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The F1 Show"McLaren were phenomenal" | Australian GP review, The Reserve Drivers and looking ahead to China
The F1 Show"McLaren were phenomenal" | Australian GP review, The Reserve Drivers and looking ahead to China
"McLaren were phenomenal" | Australian GP review, The Reserve Drivers and looking ahead to China
Update: 2025-03-18
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Simon, Ted and Bernie are joined by The Reserve Drivers, Tim McDonald and Luke Rocca to review an eventful first Grand Prix of the year in Australia. Ted tells us how he embarrassed himself in front of Helmut Marko, Bernie breaks down the strategies which helped or hindered the teams and how old is Simon next week?
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Transcript
00:00:00
You don't show that when you're being interviewed by Simon Lea, isn't we?
00:00:02
Do you pretend like everything's rosy?
00:00:04
We will get the bottom of it.
00:00:05
Where's Simon?
00:00:06
What's his pressure was put to bear?
00:00:09
Fire Red Bull onto the FIA.
00:00:11
We've just got a message here from New South Wales Police.
00:00:13
There's a strange man loitering around the Opera House, if you see him in the area, would you please arrest him?
00:00:18
Hello everybody, welcome to episode three of the F1 Show.
00:00:29
Brought to you by Audi and, inventively named this week, the Australian Race Review, because that's exactly what we'll be doing with the help of Bernie Collins before she flies off to China,
00:00:40
Sussoir, and is that Newcastle behind you take rabbits?
00:00:43
Yes, it's the time bridge.
00:00:45
How did you know?
00:00:46
Yeah, welcome to Newcastle.
00:00:49
Yeah, I did, yeah.
00:00:50
How are you?
00:00:51
The water lovely backdrop bed is.
00:00:52
You've clearly moved not to Newcastle, but that's the giveaway.
00:00:56
That's the giveaway.
00:00:58
There we go.
00:00:59
Good day, everybody.
00:01:00
How are you?
00:01:01
From lovely Sydney.
00:01:04
So we're here in the evening, circular key this way, double bay behind me, and the rocks just over my shoulder.
00:01:12
And look, there we go.
00:01:13
Resplendent the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and then behind me the lights of Sydney, where we're here to digest and analyse all the events from very eventful Australian Grand Prix.
00:01:24
Sorry, I'm stealing your introduction, Simon.
00:01:27
No, you know, I've done that, you've just done it twice.
00:01:29
So that's good work.
00:01:31
Bernie, how?
00:01:33
No, no, it's fine.
00:01:34
Unless you want to do an introduction as well, just to make sure that everybody knows exactly what we're doing.
00:01:38
For you, Bernie, I mean, obviously this has been a bit of a chore for the last few days.
00:01:46
I got back on the flight yesterday evening, but I should imagine early mornings for you.
00:01:51
Yeah, it was, you know, 4am start here in the UK for the race on Sunday, which felt quite brutal, really.
00:01:58
But it gives us a glimmer.
00:02:00
I always think it gives me a glimmer of the people that were a tad or Sydney when they're watching F1 all year long.
00:02:06
That's the sort of times we're talking there.
00:02:08
So you get a taste for the fans in other parts of the world.
00:02:12
What times they do.
00:02:13
And what a taste we got.
00:02:15
I mean, it was good to be starting back in Australia, wasn't it?
00:02:18
I mean, nothing against Bahrain, and we're going there in a few weeks time, and we love going to Bahrain.
00:02:22
But it's entirely different feel this one, Ted.
00:02:25
It's you know, I mean, I started the week.
00:02:27
I had a game of golf with Champ and an optometrist called Allen in Melbourne.
00:02:32
That was a lovely start to the week before.
00:02:34
Well, we both got spanked on the Tuesday.
00:02:37
A couple of lovely evenings out, lovely dinners.
00:02:40
I mean, it's just, it's such a relaxed atmosphere.
00:02:43
And the whole weekend, record crowds, it's just got, it's just got its own thing going on, hasn't it, Australia?
00:02:49
Yeah, it's great to have Australia as the season open again, not sure how many times we'll have it in the next five years.
00:02:56
Off and on, I think, with Bahrain.
00:02:59
But no, it's very good to get it going.
00:03:01
I've got to say something, I've got to admit to a slightly unfortunate accident that I had on the way here.
00:03:07
I was stepping off the ferry here at Circular Key, and I actually slipped and fell in the water.
00:03:13
And I got a, I was not really my fault, or half of it was my fault.
00:03:17
But I got a text from Helmut Marcos saying that was very embarrassing.
00:03:20
He was calling me very embarrassing.
00:03:22
So already, already at the mercy of Helmut Marcos seems to have a sort of empathy issue at the moment based on what happened at Australia.
00:03:31
But I'm sure we'll get to talk about that a little bit later.
00:03:34
But yeah, you know, it's been, it was, it was a good race.
00:03:38
Yes, it was in, you know, the middle of the night.
00:03:41
I would like to see how many people actually tuned in for the, for the real thing and who watched it on a replay.
00:03:46
But hopefully the ones who did tune in at 4.30 in the morning were rewarded with a, a very eventful Grand Prix.
00:03:53
Yeah, we can't do that.
00:03:54
Things that knowledge that was going to be wet was really, when I was lying in bed thinking, "Well, I get up, well, I not get up."
00:03:59
And you think, "First race of the year, six rookies on the grid, wet start."
00:04:04
That was a little, an extra little trigger to jump out of bed.
00:04:07
And because you knew it was going to be an exciting race from that point onwards.
00:04:10
Oh, yeah.
00:04:11
Moment, the moment we opened the curtains in the morning and it was hosing it down, you're like, "Ah, here we go, wet race."
00:04:17
It's got, I mean, it, it's exactly what we wanted.
00:04:19
And the thing with the Australian track is because it's the temporary circuit and because it's covered in those white lines with the slippery anti-slip paint that no one's still painted,
00:04:30
proper anti-slip paint.
00:04:33
I mean, they were flying off left, right, and center.
00:04:35
I mean, there's so many stories to talk about.
00:04:37
I suppose we should, I mean, should we get into it then?
00:04:39
Should we start with the obvious story?
00:04:41
And that is, that is McLaren, a fifth win for Philando Norris Leeds, the driver's championship for the first time, and Max's reign of, like, 63 races at the top of the championship.
00:04:54
It was, I mean, I thought it was a statement win.
00:04:56
I thought it was a statement weekend.
00:04:58
Didn't you, Bernie, for McLaren and just, you saw, once Oscar had cleared Max early in that first in, or I'll go through the first in, they just bugged off into the distance,
00:05:08
didn't they?
00:05:09
I mean, there were 14 seconds clear after about an extra 10 laps.
00:05:13
He made four seconds very quickly, once Max had gone deep.
00:05:17
And yeah, they just disappeared into the distance.
00:05:20
I think the first stint was phenomenal for McLaren.
00:05:23
They really pulled away, like you say, on that intermediate max, seem to be struggling much, much more towards the end of that stint.
00:05:29
The safety car, when everyone switched to drives, really brought them all back together.
00:05:34
And then it was much closer for the second half of the race.
00:05:36
You know, Lando wasn't fit to pull the CM gap on Max and that second intermediate stint.
00:05:41
So something interesting going on there in terms of just how he was fit to pull away.
