Red Bull Struggles and Midfield Talent

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And that's at the end of a really jam pack sprint Saturday in Montreal. I'm Harry Benjamin. I'm joined alongside the former McLaren mechanic Mark Priestley. aking today, how are you summing it all up? We've had a lot. It has been a lot. It's been busy. I mean, when you just read that out, what you just said there, George Russell on Pol, Kimy Antonlli alongside him on the front row. sounds pretty sort of mundane and boring, doesn't it? It's like a normal service has been resumed, but it really doesn't tell the tale of what happened today because it's been nip and tuck everywhere. We've had changes of position. The sprint was just chaotic from start to finish Two Mercedes collided at one point, ran each other off the racetrack George Russesin, qualying was absolutely nowhere until the final lapse, so it was an impossible one to predict. The result may look familiar, but the story behind it is anything but. No, clearly the dominance of Mercedes is continuing. They brought a big upgrade this weekend, which seems to really be paying off I mean, the story of Saturday has got to be the sprint race and the dynamics now between George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli both vying for their first ever world championships. but we're only at round five. They're separated now after the sprint by eighteen points. Kimmy Aelli finished third in the sprint. George Russell won it For so long they were going wheel to wheel. they make contact twice and there is a lot of chatter over the team radios from Antonlli and George Russell. We've got our now first glimpse of the mentality between those two and the frustrations that could well start to fester. Yeah, I referred earlier on in commentary to it sounding a little bit like the early days of the Hamilton Rossberg relationship at Mercedes where it started all friendly and lovely and it was one sort of teaching the other and you know showing each other the ropes whoever won they'd get out of the car and give each other a great big hug And then it changed because what they realized was they had a car that was dominant. They had a car capable of winning a world championship. And the only guy that was going to stand in each of their ways was the guy on the other side of their own garage. And it feels like that's a similar scenario here. We are early days and there will be a lot of improvements in a lot of the cars around the grid because this's a brand new era, technologically a Formula One in the early part of it, Mercedes are dominant. and so the championship, the way it looks right now could well come down to one of these two guys and that means there's an awful lot at stake. Yes, it's getting feicy, but That's what we want to see. I love it. Yeah. I'm all for it. And actually I take back everything I said on the previous show coming weekend where I said I wasn't really getting anything from those two as a dynamic. I didn't think thought George Russell was a bit too prim improper. I thought Kimmy Anntonilly hadn't really shown that side of his personality yet, takeake it all back. Maybe they were listening. Yeah they were. and perhaps more of it, please. but they turned up to the press conference after the sprint race separately. and after the sprint, I think there was some internal conversations where they drew a line under it. We'll see how long that line stays there. then they went qualifying. and that is a bit more straightforward one lap for both of them and in the end it was indeed a front row lockout. So let's hear from the two Mercedes drivers speaking after qualifying. You know we both respect each other a lot We're both fighters And we know the rules. you know the rules are you don't crash with your teammate So we're not going to wave one another past And you know, things that were set on track the roles were reversed, maybe you I would have reacted in the same way because As I said a couple of times already H If you put microphones on twenty two footballers and they get a you a tough challenge or they miss a goal or whatever They're not going to be best pleased and we're just in the world that everything we think, everything we say in that moment is being broadcasted. so That's never going to change. M How is. And considering where the start of Cie was, you must be so happy with the way that fight all lpped out of the a. No, it felt great. It felt great. It was a really tough qualifying conditions changed a lot today. It was much cooler the track temperature. in the order of at fifteen degrees And just couldn't get the tires working and we made some changes to the car to compensate This wasn't comomfortable. I needed to adjust my driving style compomensate needed to adjust my outlaps to give the tyres more balanance front to rear and just finally nailed it O the last lap. so that was so rewarding. A me, heck of a session out there almost got that poll. What's the overarching feeling right now? Yeah, I mean of course it's same g up as yesterday so Yeah, obviously, it's a pity, but I think overall was still a decent session. was very tricky to get tires in the right window. but We try our best and That last lap I finished it and I was a bit You know, not too sure and ust