Final Thoughts on Barcelona and Future

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Peak One podcast with Matt Tommy today is a very special day as we all know in the world of Formula One, Ferrari back on top and mixed emotions , you know, for this guy right here , insanely happy for Hamilton so depressed for Shara Claire but lots of other things to talk about as well in this Barcelona Catalonia Grand Prix round.u Tpommy , you are in your little Max Verstappen World Cup football shirt . I don't I think I saw him for three seconds in this race. He was non existent, but you know, I love Max Verstappen, but it's not the story . The story is Hamilton and that amazing victory. And it was just epic. Like we saw kind of a weirdly like a reverse of Canada where all the action came at the start and then nothing happened. And then in this race we were going oh no it's a Barcelona stinker nothing's happening and then as soon as Hamilton went on that different strategy it all came alive and just what a thrilling end to the race and what an amazing story for F one as well. Absolutely . Now before we get into everything, a quick shout out to our wonderful P one Patrons who get extra chat at the end of every single race review this year, as well as lots of other things, add free listening, access to our discord and so on and so forth , lots of benefits. Come and join the Pew on Patreon if you haven't already, a lot to talk about, a lot to cover as well in the Patreon segment. But right here, right now, we're going to go straight to my most memorable moment which is Alpine Double Points . I'm kidding . Hamilton winning for Ferrari . It does not feel real what I've just watched. I don't know if it's because like so many things have gone. We all know who my favorite driver is and he couldn't have had a worse grandpree weekend if he tried . But when you isolate that and look at Hamilton winning for Ferrari, it is such an unbelievably special moment. It was always going to be we felt as though, especially with how Hamilton has been this year that it might well come at some point this season . And goodness, gracious me, I am utterly just bamboozled that it's happened in Catalunia of all places. I firmly believed coming into this that Mercedes were going to be clear . I thought they were going to be so unbelievably strong. And instead, of course, Ferrari brought a whole host of upgrades into this weekend and they actually worked. That combining with a Lewis Hamilton ten out of ten unk is back , you know, he was just on it the entire weekend sensational combine the two and it was an unstoppable force. That last stint from Hamilton, I'm sat there going, all right, maybe Ollie Berman's going to take Charlotte's seat. Wait a minute. Maybe maybe this is it, maybe my formula one fandom of Charlotte Claire is over. I don't think it's like that don't I'm only joking but Hamilton simply amazing. I could not believe when I was watching that the lap times he put in at the end just pique Lewis Hamilton. He's not going anywh . Absolutely not. It was unbelievable. I mean , we'll talk about the penalties and things later, but there was of course the worry that he might have got a penalty but he easily , you know, pulled away and made sure that that wasn't even an iss ue even if it had been in the end. It was an incredible final stint from Hamilton, just an amazing race from him to do a complete different strategy . And just in terms of like the victory , it was so, so special and you could see what it meant to him . And the thing I loved the most was how emotional he got during the Italian National Anthem and it makes you wonder how different it hits you're hearing the Italian national anthem for you driving for Ferrari. Obviously he's heard he's won this is one hundred six win. He's heard the British National Anthem so many times upon the podium being on the top step. I think why he got emotional was hearing that Italian anthem, probably thinking that maybe he'd never win for Ferrari based on what happened last year, looking down at the Italian flags, everyone's saying, you know, he's made the worst move ever to go to Ferrari. Why have you done it? He wanted to go there win championship we'll see , but even just getting a win is incredible and kind of we questioned whether we'd see it and it was just so great to watch him get that win . Also saw a lot of people mentioning and doing the round on Twitter that Michael Schumacher got his first Ferrari win in Spain thirty years ago , so a really cool light bit of symmetry there, very nice. just what an amazing story for Formula One really is. Yeah, the emotion that he showed on the podium was really special. You know, you could see the Ferrari sort of crew. They had the flags out. They were proper. Like, you know, the energy was unmatched. And you could see that Hamilton, you know, going through those trials and tribulations, having the struggles makes the victories taste even sweeter. You know, we were saying on our live stream, weren't we Tomy that someone asked about, you know, what's been your favorite moment in terms of when you go to a formula one race? Like, can you tell us a memory? And the one that always stood out to me or stood out to me the quickest was the Hamilton win in twenty twenty four when he finally won again at Silverstone and for Mercedes and again he'd had those struggles and it was an incredible race and he came through to win that one. That was like such a core memory for me. And then you look at this one as well and formula one is built around stories and narratives and arcs and journeys and things like that. And this one for Hamilton yeah, it is kind of solidifying his move once again. People have questioned his moves throughout his career when he went from McLaren to Mercedes people questioned it and look what happened there. He then has now gone to Ferrari and I think he has silenced absolutely everybody that has said he's finished, he's washed, he just can't do it. Last year was a struggle. We know that , but he's proven today that the minute he's able to as he's put it, put my DNA into the team and into this car and yeah