00:05:46
Maybe Max had learned a little bit from the intermediate in the first stint, but very impressive for McLaren to get pulled position, to have won the race, to be in a very strong position all again,
00:05:58
really unfortunate for Oscar Piaestry.
00:06:02
But a sign of what's to come, maybe, for McLaren, let's see when we get to the race next again, if that still stands up, but look very dominant, particularly that first stint, like you say,
00:06:12
Simon.
00:06:12
Yeah, he controlled the restart, did he?
00:06:14
I mean, even when he had a bit of floor damage, he, on performance alone, George Russell said it after the race.
00:06:21
He was like, they were in a different league.
00:06:24
And I just wonder if that's going to be the story of the early part of this season.
00:06:28
Also, how much of it was the old tyre whispering of these cars?
00:06:32
You know, we sort of forget over the winter, you know, who's got a good aeroplatform, he's got a good engine, who's got good drivers, all of that.
00:06:38
You know, it does come down as it always so often does to tyres.
00:06:43
And who wasn't absolutely mullering their intermediates early on?
00:06:47
Shall declare, just overheated his intermediates, dropped off the pace, kind of giving him a bit of a hard, too much of a hard time, too early.
00:06:54
And then Maxwell Stappen couldn't keep his tyres going.
00:06:57
And all throughout of that, it seemed the McLaren could keep their intermediates in good shape.
00:07:01
And then even when they switched, as you say, to the hard tyres, the slicks, they kept those tyres in great shape as well.
00:07:09
Now, how are they doing it, Simon?
00:07:12
Is it anything to do with their aeroplatform?
00:07:16
And, you know, will that change as the aer rules alter themselves or are altered throughout the season?
00:07:24
Some earlier than we thought they would.
00:07:28
Is that leading you on to something?
00:07:30
Well, it is.
00:07:31
I mean, they're making some changes, aren't they?
00:07:32
So they're going to reduce that.
00:07:33
You're not going to be able to use Grand Prix in a few days' time.
00:07:37
Yeah.
00:07:38
So Bernie, just to bring people up to speed on that, in case, I mean, this is, since we've arrived back in the country here, they're going to change that.
00:07:44
So, yeah, was two centimetres was allowed.
00:07:48
And now that's going to be brought down to what half a centimetre, but actually three quarters of a centimetre for China.
00:07:55
Yeah, exactly.
00:07:55
So basically, the gap in the rear wing between the me and plan and the flap that moves for the DRS, there's a definition of what that gap is.
00:08:05
They apply a load to that.
00:08:06
And then they're trying to make sure that when they apply that load, it doesn't affect by a certain amount.
00:08:11
That was allowed to deflect by two centimetres.
00:08:15
And now it's allowed to deflect by half.
00:08:17
So they've really reduced half with some margin.
00:08:19
So they've really reduced the amount that can deflect when they put the load on it.
00:08:25
What's interesting is that they've done it so quickly.
00:08:29
So all the teams are currently transferring everything.
00:08:31
All of, you know, the cars are free.
00:08:33
It is moving from Melbourne to China with Ted.
00:08:36
And so it's going to be any team that would have failed that last week is going to have a big turnaround to pass this week, which makes me wonder if they think the teams would pass with the current wing set up.
00:08:51
I don't know what Ted's thoughts are.
00:08:54
Well, I saw them testing, I saw McLaren doing their own tests.
00:08:57
I saw Ferrari doing their own tests.
00:08:59
You could barely see some sponsors logos for all the, all the sort of contact point stickers that were on various bits of wings throughout the teams, all of the teams throughout the weekend, as they had these FIA high definition cameras pointed to every bits of the wings.
00:09:13
So the teams will know very well.
00:09:15
The only question for me, Bernie, is clearly this is one or two or three teams agitating towards the teams that they think are in a sort of gray area of this.
00:09:27
And the only thing that's in the back of my head is how much buy-in the teams would have to have who think they're going to be in trouble to say to the FIA, look, this is completely impossible.
00:09:38
You can't expect this in a back-to-back to build entirely new wings.
00:09:42
Now, if that is the case, then I think it will be a big ask.
00:09:49
But something in the back of my mind tells me that I think the likes of, well, I'm not even going to name them.
00:09:55
The teams who are stretching the limits with air reflectability would have had to say, yes, OK, bring in your new rules.
00:10:01
If that's what you want to do, knowing that they would have been able to pass them, and they would have had that data from Australia, you have to have an element of buy-in, don't you, Bernie,
00:10:12
from the affected teams, whatever the particular bit of FIA technical for our go is all about.
00:10:18
You've got to have a buy-in from the affected teams.
00:10:21
You can't just have the FIA.
00:10:22
Because otherwise, you might have three teams who just can't compete in China, and no one wants that.
00:10:26
I think teams will be know that they're fit to pass it.
00:10:29
Maybe they need to change spectra and on preferred spectra.
00:10:32
But in a week, less than a week, because you've got to ship it to China, you're not making a new way in the passes.
00:10:38
You just can't make it and get it there in time.
00:10:40
So I think that teams will have at least a specification that can pass.
00:10:44
I mean, it's no surprise, is it, that-- I mean, we know who's been agitating for this.
00:10:49
It's Red Bull in the Ops season that have been agitating for a firmer look at what's going on with McLaren and what's going on with Ferrari, specifically.
00:10:57
But when it was put to Andrea Steller about the flexibility, sort of changing the rules on the flexibility, coming in for Spain, he wasn't worried.
00:11:07
I thought, I was under the impression that they felt that they could control the aeroplane form with suspension, rather than what they were doing with the Flexi Wing.
00:11:15
So I suppose we're just going to see sooner rather than later, aren't we?
00:11:19
Well, I think a little bit of that Simon is even if he was worried about it.
00:11:23
You don't show that.
00:11:24
You don't show that when you're being interviewed by Simon Lee, isn't it?
00:11:27
You pretend like everything's rosy, and the wing's going to be fine, and there's nothing to see here.
00:11:31
And you don't move at all.
00:11:33
That's what they're doing.
00:11:34
I don't know what they're doing.
00:11:35
I don't know what people with the truth is what they are.
00:11:38
Yeah, good.
00:11:38
All right, well, we're getting very technical.
00:11:40
But they had eight races.
00:11:41
They had eight races until Spain.
00:11:43
This is changing the-- this is changing the playing field.
00:11:46
This is changing the rules.
00:11:48
And we will get to the bottom of it.
00:11:50
Won't be Simon.
00:11:51
What pressure was put to bear by Red Bull onto the FIA to tighten this up for China?
00:11:58
And what was just the FIA, if any?
00:12:00
And what was the FIA looking at those images that they took from practice and from the race?
00:12:05
And that is everybody has seen more or less now on the internet of those wings backing off of the McLaren, and maybe the Ferrari, and maybe them say who knows, whoever the teams are,
00:12:16
and said, OK, I think we do need to do something.
00:12:19
On back-to-back races?
00:12:20
Wow.
00:12:21
Yeah, well, there's something afoot.
00:12:23
So watch this space.
00:12:24
But you told me on the ground, I'm not going to China.
00:12:27
Fortunately, I have a-- Yeah, I forgot.
00:12:29
So yeah, you forgot.
00:12:30
Yeah, big birthday.
00:12:31
The big 3-0 coming up at the weekend.
00:12:36
We didn't really talk about Oscar Piestri.