they felt like I wish I had another run. but his way is George did a great lap and now we'll try to get it back tomorrow. And did you have time to have a chat with George and the team after what happened? Yeah, off course, we had a chat with George and Tota, and now it's all clear What is clear? No, I mean, we clarified about the race, we recognize our own mistakes. and so now you know we got obviously we're free to race, but of course we need to race with respect. So happy days for the two Mercedes drivers at the end of qualifying. they have secured that front row and it does feel like momentum is swing back towards George Russell, three Canadian Grand Prix poles on the trot now a track he clearly runs well at. but ahead of the Grand Prix, well, what the Srit does is give us a little bit of a sneak peek as what we might expect in the Grand Prix And if we do get more diciness between the two Mercedes because now they seem to have sorted out their starts. George Russell had a good start and neellly a better start than he has done previously. it doesn't look like they'll enti lose as much track position as they have done in the last few races. So they will be fighting down into turnerm one and throughout the race. But to come back to the dynamic we mentioned, you said you heard on the radio it reminded you of sort of Rosberg Hamilton. Of course, you were working at McLaren at a time where it was Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. that seems the most intense you can get on the spectrum. This is just the first glimmer of it Well, yeah, because I can tell you what happened back then, the sort of really top line broad version of that was There was a young rookie in Louewis Hamilton going up against a vastly more experienced teammate. He happened to be the current world champion in Fernando Alonso. The expectation was the young kid was just going to learn from this experienced older guy We all thought that Fernando would be the dominant character, the lead driver, Lewis would just learn the ropes. And that's how it started. But it didn't take very long before we all realized that Lewis was just as quick, if not quick on occasions And therefore, Lewis wasn't happy to sit and learn from the master. He wanted to dominate. and he wanted to see a glimpse of a world championship. and that's what he found. Think of that story that I've just recalled, there are so many similarities. You can see in a young Kimmy Aonlli who was looking at a much more experienced teammate of George Russell The season seemed to start that way, but very, very quickly and we're seeing it this weekend in abundance, Kimmy's got the pace to match and even beat him on more than one occasion. So There's nothing to say that Kimmy could not be world championed this year and he knows it It's going to be quite a big test Toto Wolf I think Yeah to manage that dynamic because he oversaw Rosberg and Hamilton right and that Barcelona incident, which is what ten years this month, I think. Yeah And he said at the time that you know, I think that nearly tore the team apart. I was the same similar for you when you were back in McLaren. He absolutely does not want that. He was quite firm with Antonlli on the radio at the end. wasn't he when Kimmy was sort of saying, if this is how we're going to go racing, then it's good to know am's quick to squash that, but this is going to be a big test for Wolf now. It is. I can't think of anyone better to handle it than Toto Wolf and that Mercedes team and in no small part because they've been through it before. So all that stuff with Rossberg and Hamilton teaches you how not to do it. You know I think we learnnt the same with Hamilton and Alonso back at McLaren We now know and we knew from that moment onwards, that we did it wrong. We got it wrong that year, but that's as valuable as getting it right. So you learn how not to do it next time. The situation if it comes round again in any sort of similar way. and I'm not suggesting for a second that these two in the current Mercedes team are going to end up anything like Alonso and Hamilton because that was movie worthy that season in so many different ways but it is glimmer of similarities in that They look like, at least at this early part, they could be the two guys going for a championship and the one person in their way is their teammate. And what happens is very quickly, you go from being teammates to being arch enemies. You know, in so many more situations in Formula One history, it's been one guy from one team versus another guy from another team. So they of course they're your enemy. They're wearing different colors, they're in a different garage in a different car When your teammate is the guy in the way of the thing you've dreamt of since you were a kid It's not a teammate anymore. He is the enemy. He's your arch rival and you will do absolutely anything to beat him and that's what racing drivers are. And I suppose then you stop sharing data. you stop being able to even have a little glance over at the other side of the garage to see well, hang on. how how did George find a few more tems and turn two that all start to clamp down It does. you'll never hear a racing driver say that. You'll never hear the team ever say the mood and the rhetoric that comes out will