Young Drivers and Future Talent

You are listening to Miss Avex podcast . We live F one. Don't worry it's not like one of the serious shows. There's not going to be any tyre analysis really. This is just my reaction to the qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix . Oh someone's gonna say, Oh no, it's not the Spanish Grand Prix. It's now the Barcelona Grand Prix because Madring has come in and just cuckooed in, it's cuckooed its way in. There was already a baby formula one track in that nest that we were nurturing, that we were loving . This is Barcelona. We love Circuit the Catalunia. And now you've taken it away. You've taken it away . You've put it on rotation and that wasn't enough. That wasn't enough. You had to strip the you had to strip its very name, its very essence . It's like a not Leonidas' names being cursed by Xerx es in the movie three hundred , it would become a crime to even utter the name Leonidas. Why do they have to take that? Why do you have to take the why couldn't that be the Madrid Grandpri? Why steal that specific one? Or maybe compromise Barcelona Grand Prix versus Madrid Grand Prix, I guess. Anyway, this is my just reaction to the qualifying and I want to say upfront like go these ones where it's just me absolutely non canon, definitely skippable. It's like you will not you're not going to miss out on stuff. I just like this format where I don't have any grown ups in charge. So I can say and do what I want . I'm not going to get Matt going, yes, but have you considered this fact? No because that fact ruins my entire narrative . So yeah, I haven't got that and I don't have to babysit like Christina, Alex or Antonio. Sorry, I meant Christian. Christina's very sensible. But like, if I've got Alex, Christian and Antonio on, you know, I've got to manage, I've got to be the grown up and I don't like that at all. So you know, just I want to be clear. And I think the thing I keep I need to keep re emphasizing this is that just because I have a podcast and just because it's comfortable to listen to and it's fine, it doesn't mean I'm like an arbit er of any facts or authority. I'm opinion based and I like the facts and I like to try and get it right. But I think together people will correct me and that's absolutely fine. Do it in a nice way . But yeah, you know, we've grown together in a lot of ways of an audience. So like we've learned things together. We'll sometimes we'll get to a point in the show where we go, what causes that? I'm going, well, we don't know. And then we'll sit and explore it and go, oh, wow, that changes our opinion but mostly it's about sharing their the viewing experience together , which I love and my viewing experience today was great. I got to use the big TV. I got to use the big TV in the living room and it's nice. It's one of the sky glass ones and it's the fifty five inch version which I think was like good I think good value. I wanted the bigger one and but in that situation , my wife is the grown up in the room telling me not to have an absolutely gigantic TV. If it was me, the whole wall would be TV . Well, this was pretty good. And my routine for and people always ask me, What's your routine for watching? If I, if I've got the big TV access , we've got the sofa and then the sofa's got like a poofy block that can either make it an L or you can put your feet up on it or whatever or it helps make it in the kind of a bed, I sit in front of that poofy block. So I lean in front of the back on the poofy block and then and then I'm much closer to the TV so I'm on a cushion there. Yeah, Bruce is saying it's a small TV hat in my opinion, it is. Like in my opinion, it's a small TV. I've never had a bigger TV than that. That's the story for another day. I did once on eBay I picked up a second hand sixty five inch TV. She didn't speak to me for a couple of days, so I quietly went and sold it. So I loved it. The big TV was great . I haven't watched a lot of the sessions and the new regulations on big TV and it makes a difference. Like the colors are really good. The shapes of the cars and the colors, it looks fabulous . And the McLaren, like for example, I don't think I'd have noticed the McLaren had kind of a much deeper orange, like more like a rusty deep orange. And I was like, oh wow, that looks visually looks great. The on boards are an issue though. So the onboards are really low res and low quality and it doesn't matter when I'm watching it at the PC. Oh, and by the way, watching it on PC, like on a screen or actually the streaming app is so poor when it comes to resolution and quality. I tend to put it on a half screen and then I've got all the other information social media I need. That's the most efficient way for me. So I'll try and watch some practice sessions on the big TV if I can . But I didn't notice how bad the onboards were when it comes to as Charles says rotting papaya. You guys are being so distracting to me today . Yeah, so the onboard is like a starkly less quality than the four K version. It cuts in and out and it feels like that is that's the next bit of low hanging fruit for that broadcast because it to me it takes it out of it. It takes me out of it when I'm suddenly watching a completely different type of broadcast. And you know, and that's why the picture in picture didn't work for me. So there was one qualifying session and I was watching it on my phone on a sun lounger and when they did the picture in picture , I had absolutely no chance, no chance. I didn't even know , it was a sprint race. I didn't even know they were doing picture in picture because the column is too small. And I thought, Oh, maybe that's live. It's like no, they were put in crucial replays . And then and then so I just missed like all the action and context for that for that sprint race. But yeah, this was great. Sat with my son watching it on the big TV. And you know what? Watching the cars go round Barcelona in that qualifying session, it's every bit as good as seeing them in Monaco. It's every bit as good. Every bit as good. Watching those cars navigate the speed challenge that Barcelona offers. I think it's it's a circuit where it's challenging you have to get these the right way around. It seems to challenge you to not under steer. So I don't know whether that means it's an understeer track or an oversteer track because is it the characteristic that the track imposes on you or is it what you have to do to counteract it? I'm not sure. But yeah, like I've done that countless games and sims and everything and you have to aim for the corner . You make a decision very early and then and then you almost find out at the exit if you're correct. And I think I think this is where actually I think this is where the clerk fell foul. You have to make the decision very , very early on . You get on the power and then you go, right, do I have enough rotation or enough downforce to not understeer off? And you don't find out until you get there. So it's like you do the main things. You brake, you steer, you're pointing at the age banks, you get on the power, and then you've got this long period of I wonder if I wonder if I'm going to fly off the track. That's very hard to correct. And when you saw like Le Clerk situation today, it's not directly related to Understeer, but you can see with the wheel movements where you went, oh, nope, I'm on the wrong . I rotated wrong. So I saw some breakdown on they Skpad and it was blamed on his corner line. So like he's going too tight. And I'll just go straight into