00:12:38
Bernie, with regards to his weekend, it was a shame for him because he just got stuck on that grass and it completely ruined it for him.
00:12:46
But he knew that it was his fault and he held his hands up for it.
00:12:51
Yeah, slightly different line to London norris.
00:12:53
He just shows how quickly it can go wrong.
00:12:55
And I have very, very small differences of a massive effect on the end result of the race.
00:13:00
He did well to get back out.
00:13:02
I love the reverse in the tractor with Jeremy Clarkson type thing as a practice for that, because it was really impressive.
00:13:09
He got out of that.
00:13:10
I didn't say that car moving at that point.
00:13:13
So he got back in it.
00:13:14
He showed fighting spirit to get back.
00:13:16
He failed, maybe takes something from the fact that he was so close to London was right.
00:13:23
That actually pushed him at times in that intermediate stint.
00:13:27
So that's good going forward.
00:13:28
It's only one race that he's lost his points in.
00:13:31
And he did seem to be bringing it even in qualifying.
00:13:33
And he was right right there.
00:13:35
So I think he hopefully in the week that we've had, he'd just taken the positive side of that, getting ready to go again in China.
00:13:43
Yeah, I mean, aside from McCarran, I think you covered it off in the notebook, Ted.
00:13:48
But I mean, also in main press as well.
00:13:51
I mean, I think very close second to, to Lando, if not on a par with him, was Kimmy Antonelli.
00:13:57
I mean, that was, for me, that was just one of the most exciting drives I've seen from anyone coming in.
00:14:03
And when we spent some time with him, there's a kind of, there's this confidence to him, but there's this exuberance of youth.
00:14:10
And he's the kind of driver that just, he just lit it up, didn't he?
00:14:14
And that drive from 16th to, in the end, fourth, because that penalty got rescinded, didn't it?
00:14:19
For the unsafe release.
00:14:21
What a debut, what a debut.
00:14:23
Yeah, it's great.
00:14:24
He's got this fantastic style.
00:14:25
And I'm just glad that he didn't throw it off the road too many times.
00:14:30
And the sad thing about Oscar Piestri is that, I don't know, was it not for that one moment?
00:14:37
He would have been on the podium.
00:14:39
That would have been the first time Australian has been on the podium of a Formula One Grand Prix.
00:14:45
Even though I know they've been on for non-charmature races.
00:14:48
But also, how much of it was to do with that McLaren order at the time when Oscar was clearly faster than Lando, although we don't know how much Lando was saving the car and saving the tires and driving defensively,
00:15:01
when McLaren said, no overtaking.
00:15:05
And only later, when Oscar wasn't in the position to overtake, were they able to say, OK, you know, you can race him now.
00:15:13
And I'm just wondering in a kind of alternative, you know, you can never know what would happen, had something happen sliding doors moment.
00:15:22
Had Oscar overtaken Lando, would he have hit that pocket of rain earlier when Lando hit it?
00:15:29
I know they were only separated by a few meters.
00:15:32
But might it have been different?
00:15:33
Might he have not gone off?
00:15:35
Might he have not been beached?
00:15:36
It's so difficult to know.
00:15:38
So that's what's particularly sad about the way Oscar's race finished is that we just don't know whether it was always going to end up like that because he hit that bit of rain and just didn't manage to keep it on track the way Lando did.
00:15:51
Or whether had he been able to race early on, it might have been different.
00:15:55
But yeah, Kimi Antonelli, great stuff and very glad he got that place back after what was a bit of a strange decision from the FIA if they didn't have all the cameras available.
00:16:08
Yeah, I mean, look, there was some undoubtedly highlights about Antonelli and that, I mean, the move that he did turned nine around the outside on Alex Albon.
00:16:18
We've got some indications of just how good he was going to be in F2.
00:16:22
I think he pulled a move going through O Rouge last year in the wet on Franco Colour Pinto in the F2.
00:16:29
It also, we understand done a huge amount of testing in the Mercedes car with the TPC, the testing the previous cars.
00:16:39
I think of the 21 and the 22 Mercedes.
00:16:41
And when he's just that his little face lit up, I think I can't remember who it was or it was speaking to brother race.
00:16:47
He's like, this is going to be fun.
00:16:49
This is going to be fun.
00:16:50
He kind of, he wasn't scared of it.
00:16:51
He was out there and of all the rookies.
00:16:53
He didn't seem to intimidate him at all.
00:16:55
Glad, you know, he gave an impressive performance to have that drive to finish right behind George, you know, in his first race, that's what he want.
00:17:03
You want the driver to, he picked it up slowly during the weekend.
00:17:06
He didn't been in any of the practice sessions.
00:17:09
And, and that's what we were worried about.
00:17:12
We knew it was going to be fast.
00:17:13
Or at least we were told he was going to be very fast.
00:17:15
The worry was always that he wasn't going to keep it on the road.
00:17:19
And such an impressive debut for him in order, in those conditions, very, very tricky.
00:17:25
And as much as he's done the test in the previous car, that is not on the right tires that won't be in the same interawak conditions.
00:17:33
So this will have been quite a big step up and challenge for all of the rookies.
00:17:38
And you know, we even heard, you know, sure, even heard Lewis mentioned, you know, post-qualifying.
00:17:43
He knocked on any wet running in that Ferrari.
00:17:45
A lot of people hadn't driven these interawak tires in the car that they were currently in.
00:17:49
Carless signs as well.
00:17:50
So big learning curve for a lot of drivers out there and Kimmy came out on top of that, I think.
00:17:56
Yeah.
00:17:56
And George was, I mean, he was just a very smooth weekend for him, wasn't it?
00:18:00
He kind of just kept himself out of trouble.
00:18:03
He didn't think that he'd got the pace of either the McCowns or of Max for staff.
00:18:07
And then just kind of ran his own race and stayed out of trouble.
00:18:10
That was, those that did best, pitted at the right time late on, didn't they?
00:18:15
That was the thing it was key to get pitted at the right time.
00:18:18
Mercedes didn't make any mistakes there.
00:18:20
But also, he just knows what he's doing.
00:18:23
He's sometimes, I think, a little bit underrated.
00:18:25
I don't know what you think, Ted, but very solid display by him.
00:18:29
Yeah, I'm not sure whether he's underrated or not.
00:18:31
I mean, he was the state that finished the, didn't make any mistakes.
00:18:35
Mercedes got their pit stop times pretty much spot on.
00:18:39
The change to Slicks was right.
00:18:41
The change on the mythical lap 44, which I'm sure you're going to come onto Simon.
00:18:47
Ferrari didn't see that as some kind of portent that they should, they should pit on lap 44.
00:18:53
But they got that right, double stacked, Kimmy and George, help that they were separated a bit.
00:18:58
And yeah, George came through a very solid podium.
00:19:02
But do we think George is going to be in with the championship with a chance?
00:19:06
I mean, if you score a podium in every race, as it looked like Mercedes were quite comfortable in doing, then that automatically puts you in some kind of championship contention.
00:19:18
All right, it depends if Landa wins every other race.
00:19:20
But that doesn't normally happen.
00:19:22
You get the same winner for all of them with exception, of course, of Red Bull Racing in 2023.
00:19:27
But still, if George is on the podium every race, then he could be a championship contender, driver's championship definitely.