and yeah he is showing that he can push a team in the right direction with his feedback and with working with one of the greatest we've ever seen. So yeah, it's unbelievable. I can't believe just utterly unfathomable that I've just seen Hamilton win by twenty seconds in a Ferrari this year around Barcelona, like what Mercedes that has completely dominated the season at a track that normally the team that dominates wins by a mile . Exactly, maybe it's exactly . Next question, or the first question in fact, Punton Patreon member F one Sushi Would Hamilton's three pit stops work if the safety car hadn't happened . It would have been absolutely fascinating to watch. Don't get me wrong. Of course , I'm just glad we saw Lewis Hamilton winning because it's an amazing story, but there is part of me that would have loved to have seen him come through the pack because I joked yesterday with this whole talk about the tyres. Are we going to see like a two thousand twenty twelve Parelli race where people are on different strategies and they've got such a big tyre advantage and they're flying through the pack that's. And exact ly what Hamilton would have had to have done where he'd have been on much fresher tyres at the end, but he'd have had to have got past probably Lando and both Mercedes drivers . And I think he would have done it. How much he pulled away at the end , how much you saw people struggling on the tyres . We saw, I know it was against his own teammate who were similar battles, but how much kind of like George was struggling around that final sector. And even like looking down the pack like some people that had tried to stay out longer . I think it was like O li Berman at one point and things you just you can't do anything through those like corners where people were just passing into corners because of the tire difference was so massive. So I think Hamilton would have had a massive advantage. It would have been amazing to see, but I do genuinely think he would have won anyway because his pace was just absolutely phenomenal this race . Yeah, we can't be too picky with how it all unfolded, but I'm going to be because I would have loved to have seen Hamilton come through because he would have had to play cinema at the time Norris, Antonelli and Russell to win . And I do believe he definitely could have won and it's just an unknown, isn't it? Of yes, he would have rocked up to the back of them , but how would he have negotiated three c ars in the space of a handful of laps to win the race ? You know, we saw probably more of a discrepancy between newer and older tyres, but two and a half, three seconds a lap sometimes at Hamilton when he went on the medium tyres initially he was absolutely flying. He was two and half seconds lap big of an advantage. Yeah, he wouldn't have had that big of an advantage, but he still would have had, I think, at least a second in the locker and he wouldn't have come out particularly far behind depending on when he decided to go on that final stint , but either or I think Hamilton's pace in that last stint, yes in clean air just showed that he had so much margin . So for me, I think he could have made it works. And more about the strategy actually, there's a question here from people on Patreon member LW two three three zero , have the Ferrari strategy team finally woken up . Now on this I want to genuinely give a give a round of applause to Ferrari here. Yep, because a really obvious thing not obvious because Mercedes didn't do it. They went on a three stop aggressive strategy. I don't think that's obvious . I think that's what you were saying about the paying him under the VSC. No, no, no, no . Because they didn't do that in obviously before. Yeah, yeah, but slightly different circumstances. I think it was a very obvious thing to be. Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought this question was about. No, no, but I think it's just generally right, Ferrari get mean for their strategies and things like that. And especially, you know, there have been some very questionable moments over the years when fighting for the win of decisions they've made, but this one, the three stop strategy , I genuinely think bamboozled Mercedes a little bit. They were you know, pit it they basically the aggressive strategy from Ferrari and Hamilton, the first pit stop , as Russell was said after the race as well, forced him into an early pit stop. So Mercedes instead of just continuing on their own strategy and their own plan , used Russell to, well, they basically pit Russell to stop Hamilton from getting tracked position . Russell is then of course a little bit angry about the fact that he's then vulnerable to Kimmy Antonelli. Nothing came of that of course , but that immediate sort of pressure from Ferrari forced Mercedes into a bit of a mistake there because Russell was then saying, well, I was actually managing the tyres quite a bit in that first in and then you pit me to keep the keep track position but I didn't really want that. So I'm genuinely so impressed with Ferrari because that is exactly the strategy that allowed them to win this race. Yes, there was luck with the VSC, but it opened up there potentially being some kind of luck with the VSC. They're not just following suit with Mercedes. They're not trying to beat them on track with the same tire life. They're doing something different and with that, it worked out an absolute treat. It did, yeah. I love when teams do this strategy of just because I think the problem was at the start of the race and why we were worried it was going to be so boring was it was tire conservation mode and it was just yeah, they were all kind of locked into a run program and it was kind of like o,h okay the gaps are opening up. Everyone's just thinking about their tyres. But as soon as Hamilton went on this aggressive strategy and could just absolutely go for it, it gave Mercedes this huge headache and it put Mercedes under pressure and what was so fascinating as well is the fact that Antonelli and Russell were kind of together on track so they were fighting whilst also having to think about others as well and that's