.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, probably yes, I think he's building his reputation, yeaah. Uhm, but his-


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[Assistant] It's the ultimate challenge, isn't it, to be in his position. My goodness, to rebuild the Ferrari team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With that pressure that's on his shoulders, uhm, it's, it's really the biggest challenge there is. So, uh, I think he's doing well so far, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But a big step to get the Tifosi on his side, a big step I think should be to get the Italian learned. So you can speak to them in Italian. And I challenged him on the Sky Sports microphone and all he could say was breakfast. So he still has some way to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because how weird is that? I mean for a French guy to be speaking English to Italian guys and leading the team, that is, that is a bit weird.


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[Assistant] I think so, yes. I think it would be of high importance to be able to speak, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reorganize the whole communication within the team, within Williams, uhm, because the aero was not really communicating well with the, with the simulation, with the, with the chassis construction side and things and you just reorganize the communication and already that apparently has, has really had a big impact in their, in their progress. So that's been lovely to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, no, of course it's fundamental. And I'm not really sure what's happened to Lad's Troll there.


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[Assistant] Uhm, because he's a very decent driver, you know, and he showed in the beginning of the season how he can stay close to, to Fernando. When Fernando was third, uh, Lance was fifth or sixth. Uhm, so I'm not really sure what's happened to him there, but he's really in a difficult phase now. Uhm, and I think long term,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Aston, they can't really, uh, allow themselves to have one driver who's that far off.


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[Assistant] Uh, so either Lance gets back to where he can be and where he should be, or they're gonna have to start thinking about, um, changing, uh, changing things around there with the second driver. Because also, they need someone, I mean, Fernando needs to be pushed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the setup work is much better when there's two drivers who are on it. You know, they push, it has a whole different dynamic, so it's very important to have two drivers who are very quick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very impossible for me to judge. Uhm, probably it would, it would more be Lance saying, hey, you know what, uhm, I think I should go and do something, something else or whatever. If, if, if he continues to struggle the way, the way he is at the moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it's a really difficult situation to judge from the outside. I mean, I think the easiest would be if Lance somehow finds a way back to where he has been and where he can be, which is not too far from Fernando.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but the problem is, it's more, it's not Formula One here, it's a father-son relationship also. Uhm, this is, uh, that's the challenge, you know, that's the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what matters here then, eventually. So, it's a diff, diff, it's a very difficult one. But also, I mean, if Aston was second in the Constructors, I think that's 30 million or so more in revenues from, from the TV money share. Uhm, something like that number if I had to guess now. Uhm, from second to fourth place in the Constructors Championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's a lot of money that's at stake there as well.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and then the budget comes, cap comes in, and teams valuations multiply by almost 10 probably, and suddenly almost all teams on the grid are profitable teams.


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[Assistant] Uhm, which is, I mean, an incredible change in F1 for F1. And some of the top teams, the amount of money they're making is like incredible.


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[Assistant] Uh, a lot of mistakes, it's very easy to make mistakes, also qualifying to get that right. So I would say Singapore is high downforce, complete opposite. Uhm, that's probably, uh, probably a good place to start. And may I ask Matt, who got the 24 out of 25 wins went to Red Bull? Who got the 25th? It must be George Russell.


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[Assistant] I think, uhm, yeaah, that was, uh, I think Toto got in a moment there where he was not too happy about his own race team's performance on the weekend. Because of course, where did they finish, 5th and 6th?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So finishing 5th and 6th and miles behind Ferrari and Red Bull is not really, um, the goal. So I think Toto was just a bit down there and that made his answer a bit darker and not quite as gracious, not quite as gracious as perhaps he would normally be. Um, because I think the right answer would have been, yeah, I mean, hats off and respect to, uh, to Red Bull for their, um, for that, for that, for this, these achievements.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We all care about records, of course, and we think a lot about records. So uhm, even Max, who always says, no, I don't care about 10 races, what does he do when he comes out the car?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He puts, uh, both of his hands up and points to the world that that's ten in a row.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uh, and just before he's been saying, oh, no, I don't care about 10. I just want to do a good race weekend. Uhm, so even Max cares about records.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the curse thing. I even tried this weekend, I tried to do a neutral background, because I thought I don't want to play any, cause any problems here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so I thought, yeaah, so maybe I'm not even allowed to do that then apparently. Uhm, so yes, I understand that I should be taking a picture, but that would be a bit like, that would be a bit aggressive, if I then take a picture with Max before a race, that would not be cool, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if I was like someone like Alex Algon, uhm.


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[Assistant] You know that you're just not gonna have a chance against Max. Because no one in the world will have a chance against Max. So...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But do you really, do you accept to put yourself into a place where you're gonna be a number two? That's a decision that you have to, uh, you have to ask yourself. Where someone like Daniel, Ricardo, uhm, who, like a couple of years ago would never have accepted that. Now, by now he's in a place where he says, okay listen,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Max is, uhm, gonna be one of the top five of all time, in line with Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton, Fangio, uhm, and it would just still be lovely to be back at Red Bull and, and kind of accept that I probably will be more of a number two, uhm, there. Uhm, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Depends on, on you as a driver. I, I personally would not do it, because, uh,


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[Assistant] Because uhm, he has so much experience in that team, he has, it's almost impossible for me, even in my prime, to go in there and then, and then expect to be able to dominate him. That's like, not realistic, so uhm, I would probably not, I would not have done it, I don't think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I mean, I, I put Max on the same level as Lewis. So that's how I would do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so that's how I would, uh, that's how I would do. That would be my best guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, they're fully focused all on next year now. Uh, therefore, it just is what it is now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, with the car they have, yes, they can secure second place and probably jump Alonso in the Drivers Championship. Uh, I think Lewis should be able to still get ahead of him. Uhm, and that's it. I don't think we should expect much more because everybody's 100% on next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certainly a lot of it has to be to keep analyzing that Red Bull car, because also Christian Horner was telling me after the race that he thinks everything is going to be much closer next year because everybody is just going to copy their car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that was his, uh, his thought after the race in Monza. Uhm, and I think all teams need to do that. They need to understand exactly what Red Bull is doing there and, and probably just go down that route as much as possible. Uhm, which is what McLaren has done, uhm, to some extent, you know, and it just worked wonders for them straight away. I mean, just switched on the car straight away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, so all teams are gonna be trying to, uh, to do that. Also understanding what has McLaren done to make such a jump.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because that's been incredible. I mean, what a turn of form they've had. That's very rare to see that during a season, to see such a big jump. You know, they've done an exceptional job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, sure, I think just put stability, calmness, uh, because it's, uh, it's, it always leads to uncertainty, or even in the leadership, oh, Lewis is not signed yet, uh, it puts stress, puts stress, because what if Lewis suddenly decides, oh, I actually prefer to go, uh, surfing on the beach?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That would be a, that would be a big problem then, you know? So it does put stress, especially probably on someone like Toto, even though he wouldn't show it, because he's an incredible, incredibly good negotiator, and pretty cold, but inside, certainly it puts stress.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a nice, uh, that's a nice idea, Aldous. So, so, Tsunoda and Ricciardo at, uhm, at AlphaTauri, and then Lawson at Williams. That would make a lot of sense. Uhm, I think that's a good one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, Lawson, first of all, I agree with all this, that uhm, it was really, uh, really a good job, especially in Monza. Incredible. Jump in the car and you're, how much was he behind? One and a half tenths or something from Tsunoda, or I think one and a half tenths. Uhm, that's really awesome, because Tsunoda's fast, so that's a super drive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then good race, good race pace and everything. Uhm, how unlucky has that been for Daniel though? It's incredible. You get this chance to come back and you break your hand in a, in a freak accident. Uhm, so unlucky. So the latest from Christian Horner is that Daniel will be back in Qatar. So he still misses a couple of races and then, then we'll be able to come back because it's quite a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it makes it difficult but, but Daniel has such a value to, to Red Bull and he's so liked by Red Bull that they'll definitely be patient in giving him


