Looking Ahead to Silverstone GP

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Van Podcast with Matt and Tommy Round eight Dun and Dusted Austria in the locker and you know what? Qualifying was controversial. We got into that very deeply because there were many things to discuss today you know there are there are things I want to talk about, there are things I don't want to talk about, and we won't talk about the things I don't want to talk about, Tommy, because I honestly want to just never watch Formula One ever again, but that's fine. Great start to follow on podcasts. It is, it is . But if you know my allegiance is to Charlotte Clare and if you're new to the podcast, that's why, okay. How are you feeling, Tommy? Mixed emotions but yeah, I mean at least he wasn't eighth I guess. P two for your boy of course Max Verstappen Yes indeed. Yeah it was it was a good race I enjoyed it. Obviously we didn't get the absolute unbelievable finish that we were maybe getting, maybe a few more laps than we would have got that. But to say the kind of how bad the races were last year . I cannot complain about the top three being separated by two seconds and the kind of action we saw. So certainly not a bad race at all. I thought it was quite enjoyable. Now before we get into all of it, including things I don't want to talk about, shout out to our wonderful Poo on Patrons who will be getting extra chat at the end of every single race review this season as well as ad free listening, discord access, early access to live show tickets, and more. Come join and the Poo on Patreon if you haven't already , we would love to see you there and it directly supports me and Tommy to continue waffling about Formula One until the end of time . So Tommy, why don't we start with you and your most memorable moment . So my memorable moment was that battle in the final lapse that we were so close, maybe five more laps and it would have been absolutely unbelievable. You had that perfect storm of maybe things that we saw and this is maybe what like a two stopper brings to Formula One and what we were praying about for to have so many times and why the races weren't very good last year is people on slightly different strategy offsetting their strategy and then someone on much quicker better tyres gaining time . And we saw a situation where George Russell was leading, Verstappen was closing in and then Anthony was closing in on both of them even quicker potentially . And yeah, all of them arrived together right at the end, but we just ran out of laps . And yeah, it was it was incredible to watch it was it was exciting , you know, Hart was racing during it, of course, as a Verstappen fan did not expect Max Verstappen to be fighting the Mercedes. If you'd said that when he was P five on the grid, yes , in qualifying, he put in an amazing first lap and we thought, wow, okay the red bull has improved, but for him to be fighting for the win and be that close, it was yeah, mixed mixed emotions with it, but a really exciting finish . Yeah, I think the word battle is is it was a time trial battle and inevitably did not see any will to will action whatsoever . So it was tantalizingly close. It was exciting to see it come down . Those last ten laps, it felt like it was needing another five, but then by the last few , George losing a solid amount of time in those last couple of laps, Max getting within one and a half seconds, Antonelli would have cleared Max on the next lap. Yeah . So yeah, you were breathing a sigh of relief, I think, with the fact it was a seventy one lap race. Yeah. Even though your boy was catching George Russell for the win, one or two more laps, I think Max finishes thir d and Kimmy, who knows better. Who do you think who there's a question? Who do you think wins with an extra ten laps? Antonelli? Extra ten laps. Antonelli hands down. Yeah, I think so. Antonelli was on I think roughly, let me check it rather than saying roughly. He was on eight lap pressure tyres . He was on two lap fresher tyres than Max Verstappen ahead of him, but also slightly. Yeah, he was slight this weekend. So who would you go for who are you locking in? Who's if it was Turn Laps Antonelli, I think. I think we would have seen a fantastic bell. Five think Russell still just gets it because it was quite hard to pass we saw unless you're Sharlock with no power going to turn nine . But how like we're talking about the front three. How have you even know anything that came into my head? Of course it did because you're a terrible person . So look the battle was interesting. It's a shame as we say, but it is a seventy one lap race and that's all she wrote. And we've seen former One races in the past that have done it and sadly it was again today. We were also teased rain, but I never listen to rain shouts ever even though we see a radar with it's coming over the circuit. No till I literally see it on the track, I don't want to know about it. Let's go a to question from Piper MZ Mimic X . If Red Bull hadn't kept Max out for so long on that second stint , could he have won? It's an interesting question. I think it's the biggest talking point when it comes to the battle between the top three at least in Maxweust about his race because he did lose quite a solid amount of time in those last three or four laps because of course he got a six lap tyre delta to George Russell, which is what Red Bull wanted. They love they love getting to give him Max a bit of a fresh set of tyres and he can go for it. But the problem for him is that he came out the pits and he was ten seconds behind. So in hindsight , absolutely, they should have stuck with it. And they probably should have also taken some sort of positive motivation around the fact that Max was on one lap older tyres in the previous stint and was closing in on George. Yeah, he was. So it wasn't really necessary. Again, we're talking with hindsight. We're talking with the data in front of us now. But when you look at the evidence, it suggests that Max could have had a chance, but maybe what Rebel were thinking on the pit wall is, yes, Max might be able to catch George, but passing him is a completely different thing. So that's what they've done. They've decided to go for that big a tide offset, which was maybe two or three laps out in terms of their calculations. It's not something I'm going to say they cost him the win, but I don't think it was the absolute optimum strategy , but then again, who does perform that over the course of a race when you're fighting for the win? Overtaking wasn't particularly easy. I would say that this race, even we'll talk about Ferrari's strategy later and how Lewis Hamilton going on the soft ties he didn't exactly fly through the field. So we've seen a situation where Verstappen whole tactic at Red Bull and I can, absolutely see why they did it so I'm not going to sit here and say, Oh my god, they've absolutely bottled the win. It was a ridiculous call . They went for it and knew that if George's tyres started to go, Max would just easily be able to get him. The other side of the coin is they pit him a lot earlier. He doesn't have that same offset and yes, he closes up but then it's incredibly hard to pass George Russell who has his deployment of that Mercedes has obviously been amazing this year and would certainly put up a fight. I'm so gutted we did not get to see George Russell Max Tappen fight for the win . You know, how dare we only see Max appen and Lewis Hamilton go wheel to wheel around four corners ? How we're kind of eager for more this season other races are quite good . Exactly. Let's go to another question from RNB Sheeps . Is this the start of George's title fight going into Mentum Month? I think you are absolutely insane if you ever wrote George Russell off even when he was all that way. And I know he himself was maybe a bit downbeat and going, Oh look's not on my side and Antonelli was winning everything . That race and we don't know how it's going to go is screamed very similar to kind