this is the first topic because I think the clerk bringing binning it is the is the big topic. I think that it is his fault ish as in driver error and there's a mitigating circumstance. Also noticed in Monaco a lot of times he took he did take a much tighter line than Hamilton did and here he took what looked like a tight er line than what he did in previous laps. I think there might be a subtle difference in just saying oh he took the wrong line . He's on Lewis Hamilton's brakes now and he decided to change away from the Brembo brakes to I think they called CL EPENE out CL Industries Brakes or something like that. And so there will be some difference getting used to that and I think Lewis likes to be much more aggressive so he's much more peaky and so his trail braking will be directly in line with the with the actual braking point and Charles Alhirk is blaming himself as well. So Tay has just posted me a race article post. The feeling with the car was amazing and I didn't deliver and if anything, it's a lot worse than that. I put it in the wall. There's no excuses. I just feel ashamed. He's a very honest driver, so that to me , that's not like a PR thing. He just , if it's his fault, he says it's his fault. And he pointed that out in Monaco and we like, yeah, we know, we remember the I am stupid. We all remember that Baku , we know you're hard on yourself. So yeah, in Monaco, you do kind of go, well, look, if he's literally just going like I just wasn't me, I didn't do that. Yeah, I mean, I'm more than inclined to believe him. This did look like his fault. So Kuenchan took on the skypads seems to suggest that he took just a too shallow a line and then that's what's caused him issues. I might immediately looked at the entry the end of the straight. So all the replays you're seeing, I think they start too late and then if you start them too late carbon industries, thank you, Bruce. If you start those replays too late, you're missing the actual breaking point that sets him up for the corner . But when I saw it live , I detected the merest of switches on the rear on the curb. And what I think what I think has happened, my amateur is just what I recommend. No, I'm not an expert. I just play one on TV is that he's basically over rotated. So he's managed to somehow with his brake balance, he's managed to get that rear just a tiny bit out. And when you look on the onboard, he does one steering movement. So he's hit the brakes, he's expecting one steering move ment, and then I think he then quickly realizes I've overrotated, this is not the line I want. This is going to compromise my exit because I'm too narrow. I'm going to have to over slow. And then the issue from there is you see that he opens up and then goes back to his light. It's not like a counter steer, it's not a correction. There is a correction and a counter steer later. Man, I tell me if tell me if I'm just sounding bizarre. Yeah, there's a counter steer earlier. I don't think that first one is . That first one is oh I've overrotated, I'm now on the wrong line. The problem with that is your weight transfer is then gone. Your weight transfer is totally gone. You had loaded up the mostly the front front lefts and everything was going beautifully because everything feels like the grip is building on the left hand side. Then you open up and I guess that effect goes . So now you're having to adjust to a world where you're entering this next corner . Chats are saying they're just gonna believe me. You're renting now what is effectively the rest of the corner as if it's a new corner and you don't have the front loaded and you don't have it all set and you don't have the grip until you suddenly do. And so I'm familiar with that feeling of you suddenly get bite. You'll probably experience it in your road car. So your road car will most likely understeer. And I've been told that the reason for that is it's a lot safer to have a front on crash or your commuter car is much more likely to be survivable in a crash if you go head on. Everything's designed for that airbags, crumple zones or all the rest of it . And what if you really push it in your car and I'm not saying why , but I've done it on a track day with someone else's car to be fair. It's basically set up for understeer and so if you're struggling with the understeer, you do sometimes get a moment where instead of it just pushing on, it goes fine, whatever. You know, you're so your steering angle is so cranked over compared to the amount of of inertia pushing behind it that you do suddenly get it grip up and it's very uncomfortable in a road car because it's not set up to do it. And the whole thing just snaps and shakes and the thing is when you do it in a road car, yeah, you've got that lock on the speed overcomes that lock so it kind of jumps . then And because it's kind of jumped a little bit off the ground, it's then very easy for the wheels to kind of go back. And that's like a very easy way to crash. I think if you look at like videos of dangerous crashes on board on the roads that you see that that behavior that you saw from Leclerc though there. So it's kind of like oh it's understeer understeer snap and then and then just wiggles kind of back and then you know they're they're into a roundabout. Is it something I'd learn in Sim Racing? Yeah, it's honestly I think it's probably quite a rare situation for the F one drivers to find themselves in because I don't think you could have done this in the older heavier cars and so yeah that rear is now you know doing a lot it's doing a lot. The rear is savable. The rear is more active, but he was just basically in completely the wrong frame of mind for or frame of mind. He was in the wrong state of physics and weight transfer to set a hot lap , but you do want to set a hot lap. And Leclerc's whole mentality, he said one of the biggest advantages I have is that ultimate low percentage of black. Yeah, win or begin. Low percentage . And if you've heard me speak about any sport because I'm mids, but I'm a good mid. Like I'm a reasonable amateur if we'll try a new activity together, I'm pretty like I'm pretty good at bowling. I'm pretty good at tennis. I'm like, I'm fine. I'll be people who don't play. Yeah . My big philosophy is you have to find your high percentage rate. So what's the thing I can do the most often? And that is a true reflection of where you are. So I'd like to wonder, I bet the older drivers do it. I bet Hamilton's a little bit more like that now. Your high percentage performance, like your high what the big golf drive that I can do most of the time is my true performance. Yes, if I really lean into it, then one times out of ten, it's going to go that extra twenty yards and I'm going to look like an absolute hero . So in golf when I was playing I was genuinely capable of hitting a three hundred yard drive like no gen legitimately sometimes . but And that would only happen when I was in a Charles Leclerc type state, which is only the best possible driver's good enough. And honestly, if I'd have just snapped my driver in half and hit a seven iron off the T every single time, you know, that's more of a reflection of where my ability is, but it's addictive to get to that pinnacle and it's dangerous . We know that's his mindset. He's told us that's his mindset. We have lots of evidence that that's his mindset. And he used to have that mindset on a Friday. Like it was my perception. On a Friday look like binning it especially on street circuit, it happened a lot and it was fouling him