what made it so great . So yeah , the initial question I thought was about the whole pity under the VSC, which obviously they didn't do in Australia. This was such an obvious choice. It was an absolute noly brainer. It was the easiest thing in the world to do , but I will yeah applaud them for going on that three stop strategy because it gave them an opportunity. I think it would have been interesting to see how the race would have gone had Hamilton got into the lead because that was obviously a little bit of thinking of behind that was going on the soft tyre maybe seeing if they could get into the lead at the start and seeing where it went from there. So the fact that they've managed to win doing a different strategy, well done Ferrari . Yeah, absolutely . I did question that soft tire start , but it also I think very much opened up the well he's going to be doing a three stop because that soft tyre's not going to be able to go very far, but yeah he did a decent stint to be fair to Lewis on those soft tyres considering how much they were just disintegrating after only a handful of laps, so yeah, very, very happy to see Ferrari deliver flawlessly it has to be said with Hamilton and his strategy. Question from Punt Pitch Remember a Chilly Ninja Do Ferrari priorit ize Hamilton over Leclerc now if they have a chance to catch Antonell e. They do have a chance to catch Antonelli and that chance they should do it but they won't. It's very early in the season, of course . It's a big point difference. It's not absolutely enormous and it's still very early in the season . But I do I do think that if it was a Christian Horner at Red Bull or something , they'd be thinking about doing this and it's tough for Leclerc obviously. I will just say at the start, I don't think they're going to do this. I think it is too early and the points gap isn't too much. But I could see why some people would think and I do believe that their best opportunity because Mercedes are going to be incredibly hard to beat is Tabak Hamilton with every point you can because Mercedes have the how many times have we mentioned before that the big advantage Red Bull had was it was just one driver scoring the most points every week and that's how Max was able to close in on the two McLarens while they were almost going for the battle together and they almost lost it . So for Ferrari , Hamilton they need to go down the route of upgrading the car to suit Lewis Hamilton and give Hamilton everything he wants upgrade wise because Hamilton's the lead driver now and showing that he's on an amazing run of form. Charlotte Cler sorry to say that, but he's on the complete opposite run of form right now, where his form is horrendous and he keeps crashing . So and also like doesn't have the pace of Hamilton . So if they think too much about giving Leclerc an opportunity to go for the world title , it's tough because it could it could in theory cost them and Shell hasn't exactly kind of shown that he's ready to fight for that world title whereas Lewis Hamilton has already proved he can win in that situation . Yeah Yeah , yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool Yeah, this question to swallow pills right now. Right. This question. If you are playing like an F one manager game with no egos to have to deal with and things like that . Yeah, of course you know you're going to you're going to be putting Hamilton forward for this . But this is real life formula one and Leclerc's argument will be I don't think Ferrari even going to ask this question to him. I really don't know at this stage of the season. We've had what seven rounds. We have another fifteen to go . It's the third of the way through the season. Anything can happen as we know Ferrari of the fastest car then my God sign me up to the rest of the season. But we will talk about that shortly. With Hamilton and Leclerc, Leclerc's argument will be if there ever is one, I'm forty points behind Louis Hamilton and Hamilton 's forty one points behind Kimmy Antonelli. So you're telling me I'm actually closer to Lewis than Lewis is to Kimmy. Shell's closer to Gasly than he is to Hamilton. There's a thought sorry . It's true . That's not even like it's just factual information, just factual information. There will also be factual information as like I'm steaming through your front door . But yeah, it's too early in the season to prioritise Hamilton albeit I think if we get halfway through the season and Hamilton is within a race win the top of the championship. Of course we imagine that would be Antonelli , then yes, I think that Leclerc would have to play second fiddle , but right now we have fifteen races to go. Leclerc wins Austria, Hamilton has a DNF that it swings straight back towards, you know, being a lot closer between the two frai drivers. That's me saying Flecler wins which we can't get a break at the moment. But I do agree on the point that you said of Hamilton being one in one state of mind, Leclerc being in another. You know, this is one of the worst runs of form Leclerc's had in his entire career . So to Hamilton dream of him the best run, like one of the best. Yeah, exactly. Hamilton's Hamilton 's got the confidence. You can see he's really happy in himself like of course you're going to be what I mean, Ferrari yeah, that they would want to in a in a easy world to be able to back Lewis Hamilton just go full pelt with him to try and win the world title. But it's not as easy as that. It really isn't. But I would like to think Leclerc would help Hamilton when the time comes, but I'd also like to think Charlotte wins the rest of the rac es and then wins the world titles. What's the theoretical scenario then just in say we get to Austria I know what I would I think if we get to Austria and Leclerc's leading and Hamilton's second , I think I think it would be a case where they wouldn't do anything . No, no, no, no, I've said I said they probably should, but they won't . However, I think if it was a case where Leclerc was leading , Hamilton was behind him and there was potentially risk of losing the race or something, then maybe that's where they step in and do