of Lando Norris last year and how you know we've seen George the, reason Lando won that championship last year, I'm absolutely convinced of it was even his bad days when he was getting criticism and criticizing himself, he was still picking up like P three s and things like that. And George , you know, George today I don't know was he the quicker merc driver who wasn't miles certainly wasn't, you know, miles faster than Antonelli, but he did what he needed to do, got the victory was Antonio at all. No, I don't think he was no Tantonelli. I think Antonelli on the front row of the grid Antonelli is probably winning that that race. He looked quicker but George , you know, while Antonelli had a scruffy race some of the times passing other cars. Russell Led from the front did exactly what he needed to do to win the race and this is happening at a part of the season where George is not confident in that car, a bit like Lando last year . And if he can still get wins and results and podiums when the car is not to his liking when it comes to him , you know, and he and I'm sure there'll there'll be races. We've not really seen it in a while, but there will be races where I think George Russell will be quicker than Antonelli at some points . We don't I don't think it will be every single race at some point of the season, but it will it will happen. So for him to be only forty points behind at this stage there's a lot of F one and a lot of races still to go. So he's definitely in with a shot of this championship and I wouldn't bet against him in winning it . You wouldn't bet against him. So you're now saying that you're backing George for the championship over Kimmy ? No, I still think Kimmy is I say we wouldn't bet against him. No, no, it's I'm not I'm not basically we have to be aside. I'm just saying that it's not it's not an insane thing. I think I think maybe we were all a little bit too knee jerk with Monaco and being like Titles over. See you later like how's he going to catch up? He definitely will he definitely will. Definitely will catch up to George Russell . He's going to catch up. There's no there's no way I don't think the points gap will be that that large. I don't necessarily think George will win it, but there'll be moments where George closes in a lot and I think it'd be a lot closer than people are maybe thinking . Yeah, I mean look, where I stand with for this for this up until this point is that without Antonelli's DNF, of course, in Spain, the gap would be a lot bigger than you can also say without Russell's DNF in Canada . Again , but when we're looking at what we have seen so far this year, barring Australia , has there been a point where Georgia has genuinely looked the quicker driver? Especially in race trim? No, no, not once. So for me, it will require so basically how I saw George Russell today. No, he wasn't the quicker merc driver, but he was the cleaner merc driver and he didn't make a mistake in qualifying. He read the situation correctly. He saw it was a single wave of yellow, completed the lap, got pole position. What did Kimmyanteni do? He read it as a double yellow which was a mistake from him. He didn't read the panel correctly. It was definitely a single yellow. That's what is very clear now . And then after that, you know, he had a scruffy lap one, a scruffy lap two. He was down to fifth place. Meanwhile, George Russell is out in front, you know, extending that gap over his teammate who's having to be stuck in traffic. Without all of that, Anthony would of course had been right on the back of George, but that is that's that aside. Kimmy has put this on him. He's put that pressure on him. He's made the mistakes. He's probably thinking about last year a little bit as well into turn one or turn three, sorry lap one and how he missed his breaking point exponentially badly . He still managed to run wide and nearly crash into the back of Leclerc but this time got away with it. So yeah, for George and the question that was asked specifically around the title fight . Yeah, I always thought that George would have a good run through the sort of Europe an season . And I agree with your point in the fact that he's made it work in a car that he's clearly not entirely comfortable with. He even said this track is not something a track that suits his driving style . So if he can go through this period of time where he's getting used to the car, adapting his driving style slightly , then yes, he will have a chance of winning this world champions hip, especially when you then consider reliability . There can be huge swings in this championship as we've seen twice already with both of the Merc drivers retiring on separate occasions . See, I think Antonelli from a pace perspect ive is absolutely still the favourite but so very Oscar piercing isn't it last year that that is always the thing in the back of my mind that even the races last year it was all piasry P PiasS ry of Quicker Driver and Lando was there when he didn't have it all worked out and then when he did at the end obviously he was close enough to do it. So I mean if yeah, it's going to come down to that if George can on his bad days stay close like a forty point gap is very small at this stage compared to what it was looking like after Monaco thinking w,ow , where is it going to be like one hundred and fifty points by this race ? Exactly. So a lot of points have been taken out of Antonelli's lead in the last two races and I think George would be very happy with that. Let's now go to a question from Prancing Papaya's What happened to Kimmy in the start of the race? He was going on adventures off track every other turn and then an eyes emoji. Now, obviously I've mentioned the first couple of laps were really scruffy. I think for Kimmy , he had a problem with his brakes and the temperatures I think it was a split brakes I think they called it where essentially the temperature is different between the left side and the right side of the front brakes , I don't know if it was necessarily the front, but the brakes just in general. And I'm not exactly sure if that came in because that seemed like that was a teen radio message in the middle of the race . So whether that was the cause at the start as well, I'm just judging off what Kimmy Antonelli said after after the race where he mentioned that problem after I think Craig's later said about his issues at the start. But for Kimmy, that's what cost him the win. That's what cost him second place as well for sure was the fact that he was passed who is it that he was passed by because he was he started fourth and then he went back. He got passed not Hamilton, was it? Was it Hamilton? No, Leclerc. It was Leclerc was ahead of him. And then there was the Stappen battle as well. I'm trying to remember how when he was losing time he was fighting Leclerc. I'm sure he was fighting Leclerc and then he went for a move and then Max was it Max came through. So it was Max because Max would have started behind Antonelli. So it was Max that came through it was on Kimmy and yeah, look, it was frantic. It was a great action at the start of the race and yeah, for Kimmy, he just yeah it was it was really costly for him and he's sort of fortunate that he didn't come out worse with any sort of damage or big problems for his car . It was impatient. Yeah, I'm watching it back now, lap two . He goes down the inside of Lecleric turn one, which he absolutely does not need to do. He would have got a fantastic a much better opportunity. How ever, Dinrari is slow in a straight line as well. Exactly. Like I think I don't think I'm wrong in saying that we rarely see an overtake into turn one unless it's slam dunk. It always happens at turn three where you get a much better opportunity and you're not compromising your line into the next corner. And he went in so deep that yeah, absolutely absolutely right that it brought Maxstappen into it and then actually the two McLarens were all over the back of him as well at that point where we had that