00:19:33
Well, on the subject of Ferrari, you kind of brought us on to it right every time since Fred has arrived, it's been a case of, like, right, said Fred.
00:19:41
But it was wrong, said Fred.
00:19:43
Or as Ron said, Ferrari, this weekend, what was it, Bernie?
00:19:47
Was it a combination of, you know, just I'm a gambled on the strategy or they got the strategy wrong?
00:19:53
Was the set up wrong?
00:19:54
What was it that meant that we got Charlotte Claire finishing in eighth and Lewis Hamilton intent?
00:20:00
Because I think both of them think, you know, that wasn't the true pace of the car this weekend.
00:20:06
Yeah, and I think both of them will look at the race.
00:20:08
The old team will look at the race and see what was left on the table.
00:20:12
And there was a lot left on the table, I think.
00:20:14
You know, pick up on Ted's point.
00:20:16
Russell's probably in the third fastest car if we say they're McLaren and Red Bull are faster and Piaustre should have beaten him.
00:20:23
And without the all that he had.
00:20:25
Ferrari's really interesting.
00:20:27
If, you know, all the talk is they put a wet set up on the car.
00:20:30
Well, it was wet on Sunday.
00:20:31
So the set up should have been right unless something went badly wrong with the set up they chose.
00:20:36
And for me, and I can see how it happens.
00:20:38
In on the pit wall, you've just gone to dry tires.
00:20:42
The dry tire decision was forced for most people because we had to see if the car fell on.
00:20:46
So most people chose to change to dry tires on the same lap.
00:20:50
So that was done.
00:20:51
All they were deciding was between a medium and a hard and I think, you know, I, there's questions there about why people chose the hard.
00:20:57
It didn't seem like the logical choice, but we didn't really get to see it play out.
00:21:02
And then there was a switch from dry back to intern.
00:21:05
Now, everyone's looking at the radar and seeing this small patch of rain, maybe one or two laps, but thinking, this rain's coming, it's only going to be one or two laps.
00:21:14
And I can see how people get their heads into, it's just one or two laps, then it's going to be dry.
00:21:20
But what people had forgotten was that it had just taken 30 laps for the track to dry.
00:21:27
So even if it was a small amount of rain, yes, it might not be physically raining after one or two laps, but the track was going to have to go through that dry and process as well.
00:21:36
And that's what got went wrong.
00:21:38
People had thought we're just on these dry tires we've survived one or two laps.
00:21:42
And if it was just one or two laps and then the track went back to dry, that would have been fine.
00:21:46
But the track was never going to dry that quickly.
00:21:49
At the track temperatures, we were out.
00:21:51
We'd just seen that for 30 laps.
00:21:52
And I think the two bits of stuff I picked up, the post-race that I thought was very interesting was, at the time, George Russell was one of the only drivers that I heard from Mercedes-Pet War that they said,
00:22:02
we are definitely going to have to go to intro at some point.
00:22:06
So we're not deciding if it's an intro or not.
00:22:09
It's definitely an intro.
00:22:10
It's just the right lap.
00:22:11
And I didn't hear that communication from many others.
00:22:14
Even Red Bull got it wrong, I think, and saying, we're going to stay out.
00:22:17
The Keb loss and I, because he didn't argue it.
00:22:19
But for Stappen said, was strong enough to say that we're boxing.
00:22:24
So other teams got it wrong, as well as Ferrari.
00:22:26
It's just that Ferrari followed through on it with both drivers, which is why they ended up in the position they were in.
00:22:34
But that was one from George.
00:22:35
On the other one, which I thought was very interesting, was James Ford's post-reassage, the Carlos signs and the garbage was very strong at saying, you need to switch to enters.
00:22:42
Because he's looking at the big picture.
00:22:44
He's been in the car.
00:22:44
He's been a driver.
00:22:45
He's gone, this is not dry.
00:22:47
And often, we get very caught up in the numbers of sanits.
00:22:50
There's one or two laps of inter, can you survive?
00:22:53
That's better than doing a pet stop.
00:22:55
But it's not.
00:22:56
It's the dry end time.
00:22:57
And that's where I think they went wrong.
00:22:59
And Ferrari, you know, there was a lot of angst on the radio.
00:23:04
And that's a learning curve, as well.
00:23:06
OK, on the subject, then, of posing with a shout out the championship.
00:23:10
Obviously, Max is looking to become only the second driver to win five titles in a row.
00:23:17
But again, once again, it was a max-like display outperforming a car that was, you know, some way off the McLaren and just doing what he needed to do to stay in touch.
00:23:27
And then, pressuring him late, when Lando made a little mistake, late on, he got within DRS range.
00:23:33
And, well, you know, if Lando had made any further mistakes, you could see him taking that one.
00:23:38
It was just yet again, masterful drive, wasn't it, Ted?
00:23:43
Yeah, it was, I mean, I was convinced that if the racer had gone on a little bit longer, then Max might have gone on.
00:23:49
The only thing that I think might have put Max off was just that, you know, if you went a couple of meter, maybe a couple of meters off those train tracks, then it was going to be really difficult to actually sort of stay on the island.
00:24:03
And, you know, he's clearly not comfortable in that red bull.
00:24:07
Liam Lawson in the other car had a absolutely torrid weekend.
00:24:11
I tried to make the point in the commentary before Fernando Alonso crashed.
00:24:16
I'm not sure, I need to follow up in China, how much was Liam's fault.
00:24:19
You know, they put a load of wing on in Park Fermé.
00:24:22
They changed his rear wing to a high downfall specification, a steeper beam wing as well.
00:24:28
And that seemed to completely hamper Liam's red bull RB21.
00:24:33
It was so slow throughout the race.
00:24:36
It must have been that.
00:24:38
Liam's too good a driver for it, not to be that they made a terrible decision on putting too much wing on.
00:24:46
But Max, just showing what he can do with a car that clearly isn't, you know, up to winning at the moment.
00:24:51
And he almost won it.
00:24:51
And the way that they were, Max was kind of, you know, I'll take that at the end of the race.
00:24:57
So I bet you'll take that because it was just brilliant driving.
00:25:00
And some of it actually deserved the win.
00:25:03
But Lando had learned.
00:25:04
And Lando was just sort of one step ahead of him in a car that's much better.
00:25:09
And Bernie, on the subject to the rookies.
00:25:11
So if we are considering that Liam is a rookie, we are.
00:25:15
We said there was six.
00:25:16
Some people were saying it was only five rookies.
00:25:17
But we were saying it's six.
00:25:20
Three DNFs, one DNS, poor old Isaac had jar.
00:25:26
I just felt so sorry for him, you know, big console by Anthony Hamilton, Lewis's dad, Lewis obviously is hero.
00:25:32
It was a lovely moment, but it was also, he just felt so, so sorry for the guy.
00:25:37
Yeah, I don't think we can even imagine, you know, this guy's worked his entire career is to get in that F1 seat.
00:25:45
Everything has been gotten to this moment to get that drive, to get his first race in F1.
00:25:51
And, you know, he doesn't even make it to the start.
00:25:54
That is got to be absolutely devastating.
00:25:57
And, you know, he had a very stellar weekend up to that point.
00:26:01
He really showed that he's a good driver.
00:26:03
He did very well through all of the sessions, arguably one of the best in qualifying.
00:26:07
So, so it must be, it must be gotten.