and it was affecting the rest of his weekend . So drifted away a little bit and we kind of thought maybe we got to a point where that wasn't happening, but we saw him do he did crash twice, didn't he in Monaco? Obviously he's crashed here . So overall is that a overall, is that a mentality that is ultimately going to win him a championship ? I think it's a mentality that has produced some absolutely incredible performances. Incredible. Like he was defend ing him to Van Gen because Van Jin's like quoting that stat where he's had like twenty one polls and only converted minus four of them. And people do tend to say, well, that is because he's choking or he's he's not failing he's failing to convert those polls. He's wrong. He's bad. But there's, I think there's a number of factors in that. It could well be that he's been in cars where it's just naturally a faster one lap car, like Mercedes in twenty thirteen. Sometimes they'd be on pole by eight tenths, nine tenths second . And then they'd burn the tyres up and then they'd be nowhere. So it could be that his cars have leaned that way. It could those cars that he's been could have leaned that way because that's how he likes it because he's always pushing to go just give me the ultimate ultimate lap like I want the very best lap I do with risking everything to be very fast over one lap . And so less emphasis on race pace, perhaps. So that could be a thing. But or it could be say that's all neutral and that's decision's not in his hands, the times he has he's gotten poll are the times where and sometimes he's got poll where you go how where did that come from? You know, if you if you just keep betting on red and you just keep betting and betting and betting and betting. Most of the time within eight spins of the roulette wheel there will be a black and your streak will be over. It's not a sensible way to go betting , but when it comes off, it looks incredible. Ten reds in a row. What did I tell ya? Always bet on red, bet on red constantly until you run out of money. So perhaps that full win or win mentality is what has got him great results in cars where that wasn't going to be the fastest race car it was never going to be. And the drivers around them were delivering like what's a good lap I can deliver most of the time. And then maybe you get toQ three and you go, okay, we can change that percentage like a little . Like let's introduce a little bit more element of risk and and then we can creep that time up. But then you get to a point where you're so low percentage that it's like, you know, that you have really have a high danger of of things going wrong. The problem says Yah is that he is having to do low percentage moves too often. That's probably why his poles' wins conversion ratio is low. I think that's exactly what I was describing. So I said it before you typed it. That's my point, Yar, not yours . And now he's under now very specific pressure because Hamilton got he's got P two here like I will take that as a Hamilton fan. I am going to take that all day long as a Hamilton fan because he was so close as well . And maybe yeah , I think if you look at Q two before the crash, yeah, he was putting in some laps that were faster , but could it be because he's doing this this kind of low percentage high risk thing and he's just he's just he's gone too far that way and it's cost him specifically in this case crashing crashing his race car. So if you apply that mentality to a whole season, a long season where you have to be consistent and you're in a title fight is. Is a that the right thing to do? I'd say no because you dropped way too many points. If you're in a dominant team with a good teammate and you and you and you drop it in a race, twenty five points gone . It's not it's not it's not it's not good. But also if he changed his mentality to go, actually this whole low percentage winner bin , it's not going to get me the title. Does he have the ability to have a good high percentage performance? Because we don't know. What is his high percentage performance level we might not know and we might never have known and he might not know either. All right, so that's my theory on Leclerc . Comment, tell me things because I like to know. Well, I adore praise more than anything . Ideally I would hear you all say fantastic point spanners. You nailed it again . These shows with just you are absolutely the best. Why are you wasting time with any of those others? Ideally, that would be what I would want to hear. And by the way, if you didn't make it to the end of the Monaco review, shambles go and listen to the last five minutes of of that . That was not that wasn't good content, but you'll want to listen to it. It was fun. And apologies to the video people. I'm just going to take a time, take a minute to oh, I've had to churn through this non alcoholic beer just so I can open the real one and put it in my tankard. So anyway, the next bit of content on the YouTube video is looking at me finishing off my non alcoholic beer out of a tank ard and then pouring a real one. Thank you, Stewart, fantastic points spanners. You nailed it again. Is that so hard? Was that so hard everyone else? Just to give me constant praise and reassurance? I'm a genius. For the solo shows , if I need a break , I 'll split screen. One half of the screen will be the discord chat, and one half will be me just watching the discord. So we'll watch the discord chat together. That 's a great idea. Maybe I can just do that now. Oh hang on a minute . This is high risk. Yo, what's on the if I screen share what's on the screen ? Look, here's the trumpet screen. Now you guys are front and centre. This will work actually. Hang on. Will this work? I think it's working so far. Where does Matt normally sit in my screen? That's the issue. Normal service will be resumed soon, but I just thought this was such a good idea that I'm just gonna do it. There we go. That's you there. That's you guys. Look, you guys are on. Look, okay, go. This is your chance to like get me cancelled or whatever. There we go, go. Yeah. Reed read, read, weed, read. Oh my goodness . Real beer is so much better. No, Maria not tipsy. That's that is the real beer now that I'm having. No, we are back. So Lewis Hamilton P two has been so wonderful. Kim Kardashian, she must just be a really, really brilliant girlfriend because he's it's very clear he's very happy. He's happy with his personal life. He's happy that he's got someone to finally steal Antonelli's towel. Yeah, yeah, just go look do, me a favor. I know you're enjoying the race and I know you've got a public profile or whatever, but I really want the towels from the other drivers. So if you could just get on that and steal all the towels, that would be brilliant . But yeah, no, it's now really a confident run since he said the simulator is just is messing me up. And so he stopped he says he stopped using the simulator and then all of a sudden it's he's seemed happy he seems on it, that his body language in the car in Canada looked amazing. And I don't know how I know this. I don't know why I think this, but I just looked at it from FP one and went, oh yeah, he is, he's back. He's yeah, this is this is a happy Lewis and in Monaco, you know, he made statements after qualifying going, well, you see, I didn't I can still drive, I can still drive a car. So he's like, yeah, your pace is fine. Your pace has been good compared compared to Le Clerk, your approach has been so lid, your race pace has been reasonable. There's one