something like that. But in terms of just a straight fight, we're not seeing like Charles becoming Rubensbury Keller just yet. The just yet's crazy. I think Leclerc has hearing problems if he gets asked to move out the way for Hamilton to when Leclerc has not won since the US twenty . So there's no chance he gives up a victory at this stage of the of the of the season. I think Ferrari would even struggle to do it with three races to go to be honest with you. So lots of hypotheticals of course , but I don't think Ferrari can prioritize Hamilton at the moment, but I also think they might not even need to because Lewis is on such an incredible run of form that he might well be able to challenge moving forward if Ferrari can deliver a good car. Next question trying trading one . Does this mean Ferrari is faster on traditional circuits ? traditional circuits . You know, as we've been talking about this weekend, this is the circuit that no car can hide. It's the true baseline. It's the true benchmark. It's the test of all tests and yet somehow Ferrari seemingly fastest , Ferrari are not twenty seconds clear come the end of the race fastest. You know, this is Hamilton had slightly fresher tyres. He had a stint of a lifetime at the end. Russell was really struggling. Mercedes were right there. Let's not beat around the bush here. Antonelli retired. He was going to be clear of Russell, I think come the end of the race. So Ferrari are right in it clearly at least from this race, but I'm not going to get ahead of myself purely because Ferrari is slightly out of sync when it comes to bringing upgrades to the car. Like they've brought a lot of upgrades. Other teams very minimal. Mercedes McLaren, I think they were very small amounts of upgrades if any for this race. So it might well sort of shift one way and then the other depending on firstly if you can bring upgrades but secondly if the upgrades actually work. If you remember in Canada you already bought a whole heap of upgrades and they were still rubbish. So well Hamilton was great but Charlotte was struggling with the brakes. We won't get on to that. So yeah, I don't know how many traditional circuits there really are in Formula One , but it's definitely a good sign. I did not expect this. I don't think many people did. No, definitely not. I can't believe that Ferrari have come out with a victory. I do I do think there's , you know, you run race a hundred times. I don't think Ferrari is a case where Ferrari are always winning that race. There's other scenarios where Mercedes would be winning that race. They looked good. So it's not a case where I'm not saying that Ferrari weren't amazingly qu ick which they were, but there was lots of scenarios there that allowed Ferrai to win that racer and also by a huge margin as well. But it's very, very positive from Ferrari . I'd love to know and we'll wait to see how much this goes on longer. If Ferrari do mount a charge , the conversation that we had a while back of how Ferrari have potentially been shafted a little bit by the rules and them changing it and they've built their car to have these amazing starts. And I think we kind of dismissed that at the start of the season going Oh, well you know they're not going to win the championship it's between the Mercedes Can you imagine and you know it's who knows to think that maybe you know they did have an opportunity to kind of be challenging for this championship win those first racers because Hamilton is well in it now mainly thanks to some reliability from the Sony's. Why don't we go over to your most memorable moment, Tommy? Well, it has to be Kimi Antonelli with his DNF , another Mercedes conking out . It's shocking to see again, obviously , mixed emotions for George Russell, I'm sure because I don't know. He looked like he could get old emotion of happiness for Russell. I don't know , we'll talk about now. I don't know. Relief, maybe maybe relief, but it must it must be still a weird feeling for George that in a race where Kim Antony's DNF he's not won for a start and got the big points. Equally the fact that in a race that I think George was looking very dominant and Kimi looked off the boil Kimmy I say was going to beat him again is a big thing for George , but we mention about Ferrari and whether Hamilton can go after the world championship . The thing that could decide the world championship and bring Hamilton into it is that reliability from Mercedes . We mentioned, you know, they're supplying other cars up and down the grid who are having all sorts of problems McLaren, which we mention all the time. And it's also hitting the main team at Mercedes, George Russell not, just Canada had the problem in China as well. We joked before I want to say qualifying where Kim Yanno was the only one not to have a problem. Well, now he has and it's knocked him out of a second place extend like not extending his lead, but obviously like extending it on George Russell of course as well and looking to have like quite a comfortable margin but his closest competitor Lewis Hamilton has taken twenty five points on him. So it's a big it's a big thing this Mercedes reliability and and they have to sort it out because it could cost them because we know they're they're very very, quick . Absolutely. Yeah, I'm in complete agreement about the reliability. This is something that has caused the conversation of can Hamilton get his eighth world title at Ferrari because of this Kimmy DNF, had he finished second, Kimmy, this is it would be a seven point swing and Hamilton would be fifty nine points behind, not forty one. It's an enormous amount of points that Hamilton has gained, of course . I think yeah, the saving grace for Kimmy is that he's clearly still the fastest Mercedes driver. Yes, he struggled a little bit over one lap pace this weekend, but there will be kind of relief, not relief, but you know, there will be some comfort in the fact that he still had the pace over George who I still ultimately will be I think he will be the main competitor this season as much as I'd love to go down the Ferrari hype train, Ferrari going to win it win it all this that