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, of course, come on, Daniel is Daniel and they would have the whole world against themselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, they cannot not bring him back. The poor guy, uh, broke his hand. Uhm, you cannot then, I mean, no way. So, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or, or you say you're back in the car for next year, but let's have Liam finish the season because we need to evaluate him now or whatever, perhaps, but, but you need to have Daniel back at some point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, Singapore is such a difficult track. It's really, really, it has the, one of the tracks with the most corners, I think, in the year as well, just never ending, corner after corner. Uhm, really difficult to get set up right, to get your tyres working properly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, so I'm expecting maybe we can have some surprises also with some teams suddenly going extremely well, a little bit in a surprising way. And uhm, so now I think it's going to be refreshing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and you're like in your skiing suit, you know, and you're sitting on the, on the asphalt, which is 40, 45 degrees.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and then you have the, the petrol right behind you, which is at 65 degrees or something like that. So it's just so extremely hot. There's no fresh air coming in. You have the seatbelts really tight. You have your carbon seat molded to your body so you can hardly breathe properly. Uhm, corner after corner where you have to hold your breath in the corners. You can't breathe when you're cornering, you're holding your breath. Uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I remember that after like 10 laps, I would then look at the, my pit board from my mechanics and it would say, uh, 50 laps to go. And I'm thinking, okay, I'm done. I'm done. I'm 10 laps in, I'm done. And it says 50 laps to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's also the longest race because unlike Monaco, they keep it at 300 kilometers there. Uh, so it's also very often close to a two hour race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so horrible, like the feeling in the car. Uhm, it's like you're in a sauna on a spinning bike for two hours. You know what I'm saying? Yes. It's horrible. And then your head is starting to pump within the helmet. Uh, your sweat is dripping down into your eyes and burning and, and, uhm, it's really incredibly tough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, of course, yeah. My 2016 win was ultra high pressure because uhm, they pitted Lewis behind to try and, uh, to try and get him back on the podium.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that caused a whole like, Constantina effect where everybody behind me pitted and suddenly went on soft new tyres. But I was the only one who couldn't pit anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and so I had Ricardo chasing me down and he finished only four tenths, four tenths behind me after like it was a guaranteed win for me and uh, so that was like a ultra pressure moment on my way to the championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. Joining me for this one in our shiny, lovely studio is David Croft. Hello. And Formula One content creator and podcaster, Tony Cowan-Brown, alongside by the powers of technology in the screen over there, Corinne Chantock. Corinne, hello.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, what an image, what an image to paint. Lack of culture, or not, as it were.


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[Assistant] Uhm, welcome Tony, because we're going to give you the privilege, as it were, of giving us your one word race review for the Belgian Grand Prix. So go on, kick things off, one word race review.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely. Go on Karine, your one word race review from, uh, from the screen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll come on to talk a bit more about PS3 in a bit, because yeaah, I mean,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll come on to what we're gonna do in a sec. Go and you go with your one word race review.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fantastic. Incredible, incredible. This is, this is the side that people don't see at Formula One is, is us in airports at sort of 2am, 3am landing, way after everyone's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quite, quite. Uhm, I've gone for a, uh, well actually the same as you, Spar, but with an R on the end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it points to the position that Red Bull are in at the moment, where they're so comfortable, so, so easily able to work in each other's company. They're able to make decisive, good calls instantly. And I think, yeah, when you've got, when you've got a relationship like that with your race engineer, I think you can win anything, can't you?


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[Assistant] Did you hear, um, sorry, I was going to say, did you hear Horner call him, he's our Jason Statham equivalent?


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[Assistant] We're not quite going to go down Ted Kravitz's headmaster route, but I think we'll try and touch on as many teams, well, we'll touch on all the teams, some in more detail than others, but you know, we'll try and get through as many as possible. But look, let's start with Red Bull. And you know, I think it's fair to say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tony, what do you make of that relationship? Do you think actually this is a very good teammate for Max Verstappen? Because ultimately, he's out of the way. He's not causing a problem for Verstappen who, let's face it, is the number one driver at Red Bull.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Well, there's one, there's one more point I want to make on, on, on Red Bull. And when we put the, the tweet up or the Instagram post up about this podcast and we said, we want to review the first half of the season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were quite a few people on there who were saying, you know, well, it's, it's been a very dull season. It's been a very boring season. How can, you know, oh, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not going to watch the rest of the year or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now I, I don't, I don't agree that this has been a boring season by any stretch. I think if, you know, there's been so many interesting battles, if it perhaps is a foregone conclusion that Max wins most of the races, certainly the last eight, that's going to happen. But Tony, I wonder, I wonder if we can try and make the case for this not being


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A boring season. To those people who have said that, because there is so much else going on, isn't there?


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[Assistant] So Mercedes sit second in the, in the constructors championship on 247 points. Um, Karun for a team that's dominated for, for, for so long in, in the sport, obviously they've now been kind of surpassed by Red Bull in that sense, this, the last couple of years, but is it fair to say they're getting closer, but they're still quite a way off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To make you believe that say next year, you know, we're going to have Lewis going for another eight champ, or for an eighth championship again. Have you seen enough this year?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If say, if you were Lewis Hamilton, would that give you confidence in, in the project, in the Mercedes team?


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[Assistant] Extraordinary, isn't it? When you think about the evolution of F1 and how literally nine months before that car gets on track in Bahrain next in 2024, they're working on it now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, well, let's park it until Singapore. Come Singapore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a big story. That will dominate, yeah, it will dominate, it will dominate the Formula One news agenda. Okay, let's move on. So we've done, we've done Red Bull and Mercedes. Let's talk about Aston Martin, he's third in the Constructors' Championship. Karun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alonso was on the podium for six out of the, uh, six out of the first eight Grand Prix's. What's happened to Aston Martin over the last few races? Why are they not still, uh, fighting at the front?


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[Assistant] Um, Karun, I know you've got to leave fairly soon. No, no, let's, we'll power on. Okay, we'll power on. Alright, fine, fine, great. Uhm, let's talk Ferrari. Uhm, Crofty, I'm gonna come to you on this one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fourth in the Constructors Championship. Yep. 191 points. They're sort of just about there, or they're about to Vasta Martin. I think Mercedes are a fair chunk ahead of them. It's been quite topsy-turvy season, hasn't it, for Ferrari? Is that a fair assessment? And I wonder...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do they, do they know sometimes when they get to a race if they're going to be quick? And sometimes when they're not as quick as they say they're, do you know what I mean? There seems to be like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tony, what about the driver pairing? Obviously we've just spoken about Charlotte, but, but Carlos as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an exciting pairing, isn't it? But I mean, you have to say, Carlos still doesn't feel like he's quite up to the level of Charles, certainly on the last couple of seasons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You never know. Very good, okay. Good pace with Ferrari there, guys. Let's move on to McLaren.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's move on to McLaren. Uhm, and Karina, I'm going to come to you on this one. Uhm, was, was Spaal kind of a little bit of a crash back down to earth for, uh, for the Papaya coloured team?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, funny you mention the, uh, the, the, Andrea, Andrea Stella coming, coming in being, being made team principal, a team that has had a topsy turvy, another topsy turvy weekend is Alpine. Cause it seems like it's, it's a bit of a revolving door, but everyone seems to.


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[Assistant] So maybe the management getting it wrong. I mean, Tony, what did you make it? What have you made of the changes at Alpine over this weekend?


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[Assistant] And announcing it at a race. And then I saw, I saw on Twitter the images of Otmar leaving the track. With his suitcase. It was quite sad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, poor Otmar. Um, Corinne, sorry, I was just gonna, I was gonna come see you on this. Do you, do you think Otmar...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has, has not been given enough time because he thought he was on a hundred race. If you like a hundred race plan, right? A hundred races to get Alpine to the, to the front of the grid. He, he's obviously had 33 races. Do you have sympathy with him and what he was trying to do at Alpine?