that shot of them all together on track fighting and yeah it's just inexperi from Antonelli . It's why I've enjoyed watching him racing. It's very verstapenesque to go for the immediate catch and by surprise , the second, you know , go for some where crazy, but he absolutely didn't need to do it. And it does make you wonder that had he just made that move stick and he's immediately, you know , ahead of Verstappen or whatever and can close in a bit. It's very fine margins that maybe his race could have been a bit different. But I think there's a lot of people behind George Russell this race going, What if, you know, we mentioned about Max with his pit stops and equally you could argue the same with Verstappen's battle with Hamilton and Charlotteleu as well. Charlotte Leau, yeah, it could have easily got seventh place, but instead had self rate What segue to my most memorable moment that I want to remove from my memory which is the fact that Ferrari really really struggled not a lot of pace, especi ally on the leclerc side of things, and the strategy was also one to be very , very harshly questioned, I would say . So why don't we start with the strategy? And a question from Chris Carey five , did Ferrari cost Lewis a chance at a podium? I think a podium was maybe a stretch. I think the strategy was awful , no doubt, but I don't think the pace was there either. You know, once Verstappen had got past Hamilton , it was very much a race between the two Mercks and Verstappen this race. So for Hamilton to be on the podium I don't think they looked like they were going to challenge there, but they should have it definitely cost them a better result. You know, they shouldn't have been finishing behind Piastri . I don't think that McLaren was all that great this weekend and Hamilton, of course, starting high up , running in P two and it was just a bizarre, bizarre strategy from Ferrari. I don't I don't really know what what they were thinking going on to the soft tyres. It just seemed like a complete roll of the dice do something crazy, hope to win, which I think is a very weird call at the end of the season. Sorry at this point of the season when you , you know, it's not like the end of the season where you have to like risk it all if you're behind or whatever feels like Ferrari at this stage just need to try and stay within touching distance of Mercedes and hope they outdevelop them . Ferrari and V SCs man, honestly, like the start of the year, they're fighting Mercedes. They have the cheapest pit stop to take a VSC, save some time. The Mercedes obviously did that as well with George Russell and Antonelli and what do they do? They stay out they don't take the free pit stop or not the free pit stop, a cheaper pit stop. You then get presented with a VSC here where it makes absolutely no sense for Lewis Hamilton to come into the pits when he's not long been on those hard tyres and they sacrifice he was running in third . I think he went down to seventh and put fresh soft tyres on him. Fresh softs, the C five s the softest compound you possibly can have in Formula One and those Prelli tyres . And it just it makes no sense in any form. Like obviously you do save time by taking another pit stop rather than taking it in full r acing action , but the Ferraris were terrible in a straight line and they've gone Hamilton, can you go and pass all these cars please? I just I'm surprised Lewis wasn't more vocal on the radio unless I missed it about that strategy because it just they were late to tell him I think first and then the next lap he came in and served it and put on the fresh soft and even then when he came out there really wasn't much pace being shown there, not that you would expect, perhaps with a potential undercut and having those fresh softs versus other drivers, but even the other drivers ahead , I think were only on between five and seven lap hold hard ty res. Yeah, it wasn't a massive discrepancy. It wasn't this big brain idea and it one thousand percent cost him fourth place and where Piatri finished. No chance in hell he was finishing on the podium. No. Antonelli was on another planet with his last stint and his pace that he was shown, even though it was hard to overtake Mercedes versus Ferrari, that merc is flying past . So that was a slam dunk Lewis Hamilton fourth place which Ferrari decided to throw in the bin for absolutely no reason . So yeah for Lewis it's a shame. I hope it doesn't come to bite him later on in the season these points that you're hoping where Ferrari will be weak they're able to capitalize on whatever they can and sort of maximize the points on offer. But yeah, Hamilton was driving really well, phenomenally well. You know, it's making me very sad as a Charlot Leclerc fan to see Leclerc not being able to match Hamilton . But on Lewis's side, yeah, he was doing everything he needed to do. He was with Russell at the start of the of the race, didn't fall off particularly much . But then Ferrari decided to make his life a little bit harder. Do you think it felt a little bit like trying to right the wrong of Australia or just a really bad call where they're like, why would you not take the free pit stop? They're like, oh, there's a free pit stop for a virtual safety card. But it's like, yeah, but not now, it's not a free pit sub because it's completely out of sync and it's not the time to pit. It was a really weird gamble. And then even worse was, yeah, like it threw it threw him out behind Leclerc and Piastri. So then it puts Charles Leclerc eighteen times in that race. Well, this is what I mean. It 's been a weird situation where it wasn't a case where Leclerc could have let him through easily because he wasn't that much quicker. Leclerc wasn't letting him through easily No, I know but but obviously like sometimes you see with teammates where they're on a completely different strategy. Hamilton's on softs but then because the softs weren't miles quicker like maybe we would have seen. If Hamilton was going three, four seconds a lap quicker or whatever, then yeah, absolutely would have because it had to and Hamilton would have got through anyway. But it just made the whole thing completely confus ing and a bit of a mess for Ferrari. So they kind of just held each other up anyway. It was just completely ridiculous. Oh yeah, the amount of space they both gave each other fighting was like millimeters. It was absolutely ridiculous. Like great to watch. Don't get me wrong. Yeah wow, that there is clearly, I think, especially from Leclerc's side, obviously feeling quite vulnerable to Hamilton's form at the moment and wanting to put up a fight, but I mean even on lap one , right? The fact that Hamilton was able to get through, Charles had no answer. That's not the Charles Leclerc I'm used to seeing. That 's really not the leclerc I expect to see on lap one starting on the front row of the grid. You think , okay to have a chance with Russell maybe but instead losing a position to Hamilton and then you know really on the back foot throughout opening stint it just felt like it was a Leclerc train. It was utterly awful to watch for me as much as the entertainment you know, aside from the emotional side of great racing, but sounds like a like I'm like a Charlestan, but he almost got this is such a ridiculous thing to say but, his start was almost too good that it compromised him because he ended up he got exactly what you need to do. We discussed this in qualifying yesterday I think and everything and how like you actually don't want to be second in Austria because it completely compromises your line. But he got a great start where he could just slot in behind Russell and then get the slingshot but instead you know he, tries it round the outside , Russell covers the inside and he was then just ended up just easily being done by Hamilton. So it's because it went exactly. Yeah, he almost like had a good chance to get Russell and he probably in his mind was like, well, this is my opportunity. I need to get him at turn one. And