and the other . Mercedes have been the fastest car or equal fastest car at every single race weekend so far. Ferrari haven't. So they've yet to prove to me that they can do it at loads of different tracks as we head through this season . So for Antonelli, you know, this is a really painful DNF because he did not deserve that in the sense of like he's put down another very solid weekend and it's not got him any points whatsoever so ever . As for George , yeah, it is a bit mystifying what he's really struggling with in the races in particular . It's not like he was miles off , but he definitely struggled towards the end of the stints in this race and maybe that's due to the fact that he was forced onto that that early pit stop and therefore had to manage the tyres a little bit better of course Kimmy did have slightly fresher tyres than George to be able to go on the attack, and even sort of two, three laps difference was actually pretty big around here because of how much the circuit munched the tyres for want of a better analysis. Okay, let's go on to another question PON pitch member Emma Underscore VK Should George be concerned about Kimmy overtaking him on pace on a weekend where he looked faster . Yeah, I think you should because at the end of the day, Kimmy was going to be him on track again and I think he looked off of the b oy particularly in qualifying. He didn't have the best preparation. He was nowhere near George in qualifying . And yet in a race where the tire degrees was massive, maybe you think that the more experienced driver like in George Russell would be better and also the fact that Kimmy was fighting all over the back of him. I know dirty hour is nowhere near as bad as it was, but the fact that Kimmy was able to fight George and then overtake him and stick behind him for so long get past shows that yeah George struggled towards the end. you And also look at the fact that George that's with George obviously getting preferential which is deserved of course pit stops because he was the driver ahead and still didn't wasn't going to be Kimmy on the road. So that is a worry for George. He can go away knowing that maybe the luck has been reversed a little bit and gone to the other side of the garage and he' he's s kind of looking a bit better in the championship and it's not a disaster of a weekend certainly , but he's still not quite there and it's still looking like Kimi Antonelli is the superior Mercedes driver at the moment Indeed, yeah . I thought this would be the race that George would potentially bounce back qualifying was brilliant from him Nika Rosberg was saying in the sky broadcast that he has some question marks over George Russell's race pace this year and I think that's something that we've seen at most grandprix this year in comparison to Kimmy Antonelli of course. You know, Canada, Antonelli was all over the back of him, felt like he was slightly quicker . Again today as you say, Tommy, you would think that the driver that has more experience with these Parelli tyres would be able to nurse them better in these tricky high temperature conditions. But it was Antonelli, as I mentioned obviously earlier, had one or two fresher tyres than George, but realistically you would still think that maybe Russell would have a bit of advantage in those kind of situations. But I think it's just proving that Antonelli is absolutely deserving of a championship potentially this year if he keeps this up. Like there are hardly any chinks in his armor when it comes to what Kimmy is displaying . So I think George is pretty concerned . He will take these eighteen points that he's gained on Antonelli this weekend and he has to take a step forward he can't be being beaten by Antonelli for for the next few races if especially if Hamilton's mounting a charge and things like that Russell could very easily just fall out of this championship fight. I don't think that's going to happen , but that can so easily occur if he has another bad reliability weekend if he's just being beaten by anti on pure pace. How is he going to win the world championship if this is the constant trend? Yeah, absolutely . George needs to like find an answer at the moment. I think the biggest takeaway from that race is that he still needs to find an answer to Anton Elliot. It's not a case of okay, we've got into Europe thean se ason where people thought Kim Antono is going to struggle now. Yes, he's of course the one that's come home Antonoid is the one that's come home with no points but there's still question marks there over George . Next question and a different team. P one patreon member Amy. What happened to Oscar? His pace was non existent . Yeah, Piestri now I'm kind of just going off my just generally just watching I guess last year and things like that. Piestri is not known I don't think to be a tyre whisperer, especially when it comes to very hot , very degrading races in terms of the circuit and the tyres just melting . But he was he was yeah, not quick, not quick at all this weekend. Norris was on the back of the Mercedes, had a phenomenal weekend. I think he will be the unsung hero of this weekend again of just having no reliability issues and being able to mount a challenge to cars that I if we look at Oscar Piastri, Lando I think is outperforming and out delivering that car. So for Oscar it's weird, isn't it? Because of course in Japan he should have won . And that feels like a lifetime ago now because we've also seen the other side as well where as I mentioned when Lando's had good reliability , Landos seemed like the faster driver across the weekend. We've not got many pieces of evidence to go by because you went through all of Norris's problems in the Monaco podcast. But yeah, it seems like a not the best of seasons so far for Oscar and perhaps not adapting as well as some people might have hoped to these new regs of cars. No definitely not. You do wonder if there's some underlying struggle there similar to what Russell has had where the new cars don't suit him as much as his teammate because it has to be said that after Japan where he was the star of the show deserved to have won