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[Assistant] Alright, well that concludes, uh, our pain. Uh, Corinne, I know you have to go, so we'll, we'll bid you farewell. Thank you very much for joining us on the screen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yours as well. So it's all good. All is well in Formula One hair. He's not wrong though. What do you put in that hair? You really want to, it's a three pronged approach. Three? At least we've got a process. I like this. Prong one? Prong one, the volumizing mousse. Volumizing mousse? I can't believe we're doing this. He's angling for a sponsor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, we've got, we've got four teams left, uh, to go through. What I thought we'd do, we've got Williams, Haas, Alpha Romeo, and Alpha Tauri. Alright. So, perhaps instead of going through them one by one by one by one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who out of those four teams do you backcroft in the second half of the season?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To have a good second half. Who is gonna maybe get out of that final four and perhaps push further into the midfield?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am going to go on holiday, but thankfully for everyone at home, we've got some great podcasts lined up with yourself. We're going to do a little Q&A with you. And we've also got one with Danica Patrick as well. So, uh, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll keep you, we'll keep you, eh, you know, there might not be F1, but we'll still keep your, your, your, your whistle wetted, as it were, with, with Formula One, uh, throughout, throughout the August break.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you very much for joining us. Uh, we hope you enjoyed it and we will be back next Tuesday. Uh, we hope you can join us then. Bye for now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had a lion this morning, I must admit. It took me a while to get going today. Look, it's a party town when the Grand Prix is on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it would be wrong not to go and see as many people as we can during the course of the weekend. Um, I, I, I was a bit upset that, uh, that Sebastian, uh, Juan Pablo, your, your son rather ruined my breakfast on Sunday morning. I mean, that was way too early for a motor race. Eight o'clock in the morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was trying to have a nice, you know, scrambled eggs and bacon by the side of the track and then, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now listen, I, I thought Monaco, I thought Monaco was great this year, uhm, for many, many reasons. It was great to see the stands so packed. It was great to see, you know, the harbour absolutely packed. From a commercial sense, Monaco is massively important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a Formula One. It's still a place where the fans flock to. They want to see racing cars on the streets there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Qualifying was one of the best qualifying sessions I've ever had the pleasure to commentate on, quite frankly. That last sector, Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso, quickest in sector one, sector two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then only 10th fastest in the final sector. That's where Max had the opportunity to really get back and take that pole. And I remember saying in the commentary, you know, if anyone could do it, he can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An incredible driver, a rocket ship of a car and then bang, he's on pole by a few hundreds. Just so, so dramatic. You know, Charles Leclerc's heart's broken, Aston Martin's heart's broken and Max ends up on top. And the trouble with Monaco qualifying is absolutely everything. We had, we had a race, we had a, had a good race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd like to see better racing, but I'm no genius as to how we answer the problem of overtaking around Monaco these days, but at least we did have a race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, you think, you think they absolutely got it wrong there? Because I think there's people in the team think that we missed out on it as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whether it was only going to be a sprinkling of rain, it wasn't going to be a massive shower, and that's, that's what we got in the end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I trust him with my life, Captain Max. He was brilliant. Uhm, it's two o'clock, it's only going to be a light sprinkle. But if you look, Pierre Gasly was exactly the same at Alpine. They did the same with Gasly at Alpine as Aston Martin did with Fernando. Uhm, in hindsight, they got it wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Speaking to some of the Red Bull guys on the plane home last night, they said had Fernando had gone straight onto intermediates, it would have been very, very close. Because Max, they were still going to wait for a lap, maybe a couple of laps, he's tiptoeing around, Fernando's got the intermediate tyres on. And they said, you know, we kind of feared if he went


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Starting on the hard tyre, I think was a brilliant strategy and Max's win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the way he had to manage those mediums for so long actually


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[Assistant] We should doff our cap a bit more to the way Max went and won that race yesterday because Aston put him in a world of pain and a world of trouble and he overcame it and drove very, very well. When he went through the graining.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and emerged a bit cleaner on the other side. That, that, that was sensational driving. Yes, Fernando's rears suffered a bit more with the graining than was expected, but that was a master stroke of strategy to go on that hard tyre thinking, well, Max is going to go medium because he's wanting to get the launch and he,


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[Assistant] But it is, but that just shows you the start is so important. 2002 was the last time the pole sitter didn't lead the first lap. Or the person starting in front I should say didn't lead the first lap in Monaco. There you go.


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[Assistant] Where Aston have a slightly better advantage than Mercedes is it, the concept of car that is succeeding in this, this current iteration of Formula One.


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[Assistant] Uhm, was, was not the Mercedes concept that gave them so much domination from, from 2014 to, to 2021, where, you know, Lewis lost the title, obviously, but Mercedes was still constructors, uh, champions.


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[Assistant] They've had to reinvent their wheel, so to speak. Aston Martin.


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[Assistant] With Dan Fallows leading them, technically. Dan coming from Red Bull.


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[Assistant] He understands where Adrian knew his inspiration and philosophy translates to it to a good car. And it's that kind of higher raked car that is now succeeding given the slight changes to the floor and the diffuser that have been made in the last couple of years. But the red boy's not ranked. That's a weird thing. No, not this year.


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[Assistant] I think, I think there's, there's a bit of break in there, but he understands where Adrian knew he's been getting it right.


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[Assistant] And I think also that there's two other key members. There's Eric Blondin in aerodynamics who's come from Mercedes, who Dan also worked with at Red Bull for a few years. And there's Luca Fabato on the chassis side. And all three of them have formed a very good technical leadership.


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[Assistant] This is quite, this is quite an important day we're recording this podcast on today for Aston Martin. This is the day they move into their new factory. It's moving day at Silverstone today. So, you know, the old Silverstone base.


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[Assistant] The mounting points for the engine are going to be on the chassis, for instance.


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[Assistant] They could be, and I think they will be, the next Red Bull in Formula One. They've got the vision, they've got the money, they've got the strategy, they've got the people. They have the people. Rob Smedley said they have the people. And as Rob Smedley said to me, and Rob knows a few things, other than Red Bull at the moment,


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[Assistant] Who else is more committed to winning than Aston Martin? And I think that's a really good sentence there. It's that commitment to win. You have to invest.


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[Assistant] And Mercedes have invested, Ferrari have invested, Aston Martin are investing. At this time in the present, they're the team going forwards.


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[Assistant] That's a really key point that you make there, uh, Juan Pablo. Bringing people together.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. Now, Fernando says, look, in hindsight, maybe we should have done something, but at that time, that was the right thing to do because it wasn't raining that much. He is the team player that I've always wanted to see Fernando Alonso be because


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[Assistant] You know, JPM is a driver. You have to be that team player because without your team, you're never going to win races. And you have to get the team on the side.


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[Assistant] And we know that Monaco is about qualifying. Lance got unlucky in qualifying. Lando had his moment at Tabac. Lance went over some debris, damaged his floor. They didn't know he had floor damage until they got the car back.


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[Assistant] And in the end, you know, there wasn't enough fuel to do one more lap, you know, and his chance went, he could have been in Q3, he could have finished up in the top six, but he found himself starting 14th.


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[Assistant] Where after getting unlucky, he was the master of his own downfall in the race. He was hotheaded. He was impatient. He was going for moves that weren't there.


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[Assistant] But I think being Fernando's teammate will make him a better driver if he's prepared to learn from Fernando and I think he is. And I'm sure the team behind the scenes are saying, right, we're not expecting you to be Fernando.


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[Assistant] There's nobody on the grid who's Fernando, or at that level, except I think Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. That's how good that man is at the moment.


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[Assistant] Or through his career. But if you can learn from him, you can raise your game to be as good as Orlando Norris, George Russell, you know, Charles Leclerc. That's what we're expecting from you. We're not expecting you to be Fernando Alonso.


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[Assistant] That's your racing dad mentality there, and I love it. And honestly, there is so much room in Formula One for the new version of Juan Pablo Montoya. You know, we can't wait for Sebastian to get there.


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[Assistant] But is Lawrence Stroll saying the same thing to Lance? Look, yeaah, cause he's gotta pay the bills if there is a crash.


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[Assistant] So here's a question for you, JPM, here's a question. If you had the money,


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[Assistant] Would you buy a Formula One team and race your son in that Formula One team? Oh, absolutely. And how would you react then if, you know, crashes are costing you money or he's not quite coming up to... It's costing me today.


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[Assistant] I think we're long past the debate as to, you know, Lawrence Fort racing point for Lance, just so Lance could race in F1. That argument I think has long gone now because what we have is a very competitive team and car on the grid and whatever the reasons for Lawrence Stroll's involvement on that one.


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[Assistant] You always struck me, uh, JPM, as a man who'd rather have his teeth pulled out by a pair of pliers than go tyre testing for a day at Paul Ricard or something. That never seemed to be something you really wanted to do in your career.


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[Assistant] I think he's as good as he was when he won the world championships in 05 and 06 in terms of his driving.


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[Assistant] I think it's the best Fernando as a human being, so we're getting a better all round package at the moment.


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[Assistant] I'll interrupt you now though, I think he's a much happier person than he was even in his Ferrari years as well. Even the years when he went to Abu Dhabi and had...


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, at that time, Ferrari rather dragged you down a bit. I'm glad to say Ferrari are much more open and nicer team now than they were back in 2010, 2012.


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[Assistant] I think Fernando, he just isn't a better place as a human being. Yes. Certainly you get much more time with him to delve into the race weekend or to interact with him in the panic and that's much appreciated. He's more supportive to his teammates and to his team as well.


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[Assistant] But I want to go back to something Oscar Piastri said, and I said, what did you learn from Fernando when you were watching him from the garage at Alping last year? And he said, I learned that he spends 25% of his brain capacity during a race racing.


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[Assistant] And concentrating on the driving. The other 75% is working out the strategy.


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[Assistant] And working out how he can make things better for himself, not necessarily with what he does with the car on track in a corner or in a moment for an overtake. He thinks his way through a race, Oscar said, like no driver I've ever seen before. And I think, you know,


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[Assistant] As long as that bit continues, Fernando, there's no reason Fernando can't carry on for another four or five years and be part of that Honda revolution at Aston Martin when it happens in 2026. Certainly saying the right things now about I'd be honoured to drive a Honda engine again. You know, that was a good bit of PR that he did there in Monaco.