00:26:11
And thank goodness he is a race next week to pick himself up and go again, because that will make a big difference to him.
00:26:17
People have forgotten that very, very quickly.
00:26:19
I think he was saved a little bit by the likes of Carla Sines and Fernando Alonzo-Cornoff.
00:26:24
That also showed how tricky the conditions were.
00:26:27
You know, to lose someone of Alonzo's experience, just goes to show how tricky it was out there.
00:26:32
So, yes, he lost a much further into the race, but I think he was saved a little bit by not being the only driver that didn't make it.
00:26:40
100% word on Jack Doon's weekend as well.
00:26:44
You know, again, a home race for him.
00:26:45
He was unlucky, wasn't he in qualifying to get caught out by that yellow flag and because of the Hamilton spin.
00:26:51
And then, you know, one of those that just, you know, got caught out by the conditions, didn't he?
00:26:56
But overall, he was on the pace of gasoline.
00:26:58
Wasn't he, Ted, for most of the weekend.
00:27:00
So, I don't know what, he'll have to take the positives, but he can feel the pressure of all those thousands of Alpine reserve drivers breathing down his necks, as the guys will say.
00:27:10
Yeah, he will.
00:27:11
It's really unfortunate.
00:27:12
You know, both, both Hadjar and Doon have hard taskmaster bosses in Helmut Marco,
00:27:23
who called Hadjar's emotional reaction to going out in embarrassing.
00:27:28
That's embarrassing for him.
00:27:31
And Flavio's reaction, which we don't know, but I can't imagine not scoring any points with Pierre Gasly was particularly unfortunate seeing as Gasly was running in the points for most of the race,
00:27:43
but they got a call, a lap later than Gasly dropped down.
00:27:47
And for doing to crash out, that's only going to harden Flavio's reaction towards his attitude towards Jack Doon.
00:27:57
And that's the problem when you have these two really, you know, hard taskmasters.
00:28:02
It's old school Formula One hard men in Helmut Marco and Flavio Brutori.
00:28:08
If you're Isaac Hadjar and Jack Doon respectively, it's going to mean tough times for your head.
00:28:13
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00:28:55
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:28:58
Right, let's bring in some fresh meat, two new guests for the new season.
00:29:02
I'm delighted to be joined by Big Lucky Rocker and by Tim McDonald, also known as the Reserve Drive as many of you will love their work.
00:29:11
They're also friends of the show.
00:29:13
Good evening.
00:29:14
Good afternoon to you both.
00:29:15
As a couple of Australians, how's it for you?
00:29:19
Thank you very much for having us guys.
00:29:21
We really appreciate it.
00:29:22
We didn't know that the F1 cost cap extended to podcast guests, but we're here.
00:29:28
Do you have to run a number of rookies throughout the season?
00:29:30
Is that why we're here?
00:29:32
Did someone pull out what's going on?
00:29:34
That's it.
00:29:34
Yeah.
00:29:35
I mean, we were looking for high quality guests to join us up front.
00:29:38
So yeah, and we got you two.
00:29:40
So it's great.
00:29:41
Well, that's the best introduction I've ever had.
00:29:43
Big Lucky.
00:29:44
I'll take that every day of the week.
00:29:46
Just before we go any further, we're just going to message here from New South Wales Police.
00:29:50
There's a strange man loitering around the opera house.
00:29:53
If you see him in the area, would you please arrest him?
00:29:57
I'm being attacked by Seagulls.
00:29:59
Where there's two pieces around here.
00:30:02
And it's really interesting chat about flexibility.
00:30:05
Although I've still got the phrase that you said, Simon, I was spanked by an optometrist called Alan in my head.
00:30:10
So speaking of flexibility, we might not go there, but thank you for having us.
00:30:15
What an Australian Grand Prix.
00:30:16
What a way to kick off the season.
00:30:18
Yeah, a big thanks to Alan as well for that spanking.
00:30:22
You guys did a live show, didn't you down there as well?
00:30:25
I've tried to, prior to the Grand Prix in a pub somewhere in Melbourne.
00:30:30
We couldn't make it along, unfortunately, but out of that go.
00:30:33
We were there at the corner hotel in Melbourne, iconic venue.
00:30:37
You don't need to plug it anymore.
00:30:38
It's already happened, so that's a rush.
00:30:40
We had 180 fans.
00:30:42
It was fantastic.
00:30:42
And then afterwards, people told us that Lance Stroll was having dinner in the restaurant above us.
00:30:47
Sadly, he didn't pop down.
00:30:49
But gee, he was genuinely impressive on the weekend.
00:30:51
He got a great race.
00:30:53
And what an Australian Grand Prix.
00:30:54
We really enjoyed the first 44 laps.
00:30:57
They were fantastic.
00:30:58
I mean, Oscar went off.
00:31:01
We did, we did share the tier, or two, I'll admit it.
00:31:05
They were class three tiers.
00:31:06
They were really heavy tiers.
00:31:08
Class three tiers, and I won't tell you what Dr.
00:31:10
Helmut Marko described me as.
00:31:12
That would get me into trouble.
00:31:13
Thankfully Lewis Hamilton's test was there to give us a cuddle, and we feel a lot better now.
00:31:17
So it was a great way to start the season.
00:31:19
When did you press your K1 button?
00:31:21
At what point was that available to be pressed?
00:31:26
Or did you just want to K press it?
00:31:28
In the Italian alphabet, as it were, there is no actual K.
00:31:32
So I don't know what's happening down in Ferrari.
00:31:34
It's usually a C-H makes the cut sound.
00:31:38
I didn't think I'd be doing phonetics on the F1 show, but here we are.
00:31:42
You are Italian.
00:31:43
You might understand why there's a bit of a breakdown in communication with Lewis's engineers.
00:31:47
Lewis is learning the hard way.
00:31:49
As an Italian, it's very hard to communicate without your hands.
00:31:52
Exactly.
00:31:53
What I've been saying.
00:31:54
Unfortunately, I wasn't in Australia, which is very disappointed.
00:31:58
But the fans always bring a lot to that show.
00:32:01
They're always lining up on the way in.
00:32:03
Was that dampened a little bit on Sunday with the wet weather?
00:32:05
Or was there still a lot to see in my expectation from the fans like that?
00:32:09
No, it was fantastic.
00:32:10
It was a record crowd for another year and a row.
00:32:12
465,000.
00:32:15
And that's just the Alpine reserve drivers.
00:32:16
Once the actual fans came in as well, it was absolutely packed.
00:32:19
Of that 465,000, I can confirm there was at least one kick-sauber's steak fan.
00:32:25
Right, he's that right.
00:32:26
But that's the main contraction in Australia.
00:32:28
I might check that.
00:32:29
But no, it's amazing.
00:32:30
And as you say, Bernie, they line up in the rain.
00:32:32
They sleep overnight.
00:32:34
And when the gates open at 8am, they run to the Melbourne Walk, which has now become just this iconic part of the Grand Prix.
00:32:39
They get up and close and personal to their F1 heroes.
00:32:42
It's amazing.
00:32:43
The atmosphere is incredible.
00:32:44
Just a quick word on the Melbourne Walk.
00:32:45
Because Croft, he actually refused to do it.
00:32:49
I think I heard on the grapevine that Croft, he was getting mobbed too often on the Melbourne Walk.