it just he just didn't do the right thing and going forward. The thing is it didn't even feel like that to me . Like Charles never overtaking George Russell around the outside there. He was too far back. Of course, he was side by side with him come the apex, but George was of course almost accelerating out of it and Charles having to go all the way around the outside. But that is what Charles has to do in that situation is break late and hope to God you don't get yeeted from behind. That's basically what Austria turn three is all about on lap one. So for Charlie he misjudged it a little bit, went that little bit too wide and then of course put Hamilton on it . Let's go to another question from Way UnderScore eleven . Has the Ferrari power unit upgrade not worked or is this just an Austria thing ? It's that the problem that Ferrari have and still have is that their power unit is not very good . I was very silly, but of course I'm going to be very silly in believing in the hype and the delusion of the fact that one Ferrari won in Spain and two they're bringing an upgrade to their engine for Austria. The thing is is that it was a very early upgrade that Ferrari brought to this engine and it was literally only worth like three or four horsepower. Like it was tiny, a tiny, tiny gain that they made . Good god, what would they have been like without it? It would have been very marginal. But the thing is they're not bringing, I think, apparently the whole push for it until later on. That's what at least Fredfreur said after Friday practice, by the way, when they put the new engine in just so everybody who said it was going in F an can sit down . But yeah, it's not a case of it's all over in terms of Ferrari and their power unit upgrade. I think it's just the fact that it was a very tiny thing that they actually changed and Austria is a massive power track . It was worse than I expected. It was worse than I thought. You know, you think of second and third in qualifying and you go ah how have they managed to finish fifth and eight h? They were not finishing second and third in qualifying had Max not crashed Max would have been ahead, Kimmy would have been ahead and they would have started fourth and fifth fifth and sixth, maybe who knows. So yeah, it's it's just a track that doesn't suit the Ferrari particularly well. They were worse than anticipated , and maybe we'll win it all in Silverstone. Yeah, you can't say it's not worked because essentially it's a power unit upgrade that's given them more horsepower. So when they get to a circuit they like they will have more horsepower and be faster at those bits of the track where it's not their best moment like you say their power unit is not their strong point. They are amazing in the corners. Everyone's been saying it since day one of Ferrari, how good that chassis is and what Ferrari have managed to do with that car and on a track with a big mix of corners . We saw it with Hamilton winning winning the Grand Prix. We'll get to Silverstone. It be a different situation. But a very weird race for Ferrari. There was they mentioned this in the cooldown room when the drivers were chatting. They were deploying in some very bizarre places. Obviously I joked about it at the start of the podcast about the Leclerc thing where it got done by Antonelli into turn nine . But we've not really seen like a slam dunk pass like that where someone's just had no battery since probably the start of the season before they kind of changed the rules and the regs . And then equally Ferrari seemed really good after turn three where they would have so much power going into that but then kind of nothing at the rest of the track. So yeah, it was a strange one for Ferrari how that kind of worked out because didn't really in the last race we've almost like forgotten about these kind of deployment things to a point anyway. We've a hundred percent been desensitized to it because you actually watch it they are shifting and coasting . If you genuinely just like if you reset your brain and had the same brain that you were you had in Australia you'll be, saying almost the same thing when we laughed at the Australia . Like for sure. It's because we're just getting used to what Formula One is like in twenty twenty six, which is fine. I'd rather enjoy what I'm watching. Hopefully they will make things better in in the the coming seasons than just be constantly complaining and moaning that it's not racing. It's still racing. I think the thing is awesome things . You know, you make a good point about this whole Ferrari deployment and for me how I saw it is, you know, when we had those massive discrepancies , it's not necessarily because of their automated deployment that they would have. It's the driver, again, this is my understanding of it, the driver essentially defensively deploy ing. So they are going into sort of manual mode and going, I'm gonna use some of this juice to keep Kimi Antonelli behind. Oh god, I've got nothing left. I've got nothing. And then yeah, look like I and BL. What a mean that is everyone else Extenders what you talking about? Yeah, at least eighty percent of our listenership isn't from the UK. Sorry, everybody. Look it up Ian Bill, I've got nothing left . BE A LET So that was Charlotte Clareap in se L ven. Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is an award winning podcast chat that Charlotte Claire is Ian Beale from East Enders. What a yeah, anyway, let's move on to me and Bill, please. I didn't think I'd say that name that many times in one podcast . So yeah, I think it was just purely from a defensive deployment thing and then praying that they'll be able to stay ahead of the car behind, perhaps even thinking if I deploy a bit more here keep a, head. Maybe the driver behind won't deploy as much or think there's an opportunity there. It's basically a hail Mary and hoping that they can stay ahead . But that's the things I also don't like seeing as much is that big discrepancy in speed because we saw it in Japan with Behman and Colopinto and look how that ended up. So yeah, it was a little bit scary the speed difference is but that is kind of twenty twenty six formula one when you want to use the energy in a different way than the most efficient. It's still eight rounds in, just like we saw in Australia, if you do deploy in a different part of the racetrack to keep a position, it loses you handful s of seconds. I'm talking like it was one minute ten point six or whatever it might have been in the race trim. If you'd seen them battling, which of course costs them a little bit of time, but also the energy deployment, they're not one minute fourteen 's like it's ridiculous the amount of time that they lose if they don't do it efficiently . Yeah, it is still it's still there, isn't it? From it's not as extreme as what we saw in Melbourne is still in the room in the room in the room. Yeah, it's not as extreme as Melbourne where you could you would lose time hand over fist, but you're still definitely losing time battling cars and it brings other people into play as soon as you start using your battery and deploying in certain places and as you get locked in that battle where you're like passing and repassing it allows the car behind to just gain so much time. I think we saw it with Antonelli kind of catching the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen when they had their little battle as well . One thing I did notice that was it you that brought up I can't remember that just generally the cars looked visibly slower around Austria. Yeah that when you actually look qualifying architecturally I genuinely thought sometimes they were doing a double push lap because they just looked quite slow out the final corner. I don't know if it is just the fact that the ground effect era they're absolutely sending it into those corners. They're flying over the curbs, you know and now it is a case of like everything is just power on the straight . Doesn't really matter about the corner. Power