lingering thing about this regulation set and Lewis Hamilton that I'm not enjoying, which is that his tyre wear hasn't as good It's not that it's not been as good. It's just never been a factor for Lewis. You just go, his ties will probably last well . And you go, right, you're seeing graining or tyre wear or slowing lap down at times on other people. Good, this is the Lewis time. This is the Lewis moment . Especially intermediates. Intermediates on a drying track , you see Hamilton intermediates on a drying track. People are burning the ties up desperately looking to go into the into the p uddles to try and solve solve the heating issue and cool the tires down and Hamilton chews them up. It's why I was so angry , not angry. You know, when the Netflix P ocumentary on Netflix, they're great by the way they 've got to be careful now. Netflix brilliant . But on the drive to survive, the narrative was clearly oh George Russell basically won the race and then it got taken away from him for a silly infection of weight . But it wasn't it was the it was really Hamilton on, I think on three separate occasions was chewing the field up in those specific conditions where managing tyre wear on intermediates was like he 's going to be one of the best ever at doing that. And you know, I'm very happy to say in intermediate conditions, Lewis Hamilton is the best driver by far that we've seen in Formula One, no one's come close. Perhaps Button, but for very different reasons. Yeah, but ton's thing was, I think his thing was more like he could stay on the slicks. Like I forget, but this season with this regulation set, we've started to hear him kind of go, oh yeah, he's having issues with tyres, maybe not doing well at the end of the first stint , doing things that end up wearing his tyres and doing things that are yeah that are not the best. So there was a sprint race I think he was at Miami and he was fast in the sprint and then fell away and couldn't challenge he was like yeah 'cause I just actually ripped my tyres to shreds. This isn't the old days like oh tyres are gone and then you know does the that's not the trick that he does. He genuinely was but he wasn't having that I've never seen this kind of tyre behavior in Lewis before and so that's the lingering kind of doubt about my my enthusiasm about this resurgence , but he's P two by not much behind a very fast Russell. Don't worry we're getting to Russell . But to be able to string that together and go, well , yeah, it looks like the package on the car is great and stuff and he's got it into an area that he likes in and that I'm convinced that they're developing now towards Hamilton until I hear otherwise until I hear otherwise Hamilton's the number one driver at Ferrari right now and it's not because they've said we prefer Hamilton. He's the senior driver let him pass all the time. He's the number one driver because he's just really he seems to actually have got a grip and got Ferr ari doing things, which is now you know, many men have tried . So he so yeah, P two , not far off. And this is given the engine deficit. So I now'm really looking out for a duo. Like when does a duo kick in? When's going to be the first a duo thing ? And does that mean that actually Ferrari could be generally genuine challenges? Because a lack of speed is an issue here. It's one where if you don't have a good aero package, you're going to struggle. So all I'll say about Williams is it's a fat car, it's an overweight car. No shade. I'm in the club. Hey, hey, I could I could get closer to the ideal legal weight too Williams. That's fine. I'm judging you. But yeah, but I mean that is exposing perhaps that like the aero package just isn't it's not a competitive aero package either. They've got the Mercedes Power unit and the combination of being overweight and not having the downforce that you need here at Barcelona is that shows where Williams are. They're no threat right now to the top . So you can see here Ferrari have got a they've got a good package. It looks great. That's really important. The power unit is slightly behind. Have they done shenanigans? Did they shenanigan a duo system? So yeah, I don't know. Chris, it's a great question. I actually don't know if the Ferrari engine is an update or is an upgrade . Do let me know if you know that , but I'm working on the assumption right now that they've got the same power deficit there that they've been struggling with. And so yeah, Lewis is still fast. Lewis Hamilton is still fast. He didn't seem to like the ground effect cars did not know how to help the team manage the problems that they were having and get that car on the right track. He tried, he tried, he tried. But if you start to have now a full and he said, Oh yeah, I didn't have any say in that car last year and I was struggling with it, which means you did have a say in this car. And that was his quote from a Thursday. So I think that backs up my theory that yeah, they're they're developing towards Hamilton. It's dangerous. It's really, really dangerous for Leclerc. He's in a dangerous territory. He is now going to have to just back himself to do his best with a car that's improving, but it's improving towards where Hamilton would want it specifically and go, okay, well that's not ideal, but I'm still fast. I'm still Charles Leclerc. I'm still in my prime . So is he overdriving to overcome all of these things? And that's why they end up. He's ended up in the barriers. It's a big crash. It was a big crash as well. Like you could have pulled out of that lap. There was probably a point in the corner where you could go ah I'm not getting it back I've messed it up Oh big a turbo apparently and the new engine to come in for the Austrian Grombring Yeah bigger turbo is a must now. That's not that's a non negotiable now you there must be there must be a bigger turbo because the they did what they picked the correct turbo and then they changed the system actually yeah there's been a couple of things like that so yeah, it will have to be a bigger turbo. Someone asked me could you have two turbos ? I don't think I can't see it feels like a big turbo would be more efficient than a twin turbo because a turbo is not just a turbo a turbo requires things to make a turbo turbo. So if you double turbo, then you need twice the amount of turbo enabling turbo things. So no, I would say no to turbos . Someone said, I agree with this fan. It's great point. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. G. Do adore praise. Okay, so let's go to let's go to Russell, George Russell P one. I didn't do the running order. Thank you to Chat for putting that in. I didn't look out myself because I don't want these shows to be too well research ed. If they could be incorrect and problematic, that would be that would be the best case. George Russell P one . Lewis Hamilton P two, front row. And then Antonelli. What's happened? It's over. I think he made a mistake in the final lap. I didn't see it. That's what my son said, but he's sixteen. So he cannot be trusted. Tell me what happened to Antonelli on his laps. Or was that just out and out? Was that just out and out a pace difference ? That would feel unlikely that it's a pace difference of nerd point three seconds given the relative performance and speed of the drivers this season . But we have been on temporary track off to temporary track off the temporary track. So you know, Miami, Canada, Monaco , it could just be that now we're back on a car now we're back at a track where you have to do the work early, which I'm led to understand that Russell does do that . Then this might suit him. And then you've got the option of having a more understeery setup or a less oversteery setup because there's less benefit to having the rear just dancing around and jumping around everywhere, you go, okay, well maybe we can settle to a more planted rear. And this is me guessing. I don't know. I would love someone in the team sort of go that is what we do at Barcelona. Yeah. We have a we make sure we have a more planted rear. We don't want a dancing around rear here because there's not really any benefit of it. We want to manage the oversteer but we don't want it like sliding around the corners to make that happen. And in fact, if I'm correct about Le Clerk, that little bit of an oversteer moment because perhaps the bias on the brakes or the way he's interacting with the brakes, we cost him because you know you couldn't do your early line your early apexy line, you know what I mean? So we're here. We're here and suddenly Russell looks very comfortable . So Russell looks really comfortable and looked comfortable the whole time. And you could see it was almost like a relief like he'd had. Thorns pulled out, right? He wasn't jumping with joy . It was more like a it was more like a sense of okay, okay, okay okay so he thought he was about basically to get yeeted off a cliff and you know there were some podcasters out there just writing him off completely. Can you can you believe it? There were some podcasts, podcasters out there claiming that Kim Yantinelli had magical powers and he could not be harmed with conventional weapons. Irresponsible , but yeah, but different type of track . Maybe there's been some kind of reset and rethinking with the approach and setup. We don't know. We don't have that information. However, you know, this isn't a fluke poll. This is a genuine poll. It looks like it's okay. It's a track though that is suiting Russell right now. He's comfortable and he's the faster of the two drivers. That's the way that's the way it looks legitimately right now. And in that scenario, Mercedes only out qualified Ferrari by Naught point Naught six four of a second . So am I going to summarize I'm going to somehow manage to sound like I'm attacking Russell even for his very very good poll , but is it an advantage for Mercedes to be at a place that suits Russell better , have setups that suit Russell better? And they're like if we take these same cars and we go right, do Monaco again. Or do Monaco again? And then Canada again? Does it revert back? Does suddenly Antonelli is faster again George Russell? So that's what I'm saying is the track a factor or is something in his mentality a factor is the setup a fact or. And are they sabotaging Antonelli because he's just too much goodness and we can't do it. So that's what you would do to test and adjust. Right now, all we know is that Russell just he looks very very com,fortable very, very, strong. We don't know the race pace, I don't think. Antonelli is still going to be a threat on race pace. Like it's not like he's out of it. And it's not a track where you can't overtake My prediction would be that very quickly Toto saying the track is a factor. Yeah. That's my instinct. My instinct is the track has looked at this change of fortunes . And then we'll see because this is a very, very high wear track. Now I again like how Leclerc could choose to do a higher percentage performance that works more often. I think George Russell could choose to tire a save, he could choose to heat save, he could choose to set up more towards the race. My instinct , my instinct is that he prefers that one lap pace, that hard one lap pace. My instinct is he prefers to be use the tyres and be ahead , have track position. I think he very much likes track position and backs himself to defend and I'd argue I'd argue that he's actually very good at defending. so And we've seen some very good defensive performances at say for example in like Singapore, you know, tracks where defending is an advantage and defending is possible. I think we have seen good defending performances. So maybe that's another factor in why he's like, yeah, give me crank up the engine. Let me rip the ties up. I just want to be ahead. I just want to be aheader. And then we'll worry about it later. Give me the best and we'll worry about it later. That was Brad Phil pott's attitude towards testing when we were testing i racing and we had open setups , he would go for the fuel setup all the time. So sorry the qualifying fuel setup all the time, whereas whereas I would say I want to know what this car is going to feel like in the race. So I would sit here and go, I want to know what the car is going to feel like in the race. So I would run with high laps, with high fuel and actually as the fuel depleted away, I wasn't that interested because also then I'd gone through the tyre wear, so I didn't have a light car with the peak tyres and I'd go and then I'd go back. So everything I did was about practicing for the race start. And then when qualifying came along, I was like, Oh yeah, qualifying. Oh no . So yeah, gets qualifying and then I would like horribly out I would underqualify myself all the time, end up in the carbon fiber zone, get mixed up in incidents. So there's a lot to be said for that Russell app roach. It really lets us there's more to go wrong the further back you go. So if you want to lean towards a qualifying setup, I think that's legitimate. But Brad's approach was that he would just do the light fuel opt imal runs. So he knew exactly how to make the car as fast as possible, qualify it up on pole, and then and then the exact quote was when the fuel goes in, I'll just deal with it and say it . So I think that Russell's attitude as well and go well, yeah, when the tyres go , we'll deal with it, but I'll be dealing with it ahead. I'll be ahead. So yeah, it's worked for him. Several it worked for him specif ically against Lewis Hamilton. It worked . But now yeah, it hasn't been working this season . It's gonna be really interesting to see if he's got strong race pace, then just forget all of that. There's nothing. If we see him start to burn through because it's a highware track, it's going to be a two stopper more than likely. Although we have heard that a lot, this is definitely going to be a two stopper and then a bunch of the teams go actually , you know, it's not really wearing as much as we thought. These hards are just going to last. So there is a potential that it's a one stopper if you try and manage well. It's going to be fascinating to see how this works out because there are some drivers that I look for specifically when it comes to st int length. So two things on race pace and I'm thinking out loud here . One is where you use up your speed. It's not necessarily bad to go fast and have your tyres wear because you already went fire. Ah yeah,, you have to' goll slow later. Yeah, that's fine. I already went fast. I already went fast. It's good . The other thing is then or did you specifically set it up somehow for that? It'll be yeah, it will be very interesting to see I think there'll be contrasting styles as well . Yeah , yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not gunning for Russell. I'm not like, I hope he can convert this , but for his sake , it's a good story. It would be a it would be a good it would be like okay George Russell is now back in the fight he's back in the title fight. I want George Russell back in the