00:32:54
So him and Karoon have disappeared off the Perth early this week.
00:32:59
And you might have seen on his Instagram a little bit earlier that he was playing the Regal Theatre in Perth.
00:33:04
Him and Karoon played the Regal Theatre to over 1,000 people.
00:33:08
I think people paid to see a stand-up show with Croft and Karoon.
00:33:12
Now, I don't know what they paid you for your efforts at the corner hotel.
00:33:17
But people pay not to do our show.
00:33:21
Simon, that's the slight difference with Croft.
00:33:23
I did see Croft, he has done the Melbourne Walk in the past.
00:33:26
The thing with Croft, he goes up and back just making sure that he gets to every fan.
00:33:30
He just wants to make sure that it's all about him.
00:33:32
But in terms of Aussie landmarks, I'm not sure the Regent Theatre in Perth is up there with the Opera House there, Ted.
00:33:39
Could you get any more Australian clichés in your background?
00:33:41
You've got the Opera House, you've got the Harbour Bridge.
00:33:43
You just need a shrimp on the Bubby, a metal ticket all off.
00:33:46
I know, it's got some Morton Bay Bugs here.
00:33:48
I'm wearing it, I'm wearing it as a hat to you.
00:33:49
It's, no, it's so just beautiful.
00:33:53
And I want to know, guys, how you come up with your...
00:33:57
I mean, obviously you watch so much, but how much do you need to watch to come up with all of your strands?
00:34:02
You spot the 10-foot boom pole, you met a Formula One and you know, you're compressed or un-compressed.
00:34:11
Where do these ideas come from?
00:34:14
A dark, lonely place, I feel.
00:34:17
It was funny hearing your chat beforehand, because you're talking about the time zones.
00:34:20
And we really do consume a lot of Formula One in the late wee hours.
00:34:26
No social life, no fram, no friends, no family.
00:34:30
But we're lucky, we do get the sky's wonderful coverage here in Australia, which we love, and as you know, we are big fans of all of you.
00:34:35
We watch everything, sometimes even FP1.
00:34:38
That's how desperate we are.
00:34:40
With our little show, we try and find that the light-hearted moments, the fun moments, and when we see a good friend, Ted Kravitz, interviewing Charlotte Claire's dog, we know that we found something pretty good.
00:34:52
Also, things are cheese.
00:34:54
That's right.
00:34:55
We've also worked out that Formula One, at its core, is very rich people making very expensive mistakes.
00:35:04
If that's not a recipe for comedy, I don't know what it is.
00:35:08
Bit of shard and Freuda.
00:35:09
Yeah, I mean, you can see that when it does go wrong for those that are super, super rich.
00:35:13
Yeah, there is a little bit of that going on.
00:35:15
I wanted to know, though, boys, you know, you've got two Aussies at the moment in F1, as you're saying.
00:35:20
I mean, we don't know for how long you have two Aussies.
00:35:22
But does that, you say, you know, following the Aussie boys, does that extend towards the Kiwi as well?
00:35:30
You know, I mean, is there a bit of support down there for Liam Lawson as well as Jack Doon and Oscar Piersk?
00:35:35
Certainly, and if the three people back home in New Zealand are listening, if the dial-up internet connection has just connected, we love Liam, a tough weekend for him in Australia, but it's all about us, it's all about Oscar.
00:35:46
It's all about Jack.
00:35:48
Jack had a difficult start in Australia, look, didn't he?
00:35:50
It was, yeah, tough going for Jack.
00:35:52
Not good news for Jack.
00:35:53
Good news for the voodoo doll.
00:35:55
Franco Collapinto's voodoo doll.
00:35:57
That is a good work, yeah.
00:35:58
It is working at Treet.
00:35:59
We have, as a country, declared war on Argentina, which is never a good sign.
00:36:04
But also, we do have to admit that on the weekend, it was the Brits who drove really well, and particularly Lano and Aris.
00:36:10
Obviously, we're disappointed for Oscar, but Lano deserved that when he drove a beautiful race and went away to start his campaign.
00:36:16
Well said on a British show, Tim.
00:36:18
Well said on a British show.
00:36:20
We are massive fans of Sky Sports, and please give our love to Crofty and Brundle.
00:36:26
The reason why I liked Big Lucky so much is the first time I met Crofty, but lucky to meet him at one of the Grand Prix's.
00:36:32
I know the voice of Formula One, you know, one of the best.
00:36:34
And lucky not to have to pay him to meet him, which I know is how he usually goes about it.
00:36:39
I extended my hand warmly, ready to meet my hero.
00:36:43
And he saw Tim, he knew Tim from the TV.
00:36:45
He turned to me and he said, "Oh, hi, Muppet."
00:36:48
Wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but...
00:36:52
- It's a big, Big Lucky's in improvement.
00:36:55
But speaking of interactions with the Sky Team, and Ted, you will appreciate this.
00:36:58
We've got a lot of F1 memorabilia over the years in our involvement, but our most prized possession is this.
00:37:05
This is a notebook from Pirelli, which we believe Ted is the notebook that you gave us, which is the notebook you use for your show, the notebook.
00:37:13
Is that right?
00:37:14
- Oh, yeah.
00:37:15
Yeah, I paid for that, yeah.
00:37:16
A lot of money.
00:37:17
(laughs)
00:37:18
- We love that a show called "The Notebook" doesn't even have a budget for a notebook.
00:37:22
Ted has to steal this from Mario Isseller, I believe, so.
00:37:26
- Whose Pirelli notebooks are prized possessions in the Pently, and because Pirelli often give those out, and they're a very, very good notebook.
00:37:33
- I'm a really, very good notebook, yeah.
00:37:35
Is that what you used it out at Asad Martin Bernie?
00:37:38
Was that what you were rocking?
00:37:40
- I was never fortunate enough to be allowed into the Pirelli Hospitality as a member of Austin Martin.
00:37:45
They used to come to us.
00:37:46
So no, you know, in my new career, I can venture in there and get a little free notebook and walk away.
00:37:53
- Unfortunately, they caught a part in the rain.
00:37:55
(laughs)
00:37:56
- There we are.
00:37:57
- I've got wet over the weekend.
00:37:59
It turned out Charlotte Claire's drink bottle had legs, and that does have somebody fluttered everywhere.
00:38:03
Sorry, how are you going at the moment?
00:38:05
- I do have a little bit of a leg here to be honest.
00:38:06
- Yep, yes.
00:38:07
- I might be the water.
00:38:09
- I think there was some really comedy gold over the weekend, wasn't there?
00:38:12
There was some really good radio communication that's gonna be clipped up nicely.
00:38:16
The water issue was one where it was added to the words of Winston, particularly, technically.
00:38:23
- Is there another sport where you get that direct access in the heat of moment?
00:38:27
- No, and when there was talk to the FIA, we were possibly gonna access it because of the swearing, we were devastated, because honestly, as Formula One fans, it is one of the best parts of the sport that you can,
00:38:37
during the competition here, the athletes at their best.
00:38:40
And there are some great radio moments, Sebastian Vettel, there's something lost between my legs.
00:38:44
Kim, you're right, and then give me the gloves, give me the steering wheel.
00:38:48
Carlos, I'm singing Smooth Operator, they're just some, so hopefully we don't lose that.
00:38:52
- No, hopefully, and hopefully, actually, the, it was water in Charlotte's sea.