on the straight. Yeah , exactly. So it looks it looks so much slower when they are kind of going through like a yeah, like a turn nine turn and I'm like , they're not starting a lap because in my head I'm like we've had four years of the ground effect cars or whatever looking like rocket ships and yeah, it's very weird. Yeah, I'm looking back to last year's Austrian Grand Prix and of course pole position was a one hundred and six one from George this year. It was a one hundred thirty nine from Lando last year , which if you then think around, you know, this kind of circuit that is a massive a normal circuit that's three and a half four seconds worth probably . And then fastest lap in the race was a one hundred seventy nine from Oscar and then this time around it, was a one ten, three . So yeah, we've not had tracks have we met much this year because they've kind of been saved by the fact that they are so quick on the straights now that the laptop has gained so much that they actually go oh, look we',re only half like a second southern last year. That's the thing, right? On paper it's two or three, but in the corners it's probably four or five. Yeah. If you were to just use the corners, that's why the shut tered said as Alonse said exactly. But that being said, it's not really a complaint. It's just if we get racing, I don't really care and we've said this time and time again. If we get racing that's exciting, then it doesn't matter if they're four or five seconds slower . But that was probably one of the first times I went, yeah, they do genuinely look quite slow slow through some of these corners that were pretty epic, I would say, like especially at the penultimate corner where you know yellow flag gate. The last few years, you know, the drivers would be sending it through there, but instead getting that sort of bleed off the brakes. It's tough because yeah, you love that about Formula One. It's the balancing act, isn't it? And some people would say no , I would take a three seconds elap, four seconds elapse slower around Austria to see Lewis Hamilton and Maxepin go wheel to wheel around five corners then well what a segue to me because you know that's the next question. So why don't we throw into that? Exclamation mark, Antonelli on top asks how nice was it seeing Max and Lewis go to the limit once again So good yeah, we were it's a shame that the rules changed after twenty one . This is saying someone whose driver absolutely dominated and wanted everything after it happened, but because we only had one proper year , you know, there were moments where Max challenged the Mercs before that twenty nineteen, twenty twenty , for example , and would get occasional wins. But we only had one proper year of a Lewis Hamilton. Max just happened title fight, and the title fight was basically them going wheel to wheel almost every single race weekend . And yeah , to see them battling again in such an awesome way as well. Part of me goes, if that hadn't have happened, would Max have won the race? But also at the same time , it was incredible to watch Max always gonna, you know, ultimate irony of saying he pushed me off. That's or I think he said a penalty. He was like, that's a penalty clear penalty. Clear penalty. It wasn't. It was it was close racing. They did the right thing in allowing it Max would have done much worse than has done in the past. So he just about gave him enough room and it was amazing to watch two of the best to ever do it go wheel to wheel again . It was epic. It was so good to see those two and you know, as much as we love seeing them going to the limit, I also love the fact that they stopped at the limit just, you know, because they have had plenty of plenty of moments where the limit did not stop certain certain moments in races, especially in twenty twenty one . So yeah, to see those two go ld was great, I think there was no penalty for Hamilton at all and as you say, Tommy, Max has done and would do time and time again , much worse than that. Louis, I think if it's genuinely vice versa and the other way around and Max was defending from Lewis or like in Lewis's position. He's getting squeezed off into the gravel every day of the week. He is off. He is building sandcastles that he is for sure because that's Max Verstappen's driving style and has literally defined what the racing rules are at the moment. So yeah, he really has yeah it was great to see Max maybe even just trying his luck over team radio saying clear penalty, you know, they're always trying to get an advantage, aren't they and see if the FIA will do something about it. But it was awesome to watch and I want more of it. I want absolutely so much more of this please where do I sign? But then Ferrari will have to actually have an engine that is remotely quick. Let's go to another question from Longo nineteen ninety six . Can we have those drone shots at every race . So drone shots have become more and more of a thing . I remember they first rolled it out. I remember which year it was. It was definitely like last year or maybe the year before. they And were try ing, I think, at testing around Barcelona . And you were kind of thinking, Oh, I'm not sure about this. It's very static, it's very just sort of just rotating on it. I don't know, just didn't feel that great. But now you fast forward to Austria twenty twenty six and they're just they're flying around the outside of the corner whilst four cars are battling on the apex and I like it. It's a variable shot that we're not used to seeing. Of course, usually in Formula One, there are cameras set up at specific corners and then that's it, deal with it. You maybe get a helicopter occasionally . But that , I will say that drone shots sometimes work and sometimes don' t. I think drone shots are awesome if there are like multiple cars battling that we saw today. I don't think they're that great, actually I know they're not that great of giving us a sense of speed that I think static cameras do a better job at because if the drone is flying alongside the car then you really don't get that sense of speed in the same way . But that being said, I like the change that it's always fun to have a sort of multitude of angles and different things. And it's cool to see that they've made it work as well because I remember when this was first brought up as a concept, it was thinking what we're going to do if a drone just literally lands on the track. Like so instead they're using they're being very care ful with where they fly the drones and I'm a fan I'm not. I'm going to be the I'm going to deploy the fact that I'm almost deployed almost forty that I'm almost forty and say like I don't I don't really like it. I feel like it's a little bit pointless to be honest I just don't see what it adds. It feels like technology for the sake of technology. ' Theyre' theyre basically They finally Matt and Tommy disagree with out the same okay in something like the W RC it's amazing because they can use a drone and they can fly over the cars and they're showing a new angle of rally cars and things that look really, really cool . Like yay, I can see follow a car in much worse resolution, slightly higher than the TV camera and have to turn my head to forty five degrees to watch it. Like I just don't I just don't rate and your neck can't be dealing with that exactly when I'm nearly forty, exactly. So it's already bad enough as it is. And I just to me it's a bit like the helmet cam sometimes where fine. Give me the social clip and I'll watch you on Instagram later. I don't need to be seeing it live because it's just like joltty, it's low res and I don't think it adds a lot and the kind of TV camera operators when they're not showing the back of someone's head do an amazing job of showing the action and they've got great angles around the track. I just don't think having a slightly higher one in worse resolution is any better and I don't really I'm not the biggest fan of it. I feel like you're too far away from the trail. No, no , you sound like you're a fan after all of that . No, no, like it. Old boomer shouts at technology. That's what he's. Bring back the old timing tower. Give me three days. You want once a lap timing updates Yeah just the top lap points to the top six points for the top six to overtakes a race and that's that's it No I disagree. I think I think it can be they can be optimized. I think they can be done better because they can't fly with the track. Clearly, that's the problem that they're not yeah, they're not allowed to of course it's health and safety. But I don't mind the flying around the outside like we saw. I thought that was really cool and a different element . But also the camera the actual positioning of the camera is not optimized. I think that's the thing that I would say needs to be improved and agree with the whole like tilting of your head to actually have it sort of you know balanced . So I'm convinced that prove it. Too much too many this sounds insane to say but there's too much too many angles, too many there' re almost like trying to offer too much that it actually makes the broadcast worse and I don't actually I'm not surprised that the TV direction is as bad as it is sometimes when they're trying to do helmet cams show off a rear wing cam, and you won't wonder how much of it is probably sponsor related as well. So they've got a camera on the rear wing show X sponsor. I don't know, but there's so many times where it's like a bit I had this frustration with the helmet cam, which seems to have disappeared. I was going to say it's around helmet cam. We didn't see it once. Exactly. They just got it. They've realized it's terrible . And it's like cool to watch a little video on Instagram of it, but I don't want to be live on board with the helmet cam because I can't see what's going on. Like just they're not fighting. If it's like a lull in the race and we go to an onboard in the helmet cam. So there's no lulls in twenty twenty six lawn and they're struggling to shake. There were lulls at the same time. There were lulls, there were lulls, not lols, lulls. Anyway there were lulls . The next thing we were going to get on to, but you've already you've already sort of like brought it up a little bit , so it's not going to hit as much, but it's fine. If you're watching on YouTube, we're actually going to show you a really funny Patreon comment that was put in our discord. If you're listening on audio, I'll explain afterwards. But the question is, from the ampigne never left or ASTA Martin Payne I assume could the TV direction be better ? But the beautiful thing that this patreon member has done is that they've somehow included an emoji man I assume, but the back of his head in front of the word direction. That's the best way I can describe that . So let's get on to TV direction in general. We've disagreed on who likes and dislikes the drone shots. As for the TV direction , there were I basically measure my upset on how many times I've actually shouted Why are we looking at this? And I feel like there were a solid amount of times in this race and none more than the decision , which I still don't get. Like if there were no cars on track, it still wouldn't make sense that the cameraman is behind another man's head and then the apex , the apex of said corner , and all I can sort of must er from this, all the explanation is that the TV director is a Charlot Leclerc fan because it was Charlot leclerc that was being passed into that corner and therefore they did not want to see it live on televis ion, so they thought show the back of the head. We tried. I'll know what a shame. I think they're trolling. That has to be trolling. Or they 're like, this will get mentioned. Matt and Tom mentioned this one because it's so it's so good. Don't think they'll go shall we troll the audience ? I mean, honestly , you could not have that crowd shots are bad enough when we're missing the action . The fact that this is why I say it's such a troll that you're framing a camera angle again, too many cameras. This is the problem with Formula Lawn. Too many cooks for the broth. Just one camera for Tommy, that's always one. A helicopter camera. Just the TV cameras around, occasion cut to on board done, easy. Keep it simple. And instead, let's show the back of someone's head who's literally covering the apex of a corner that someone's about to overtake again it screams too many cooks like let's just let's just simplify it No, it just screams full blown mistake because they will in this you know in their TV direction operation they will see the previews of every camera . They've gone yeah number seven. Yeah, that looks good. Yeah, that man's back the back of his head, that haircut phenomenal. Let's show it. Utterly ridiculous. I'll be honest with you. Imagine being that guy. Like what you have become a formal meme, so reach out if you're listening . Maybe. Maybe they don't even know to this point . Other things to mention , I guess there were moments where replays randomly came up. I think there was a point where they didn't show the handle sound just happened. They didn't show it. Yeah, really they were they were focusing on something else. They did incorporate, if we're talking about TV direction in general, they've incorporated a mini box replay cam, which I've never noticed until this race, which just basically was Russell locking up. That was the only thing I think they used. No, they did another one because it confused commentary because they used they showed Alex Alban overtaking, I think, an Alpine or something , and it was a replay. So the commentary thought he was overtaking the person that was next to him on the timing tab, but actually it was a replay . But speaking of commentary, you know it's bad when the commentators are literally he slugged the TV direction, he popped off about it and that's when you know it's bad when is that the twenty five million people want ? Yeah , that was a replay of this. And it's true. Like why we weren't getting a replay? We didn't see a replay once and they cut away from it quite quickly . And another thing I remembered was they were showing the start replays while Hamilton was pitting, which was quite pivotal. He was running second at that point. The funniest thing is that for that one, I know for a fact they'll be sat there going. But man but M,att T andommy said to not show it on lap one, two or three, we throw it in on lap seven and now they're having to go at us for this is do you want your replays Matt? Tommy stage there was a stage where they really nailed it and we were really full of praise and it feels like it's slowly slipping backwards again . Just maybe it's just me but it feels like up there with Lance Roll at Monaco replacing words it is. That is going to be one of those moments that will just appear on like Instagram or Twitter in like six years time going remember this and we all laugh and I completely not thought about the back of that Estabanakon fan's head since Austria? Until now until now never did that person think the back of their head would be despised by so many millions of people no but yeah poor bloke. Okay so, let's now go to our biggest winner, driver or team. Who are we going to crown biggest winner for this weekend ? Ooh , I think Max Verstappen is a is a solid shout just pure ly from like the pace that has been displayed. True. They got upgrades upgrades, you know, massive upgrades and Versappen's put in a performance to live in the race breaking down five seconds into FB one after the new upgrades. I was thinking ah and then and then you know I've seen a lot of people have their opinions on what they believe and think it's that they're like defending Max and stuff. But obviously since recording the podcast they came out and said that Max's rear wing had an issue closing at turn nine. Categorically said it is not a max issue. sorry, did you say it wasn't closing? It was correct. Sorry not that it wasn't closing. It was closed. It was it was closed, but it was a rear wing