title fight by the way. I've just thought of this now I want George Russell back in the title fight to take points off of Antonelli to let Hamilton because Hamilton's going to win every race now from now on . We need George Russell taking points off of Antonelli so that he can claim the title before Qatar, which I think is the first place he can claim the title if Antonelli comes second in every ways. Yeah, it's honestly, it's been a weird drop off seeing Russell be out of it. Like apps, it's been like wow. It's been like what it's been the craziest drop off and now this is just a bit of steadying the shit. Like the rot has stopped . If you're yeah, yeah, you're playing a football match and you can see the goal. You can see another goal. You go this is crazy. I feel like we were in this game. Like we weren't we were favorites actually . Now there's another goal and yeah oh three Nill es there's got to be a way back right? It feels at three nill in most soccer matches that you're out of it and then and then their attacker goes through on goal and it's going to be four and four it's over. It's over at four Keeper pulls off an absolutely blinding save and so it's now it's still three mill you still down . It still looks bad but the hope is alive because you'll keep it just stopped it getting worse , stopped the bleeding , stopped the rot . And that in this single qualifying performance here is what George Russell has done. He has stemmed the flow of bleeding. His championship , his championship hopes were bleeding out for sure. Like Antonelli hit an artery. Antonelli hit an artery and yeah he was there was a very real risk that he would just spiral and go and it would be gone. But yeah, that risk now it looks, it looks good. He's gonna make a plan tomorrow. He's going to, I think inevitably have to deal with Antonelli all over his gearbox . I think Antonelli is going to be all over his gearbox. He's fast . Whatever mistakes he made, whatever out and out one lap pace, Antonelli, it would be very surprising if he suddenly was not very, very fast tomorrow . I just I'm torn completely on what how much of a factor Lewis Hamilton can be there. Have they have they made enough of a compromise for tomorrow? So I don't think I'm making this up when you say you can compromise between Saturday and Sunday. Perez on the radio, he was pleased. Perez is in a P nineteen and happy. He's like, Yeah, that's good. What? Yeah, he was like ? P nineteen and he was like, yeah, satisfied. Yep, we're in we're in good shape for tomorrow. So Jo Perez in P nineteen some three seconds Oh my god I know I know it's cadillac that's fine there's grace but, it was jarring to hear Perez happy , three seconds down and going , We're happy with that. We're in good shape for tomorrow and his engineer went yeah that was the compromise. So there it so that is real at least some F one teams drivers, and F one engineers think that the compromise between qualifying and the race is a real thing that happens and go okay it hasn't been more than an hour. It hasn't because the pre show doesn't count. Plus , we've never ever gone over an hour and I don't Are you telling me to shut up? You've got show doesn't count. Where was I? I've been distracted . Okay , Antonelli . Yeah, Antonelli, definitely a prospect for a race win. All right. I got distracted there and I've lost my flow. So I'm going to move on. Well done, George Russell, good poll, bring it home. I am torn between whether Hamilton will be a factor in this race. Have they done it? Oh, yeah, Perez, thank you. Yes, so Perez has made that compromise. So that compromising thing does definitely exist, right? Definitely exists. What are you going to do from P nineteen, Checko? What is your plan? You competed you compromise three seconds worth for your race pace? Who can you go and get? Go and get Albon, go and get the heavy heavy and slow Albon in his Williams get go and get Esteban Okon , who is looking very, very vulnerable in his in his career . Every time I look and every time I notice he is not doing well as Ollie Behman. So get go get Oconc , go get Carlos signs getting a bit more ambitious here. Go get Bermann. Yeah, that's that's there. And then and then how are you going to do against the Alpines? We don't know. So his good position for tomorrow, I think , a good result if no one crashes out, a good result is to tuck in behind Carlos signs for P seventeen. All right, yeah, good to know the thinking. What else? I haven't even haven't looked at my notes once because we 've just been waffling on . But we could look at the grid. So Lando Norris , fourth, Gastri seventh. I'll just do it from the grid. Yeah, I was disappointed with this, to be honest. They're not far off so they're good. It's like I really thought this track would suit the general McLaren strength that they've had over the last few years. And so for Noris to be three tenths off, three tenths off and for Piatri to be four tenths off, it's reasonable. It's quite a tight tight field and they've got the red bulls in between them. What I will say is that again, Piestri looks very slidy. Like his input there's a lot. There's a lot of inputs compared to Norris, I think. And bearing, I'm not sitting here analyzing on a pad side by side inputs, it's just things that I'd noticed. So I really, really noticed Pastri was just getting Larry out of, not Rascass. What's the next one? The final corner at Monaco, Norris Leso . And I feel like here , the Les So style would be would be the probably the preferred one. And actually, so if you look at it, you go, Well, Hamilton's probably less on the nose than Leclerc and he's ahead Russell, I was definitely less on the nose than Antonelli. He's ahead. Verstappen obviously more on the nose than Hadil, but Hadow is right up there . That's interesting as well. That is interesting in itself. The Hajjar is very, very close to Verstappen. And yeah, and it didn't look like too much of a fluke We got distracted by Stewart saying you need to discuss Alonzo being beaten by Stroll. That proves that Lance is a generational talent . Mate, this is the thing I used to always say is that we'd say we'd describe Stroll's ability and his level based on his performances and where he finishes. Not a particularly crashy driver. He's had his moments. Was it sochy where he was like, you know, can you stout on these tyres? You got enough grip? He's like, yeah, I'm fine. Wall had the moment at Intel Lagos with the spin Okay, get back on track and just drive straight into the gravel. He has had his moments, but I'm saying he's not a particularly crashy driver . Then the more I think about it, like when he wiped out Alonso , was it on the was it on the Wellington Strait at in Silverstone the year before Alonzo joined racing point or asked to Martin, Alonso was already contracted and strolled just drifted across in a straight line and just wiped Alonso out into the wall and Alonso, being aware of where his contract was, said Oh, well I don't mind at all being completely nerfed out of this race by someone just blindly going across the track . But when he did get a good result we would get people going see, see ? Well, all this time , you've been criticizing him for the last eight races. Yeah, actually I'm so wrong. Chat is pulling me up on this and correctly. The more I think about it, yeah he's had loads of he is quite crashy. Yeah, you're right Charles. I back down from that point immediately and that's why I'm saying we learn and grow together, all right ? I will change my