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[Assistant] I still think, I've always said this, I think he is.


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[Assistant] A first choice on a team principle shortlist as to who I should have as one of my drivers.


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[Assistant] And I would love to see Max and Fernando and Lewis driving in the same car, because I think we get.


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[Assistant] He was in the team's garage. He came to see the team in Monaco. He's not missed on the track, that is for sure.


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[Assistant] I hate to agree with JPM, but he is absolutely spot on. Behind the scenes, he really did give that team a brilliant steer as to the direction they should be going. They, they, they benefited hugely from his experience and the two years that he was with him. Even if.


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[Assistant] The results weren't always great on the track, but you know, let's not forget yesterday, Fernando's second place was a, was a best equal in performance and Seb got the second place for them too.


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[Assistant] I think the Aston might be a little bit closer, and I think there will be more upgrades to come that we didn't quite see in Monaco, but I don't see how anybody at the moment.


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[Assistant] Yeah, no chance. The Red Bull is very fast in the straight line. It's very fast through high speed corners. The Aston is good through some of the slower speed corners.


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[Assistant] JPM says they've taken those out. I can't see the pecking order changing. It really this week it should be another Verstappen Perez Alonso in that order podium with, with I think Max, Max winning it.


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[Assistant] The big story I think to come out of Monaco was how Sergio absolutely blew his chance to put more pressure on his teammate.


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[Assistant] Bad a weekend for Sergio Perez as he could possibly have wished for and I'm sure he didn't wish for any of it.


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[Assistant] How he rebuilds his season after that will be absolutely fascinating because it's not just blowing it in terms of no points, but it's on a street track where he's been really, really good on street tracks, where he's gone to Monaco as last year's winner and he's ended up crashing qualifying and crashing quite a bit in the race as well. That wasn't a good weekend for Sergio.


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[Assistant] I think, I actually think we saw, we saw the start of a different path and the path is that they know they should have gone down a lot sooner at Mercedes.


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[Assistant] I don't think they had a bad weekend at all. I actually think they could be quite satisfied with that weekend that both Lewis and George beat the two Ferraris. I think Ferrari had another horror as well.


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[Assistant] And they did have a horror for Ferrari. They should be, they should be better than that and they weren't.


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[Assistant] When it smiles that cheeky smile, we absolutely love it, and it might smile a cheeky smile, uh, from time to time. It, it, it will be refined, but they've gotta start somewhere, and they've started somewhere different in a hurry, or more of a hurry than they would have wanted. So,


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[Assistant] It's a maximum of four tenths of a second at some tracks, it's probably about two tenths at other tracks. And, you know, whilst they're upgrading, others are upgrading and that's the way it will go this season.


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[Assistant] I actually, so I got on the plane, sat in seat 1C was Mike Crack of Aston Martin. Mike Crack's got his phone in his hand watching live the Indy 500. He's got a feed going on there and all his engineers are crowded around him and as I walked down the plane,


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[Assistant] Uhm, there's more and more engineers all watching the Indy 500. Trust me, you know, we are motorsport lovers. Just because we're in F1, it doesn't mean we ignore the Indy, which it was a sensational finish. So exciting. Uhm, rights or wrongs.


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[Assistant] I kind of don't care because it was a great show and he deserved it. I agree. It was a brilliant show and he deserved to win and sometimes the end story is better than what happened within the moment. But with the visor.


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[Assistant] I'm sat next to Anthony Davidson and we, we watched, uh, some clips of the accident and we both said at the same, why is he lifting his visor? What's all that about? And to this, even Ant couldn't explain why it would be necessary to do that or why he would want to.


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[Assistant] I get that it gets hot in there, but there's a time and a place, quite frankly. It really does.


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[Assistant] And you don't lift at cops, that's the thing. So you don't lift much, I would imagine. Do you basically spend? You do lift a lot in traffic.


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[Assistant] Okay, but do you spend most of your time, when you're not in traffic, just driving out a wall? Is that, is that the idea? You're basically aiming for a wall?


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[Assistant] Excellent. Well, you know, things happen late at night in Spain. Exactly. I'll come to the track and watch it with you. I'll forget breakfast. I could do, I could do with that. Good luck to him. Thank you so much. I'll see you in a minute. Alright, thank you.


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[Assistant] Exhausting, not just physically, not just physically, I think everybody was kind of, we were looking forward to it because this new format, we're thinking, right, you know, this is going to change it up. But being up and ready for every single session in the way that everyone had to be including drivers, teams, team personnel, everybody, I think.


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[Assistant] By the time everyone got to the end of the race yesterday, it was like, wow, that was full on hard work.


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[Assistant] And then the rain came. So for those guys and girls packing up that paddock and derigging TV crews, everybody to then derig all that in the pouring rain quickly so they could all get on a plane for 14, 15, 16 hours to Miami today. I mean, just exhausting and don't make it a back to back. Sorry. That's it. Don't please don't make it back to back like that.


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[Assistant] On, on Pierre Gasly on that, he said to me on Saturday afternoon after the sprint, he said, that's the first time I've done 17 laps all weekend, you know, and that's the street circuit. So particularly on a track like that, for someone like him where you need to build your confidence lap overlap, that's going to have a massive impact on your race. So I can only imagine across the board, it probably did have an impact.


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[Assistant] It's, it's a funny one, I mean, Max has never been a fan, he's been quite vocal about it, hasn't he? He said that, you know, afterwards he said, scrap it, we need to scrap it kind of thing.


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[Assistant] But he didn't come out of this weekend how he wanted, you know, he didn't win either of the races this weekend, so.


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[Assistant] You know, there will be people who say, I quite like the sprint because they came out of it in a good position. I, I mean, we obviously had the...


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[Assistant] Race qualifying on Friday and then the sprint shootout on Saturday. I feel like the last SQ3, so sprint shootout three should only be five minutes. It should be one lap.


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[Assistant] They should have one quick lap. That is it in that last final session, I think.


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[Assistant] I would say though, Matt, on what you were saying about Park Fermi and Corinne's point, I had that down as well, and I wanted actually to ask Blake, because what if you opened up Park Fermi on Saturday night? So you keep the format as we had it this weekend, but come Saturday night...


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[Assistant] You're a team where your car is much further back than you want it to be in the field. You can change that setup to get it racy. You know, maybe we would have had a better race on Sunday.


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[Assistant] I'm back in Baku if we'd had that because teams could have made more changes. They could have actually done a lot more work to the car and we may have actually had some competition.


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[Assistant] They've left the regulations open to do that, haven't they? I mean, if you looked at the sprint last time or if you looked at the sprint with Lewis coming through the field when he had all the penalties, you know, that was exciting. That was a great weekend for both the sprint and the Grand Prix. So uhm, I would say on past history, I'd look at Brazil, but uhm,


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'll probably go for Brazil at the moment, I think. Just because of what's happened there before. We have these tracks where we think it's gonna be fantastic or we think something's gonna happen.


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[Assistant] And then nothing happens. And we say this about Baku all the time. If F2 has a lot of incidents and excitement, the F1 race is usually pretty quiet. And it's some weird anomaly that happens out there. Uhm, and that's what happened this time. So I would go with Brazil, but I've probably just jinxed it now.


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[Assistant] But, I found it fascinating at the weekend watching their body language, because I love watching people's body language.


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[Assistant] I know a lot of the guys, uh, laugh at me sometimes for trying to pick up the things, but it was just so interesting because I felt like, uhm,


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[Assistant] Firstly, the incident with Max and George, uhm, Max's response to that, his response is on Saturday.


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[Assistant] He was really riled up, and it wasn't just the incident with George, I don't feel. It's because his teammate won a race. I mean, Blake knows this better than anybody, probably, and can tell us more, but his teammate won a race, and drivers hate that.


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[Assistant] And uhm, and then when I spoke to Sergio on Saturday, he was really calm and he was really, you wouldn't have known he'd just won the sprint.


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[Assistant] He was very, very measured in his responses. He was really, he didn't even smile in my interview to the point where I was thinking, what is going, it's like he's just been told to give up the win of a race, not he's actually won a race.


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[Assistant] So I mentioned this, this team on Sunday after the race and there's just this steely determination in him, this resilience in him that just makes me feel like he is going to push Max a lot harder this season than he's ever done before and I think


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[Assistant] Could be wrong, but I think that's starting to filter through to Max a little bit as well.


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[Assistant] Checko was unbelievable at the weekend. I think even without the safety car, he would have won that race yesterday. I think he would have beaten Max on that track yesterday, but there is a resilience in him that I


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[Assistant] Let's not forget, I mean, Max is amazing, Max is an incredible Formula One driver and a lot is going to play into his hands in terms of tracks and his skill and his confidence, but uhm,


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[Assistant] I would like to think it's going to go a lot longer this season than it has done in the past.