issue issue. Yeah . It was causing load to be inconsistent, I think, at the rear of the car. Because he said it happened at turned six on the was slowly getting worse, apparently. So So yeah, ten out of ten from Accent . Well, I mean, if you'd have said when he was , you know, in that wall in qualifying that he'd finish one point six seconds off the victory and be that close to the win out of taken it all day long even though I'm just like I really wanted to get that win but who knows? Maybe Red Bull have turned a corner now . Maybe but Austria very unique track in terms of just being 's always power circuit. So let's see. I think yeah, Max is a good shout. Other driver to sort of throw into the mix would be Charles , you know, beat Liam Lawson by forty seconds. That's not his as we joked about our lie joked about you can't you don't have to give that, you know, you 're you gotta say the full joke Tom the full joke. Yeah, exactly. I said in the watchlon that Barcelona were saying Louis Hamilton's getting his eight andh then in Austria saying Charlotte's getting his eighth. And he did forty five seconds off the lead. Why did I even tell you to give the context? You should have left it at that point whatever. Yeah, I'm going to crown Max Vesta and the biggest winner because as much as George Ross, you explain the most yeah, exactly. So yeah, max . Yeah, and I can't even I can't even give it to racing bulls for being quite comfortably best of the rest just because no one they were no top teams. Oh, I just remembered something actually. Oh, it's really annoying. The top has been what have you remembered I remember that I nearly went for all the top eight, say the top four teams all finish a race because I don't think it's happened all season or something . And finally they all in a race where we thought everyone was going to retire it all happened kind of at the start, didn't it? Both cadillacs just set on fire and went che,ers take, care and then I thought, right, we're getting literally like ten finishes here, and then in the end it was absolutely fine. I thought so as well. I thought it was an easy. Yeah, let's go for Max . Okay, Max locked in. If you just lose a Cadillac, it has to be. Like they've brought a whole host of upgrades and by lap four they were both on fire and out of the race and then not even that. They just had a horrendous practice session . It genuinely is almost comical how bad they were. This is what they should have been in Australia. They've brought loads of upgrades. Yet, we're going to move towards the midfield and they've had a devastatingly bad weekend . Speaking of comically bad, depending on like who you support and whatever, but Fernando Alonzo in ' eighteenth , he was very close to getting lapped by Alex Alban in seventeenth. Oh, that's how bad Aster Martin were . He was fifty three seconds behind. He had a good fifteen seconds in the locker there, that was close to twelve point five fastest lap of his race which was six t quenthickser thanb that alum, but he did stop for soft tyres at the end stop for softs at the end but yeah crazy and forward Yeah it's got it's Cadillac surely I think yeah McLaren wasn't I think Lando Norris is disappointing for P seven he had some problems, didn't he? He did problems again. His strategy was terrible. I think yeah, it really just did not work out for Lando at all . Yeah, he was running yeah, just behind Piestri. He was racing piestri at the start and then just for whatever reason just yeah didn't work out for him and he ended up all the way down in seventh place . Indeed. Now Cadillac Cadillac indeed. Let's now take a look at our predictions that we made before the race weekend put it up on Wednesday. I don't really want to, I'll be honest with you . But we're going to do it all the same . So it's currently twenty eight twenty two to Tom Bellingham . My good surprise Charlotte the eight solid points first point score in three Grand Prix, so I would say locked in one point and I went for obviously no for those of you that Lando Norris, who was P seven. So actually closer to first. So that's a point for me because it's like P what isn't it? It's like P what way closest to first wins. No piece. What do you mean ? That's something that I would should be saying being six points behind . But yeah, we have devastatingly bad good surprises from both of us. We've had some smug moments where we've basically gone look, this is why we know Weil. We picked the literal two worst worst performing drivers of the top teams. Yeah, really good. Seventh . Really, really not good. A big flop. I went for a team. I went for Mercedes and they did not get a one two. So another point for me. And I went for I went for Ferrari . And look, I think we need to ask the question here. Yeah, and I knew the question was coming and my question to your question , it has to be. So that's not a question is it's a no I think we'll obviously throw it out there but like twenty six seconds off Hamilton Leclerc was forty five seconds off No yeah no doubt Leclerc was a floppy flop, right? My question is if you' putd Lewis Hamilton down , would you be giving him a flop for P five? That's what I'm just throwing out. Well , he really, but it's a team flop, isn't it? So it's combined. So you gotta take a look at a flop to get yeah. And they did. I mean, Hamilton Ferrari as a team were the worst team of the top runners . Oh, which I said would happen. So that was my prediction that they would be the fourth best team and they were . That's and also just for added ammunition, I did a poll on Patreon and it's overwhelmingly voted in favor of here, but that's because you have a secret tier for subscription of you just in your pocket. We'll do it. We'll do another we'll do another poll, but I don't think that's a provision no that's no forget the poll. Forget the poll, have two points. Hope you're happy with the money. Enjoy the money. Yeah. Well done. You'll be forty points clear at the summer break and then Grace do the full Jimpsons and it'd be fun to watch. Yeah, yeah, Ferrari definitely a flop because yeah they literally won in Spain and then they finished fifth and eighth. Had Hamilton finished fourth? Perhaps maybe not. But instead, Ferrari went, Hey, have an extra pit stop for no benefit . Let's now go to Pole Position where I went for Chaude Clerc, which oh my god Oh my god that was almost the most generational prediction. You need to have a more yellow flag half point more yellow flag and you'd have been fired. I've seen I've seen comments that like Matt deserves half point for that because realistically in a universe where the FIA are actually competent . That's that's seen every day of the week, but I know it's not going to happen. I say I'm saying it's a joke, but yeah, look at her pole, what a joke. And I went for Max Verstappen . No . It was quick indeed. It was very quick, but no, very quick, but quickly into the wall as well. Third place. I went for Lewis Hamilton No . I went for Max Verstappen. No, close. Very, very close . Indeed. Pantonelid got him that would, have come in. Yeah, I know I was praying for Annelle to not get him because I care more about your prediction points than I do the actual race result. In second position I went for Lando Norris. No, he finished seventh . I went for George Russell, which was incorrect. Also very close . Yeah, close, but no , no point there. And then in first place, I went for Charlotte Claude finished eighth. That's really good. So my first second and third finished eighth, seventh and fifth . Good. Wow, that's got to be minus points. I went for me London I've suffered enough . Yeah. London Oris I went for the win and that was never on at any point this weekend. McLaren certainly did not deliver it this weekend . Right, P if you're unfamiliar, random number generator, we have to do it between four and twenty two and we have to guess. It was P seventeen for this week and I went for Ocon again back to back Occons and a back to back points No actually no