00:38:58
I mean, we have to take his word for it.
00:39:00
He might have just been getting the excuses in early, 'cause he wouldn't be the first, and he certainly won't be the last, if you know what I mean, lads.
00:39:07
- Thank you, gentlemen.
00:39:08
We massively appreciate it.
00:39:10
Can't, before you go, your tip for who's gonna win it this year, please.
00:39:14
- Well, based on his driving over the weekend, Bernmailand, it looks really good in the Aston Martin.
00:39:20
He led motor that race, he was unbelievable.
00:39:22
- Yeah, you've thrown us on, one thing about our show, we're not big on the, we're not big on the stats, we're not big on the, the, the, the ups and the insides.
00:39:30
If, if, if you like, terrible puns, bad jerks, and, and footage and audio of Ted Kravitz ordering fruit in Brazil, or Simon Laisley dressed in later hoes, and the reserve drivers is your home.
00:39:41
But for actual predictions, the F1 show on Sky Sports, that's the place to be, guys, thank you very much for having us.
00:39:47
If we're your first guest, we have serious concerns.
00:39:50
- Can only go downhill from here.
00:39:51
Thanks, lads.
00:39:52
Shout out to a few others before we let you go.
00:39:57
I know you've got to get a ferry, Ted.
00:40:00
Shout out to Niko Holkman Perk.
00:40:02
You scored more points in that one race than Salva Scord in the entire last season.
00:40:07
And also Alex Albon, just a quick word on, on Alex Albon.
00:40:10
You know, obviously Carlos Sites, whether it was just stepping on the power or whether he didn't have a talk issue.
00:40:16
And he, he helped these show ball team plery was, but they've got such a line up there, and they've got a good car.
00:40:23
They really do have a good car, don't they, Bernie?
00:40:25
- Yeah, that's gonna run and run.
00:40:26
I think, you know, they're really working well together from everything we see, from the outside.
00:40:30
I think that, you know, what they've suffered from in the past is, let's say Albon doesn't make a qualifying session or it doesn't make it to the race, then their feedback, the development of the car really slows with both of those drivers there.
00:40:42
You can really see that team pushing forward.
00:40:44
And we didn't expect Williams to be that strong this year given that they've not made big changes over the winter apart from the driver line up.
00:40:51
And they've came out like all guns breezons.
00:40:53
So I think it's gonna be really interesting to watch those two develop through the year.
00:40:57
Ted, all right, any closing comments before you dive back into the harbor or get yourself onto a ferry?
00:41:05
- No, not really.
00:41:07
I mean, Alex Albon did particularly well.
00:41:09
I thought it was really unfortunate for Carlos Sites, you know, him and Fernando Alonso, the only sort of non-Rookie's to have, and you know, to end the day in the wall,
00:41:20
which was really unfortunate, but well done for Carlos Sites for getting the timing, helping with the timing of Alex Albon's crucial pit stop onto intermediates and really securing that.
00:41:30
The Ferrari stuff, I think when I'm gone, you'll probably discuss it a little bit more.
00:41:34
It wasn't a good weekend.
00:41:36
It wasn't just Fred Vassar, who was saying don't judge us on the race, judge us on the pace we showed at other points during the weekend.
00:41:43
So let's see what China brings.
00:41:45
Nika Alcamburg, absolutely fantastic result.
00:41:48
Love that, unlucky Pierre Gasly, Yuki Senota.
00:41:52
And yeah, that was really the good stuff from the race was that we saw that, you know, Lando and McLaren have learnt from some of the races where had they been presented with those kind of issues in previous races,
00:42:08
Canada, maybe Silverstone in the rain last year, they didn't get it right, but they've learnt and they have got it right.
00:42:15
But yeah, 25 points, 18 for Max Verstappen, so the championship's really still very much wide open.
00:42:21
And it's probably gonna be a three-way fight, maybe a four-way fight with George in there, and we're yet to see what Ferrari can do in China.
00:42:29
But I'm just minded to think about how, you know, red is a lucky color in China.
00:42:34
And maybe if we can do some sort of, you know, cultural references to the number eight, not that that's, well, four plus four is eight, isn't it?
00:42:44
Eight is a lucky number and red is a lucky color.
00:42:47
So maybe that'll be better for Hamilton and Ferrari in China, we'll see.
00:42:51
- All right, buddy, we'll let you go.
00:42:54
- There you go, it looks dark down there.
00:42:57
- I've got my bag of stuff here and I just left it alone, but happily everyone's free, they haven't stolen it, so that's good.
00:43:06
All right, goodbye from Sydney, I'll see you in China.
00:43:08
(upbeat music)
00:43:11
- And as if by magic, there he goes, disappearing off into the Australian evening.
00:43:16
You're wishing well, we'll see Ted in China.
00:43:19
Bernie, let's just finish things off though.
00:43:21
Actually, we haven't discussed your old team, Dustin Martin and Lance Troll, again, got the timing right for the pit stop, another one from lap 44, but, you know, he's good in the wet and we know that with Lance,
00:43:34
so what did you make of his opening round?
00:43:38
- Well, I think stronger we can for us to more than we expect to post-aston, for sure, even qualifying, I'm stronger, but yeah, and the race just keeping the decisions straightforward,
00:43:49
not taking any risks, getting some good points in the board, I think, you know, those points will be really beneficial as we get into the next few rounds, so nice clean weekend for them was good.
00:43:58
- Nice thing weekend, when we heard from Andy Cattle actually, and I think it was the first practice session after that, we spoke to him, we talked about Adrian, obviously, what he's, a couple of weeks into the new job now,
00:44:10
what have you heard from some of your old colleagues about whether he's gonna be able to provide the overall picture on 2025 or he's just gonna be focused on 2026, 'cause I'm fascinated to see what he can add to this car as well as next year's.
00:44:24
- Yeah, I've not, I've not actually heard anything, but what I expect is they've got to figure out whether upgrades last year weren't working, and that's the first thing they need to work on, so they need to start to put some things in the car, make sure their aeratiles are working correctly,
00:44:36
when tunnels gotta come online at some point, so they need to start working on that BS in order to build next year's car, and he'll be straight into that, so definitely I think it will have an influence on both cars.
00:44:49
- Okay, let's throw ahead then to China.
00:44:52
As I mentioned, I've not been there since prior to COVID, because we did last year's one from the studio.
00:44:57
What are you expecting from that?
00:44:59
And Ted was saying, look, I know you're gonna talk a little bit more about Ferrari.
00:45:02
There have been some questions coming in from you.
00:45:04
Thank you very much, by the way, to the fans for sending in their questions, but with regards to Ferrari, and what we're to expect next time around, is the challenge gonna be stronger?
00:45:15
Is the car gonna suit the dynamics of the Chinese circuit more than it is the Australian one?
00:45:22
- Well, I think at the minute, we came out attached to not sure where Ferrari sits on that top four.
00:45:27
We're still not sure, post-Australia, because of what happened through qualifying and to the wet race.
00:45:32
So I think it should look stronger.
00:45:34
At least, you know, they shouldn't be finished and eat the tents, for sure.
00:45:39
They'll have learned a lot, communication-wise, from the first race.
00:45:42
I think there will be a lot going on there.
00:45:44
China's a very different track.
00:45:45
It's gonna be very different temperatures, different tire compines, stuck in like a dry weekend, a stuck in reasonably warm actually for China at the minute, although the forecast changes all the time.