mind when the evidence or thought changes. Yeah, so you'd have those old good performances. See? You were wrong. Will you? And then there'd be like another eight or nine rac es of just yeah fine is being beaten by Per z or whatever. Yeah, and then you'd have a good result. But when I say not crashy, what I mean is when there's high attrition races like he can just he can get through it. He can get through it , calm c,alm enough , go through that and get a good result. And that tends to be most of his good results have been high attrition races. Unless you want to point to the one race where he like carved his way through the field and it was a miracle , masked a strategy call held on to his tyres longer than anyone . But no, it tended to be those kind of oh it's a high attrition race. He's done well and then and then and it's not for a win. It's been like, oh yeah, he's got dragged that car up to P six and is ahead of his teammate. Okay, fine. And they use that as proof. So yeah, I was waiting for for someone to say and sure enough V,ang did it in our in our in our WhatsApp chat. It's a sea. That proves it. Is this the first time that Stroll has outqualified Alonso since twenty twenty four ? Oh yeah, oh man , Chris S. Where was it? He crashed. Was it Singapore? He crashed and I think Mark Schaffenauer or My Krack said Michael Krack said. Yeah, that just shows how committed he is. , give me strength. Give me strength. When I get told like, well, such and such a person said it and he's a team boss or whatever, you do remember , I think it was Michael Krack. You do have to remember that sometimes they just say stuff like that . Yeah, he crashed because he's so committed. It proves how committed he is. Yeah, I don't think he does. I don't think he does. But yeah, so fair enough, he's qualified one half a tenth . Half a tenth of Fernando Alonso, who is now very much looking like he's on a retirement tour, a victory tour. He says it's probably going to be his last Barcelona Grandprix. Bear in mind this, won't be on the calendar next season. It's alternating with Spa. So I think this I think Fernando is realizing now, you know, that's this is the life stage that he's at anyway. It shouldn't be. Even if he was brilliant, he's brilliant, but even if the results were coming and he was scoring the odd point or whatever, it's still over . Aston Martin are not going to be challenging for wins or world championships. That's the reason to stay. The reason to stay is that you saw from the twenty twenty six card in this new regulation set that you're mixing it with the big boys and you've got one last chance to go fighting for a title, go fighting for wins. And even if you didn't win the title, that season would be epic. It would be enough . It would be enough. He's got a few wins. He was in the title hunt. Ultimately, he doesn't get it. He sees Antonelli lifting up the driver's championship. Everyone's celebrating and he has this moment where he realizes that being in the fight was just enough. That'll do, Peggy, that'll do. And actually he finds that he has joy from the competition. He has joy from the competition. He has joy from being in there, showing everyone he could get race wins. And in fact, he's happy for Antonelli. He drafts a text to send him later saying, Are you such a worthy champion? It was so nice to end my career racing somewhat as wonderful as you. And then he goes off into his next final form, his final era pundit or team boss. I see him as team boss. I do. I see him as team boss guy . Like not the pit wall guy, maybe but But like person management, man agement, yeah, that's how I see it. That's where I would see him going. So more team principle in a team principle role. Fast in mind, it's actually perfect. That's probably the perfect role. There we go. Yeah. But that's it. It's over. It's over, I think, for Alonzo and it's fine. It's fine. It's completely fine and normal that this forty five year old already kept going to see if there was a chance of being competitive again. There isn't there is no chance of Aston Martin being competitive in the next three years zero. zero zero zero there's zero chance that they're going to turn it around . Once they turn it around and do the basics, they've then got to then it starts and then they're a season and a half, two seasons behind. And that's if they sort out. And then that's if when it is sorted out, they do have then the potato . Like whatever odds you want to give me, like a million to one or one to a million, I'll bet the million and I'll be very happy that I'll earn my pound at the end of the three years. So yeah, it is time. It's time it's time to go. Have fun. Have fun doing your race car job around the world for the next little while. Where did we get through on the grid? Well, would you go through the rest quickly? So I've got one point to make about junior drivers and then we're out of here. Yeah, the racing balls, yeah, we're actually looking pretty pretty okay. It looked like they had a messy weekend, but that overall pace as best as the rest is fine, but it's so stark, that gap, it's so stark. Piatri at nor point four, Holkenberg at one point eight . So the gum. Okay, so obviously there might have been some evolution there, but Holkenberg and Lawson who were nine eight and nine and did compete in Q three , one point four, one point five seconds off. That is a huge, huge grap gap. So Alan Parmain, the team principal getting interviewed and that that was on a sky broadcast . And it really struck me that I wonder, I really wonder if he had any ambition to be team principal at VCOB. By all accounts, he seems to be doing very well, seems to be doing it quite nicely. It's just it's almost like it's not like he is being such this is just my instinct, right? Is that he is actually doing such a team player thing to do a job that he probably wasn't going for and didn't expect . And it all came about because obviously Mecky's was then the next team principal on the on the bus to go to Red Bull because that horn of stuff was kind of unexpected . So the expectation default would have been Mecky's V carb Horner at Red Bull. And then suddenly that situation changes and it's like, oh , Allen , good and this is how I became, by the way, a host on a gardening BBC gardening show for four years. No, two years. Maybe three years, I forget. But yeah, it happened like that. It's like, wow, it was during COVID. Yeah . I know this isn't like your position. Like you're a striker, but we need a goalkeeper. I can do it. I can challenge . Don't worry, you've got a real producer who knows about this stuff. It's fine. It doesn't matter that you go, you know, we know this isn't your wheelhouse, but you do what you do well and bring it there. Okay, okay. And then it kind of worked . It worked well enough. And in fact, not being funny, but oh, is this confidential? It was the highest listener ship show on that station. Oh, but you had the benefit of the Sunday lunchtime. Don't care. Stats don't lie. Went up. I came on knowing nothing about gardening. Went up. They're good . But it's not what I wanted. It's not what I wanted to do. It's not my role. I loved it. And I get that feeling from Alan Parmaine as well, where it's like when he doesn't have that same what was he called? He doesn't have that same approach of talking to the media and press because that's not being in his head, maybe to do that job. But he seems to be going pretty well at VCOB, best of the rest, and he seems nice. So yeah, what more could you