because I didn't score points today. I was going to score points in Spain until three laps from the end but my goodness grac,ious me how close, was I once again just delivering those potential P seventeen's to me and then not delivering them. But I'm still going to get a point because he finished sixteenth and you didn't go for Alex Albon who finished seventeenth I did not. I went for Valtteri Botass whose car just decided to set on fire on lap two . Yeah, that's not a great result for Valtteri. One crazy one crazy prediction. So this one I want to apologise to the whole Cadillac team because it could not have gone worse for them throughout the entire weekend. I went for Cadillac have their best finish of the season . Was a final if If what if I meant best finish in terms of like finish early? You know how to finish on a bang and they did finish on a bang like the smoke everywhere, the fire . Yeah , like you know, when you finish work early it's a great thing so that fast. Yeah . I went for Audi score a point and finally we need to talk about this. Audi, I'm not claiming a point, just saying no, no, no, no . Finally, Audi had a car. Both cars decided, no, we're not going to disintegrate this race on a race where I'd basically bet that it was going to happen in that heat . And they still managed not get a point. It is insane that Bortile Bortello finished yeah, so Bortello finished eleventh and basically everyone ahead of him was fine, like all the top teams and racing boys who were quicker. So he finished eleventh. And then Monaco he finished eleventh where everyone retired . So did have a stinker in Monaco though. Yeah, but what I mean is it just's like audi just seemed to be there love and no matter what. If there's ten DNFs they're eleventh, if there are no DNFs they're eleventh they're eleven. They just they just can't get a point. It's crazy. No it is sad, it's sad. It's going to come eventually . But we're glad that they were able to finish the race. That's an important milestone for our milestone for fancy F one teams around the world around the world Holmberg in their team. Finally, Holkenberg finishes a race. Okay , so let's now go to our Patreon prediction, where if you're a part of the Poo one patron, you can submit a prediction for us and we choose one. I went for one mini. Race winner is someone who hasn't won yet in twenty twenty six and that is fully incorrect as much as it feels like a long time ago does feel a long time ago because it was. It was in Australia Yes, indeed. Piper Muz Mimic X was my I love history rather than just saying M Z. You said you kind of skims? Yeah, why not? Neither Mercedes is on the podium and both of them are on the podium for the first time in a long minus the amount of times that they're on the podium so too. Perfect. Wow, what a game. What a I scored zero points. You did score zero points. No, that's that has to be the first time in a very long time that I've scored zero points in an entire weekend. No, I scored one. What am I talking about? I've got a garcon. Of course, the pins are here. Yeah, it's actually we always can score. But in terms of oh yeah trade. That's your prediction . Your only point was being wrong, but it was beating close close to being right . Oh no, let's ignore all of that and move to the family top three, the Constructor Championship. It's currently seven all . My fiancee , which is correct, right? It was definitely Ellie that did it before we say it was the wrong because she achieved copy my predictions. Yes, that's so true. Yeah, we had the whole thing, right? Just making sure because it's been very busy. In third place, she went for Max Verstappen , which was very close, but not my sister who did the predictions for the first time and named the only three former lawn drivers she knew first on that list was Lewis Hamilton in P three . Could have happened but it didn't. In second place Ellie went for Antonelli. So had that position swapped she would have had a two pointer she would have and my sister went for Lando Norris . And in first place , my fiancee Ellie went for Lando Norris, which could not have been more wrong. A lot of Norris hype this weekend did not did not deliver to it. And my sister went for Max Verstappen , which to say my sister could only name three former one drivers, she was one point six seconds from being correct . Yeah . Yeah. That would have been incredible. It would have been very good. So there you go then no point goes What and what a full risk of predictions but well done to your team prediction. That's that's what saved you this week. So seven points the gap between me and you back to're what I was a few races ago and then I celebrated by closing the gap by four and now we're back to seven and I just don't want to do this anymore. But it's fine. Good. That is it. Thank you everybody for tuning in to this Austrian Grand Prix chat. We will of course be back for best reactions which will be out tomorrow and then we will have driver ratings and then we're straight into Silverstone Week . It's we're going to be there. So if you want to come along to see us at the main stage on Sund ay at ten forty in the morning. We'd love to see you there. Please come along because we don't really want to perform to know people. So we'd love to see you there. We'll do a meeting greet afterwards to those that come along. It looks right now like it actually will be sunny . The last two years has been dreadful weather for us on stage. It's made for great races, but it's been dreadful weather and it looks like it genuinely is going to be sunny. So we'd love to see you there . And that is my final thought. What's yours, Tommy? Mine is that if you're a patreon, you're going to get some more lovely little chatter now and I'll just yeah, there we go. I wasn't mentioned. Well, but yeah. We've sandwiched the Patreon shout outs, but we have , but we do you didn't mention it. I definitely did. Yeah. I said we're getting extra race chat. I said. Oh completely Okay, no, it's fine. A couple of I reckon there's one person that now subscribes to the Pe on Patreon because you mentioned it again. I hope so. If not, just to see that unbelievable post with the guy with the back of the head over the TV direction thing that is that's good banter from worth of discord amount of time top work from the from the discord there. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there you go. Thank you everybody. We will see you next weekend for the next main race review podcast. Lots of podcasts of course coming out before then and we are well and truly into four races out of five race weekends. We've got the first one done. Silverstone next will be there. Can't wait for it and that is it. Here we go . Maybe hundred percent. Actually, you know, that's checked. Where is it? Max St ise ninetppyen eight points behind Kimi Antonelli. Yeah that more importantly, ninety two points is Charlotte behind Kimmy Antonelli going into one of Leclerc's worst weekends which is S,ilverstone. I swear every time I watch Leclerc at Silverstone, it does not go well. In fact, let me just look up Leclerc Silverstone results because I really don't think remember when he was leading that one time when they went Hamilton and Verstappen crashed, he still wasn't able to win even though Hamilton had a literal drive through penalty, I think it was at ten seconds. Let's have a look. So Charles Leclerc twenty twenty five, fourteenth, twenty twenty four, fourteenth. twenty twenty three , ninth, twenty twenty two, fourth, twenty twenty one, second and then fourth, then third, then third. So it's got steadily worse as the years have gone on but two fourteenths in a row at Silver fourteenth. Yeah. So maybe if we get P one in fourteenth I'm locking in Charlotte. Now, what crazy prediction Charlotte finishes in the top ten Silverstone? It's coming. Top thirteenth finishes . Right, we'll leave you at that. Take care, lots of love. Addos. Bye . P one is a stack production and part of the ACAS Creator Network