the race without an unlucky safety car , he's really not been anywhere near Lando's pace and has really really struggled. You know, he's a long way behind him in this race seconds, I think it was in the end. Yeah, exactly. So the same can be said about even Miami where Oscar picked up that podium, you know, he's twenty five seconds down the road from Lando and Canada as well , you know, he had a really difficult race there. And yeah, Oscar at the moment is having a bit of a struggle McLaren now here near where they need to be at the moment , but it is Lando, who's who's the one at the moment that's able to kind of salvage something for McLaren . Now a driver that makes me sad to talk about but we're going to have to do it is Nico Holmberg who I need to share some information Well no what's the information ? Have you seen how Niko Holkenberg retired from that race I have not . It has just been announced by Audi . So if anyone wants to know how unlucky Niko Holkenbegg is this year and just generally, I guess in Formula One if anyone's knows about it, there's a lever on a formula one car that kills it immediately if you pull it. That's a kill switch. Yeah, a kill switch. And Liam Lawson hit some gravel and a single stone landed on that and pulled it off and it killed his car . You are joining No, and he was running in the points That is has to be the most unlikely thing I've ever seen at all . Yeah . That is absolutely preposterous. Yeah, insane. Absolutely insane. Oh, that makes me feel even worse. I thought it was just a standard Audi retirement . No, so yeah. Is there like a replay of it? So Hulkenberg that his quote was what was it? So he complain ed about a lot of gravel . Somehow one stone pulled the emergency trigger on the left of the roll hoop and it killed the car, just total switch off and game over. That's absolutely . That is that is so unlucky. That is Lawson quite literally deployed a banana peel just yeah in a green shell. Yeah, yeah. Oh mate, that's that's devastating for Holkenberg because he was running in the points he was yep had a phenomenal weekend and then a piece of gravel, man. It's not even his fault that's tough. That's really tough was. ye Heah fully, des erving of scoring his first points the season. He's not got any and it's been always about reliability and this is reliability in a very different way . So yeah, poor poor Holkenberg. Let's now go to Biggest Winner Driver Route where we crown someone from this weekend that isn't could it be the biggest winner ? I think Charlene Cleric was pretty good for halfway through the race. He's put some good laps in. Yeah, you could almost be the Red Bull tractor . It's not a tractor, mate. It's the best engine actually. I'm sorry, yeah, best engine, yeah, yeah, they shouldn't won the race so yeah, Lewis Hamilton Lewis Hamilton is the biggest winner for sure. First win for Ferrari and just generally I think this will solidify his motivation to stay in the sport for his absolutely long as he can because before then you never know what he might be thinking, especially with some of the lows he's had obviously not this season necessarily but last year was a struggle but yeah he's he's bounced back in in some fashion. Yeah, it's got to be Lewis Hamilton. What a performance when will this narrative continue? It's going to be very fascinating. I think next race is a big one, but you know , Lewis does something special again. It's going to be like I still think it's between the two Mercedes then Hamilton Ferris the second. I still think it's between the two Mercedes then he wins the race by twenty seconds. Still think it's between leads by sixty points. I still think the Mercedes are going to bounce back . Yeah, we'll see. So yeah, fascinating fascinating to find out that Hamilton easily the biggest winner got fastest lap as well with his amazing run at the end . Indeed . Let's now go to the biggest loser driver or team . I mean Holkenberg's a good shout for I mean just being the unluckiest driver by quite some margin sharlotte Charlie Clerc is Charlie Clerc. It's got to be. He crashed in qualifying. And then retired with a mechanical failure and we've had a conversation on this podcast if he has to be Rubensbury Kello. I think that's a pretty poor weekend. Wow . Wow, wow, wow, no disrespect to Rubens Barricelo. But he was a number two driver. He was yes, okay big exclusive Charlacer fine. I will happily , not happily. I will be very sad to accept that. Thank you so much. I will sadly accept the correct answer . Let's now go look at our predictions that we made on Wednesday to see how we did. It is currently twenty two nineteen to Tom Bellingham. Three points the gap and I just want to say before we get into this changed an insane amount with four laps to go. I was cooking no tomorrow and things changed so badly, so quickly. So first and forem ost, a good surprise I went for Nico Holkenberg . Saloon. Wow, let's talk about this one. I think I have a real I have a real shout here. You're telling me he has not finished because of a piece of gravel that's pulled his kill switch. He got Q three. He was going to get his first points the season . Can I please argue this one ? Um Hm m grovel grovel some more and I may give you a pity point. Grove about the gravel grovel more. I just grove now so hard Yeah we can open this one up to the comments because I do think it could potentially be. You think there was a shout for it ? He was going to finish Where was he going to finish? Wasn't he? He was he was up there, but that is where Audi had been like kind of all the time, haven't they really? See? Oh behave. They usually lose seven positions at the start. , he didn't actually lose any. Yeah, I mean, to be fair, yeah, he was seventh actually . Gone, then go. Yeah, you're gonna allow it. Go on. Okay, thanks. It's only because the points swing massive ly underneath you're like, yeah, cool fine. Yeah, fair. Okay, thanks, Tommy, for the generosity you went for. I went for Bortoleto, who had a level. British shocker of a weekend. It has to be said . P eleven again back to back P eleven's since speaking to us sorry, sorry Mate sorry