always be We are one team, we're sharing everything. but I can tell you, drivers hold a little bit back. you know they keep a little bit from the sort of group debrief and they'll have that private conversation off the radar with their engineer about something they think they've learned That's the way it goes because it's so much at stake. You will do anything to win a Formula one worldorld championship when you've never had one before. So what we can tell you from the private chat that Toastwolf had with the two drivers after the Spring race was essentially the drivers said, Yes, we know, let us get on and race, leave us to it. It'll be fine. Obviously a driver is going to say that One of the other sort of points of scrutiny about the contact between the two Mercedes, was two big points of contact, right? There was the second point, which was down towards turn eight, quite bumpy Anonelly arrived out of control and had to run across the grass and that really cost him quite a well Landon Norris then was able to nick through. But it was in turn one, wasn't it? And then the right out of turn two that was the main point of contention. and we know over the last year that guuidelines now the drivers have to follow when you're the overtaking car, if you're on the outside of the inside Kimmy Aay wasn't happy with that move. No. Do you think it wasn't even raised as a note or an investigation by the FIA or race control? Do you think that was dealt with appropriately Well, there is always a danger. It was one of those incidents that was so sort of borderline. and you when you write regulations, you're trying to cover every scenario that you can dream up. And of course, these are humans and machines that are operating dynamically, It's never going to have two incidents the same. So to write a set of regs that covers everything is so difficult. It was right on the borderline of how the regulations or the guidelines are written And I think when you get that close a little bit like VAR in football, right? If it's that close and it can take you so long to pick the whole incident apart, you should probably just say It was a racing incident. You know, and I don't want to stop drivers from making the moves that Kimy made today. They got away with it. Yes, he sort of overstepped the mark a little bit. George ran him a little bit wide But if you go back twenty thirty years, that was just called racing. and I love that. I thought it was a great sprint today, partly because of those incidents We don't really want to see regulations written so tightly that we prevent all that from happening. It did feel like it was enjoyable to watch Yeah as a lot of people have said You know, cars can't just disappear. and at the end of the day, you know they lost out to Llando Norris, but both cars survived. bothoth cars finished the race and it was entertaining and they were trying something. We don't want to see cars just sitting behind each other either. So I also wonder, I mean, this is going to play out really at round five, you know, it feels like this season' really taken a while to get going. and I still feel like it's going to have another stop nature to it next week when we have a week off and then we'll get back into it in Monaco. It's crucial to pick up as many points as you can right from the off But I wonder, do you think George has this side to him where there's also the story of He's been in Formula one now eight years finally when he joined Mercedes They were at the peak of their powers and then they lost it. Yeah. and now The Pak of their powers once more are certainly going that way and he's got a shot. But he's now got this kid alongside him who's been fast tracked to Formula one, D didn't have to do an apprenticeship in a junior team where he finished eighteenth every weekend. And very much has Toto Wolf in his pocket.'s got the guidance of Pete Bonington his aerace engineer who worked with Louis Hamilton for all of his championships at Mercedes. Is there a sight to George where kind of, I don't want to say bitterness, but that you know, you've had an easy kid. Well settle down. this is my time. I refer back to the Alonso Hamilton situation because again, there's another similarity. You know I think I used to think of Fernando Alonso back then, thinking of Lewis Hamilton as like a pesky wasp that just wouldn't go away. no matter how hard you swat, you couldn't get rid of him. And it feels a little bit like that, I think. And that's great because that's exactly what Kimy is. He is feisty, he's fiery, and we've seen all this come out today. I think we knew he had it in him, but today we've seen it bubble over He's not going to give up on this. He's not going to sit back and just allow George to run away and have an easy championship nor should he. And I think he's got every right to attack this much more experienced teammate. He seems to have the pace to be able to do that on a regular basis And there's nothing between them, even in qualifying today, that late run from George. Yeah, it was a stunning lap when it really mattered, but the gap between them was nothing. Yeah sixty eight thousands of a second. so they have locked out the front row ahead of the Grand Prix on Sunday. So it's all fairly positive for Mercedes in terms of their performance. The upgrades are working. They now just have a headache of having to negotiate two drivers looking for their first ever world championships and wanting to maximize every single session that they're in If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or spending time on monthnd clothes, it's time to get BEX AF, a Gentic finance that eliminates that work before it starts Learn more at brex d. com slash AF Lash off your prorocessor that gives you la Battery line Work on the go between back to back calls, stay locked in from brewing morning coffee to burning the midnight oil. Get maximum performance, even when unplugged Finally, Freedom to move across the room or across the world is here Snapdragon. 