want? And Lawson again, just continuing what has been a trend of doing good. Without analyzing too much, I think Lawson has been doing good. He should continue doing good. He's got a challenging young teammate. Doing good. Bortileto looks like he's in trouble. Every time I pay attention to anything that's happening in Bortaletto, it's ungood. Gasly continues his frustration. Set someone let me know before the Sunday show did he get his trophy? Did they hand it over? Did they hand it over Fiserkella and Reichen style? Behermann will be happy to be that far ahead of his teammate . Carlos Eins will be miserable to be down in P sixteen , which is just he's openly saying now it's not good. It's not good Alban not too far behind and then we've got and then we've got to the back and bought us fairly close to Paris. Last thing I want to say is I paid a lot of attention to FP one. I had the time to sit and watch it, had the time to listen to some of the interviews that I'd caught like on social media , listened to Vesti, Fred Vesti talking at length about simulator work and just like, wow, he's I feel like when they used to talk to FP one drivers , they were dragging a nerd carting kid up to the commentary box and they're like, yeah. How did your day go? We ran the programs and we did the arrow work and then looks over to the media guy . And everything went to plan, no . Do you have ambitions to be in F one? I'm just taking it one, one, one test session at a time . And it was like that. But now it's like no. Aaron Paul? Is that the guy with a slightly longer hair? He just looks like a looks and sounds like a if I'm thinking of the right one. He looks and sounds like a like a colonel, you know, giving his report on the war. How's the war going out Paul Aaron? I've got the name right. I might have mixed some of these young guys up. They're still NPCs at this point, but he's just like, yeah, boom, duba boom, dude, boom. And like, yeah, oh, we go . Well, I trust that guy. I trust that's yeah, let's he speaks in sentences. Let's follow him . So not everyone having the same experience of FP one. Maybe the broadcast I watched just really did a good job . And then but Vesti was like, Oh , this guy's maybe a scientist or an engineer or something. I don't know. I'd never mind driving, like, maybe team principal. I felt like, yeah, maybe Team Principal would be good a good role for him. And then just a bunch of the other guys that when I heard anything from them, it was just like, oh, these guys come through now ready to be media savvy a package because they know if you make it into F one, it's a franchise sport . Every single driver is focused on. Every single driver is interviewed, every single driver will have a piece done in the pre race show about them while they're peeling a watermelon. Oh, we're going to peel this watermelon and then try to see how many gerbils we can put in this watermelon and then he has to do that whilst giving kind of analysis on a race weekend. And they seem to be able to do that . And this is why Limb lad reminded me of that. So I think Lyn Blad has come in and he's in that mold too. So he's in that mold where it looks like part of his ambition to be in F one is molding that how are you going to talk? How do you speak to people? This is something I'm doing with my son right now. Like my daughter is exactly what you would expect my daughter to be just like very speaks and she talks and my son's a lot more reserved and he has thoughts. He speaks when necessary and with function. What I've been trying to say to it. And he stands by, he's like, there was no need for me to say something there. What would it have achieved if I said something there? And now I'm saying we can't do that. We have to you have to do social skill s, you have to speak in sentences . You have to, you have to think about how the people interacting with you feel in that interaction. So you know, it's you can't, you can't, I can't not parent you to do this more . And it looks like the kids coming through are just super impressive in that way. And so they all actually, they all might be us . They might be terrible. I wouldn't know. But listening to them, I'm like, ooh, everyone, danger, danger, veterans The kids are coming. All right , I'm going. Got to go bowling. Oh yeah. Thank you. Thanks for hanging out and listening to my silly spanners stream. I was struggling a little bit with a little bit of congestion. So sorry for the pauses and thought that was better than you just hearing me dealing with that. So on the YouTube, yeah, that will be a feature. I always kind of felt a pressure that I had to do like thirty, forty minutes , one take , no mistakes, no edits, but it's a stream. I'm a podcast, I'm a content creator, I'm a presenter. I'm not really a streamer, so I perhaps need to learn the streaming skill s a little bit more. People are understanding. When I've watched other people doing skills, they pause for a long time and they read the thing. And I'll risk voice notes for these as well, by the way. If you throw a voice not e in now into the discord, I will play it. Like I will risk that until it goes wrong . Thanks, Diff. I'll risk it till it goes wrong. I'm gonna , but next time, let's make that a spanner's silly Saturday stream feature is that if you put a voice note in it, I will treat it like a squirrel. And I'll be like, oh, voice note. Click the thing. And I'm glad someone said it's fun. Oh yeah, go and listen to Chris commenting on Lam . Now and tell him he's good because he is good . I would like it would make me happy if people went and told him he was good. Don't don't tell him he's good because I told you to tell him he's good. Just be my instruction is go and check him out. If you agree that he's good, which you will, tell him. Tell him. He's young. Imposter syndrome is a thing. He's confident enough, but imposter syndrome is a thing. Support these young creators that are not NEPO babies that have not been parachuted into top level broadcasting jobs. He has four and four and four from the I've actually I've got so much I love that guy. Yeah, I love a lot of my crew and obviously not the difficult ones. Love that guy and it's the work ethic and it's the he's too stupid to realize that he's picked the wrong career path and that it's impossible It's you know what he's saying technically bees can't fly but they do it anyway. It's like technically kids like Chris can't become TV commentators but he's just been too stupid to realize that and therefore has ended up as a TV commentator and and there is potential to go on he doesn't have the contacts , but if he has the support, if he has the encouragement , no we don't have a link to L emon . How would I have a link to Lemon? It's on TNT. I don't know where else there is. All right, voice notes. Oh God . Well . Yay . Thank you. It's actually quite nice to have just like a well done . Nice one. What a 'cause you get a lot of the comments like you got this comment wrong . I know I did. Because I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be doing it. Squirrel meat . Fair enough. That's got legs. We're gonna be doing a lot of squirrel . Squirrel . Brilliant. That could have gone worse. Yeah see you later bye . Work hard, be kind . Have fun . I'm going bowling. Yes, I'm excited. I'm going bowling . I got one hundred and ninety four the other day and I choked the very last frame . It was horrendous. Choked the very last frame. Got two on the last frame . It was there. The two hundred was in my grasp. Bye