00:45:55
So it is gonna really play at a different strengths.
00:45:59
So I think we should see them move up.
00:46:02
The question mark for me is, are they faster than Mercedes or not?
00:46:06
That's the question mark.
00:46:07
So hopefully we get an answer by Saturday's sprint weekend in China as well.
00:46:11
So, got two of those at a qualifying session?
00:46:14
Two guys at a qualifying session, but anyone practiced session for those rookies that probably would like some more track time.
00:46:20
How's that gonna affect them?
00:46:22
- Yeah, I think it's really difficult.
00:46:24
It is really difficult.
00:46:25
Last year was particularly difficult in China 'cause we'd not been there since 2019.
00:46:30
This year they will have last year did a look at.
00:46:32
The semi-liters will be up to date.
00:46:34
The rookies have done a little rolling in that.
00:46:36
They'll have a bit of experience under their head.
00:46:39
They'll go under the sprint qualifying and then into the sprint.
00:46:43
And that's good biases for the race.
00:46:44
So actually from a rookies point of view, you get a lot of drive-in before you hit me in qualifying and then me in race.
00:46:52
There'll be less engineers play them with different tasks or setups or any of these things that happen in a normal race weekend.
00:46:58
So yes, you're straight into a competitive session, which is difficult, but you should have more track time by the time you get to qualifying on Saturday afternoon and then race on Sunday morning.
00:47:10
- Okay, well let's see what happens on that one.
00:47:13
We did promise that we were gonna do a few fans' questions and thanks again for sending them in.
00:47:18
As I just mentioned there.
00:47:20
Right, come on then, Bernie.
00:47:22
From Steve Wilco.88, right?
00:47:26
It was clear that Sonoda was ready for Red Bull and this weekend proved it.
00:47:30
What do they see in Liam Lawson over him?
00:47:34
- Yeah, it's difficult, isn't it?
00:47:36
Because we're not, we obviously see the laptop on track.
00:47:40
We see the reas performance.
00:47:42
We see some radio communications known as definitely improved.
00:47:45
It is calmness, let's say.
00:47:47
So from the outside, I agree with what he's saying, but we don't see what's going on in the engineering debriefs, what they're feeding back, how they work on with the team.
00:47:57
I don't see anything that suggests Sonoda shouldn't get the drive.
00:47:59
So it is an unusual decision from Red Bull side at this stage to stick to it, but the year is far from done.
00:48:08
- So that's what it is.
00:48:09
- What it is.
00:48:10
- Yeah, it is.
00:48:12
I just wonder, we've been talking about the empathy or lack of their off of Dr Marco and I think Yuki has pointed has any to it not necessarily being his pace on track that turned the Red Bull management off to his,
00:48:28
I suppose to his strengths as a driver.
00:48:32
I think what he feels like is that he deserves that chance.
00:48:35
He was unlucky, wasn't he Bernie this weekend?
00:48:37
Again, he did or other, his strategies did what the Ferrari strategies did and left him out there too long.
00:48:44
And hence, he finished outside of the points.
00:48:46
But for that, he had another very, very good weekend.
00:48:49
I love Yuki.
00:48:50
I think Yuki's a really solid driver now.
00:48:53
And he seems to improve year on year.
00:48:55
So all he can do really is knock on the door and keep knocking on the door, Connie.
00:48:59
- Yeah, he's got to keep just putting the performance in.
00:49:03
And he's doing that.
00:49:04
His qualifying was very, very impressive.
00:49:07
And, you know, and if that car as I qualify on the number two Red Bull car, then there will be questions to be answered.
00:49:14
So he's going to hope that that continues for many more weekends to come.
00:49:18
- Okay, Anish Pillar did Ferrari appoint Roscoe and Leo as the Ferrari strategist.
00:49:23
We'll let, we'll let that one speak for itself.
00:49:26
But thank you for sending that in.
00:49:28
From lamp.204, 2004, lamp.204.
00:49:33
Well, I didn't count tell Oscar to hold position when he could have easily taken the lead of that race.
00:49:37
So, I mean, I'll maybe start with that one.
00:49:39
I think it was fairly clear from what Zach was saying afterwards in that they were just being pragmatic to do with the weather conditions.
00:49:47
Were they burning and making sure that they cleared the traffic before they allowed them to race again?
00:49:53
- Yeah, I think that's it.
00:49:54
And I think from their side, there's just a figure that it would be a silly time for something to go wrong with back markers.
00:50:01
So, you know, it's definitely risk averse.
00:50:04
It's a very, very see a thing to do.
00:50:05
And when they can control their drivers, why not?
00:50:09
It would have been interesting to see how that progressed even further.
00:50:12
You know, there was a lot more back markers to come.
00:50:14
Had it not been for what happened after that.
00:50:16
So could they have done that for the whole race?
00:50:18
It's probably not the sensible thing to do.
00:50:19
So, let's see how that one goes forward.
00:50:22
- Last one, Andrew, Hamill 777 is Alex Albon capable of winning his first Grand Prix in a Williams this year.
00:50:30
Goes back to what we're talking about.
00:50:32
That being a very good car.
00:50:33
Or maybe it'll be transportation.
00:50:35
Maybe we'll find a good one for him.
00:50:36
- No, I think it's a good car, you know, it showed well in Bobby and it showed well here.
00:50:41
This race was very unusual with the number of drivers that didn't make it to the end.
00:50:46
And with everything that was going on, it really kept on dying.
00:50:49
You know, the decisions people made about switching the end term made massive differences to the outcome.
00:50:54
So, it's not going to be a straightforward race so he wins, but they're always there.
00:51:01
They're about sniping to try and get it.
00:51:03
So if he gets another reason, there's a lot going on.
00:51:06
Then no reason why not.
00:51:07
- Thanks, Bernie.
00:51:09
I think that's about us done then for another episode of the F1 show.
00:51:13
You flying this evening and landing in China.
00:51:16
Probably about the same time as Crofty and Keroon, straight from their stand-up comedy tour.
00:51:20
So they'll probably, I think they were selling merch as well.
00:51:24
If you could get me a lights out.
00:51:26
- I know where you get to eat that.
00:51:28
- I'll try and have some sort of branded t-shirt to greet them at the airport.
00:51:32
But yes, flounder night, overnight flight and a China Wednesday night.
00:51:35
I don't think my getting ready for the jet-like has gone as well as I would have liked at this stage.
00:51:40
So let's see how on for my arm on Thursday.
00:51:43
- Yeah, I've been up most of the night after, as to be said, you know, just as you get on Australian time, you have to come back and get back on British times.
00:51:52
So we know, we feel the pain.
00:51:54
It's just one of the things.
00:51:55
Crosses we have to bear, Bernie.
00:51:58
We will see back here on the F1 Show 25th of March, following China to review that and have a look ahead to the triple header.
00:52:05
But as far as China is concerned, that the race weekend starts live on Sky Sports 3 AM.
00:52:10
It's another early one for you.
00:52:11
The first practice on Thursday and the race day on Sunday coverage starts at 5.30.
00:52:17
Enjoy the weekend from us all here.
00:52:20
We'll see you soon, bye-bye.
00:52:21
(upbeat music)
00:52:23
(upbeat music)
00:52:26
(dramatic music)
00:52:28