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I would just refer to one thing that George said post qualifying, which was that they made some changes after the sprint and ahead of qualifying with a mind towards The weather, the wet weather that's expected to turn up for race dayay They've got so much pace advantage over everybody else, they could afford to do that to compromise a little bit of Saturday pace with a view towards delivering something that might be more competitive in wet conditions Now you can look at that two ways. No one's been in wet conditions this weekend. so we don't really know how these cars are going to behave in those kind of conditions. They've taken their best guess and that could well work in their favor, but it equally could not And it might be that they've made some changes that When the weather comes, who knows how this new car is going to behave in those conditions around this circuit? That could open the door. What we did see in the sprint was it doesn't take much for the Mercedes to trip over each other before there's someone like Orlando Norris, maybe a Lewis Hamilton and a Ferrari, and they're right there knocking on the door Yes, they have the ability to win this race and probably to look at a one two. But has to be perfect to make that happen. And what hasn't been perfect up until now for Mercedes has been their starts. as I mentioned earlier. The Sprint start was probably their best collective start of the season so far. The upgrades we believe part of that is to try and mitigate the reasons behind their poor stars. So for the McLarens behind Lannon Norris starts the race from third. Oscar Piastri locking out the second row for McLaren in fourth. And then you've got the fast starting Ferrari of Hamilton in fifth That's going to be whatever the opposite of music is to your ears because before it didn't matter where Hamilton was or McLaren's, they could almost expect to get the Mercedes. So that's now a fact to takeaken away from their competitors. Yeah, it is. I think this circuit is also a little bit beneficial. if you're on the front row, it's a very short run to turn one So unlike other circuits where if you've got a fast starting Ferrari or even a McLaren, you've got a much longer run to be able to deliver that performance and maybe get past. So that will help the two Mercedes out front. But also we've had a sprint. and so we've had a start. And so everyone's had a little bit of an opportunity to not just test their own starts, but to see what other people are doing. Where are the opportunities going into term one Kimmy Antonlli has to be very, very defensive from a fast starting Lando Norris and behind him a very fast starting Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton was also making a lunge and it was actually really because of that was a really solid defense for Mantinee that kept those two behind. But they might look to do something different. It might go to look a different way, you try something different with the benefit of experience of going through the spprint start If they can get a good launch, maybe they can get alongside one of those Mercedes and just get in the mix. Yeah Wth saying as well when it comes to upgrades, McLaren also bringing upgrades. they actually reverted to their old spec front winghead of spprint qualifying on Friday, which then worked better for them. So interesting to see how that's going to play out for the two McLarens. Al Norris looks like he has got the upper hand over Piastri right now when it comes to performance. One man who has been fairly happy It's Louis Hamilson in the Ferrari U Out and out beaten Charle Lecler in every single session near enough bar the sprit race where I feel like he was hard done by because Gastry really slid down the inside in the final shockade and compromised Hamilton. Hamilton has been the quicker Ferrari driver. Turns out, no simulator prep is the way to go for the seh time champ. Yeah, he did. He came out in the press conference earlier this week saying that that's a decision he's taken to stay off the simulator Yeah, it's worked so far. This is a circuit that Lewis loves I don't quite understand the reasons. It's a big breakers' circuit and Lewis has always been very, very good on the brakes. That's been one of his big strengths. This is a circuit that's really about point and shoot. You get it in a straight line, you bury the throttle and you find time on some of these chanes, these big braking zones That's something that Lewis has traditionally been very good at. So maybe that's really