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[Assistant] Not this year from last year. I remember in 2021 at the very start of the season at testing in Bahrain being told that


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[Assistant] And you still went in and carried on as hard. When you knew a lap later, you could have had him. And that was more likely what was going to happen.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and I felt almost as if there was a tiny bit of the old Max creeping back in there now that he's under pressure from Checo.


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[Assistant] But then on Sunday after the race, his body language, his demeanor was completely different. And he said, it's a great day for the team and it's positive. And I think he'd got the new Max back in his head again and he was like, I just need to calm down. It's a long season.


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[Assistant] But at just a moment on Saturday where I thought, that's the old Max creeping back in a tiny bit, but by Sunday it had gone. And that's experience, isn't it? That's age, that's good people around you telling you that calm down, bide your time, it's gonna come.


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[Assistant] Can I ask you, we had this conversation at the weekend about, for example, the difference between Charle and Carlos that we mentioned earlier on, and the massive difference between them around this track. And there were, there were thoughts that it's, it's almost an element of the drivers who do well at street tracks, kind of just let themselves go a little bit. They don't drive by numbers as such, as much, and you get a difference, say Carlos,


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[Assistant] Works a lot harder and is almost more in his head around a street track, trying to get it right every time, whereas Char lets the track just come to him and-


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[Assistant] I don't, I don't quite know how to put it into words because you tell me as a drive around, but is there an element where some tracks you get to where you just feel it, you don't see the walls, you were saying, you know,


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[Assistant] The flow is there and mentally you feel lighter and you feel...


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[Assistant] More able to just nail that lap than other drivers worry too much or almost get in their heads too much about it.


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[Assistant] That's the dream. And actually, that's what Fernando said. He said, look, you know, if we find something different that the stress just didn't tell us about in the morning, we tell each other, we share that information. And he said, we're working together as a team. And Fernando's not stupid. He knows there are other teams out there where there is one driver who


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[Assistant] In the constructors. Who knows? Maybe there's a nice big bonus in the pay packet if they get a further point in the constructors and he's thinking of that as well. I don't know. But it was, it is fascinating and


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[Assistant] I mean, they are both happy. I've never had Lance so happy in the pen before talking to me. He's, he's enjoying this as well. I know he learned a lot from Seb, but he is loving this.


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[Assistant] Battle all this competition with Fernando. He knows, you know, he's not gonna, he's not matching Fernando on track at the moment.


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[Assistant] Was one interesting element to a rather, uhm, long race. I'll put it that way yesterday. Uhm, but yeaah, it's great. And they both seem really happy. Long may it continue. Let's hope it carries on this way.


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[Assistant] Just making sure there was no bad blood, hey? Sorry. Sorry! I had to do it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I say I think so because all the drivers are saying to me.


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[Assistant] A lot of them at the weekend said we can't follow as closely as we could last year, whether that's because the teams are getting smarter and


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[Assistant] You know, they're finding the developments. They are doing the work they need to do. We also lost a hundred meters of DRS in Baku, which caused a problem. And they, it seems to be not getting as much slipstreaming, but you know, I'll leave it to the other two to go into that a bit more. But yes, it definitely feels like that. And the drivers are definitely saying that to me in the pen.


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[Assistant] It was incredible last year, I mean it was chaos, it was, but brilliant chaos in terms of, you know, my involvement in it all.


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[Assistant] Uh, on track we didn't have what we wanted, uhm, but it's gonna be much hotter this year. Fernando was grinning all the way through his answer to me about those hotter temperatures, saying, you know, we're gonna be all over the Ferraris, we're gonna beat them, uhm, we don't mind the hotter temperatures, he's expecting a really good weekend.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and it'll be full of celebs, it'll be full of showbiz, it's, uhm, almost become the, the...


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[Assistant] Hello and welcome to the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. This week I'm joined by Ted Kravitz and soon to be joined by Bernie Collins to look back on a brilliant weekend at the British Grand Prix. But...


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[Assistant] Before we do that, uh, full disclosure, we're recording this after we recorded the initial podcast, because just as I was having my lunch was just, the fork was just going into the food.


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[Assistant] Get a few notifications on my phone suggesting that Nick DeVries is about to be replaced at AlphaTauri by Daniel Ricciardo. We've since learned that that is true. So Ted, I'm going to get your reaction in a sec. Let me just read the statement or part the statement from the team.


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[Assistant] Scuderia AlphaTauri announces that Daniel Ricciardo will be joining the team on loan from Red Bull Racing for the remainder of the Formula One season, starting from the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix. Ted, eyebrows are raised.


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[Assistant] You know, I'm not, obviously not a Formula One racing driver, but clearly they've seen something in such a short period of time.


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[Assistant] That they've been so impressed by, and we have to remember where he's come from at McLaren, you know, he was, it was a disappointing season, 11th in the driver's standings in 2022. He left his deal, of course, a year early.


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[Assistant] So, so they must have seen something, but, but, but do you think that's quite unusual to see something so quickly in a driver?


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[Assistant] That was going to be my next question. Do you think this ultimately is leading to him trying to compete for that second seat at Red Bull? What do you think this does to Sergio Perez?


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[Assistant] And a word, just a word on Nick DeVries, you know, we mustn't forget this is a Formula E world champion. He won F2 in 2019 and cast your mind back, only to September of 2022 when he raced in Italy, he replaced Alex Albon, who had appendicitis and he scored points. He beat Nicholas Latifi in the Williams, finished ninth.


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[Assistant] So this is a guy who's not short of experience. He's also 28 years old. So he's a bit, little bit older than say the younger rookies on the grid. So, you know, where, where, where, where will his head be at? Do you think after this disappointment?


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[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you know, 10 races as well. That is not a lot, is it? 10 races and he's been... No, I mean, we all thought, you know, we had the...


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[Assistant] Just quickly, before we go back to the main pod, what are your predictions? What do you, what do you anticipate for the rest of the season with Daniel Ricciardo? Big question. I think only just heard the news a few minutes ago. What do you think?


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[Assistant] Okay, well, thank you very much, Ted. We're now going to seamlessly...


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[Assistant] Through the magic of editing, throwback to the original podcast, uh, to look back on Silverstone. So I started by asking Bernie how her weekend was.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we're both quite fair skinned, so I think we have to be careful in these, uh, these, uh, conditions like Silverstone. Ted, how was your weekend?


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[Assistant] I wanna talk about when Hollywood came to Northamptonshire and the filming of the upcoming F1 film, uh, which we'll get into later on. Uh, before we get into that, just time to tell you about the Sky Sports Shop.


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[Assistant] This is brand new in partnership with Fanatics. We've recently launched the Skysports shop, which retails F1 official merchandise. You can visit skysports.com forward slash shop to buy your official F1 merchandise and new customers get a 10% discount when they sign up. So Ted.


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[Assistant] If you want a McLaren mug after their great weekend, you can go to the Sky Sports shop.


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[Assistant] We are not yet selling F1 Ted's notebooks. I imagine they would sell out instantly. Well then why are we selling them?


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[Assistant] Let's do it. Yeah. We'll put some podcast merchandise on there, but yeah, for the time being, you might just be limited to your, your team kits. Let's get, let's get one of these.


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[Assistant] Uh, good, alright. There you go. So yea, that's the Sky Sports, Sky Sports shop. Uh, brand new. Don't forget, you get 10% discount if you sign up.


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[Assistant] Right, McLaren. Let's talk about them because such an impressive weekend for them. Qualified, uh, Norris P2, Piastri P3 and genuinely on Saturday were the second fastest car then in the race.


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[Assistant] Norris overtook Verstappen to lead the British Grand Prix. Huge roars. He did that for about five laps before being overtaken by Verstappen. Piastry got unlucky with the timing of the safety car. Otherwise, I think it probably would have been a 2-3 for the team.


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[Assistant] Let's get into how McLaren, Bernie have managed to find all that pace. Can you put it down to one or two things? Where do you see that pace coming from?


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[Assistant] That's what happens if you have the red bull underneath you is you have that confidence, don't you? Going into weekend after weekend that you can.


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[Assistant] Yeah, basically, whatever happens, you can still win the race. We've seen him win from sort of, uh, what was he, 14th or he started pretty far down the grid this season and he still managed to come through the field very quickly.


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[Assistant] I've got a tweet here from Tom who wants to know Ted, are McLaren now quick enough to stay near the top all season or was it just Silverstone that suited their car with the upgrades?


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[Assistant] And, and do you feel like McLaren Ted have sort of dispelled Toto Wolf's myth or sort of thoughts there? You don't? No.