now let's go to a big flop. I went for Ferrari which, was half right, but half very, very wrong. Oh , very wrong. Yeah. Yeah. And I went for Has, which had an absolute shocker. They didn't collide , but on P thirteen . Off on P thirteen though, my goat. Like that's a good, that's a good result for Occam this season. It's a good result. Let me actually look at Occam's results this season and see if it's one of his best ones because if it is I'm arguing that this is not He literally the only car he beats a Cadillac. I don't care You finished ninth in the last race so no you had to be a did. Has shocker thirteen HAS were literally one of the worst cars out there which is crazy to think where they were . Yeah. Okay. Struggle time for house for sure. Oh God's sake Okon. You've ruined me and not just big flop, but something else we'll talk about as well. Poll position, I went for Kimmy Antonelli, which was wrong. I went for George Russell, which was inherited correctly . Yeah, well, well in hell yeah of course. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's really annoying. Third place I went for Max Verstappen, which was not right . I went for London Oris, which is inherited correctly. Inherited? No, you took Lando . No, sorry, it was in like inherited because of Kubiancelli's carfe. Oh, I see.or Sry I, was think tal itking about the blocking that we do in the prediction of the strategy . Yes, so that to fair, I wasn't going to be right for that, but yes, you got up for that one. In second place, I went for Kimmy Antonelli, which was going to be right , but it wasn't. It was going to be right into his car failed which gave it to George Russell, who I predicted second. And the first place went for George Russell was I don't know for Antonelli, which was incorrect . Yeah Yeah . So that actually means as well that with Hamilton winning, he has defended Antonelli from beating his win record, a win streak. Yes, so very true, actually. Five that' t probably why he was crying on the podium one hundred percent . Thank God . And didn't beat my wind streak. So good Tommy's on a nice roll of points. Let's go to P Watt where I was genuinely I was buzzing with this with literally like five laps to go . I'm on for two points. So PW if you're not familiar is where there's a random number that comes up today or for this one. It was P sixteen . And we have to say immediately who we think is going to finish in that position. I went for Ocon. My guy was sat so drastically in P sixteen. There was no chance of him getting anywhere further forward or further behind and then two retirements right at the end three retirements in fact Occoln gets up to P thirteen and Tom went for and I went for Sergeio Perez it's the funniest thing as well, the wheel knowledge from us by the way on display is that when it was P sixteen on it was P seventeen Perez. It was lap sixty three of sixty six Ocon sixteenth and Perez seventeenth . I mean that's a W, but I get the point for being closest for Perez's I have been so robbed. So can we just talk about so what would it have been without those last three laps? How many less points are you scoring? You're not scoring Russell P two, you're not scoring Norris P three . So that's too eradicated for you. I'm gaining one . Yeah, it would have been a lot closer. Yeah. And then I would have had P one of lost three. I would have scored two lost three. You just scored two points. Yeah, so the swing was creepy. I'd have scored three because Occon was a two pointer and a two point for grace . Anyway, one crazy prediction. I went for Norris has a clean reliability weekend and I want to say to each and every one of you that went Oh Paul Ando now he's not even going to get out the garage came in, didn't it? Came in Norris had a clean reliability weekend. You're welcome London. And I went for there's a teammate collision which almost happened with Has, but Well, Antonelli lost a bit of his wing in that Russell incident, I'm joking. That was off the ground which we've got spoken about actually. The Yeah , let's talk about that. The Russell versus Antonelli kind of move he went for the movie, went onto the inside, Russell kind of I mean he gave it everything. He was a sitting duck wasn't he at the end of the day but really weird that yeah Antonelli just watching it again he basically goes for the move Russell squeezes him somewhat and Antonelli is ever so slightly on a bump or something on the inside and it just lifts his car up and I mean dare I say is it a coincidence that his car jumps, lands and then one lap later, it goes breaks. It breaks like it could be very interesting to see. Yeah, I don't know if Mercedes will come out and say, Oh yes, it was George Russell's defensive manoeuvre that broke No , of course they wouldn't. But very interesting because we have seen it before where Carl's having a bit of a jump. Actually, I'm actually watching the replay and his wing is actually hanging, the little end plate on his wing is actually hanging off before he goes to the move. So interesting . Oh, very strange. He's already got the damage, but yeah, it looks like he chumps a little bit or there's a way to get damage then we're not sure where he got the damage. I did wonder I was like, how was he picked up damage from that? I don't know. It's hard to tell, isn't it the offboard? Yeah so it wasn't it wasn't that because you can say it's already lifted . It's already there. But anyway, back to George's defensive maneuver, I thought it was, as Martin Brundle so beautifully says, a day late and a dollar short. Like that was a very strange defensive maneuver from George because he didn't shape the for the defense anywhere near early enough gave the inside to Kimmy and that was that was the move done. So I don't know what George's thinking was there. Maybe he wanted to squeeze him to the inside and hope that Kimi would make a mistake on the ensive side dirty side of the track. But yeah, I did find that a bit of a bizarre defense from George and one that ultimately didn't work. But if we think that Kim my's car bounced and then it DNF, maybe it was an Master employee . Maybe he did. He