helping him but he has been the much more comfortable. I think when it comes to the race, he has still got a great start in that Ferrari. Yes, it may be not quite as powerful compared to some of the others as it was right at the start of the season and particularly in preseason testing, but I still think it's a tool in their toolbox. They will want to try and extract something from tomorrow. Keep an eye on Louis, I would say at the start of this grand Prix. As I said, he's learnnt from the race start and the sprint earlier on today. He might just be able to look for a different opportunity to make that count tomorrow. Well at the time of us recording this, Hamilton has qualified fifth, but he is under investigation for impeding Pierre Gazly at turn eight. So keep an eye the BBCport website for updates on that if that comes to anything, maybe a penalty coming the way of Hamilton. The only other thing I would say about Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari is they don't tend to go too well on the softer end of the tyre range. and of course that is qualifying. It's all done on that soft tyre. When it comes to the race and we get into medium and harder compound tyres, that car tends to come alive caveat is that it could well be wet and all of that goes out the window. We don't know what's going to happen in the wet and that's another unknown that I'm really looking forward to. But on race dayay, that Ferrari seems to be slightly better than it is on a Saturday I' B I think we should have a little chat about because it's been a bit of a damp squib for them so far this weekend, both in Sprint trim and in Grand Prix qualifying Max Verstappen. I don't think we really spoke about him once in the sprint race as he quietly went about his business in took two points in seventh place and looked like at one point in qualifying he was going to be quite severely out qualified by Isach Hajard. That didn't happen in the end Vestaa got the better of him, but only by a few thousands of a second and it was still only enough for six. What's going on with Red Bull Yeah because in Miami, they made such a step. they were back in the fight. They did. And I think, you know, this could be a combination of It's a very, very high speed and particularly straight line high speed circuit. and I don't think that's particularly their strong point at the moment. They were down on top speed. We heard even Max Verstappen complaining about that during the session. And then the other side is I think some of their main rivals have taken some big steps. We talked about the upgrades for Mercedes and for McLaren pretty substantial ones and certainly on the hands of the Mercedes delivering performance with that. So I think it may be and I think this is going ebb and flow as the season goes on, right? Because these cars are all brand new. The technology is so new. Everyone's still learning and bringing the raft of upgrades is going to keep coming over this season. I think is going to keep meaning that these gaps get larger and smaller They're going to be circuit specific, but I think the performance is going to swing as this season goes on. It's going to continue doing that. Yeah, that off track race just as important as the on track race when it comes to development back at base. I think that just about seize off most of our main contenders. I think we need to do double shout out so far this weekend for two drivers that are really leading the way when it comes to best of the rest, both in the sprint and when it came to qualifying. So racing bulls Avid Limblad Nick the final point In the sprint race courtesy of EZac Hajar having problems and having to well he didn't retire, but he was ended up two lapsed down with an engine issue. He managed to get eighth ahead of Franco Colorinto didn't get any points, but finished a ninth in the spprint. and it was those two again threw inside the top ten rememarkable work from them. Yeah, really solid. twow young drivers early in their career relatively speaking, particularly of course, Limblad I think he's been mighty impressive, not just this weekend. I think this opening five rounds as it nearly is I think it'd been really impressive for him. So he's having a great start to his career. Colorinto has had so many ups and downs that the twists and turns, it feels like he's been around forever, but he's actually still a young driver. He's not had this is his first full season as a forormula one driver. Yeah. And yet in that short period, he's gone from zero to hero back to zero again and now seems to be like he's getting himself under control bit of a reset, I think, between last season and this season, like as in mentally you personally. and he seems to be approaching this season in a much calmer, much more solid way and building that progression, which is all you can do as a driver. Keep building, making progress Today was a really great example of that. outperforming his much more experienced teammate In quite some fashion. Yeah, it certainly was good work from Franco Colopinto who has I think out qualified Gazlely for the second consecutive race in a row. but certainly being putting Gazlely in the shade. one hundred percent. rightight Good work from them. Let's see what they can do with the race, which will be