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[Assistant] I want to have a word on the drivers then for McLaren as well, and particularly talk about Piastri because I think that was a race where he really proved his worth, Bernie, didn't he? I mean, this is a Formula 3, a Formula 2 champion, obviously had a year out, but


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[Assistant] Throughout the season, he has, he's, he's impressed in that he's been close to Lando. And then the fact that this weekend he was able to stay so close to Lando throughout the race, obviously, as we said, got, got slightly stuffed by the safety card, but, but he, he really looks the real deal, doesn't he, Oscar Piastri?


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[Assistant] And Ted, a word on Lando. There was a, there was a sort of quote that came out in the press conference where he was talking about watching Lewis and Fernando in 2007 in McLaren's fight it out at Silverstone.


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[Assistant] And you fast forward to this year, he's battling Lewis Hamilton in the final few laps at Silverstone. That's a really cool story, isn't it? And what do you make of Lando's weekend? He seemed genuinely...


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[Assistant] What was your perception on the ground of how he was in and amongst the fans at Silverstone?


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[Assistant] Congratulations to McLaren, congratulations to Lando, and Oscar as well, because I think yeaah, a brilliant race for them, and we will see, won't we, in Hungary, if that success continues. Let's continue talking about the 3 slash 4 Brits in the top 5, and George Russell, because there's questions here from John.


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[Assistant] Yeah, if you just joined the podcast, yeah, yeah, fine.


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[Assistant] Do you see any of that Ted when he went up in the typhoon? Could you see him sort of calculating or working through?


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[Assistant] You know, perhaps a slightly different way to how others might approach it.


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[Assistant] Really interesting insight, really interesting insight from George. Let's move on and talk about Red Bull. We mentioned at the top their records. Honestly, every week we come on the podcast and there's just a new record that they're broken or equaled.


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[Assistant] But, uh, sorry, Red Bull now tie McLaren's all-time record of 11 consecutive wins. That's from 1988.


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[Assistant] Probably gonna be surpassed, let's say that, in, in Hungary. Uhm, Verstappen's also achieved the eighth hat-trick weekend of his career. So a hat-trick is the win, the pole, and the fastest lap. That ties him with Alain Prost and Seb Vettel for fifth in the all-time list.


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[Assistant] But was the real story this weekend Perez and his, I mean, from, from my perspective, he, he, well, the last five races, he's not made it into Q3.


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[Assistant] And Bernie, do you think he leaves himself too much to do in the race at the moment? And that's, that's why we're not seeing him perform at his best.


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[Assistant] Do you think Ted, that, I mean, we've got two races now, haven't we, before the summer break? We've got Hungary and then Belgium, then we've got the summer break. So.


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[Assistant] You know, I mean, I've got, we'll talk about Alex Albon in a bit, but you know, Helmut Marco with his wandering around the paddock and saying things like, you know, uh, I've got it here. You know, unfortunately, Alex is tied to Williams till the end of 2025, you know.


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[Assistant] We're entering that season, aren't we, silly season, where things are just starting to be talked about and moved around.


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[Assistant] Since we mentioned Alex Arbonne, I think we should chat about him. And he's secured now all of Williams 11 points in the Constructors Championships. It's been a really good season for him.


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[Assistant] I guess, Teb, when you consider where they were last year, they finished on eight points in the championship in 2022. They're now on 11. There's, there's, there's clear signs of progress, aren't there, at Williams? And Alex is, is leading the charge.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we will see what happens to Williams for the rest of the season, but definitely moving in the right direction. So final team, just to check off from Silverstone, and that's Ferrari, I think, because a really disappointing weekend for them. Leclerc finishing in P9, Sainz in P10, especially when you consider they started P4 and P5.


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[Assistant] And it marks a whole year since their last victory, which was at the British Grand Prix, where Science of course won from Pole.


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[Assistant] What, where do you see the, your face maybe says it all there, but where do you, where do you see the, you know, if you, if you were in the Ferrari team right now, where, what would you, how far ahead would you be looking to start seeing improved performance?


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[Assistant] No, no, it's very interesting. I mean, yeah. I'm sure, I'm sure they'll be banging their heads together at Aston Martin and working out that.


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[Assistant] And yeah, moving forward, we'll see, we'll see if your prediction comes right Ted. Podium in Hungary. I think that's what you said. Podium in Hungary. Right, yeah, just want to finish by talking about the film that was being recorded.


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[Assistant] This weekend at Silverstone. Recorded, yeah, but maybe film, the film that was being filmed. Sorry darling, I'm recording a film this weekend.


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[Assistant] It's really exciting, isn't it? Because F1 have been so involved and we know that Lewis Hamilton has been involved.


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[Assistant] I've made to be real, aren't they? I think it's going to be a really interesting film.


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[Assistant] Uh, very good, very good. Uh, yeah, I look forward to seeing it come out. Uh, I'm sure it's going to take a while to come out, but yeah, when it does, I'm sure we'll receive a lot of attention. Uh, thank you both very much for your time. Thank you, Ted. Thank you, Bernie. Really appreciate it. Uh, we'll be back as ever next Tuesday for the next episode of the podcast. Hope you can join us then. Thanks a lot. Bye bye.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone. Welcome along to this week's episode. I hope you're doing all right. Uh, joining me for this one is Martin Brundle, Natalie Pinkham and Karun Chandog. Hello all.


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[Assistant] Good morning. Hello, hello. Right, I want to get straight into our one word reviews. So Martin, you were there, you were in Miami. Give us your one word review and why.


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[Assistant] Emphatic. Emphatic, I think, I think we can say. Caroon, what about you?


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[Assistant] Decent. I'm gonna go for spotless. And I'm gonna go for spotless because there were no DNFs, no yellow flags, no red flags, no safety cars. All 20 drivers completed 57 laps. Which, according to my maths, is 1140 spotless laps. So there you go.


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[Assistant] You can't have a memorable race every single time, in that sense, because otherwise, I guess, you know, every single race would, none would stand out, would they? You've gotta, you've gotta have the ebbs and flows of a season.


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[Assistant] Do we think that a one-stop race is the issue here? Obviously by doing that, Corinne, you'd have a two-stop race. Do you think having a minimum of two stops? I mean, obviously, you know, we've got rid of things like refuelling, you know, but is it a case of perhaps bringing elements back that kind of add that level of jeopardy to a race?


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[Assistant] Now, what makes a per- what makes a brilliant Formula 1 race? What's like the- the ingredients? If you were- if you were to dream up a Hollywood script, there is obviously a Hollywood film being written about Formula 1. What would you put in that- that final race?


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[Assistant] On that Martin, do you think we've, we've had worse or less close racing than we did last year on the basis of these five races?


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[Assistant] Is this the era then, Martin, of Max Verstappen after that win? I mean, it's a, it's a marker, isn't it? Especially after, after Baku and getting beaten by Perez. Yeah, I think.


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[Assistant] Mick on Twitter sent a message in, uh, Martin, I'm intrigued to get your thoughts on this. You know, is Zach Brown safe in his job? Was the question. I don't know if that's a bit too strong for this point in the season, but yeah, you're right. It's tough times at McLaren, isn't it?


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[Assistant] Now, what's Lando thinking, do you think, right now? The start of the season.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Well, let's move on to talk about that because, uh, yeah, look, we have to ask you about it. There was a tweet here from Fueled by Coffee, which asked very simply, did Jackie Stewart get into trouble for getting Roger Federer to talk to you? Come on, let's, let's hear it.


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[Assistant] Martin, what is it about, um, what's it about the, the US gridwalks that seem to deliver? I mean, you had a few incidents in recent years, uh, thinking of Megan Thee Stallion being the other one in, in, in Texas. What, what is it about the, the United States that, that delivers these moments?


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[Assistant] What, what did that get in the way of? If you're a driver on the grid, what are you doing before the race and how would being a part of this sort of grid show interrupt that?


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[Assistant] Yeah, it certainly is. I think it's going to be interesting to see how it evolves over the coming year and I think it's here to stay. So we will follow that progress. I want to end the podcast just with a question from someone at home.


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[Assistant] I don't know if anyone has a thought on, obviously we're now in 23 races that could possibly go up next year to even more. We even had a break in April. So I don't, Martin, I'll start with you. Do you think that the volume is affecting development?


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[Assistant] Keroon, what about, you know, is it a case of, for example, you know, Mercedes have got upgrades coming to Imola, haven't they, in the next race? Would those upgrades have come sooner perhaps if, if we hadn't have already had, you know, so many races?


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[Assistant] Now, these races are gonna come thick and fast, aren't they? Absolutely. We've got a triple header just round the corner.


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[Assistant] He certainly has, he certainly has. He's gonna get bored of podiums soon, I'm fairly sure.


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[Assistant] True. Martin, you obviously interviewed him. You, you referenced earlier in the, in the podcast. You interviewed him this week. Can you, can you see that win just around the corner for Fernando? He was.


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[Assistant] Okay, that's all we've got time for. Thank you very much for your company. We'll be back next Tuesday. Until then, bye for now.


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[Assistant] Can we have some sort of general disclaimer that, uh, uh, we are not talking either for ourselves or for Sky Sports?


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[Assistant] Don't complain about anything we say and don't take what we say seriously at all or take it seriously or believe that we think what we say.


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[Assistant] I did, I did, of course. Testing's always useful. Uhm, I learnt that, uh, the cars look quite good this year, I think, raised up a bit. The first time I saw them out on track.


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[Assistant] Uhm, with the floor edges being raised by 15 mils, not a lot, centimeter and a half.


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[Assistant] Uh, about half an inch. It just looks a bit better. I felt last year they looked a little bit stiff, a bit low to the ground. Uhm, alright, it looked quite cool in, in some shots where you could see them, you know, with just a few millimeters between car and ground.


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[Assistant] But actually being able to see a bit of daylight underneath the car just felt it looked a bit better. Some of the cars looked a bit more pliable, a bit more compliant and, and yeaah, I thought it looked good. I mean, we'll talk about the competitive order. Learned plenty of that. Uhm, learnt that, uh,


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[Assistant] Formula one always has a way of, you know, re-inventing itself. And there are always new storylines, new teams being able to come in and be competitive. I mean, new teams being competitive rather than new teams. We don't have any of them. Don't know if we're going to get on that later. And, um, uh, yeah, I learnt that, uh, I should have done a bit of more exercise over the winter as well.


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[Assistant] And the other thing- And I've just looked it up, just finally on Piastry, he's only 21, I forgot how young he was. Yeah, yeah. I thought he was a little bit older than that, actually. But he's had so much success so quickly that a few years in a not very competitive car might not be such a bad thing. Sorry, back to you.


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[Assistant] He's a driver, so he wants more practice, which is valid. The engineers want more so that they can do their engineering thing, which is not valid. They can...


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[Assistant] Do one, basically. Uhm, and it's interesting because...


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[Assistant] Slightly under undercooked. Yes. Apart from Red Bull who, although they had their own little issues in the middle of some race runs, which they, but it's much better for us viewers and us on TV and us fans.


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[Assistant] To get to the first race and have something going on rather than just a procession. And all the engineers say, oh, we had great 12 days of testing. That was fantastic. Engineer voice goes on. That was fantastic. You know, we get to the reliability is faultless. They're all got perfect setups.


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[Assistant] They all get to the Grand Prix, 20 cars finish, nothing happens. They all finish where they qualify round and round and round. The engineers say, well, fantastic. I love that. It turned out exactly as I predicted. Aren't I clever? And you know, that will make a disaster. And we've got 23 races this year. You know, anyone who said that three races, three days of testing wasn't enough.


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[Assistant] You know, is a fool, basically. Because it was perfectly, it was enough. And there was loads of running. People were doing three Grand Prix distances in a day because the reliability was so good, as Natalie says. So it was fine. Unless you're McLaren.


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[Assistant] What I do miss is Barcelona testing though. There's something to be said about late February in Barcelona because we got an awful lot of fans come in from around Europe and some from around the world. Much more accessible.


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[Assistant] I didn't really see, I believe tickets were sold for Bahrain testing. There were some people in the grandstand who must have got there with a ticket or maybe I think with your race ticket got you entrance to testing as well.


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[Assistant] But there wasn't a buzz in the way that you got at Barcelona testing. And I know that some of our, our viewers and some people, the fans around really valued that time.


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[Assistant] of Barcelona testing where you could actually buy a paddock access ticket, I believe.


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[Assistant] Yeah, Barcelona, you can buy paddock access for testing. And that was sometimes when they got the kind of access that nobody else got. It was kind of a, because they can't do that. It was a fan. You can get close. It was a real, it was real unknown, a real secret of.


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[Assistant] Not any longer. No, not any longer. So I do miss that and I know that's missed by a lot of fans.


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[Assistant] Uh, is this the first time Verstappen's going to the series, the season?


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[Assistant] Worked, didn't it? And they also changed the rules of course.


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[Assistant] The championship has decided old rules. Championship has decided on the last lap. 2022, it's decided in Japan with four races still to go.


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[Assistant] So it didn't exactly close up the field in terms of the championship, did it? It meant that Red Bull got it right so much that they are now, you know, the favorites going in. Absolutely. And that I think dominance will run probably until the next world change in 2026. Really?


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[Assistant] Maybe, but this is no reflection on, you know, Cheko is a great guy and a bloody good racing driver. You know, he is not, he is not Max Verstappen, because not many people are. And arguably, Red Bull have, oh yes, that's true. There is only one Max Verstappen. Alright, in terms of ability. But arguably, Red Bull have exactly the right way to go, uh,


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[Assistant] I think we'd all rather it happened organically. There's a colossal battle between Sainz and Leclerc. Sainz is right there with him, which I think he is.


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[Assistant] Aston Martin. Okay. I don't think in a second, but I think, but Fernando's race run was much better than Leclerc's or Science's.


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[Assistant] Showed none of the tyre degradation that Ferrari's had.


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[Assistant] And Nett would have been ahead of the Ferraris. This is the most exciting of all the options, by the way, isn't it? I mean. Speak ye not too soon with your Ferrari.


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[Assistant] And I said, I've been waiting since 2006 for this. Um, and, uh, yeah, I know that that's great, but yeah, any of it would just be fantastic.


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[Assistant] Let me tell you a story about that. So, uh, he was in the press conference, can't remember what day it was in Bahrain. And uhm, uh, can I name the journalists?


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[Assistant] So, uh, Luke Smith has now moved on from Autosport, and his replacement is a chap called Matt Q.


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[Assistant] And so, picture this, okay, you're the, you're Autosport Magazine, Autosport, the bible of, uh, of, you know, motor racing journalism throughout the world. Your new, your first position as Grand Prix reporter for Autosport Magazine.


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[Assistant] And he says, uh, Matt Q, Autosport. Fernando.


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[Assistant] And I could only hear it because I was listening on the monitor, uh, outside.


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[Assistant] In the press conference, outside in the, in the, in the media pen.


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[Assistant] Because they're, they're coming out to the pen when they do interviews afterwards.


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[Assistant] And I could ju- I was thinking, ooh, you know, strong one, Matt, good luck. And I could just hear, I was ready to hear Alonso saying,


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[Assistant] Who do you think you're talking to? Or how dare you ask me a question like that? He didn't, but the answer he gave was just dripping in, you know.


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[Assistant] But, but, but Fernando's response was dripping in kind of...


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[Assistant] This is phenomenal. Yeah. Alright, sure. He'll regret, sorry, you can carry on your answer now. This is great. This is good. I'm enjoying the theater. He'll regret some of his moves. Of course he will. But he will argue that there was valid points behind all of them.


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[Assistant] Okay, they're good. I'm allowing that I can win races and challenge championships, but we're all always going to be second. Anna's born out to be correct on that. Ferrari have always been second or worse since Fernando left.


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[Assistant] But now we're going to find out, going back to your question, is to see whether Fernando has got some more race wins.


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[Assistant] No, it's not. It's not. The Senna's my favourite driver.


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[Assistant] I haven't seen the Ferrari episode yet of Drive to the Fire, people may have, with the Bonotto finger waving. Yes. Did they get the audio? Did they get the audio? No.


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[Assistant] So we don't know what that audio was. If it was what we think it was, which was Binotto tearing a strip off Leclerc, then I think that's instructive, isn't it?


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[Assistant] What stopped it? Male pride and ego? Or just pride and ego? If not, I wouldn't have wanted to be demoted to, because Friday's still don't have a technical director.


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[Assistant] Chassis side and then another chap on the engine side. They could have.


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[Assistant] It would have been a good thing, I think, because Binotto deserves some credit, but maybe he wouldn't have accepted now reporting, uh, to somebody else, you know, if he did stay.


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[Assistant] You're only as good as what happens after the vineyard. Anyone can own a vineyard. It's whether you make decent wine or not. Well, you know, Gunther seemed quite happy in that little bit. Would you trust Mathieu Bonotto to make good wine?


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[Assistant] Two things about Fred Vasseur. First of all, don't call him Fred anymore. It's Frederick if you don't mind. Thank you very much. Secondly, uhm, you know how we call him Laughing Fred Vasseur sometimes? Because he's always, he's always me.


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[Assistant] But, latterly, when you come to interview him, he's, we'll meet you with a, you know, ha ha ha, oh la la, Natalie, come circle and see, oh la la. You know, and he'll start, he's a very bonamous guy, isn't he?


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[Assistant] I don't think that's going to go down well within the Italian...


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[Assistant] View of things in terms of people watching. If you're team principal of Ferrari,


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[Assistant] That's second only to essentially the Pope as the most important person in Italy. You know, that is, you are.


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[Assistant] Very, very important person. If the Italian fans see a guy who's laughing and joking around the place.


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[Assistant] That's a bit of a knife edge. Verso's gotta watch that. He has to be aware of it first of all, which I don't think he is, and he has to watch that because that's a serious job.


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[Assistant] Well, it could be eighth or eight. And is that actually going to happen? Because unless something really weird happens.


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[Assistant] It's not, there's not, Lewis is not going to win the eighth championship this year, is he?


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[Assistant] Okay, so eventually, we're still looking for eighth, but the other E word at Mercedes is eventually. Uhm, and...


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[Assistant] Toto said it at the launch, we hope to have a car capable of challenging for the championship eventually. George Russell used the e-word eventually twice in one answer on day two when he was in the press conference in Bahrain. Eventually. Well, eventually.


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[Assistant] I mean they're still, you know, catching up from how many months they were behind.


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[Assistant] So, like Red Bull kind of lost all discipline in Brazil, didn't they? They were fought between themselves, they were off the pace, everything went badly, they ended up shouting at each other, and then Abby Babby...


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[Assistant] And how quickly it can go right again when Abu Dhabi, Red Bull came to Abu Dhabi last year and said, right, none of this nonsense, we are going to dominate the weekend. Right? Has everyone got that? And they did. And could have won by like a minute.


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[Assistant] But to your point, I think it's, it's going to, I think it's going to take another year for Mercedes.


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[Assistant] Is the team starting? Is the championship, you know, championship dominant teams always unravel sooner or later?


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[Assistant] You know, Ferrari Unraveled, Ross Brawn left, Jean Tartt left, Michael Schumacher.


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[Assistant] You know, the Red Bull team, with Sebastian Vettel, people started to, well actually it was a rule change. A rule change. That did them. But dominant teams.


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[Assistant] I spent a lot, a large part of the first third of the season trying different things that really didn't bear fruit in terms of car performance, whereas George was massively consistent.


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[Assistant] You know, just scored points all over the place. Secondly, we never saw Lewis in terms of the championship challenging Lewis the way he tends to find another gear when the championship is on.


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[Assistant] I'm not saying he took his foot off the gas because he wasn't challenging for the championship. I don't think he's built like that, but certainly he didn't access that extra championship challenging gear because he wasn't in it, which actually I think is a good thing. It's kind of a clearing his head thing after Abu Dhabi 2021. Uhm, you know, but argue against that, that maybe, I mean inherent in your question is, is George actually quicker?


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[Assistant] It's not technical director, he's chief technical officer, isn't he? I don't know, you're the- Aston Martin chief- You're in charge of graphics! Save Danfellows. Danfellows. Aston Martin chief technical officer.


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[Assistant] They were slowest in pre-season testing. Uh, the, they've gained arguably some of


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[Assistant] There's something about Ocon and Gasly. They were never within less than half a second of each other. And they are gonna be so, so close. I think they're gonna score a lot of points.


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[Assistant] Other things I'm excited about, maybe things that, things that can excite us as much as the Maxxers. Who's going to challenge me? Maybe, if I can rephrase your question. Sergeant Logan, I want to see whether he will be earning his stripes this year. Are you going to call him Sergeant Logan all season? I'm so excited for this. I was making a joke about earning his stripes.


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[Assistant] I know. Logan Sargent is going to open those. No, I get it. Are you going to salute him when he pulls out of the pit garage? I think he's much better than some cynics suggest.


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[Assistant] I actually put him down as my Rookie of the Year. Okay, good. I think you're not far off. Uhm, we'll get on to Lando maybe as a final thought. Uh, I'm interested, I want to see whether Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottes can do something special at Alfa Romeo Sauber. I want to see what's happening with Yuki Sonoda. That's a...


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[Assistant] That's an interesting one with Nick DeRese coming in. Big season for him. Big season for Yuki Sonoda. Such a likeable guy.


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[Assistant] They were training. He's so trim. And talking of trim, um, Nico Hülkenberg.


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[Assistant] Who is in the best shape I've ever seen him and is just a sign. What's that face? Are you saying that he's handsome? That's your flirty face again. Yeah.


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[Assistant] With age. He is one of those male faces that's just got- Do you know what I think it is? So handsome.


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[Assistant] On points, do you know what, he might be. He might do. Because K-Mag kind of has these, you know, first laps he kind of makes some decisions that cost him his front wing sometimes or has done last year, gets lost on set up somewhere.


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[Assistant] They've got, the McLaren have some of the best, they have the, I would argue one of the best PR departments in Formula One. They have some very, I think you know who I'm talking about.


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[Assistant] Sophie Og and the rest of the PR team at McLaren.


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[Assistant] Are experts in their field and I think with Zach Brown who's very good at PR as well.


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[Assistant] McClaren upgrade package is Baku Race 4, and then we can judge it, but I think Lando is going to be a bit frustrated up to that point.


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[Assistant] But he's so good, Lander. He is so good. He's brilliant. That he just needs to not let his head drop.


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[Assistant] You know, keep with it, keep working, keep your head up son.


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[Assistant] Race runs the last couple of days where they had to pit and fix something quickly. It probably wouldn't have stopped their Grand Prix.


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[Assistant] But there were things I thought I saw. They would come in, stop.


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[Assistant] Have a quick go into the pits, someone would, you know, take a picture of something that wasn't quite right, and then they'd fix it and send them out again, so.


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[Assistant] There are little things going on at Red Bull. They're not bulletproof yet.


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[Assistant] His mum, who is Corinna Schumacher, who everyone knows what Corinna Schumacher is.


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[Assistant] The Sky F1 Weekly. Sky F1 Weekly podcast. Sky F1 Weekly podcast. You want to start this again? No, that's fine. We're keeping it. Every Tuesday, even in the Tuesdays where there isn't after a race. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So subscribe now, press that button.


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[Assistant] This sauce will blow you away. With a bullet on it. Yup. It's hot.


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[Assistant] So the first item we'll look at is a bat that Miguel Cabrera actually used to get one of his 3,000 hits.


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[Assistant] Now you can see it has the, the pine tar on it that he uses. And then his name at the end. And then here you can see there's a hologram number on the end of the vat.


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[Assistant] So it looks like spices, maybe even like a barbecue rub, but no, this is actually authenticated dirt from Major League Baseball. We have two jars, one is from his 3000th hit, and then this is from his 500th home run. Okay. I want to share this baseball with you. This baseball has one of Miguel Cabrera's career doubles, so again, it's one of those historic


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[Assistant] That's really cool. Really cool. And really a part of history.


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[Assistant] $4,000 for the bat. Uh, home run jersey? The home run jersey is a $20,000 item. The away jersey. $10,000.


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[Assistant] I can't do 1200, can you do 1800? I can do 1500.


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[Assistant] It's our pleasure. Thanks for visiting Detroit and Comerica Park. Okay, what do we got here?


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[Assistant] I'm okay, I'm like middle of the road. I guess we'll find out, I don't know.


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[Assistant] I think it's a little bit of both. Over the years, I think you've seen more, especially power forwards, you know, starts to shoot threes. Uhm, I was kind of a late addition to that, really like in the last couple years I started, but that's just the way everything goes now, so gotta keep up.


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[Assistant] Uh, it's a lot of frustration and a lot of, like, balls, basketballs being kicked all over the gym in frustration.


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[Assistant] I don't really care about those as much. To me now, like with all the advanced analytics, you can make an argument for any player or any stat you want.


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[Assistant] So, for me, it's about the eye test. I know it's kind of old school, but like, you can sit down and watch a player and know that he's a good player just by watching him. And I don't really need any statistics to tell me otherwise.


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[Assistant] Uhm, a little bit. I mean, throughout the years, like you said early on, I was pretty much in the pain every, every...


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[Assistant] Every time I go out to warm up, there's like kids watching us warm up and they're always like, dunk it! I just keep shooting threes and they're like, no, boo! Like, dunk it!


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[Assistant] Probably the poster in the sold out arena, but getting a laugh in the comedy crowd is, for me, is pretty special.


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[Assistant] Punching up jokes here and there or just giving me stuff to read or even like technical stuff like, you know, come out and move the mic stand and like, you know, get comfortable, act like you've been there before. So uhm, he's definitely been my, my comedy coach, if you will.


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[Assistant] Who's the funniest trash talker in the league who has the best on-court roast game?


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[Assistant] He would never look at you, but he would say like crazy stuff and he would be like, you can't, you can't even guard me.