did his track walk, he saw a little bump and when Kimmy comes to pass me, I'm going to push him onto that . Over the bump kills the wooden, that would take some planning. So okay, there you go. That is that done. We now go to our Patreon prediction where I went for Patrick's which was Nika Holmberg, makes it into Q three. Come on and I went scored so many points this weekend. Yeah, you can't break out to run. I went for Lex Wakeman, VCAB to outscore McLaren this weekend, which they did not. And were on obviously VCA did well in the end all things considered more points again . They must be looking good like Liam Lawson is tenth in the world champions and racing balls are P six. So yeah, thirty eight points a big shunk for V carbo doing they've got a very good current underneath them and they're picking up points all the time it seems after I said in my entire championship table they always leave points on the table and don't surmise has been really really solid this year like he's been a consistent point score r and once again yeah scoring some points had it not been for I guess Antonelli and Liquer out then they wouldn't have scored any points and it would have been a P nine P ten for alp . Yeah, I saw Lawson got screwed with a pit stop. He was running quite slow, wasn't it? Yeah, he had like a six and a half second pit stop so that may have cost him for Colopinto. I need a beat in the Alpines . So yeah , it's it's tough but I mean, yeah, they got they got their points in the end and yeah Lawson's having in particular Lawson's having a really good season. Yeah, he really is and Lindblad made a two stop work I, think which, was he went very long in that first int ended did a pretty good job. Do you want the scores on the doors though? Okay, all right, give us a score on the doors if we really want to. What is the score? So it's twenty eight . You scored six points. You scored three so twenty eight twenty one. Oh, I'm back to seven behind. Shoot me twenty two sorry six behind. Six behind. Yeah, please please don't rob me of any points. That would be really quite sad. Six points behind. Goddamn it. It should have been like one or two and I would so annoying. I hate this game but I love it. See you next time . The Constructors Championship. Found me top three . It is six five to the Bellinghams after a double point score for Tommy's dad, which I now feel the first about point that But well done, still you still deserved it, Dean. So my dad, and I'm going to get it correct this time. My dad predicted P three Lando Norris. Let's go. W two, George Russell. Let's go. Oh, wow . And P one and Nellie. Two points. Two points from my dad, but I knew coming into this if my dad scored points I've had a stinker because I knew that you were going to but I also thought it was going to be the other way around and it was going to be Anzonillion Russell that you would have scored two points with. But alas it was Russell and Norris it was and my wife went for the Stappen P three , Russell P two and Antonelle P one. So we knew there could only be basically a one point swing and you got it. So it's all level . It's all level . It is seven all very, very close. Can we put seven all to the gallaghers in the sheet just so that I do read it out and I feel like you know 's me actually. And damn it. Bore and Bellum strike again. Alphabetically . There you go, right, thank you everybody for tuning in . It's been quite the grandprix to talk about. I think I'm just looking down the order to see if we've missed anyone to discuss. I think Hadjar had a very quiet race. My goodness gracious me finished over a minute behind Verstappen in dropped . Yeah, he dropped massively down at the beginning of the gap fifteenth and sixteenth a different stop, didn't he? 'Cause he had the chasm between a gap. Yeah, as it was. A lot of runners could stopped at the end, didn't they? Yeah, yeah, it's funny that yeah, there's no fastest lap point anymore, but we're basically in that territory again where the basically the whoever's last of the top runners get a free pit stock just to why not throw some softs on and just have fun . Can we also discuss very quickly and it's something that we saw when Alonzo I think went out this new graphic of a car stopping on track and them showing that the actual car on track it feels like. I'm like, I appreciate the graphic, but just show me it. You know, like yeah, is it a bit too like is it a bit of spoilers? I like the spoiler Yeah,, ye yeahah Because I feel like this is a bad example because it's going to make me look like I'm laughing at your pain, but like obviously it is the glare incident. Well I am, I am, but it's horrendous to say like doesn't hit the same but it'.s But it's so so true of like if everything's going oh we've heard blah blah blah is off whereas that moment when it cuts to like a someone's off and it's like oh my god I can't believe it's true it doesn't it's not as excit ing is it when you see that whereas if you're just getting okay , so yeah, if it was a situation where it was like a Antonelli for example , it wouldn't have been anywhere near as shocking if we'd have kind of been following on board with Hamilton and you get a little graphic going until retiring by the way and we're going to see it in five seconds time. Yeah . It's so true on board. Similar to the mini sectors in qualifying. That's also a spoiler where you see like, you know, who's going to go fast as who's not and that sort of stuff. So yeah, I mean in agreement actually because yeah that hard cut too much automation . Yes. Part of the excitement is why I don't like the pit thing sometimes where it's like this is exactly where they're going to come out the pits. It's like, No, let's watch it. That's part of the excitement of Formula One . All right, cool. I think that's pretty much it . We will sign off there unless you're a people on patreon, which we're going to answer a few more questions. So please come over there if you haven't subscribed already. Tommy , final thoughts . Final thoughts . We won't be seeing the Barcelona C,atalinia Grand Prix until well, a couple of years I think it's rotating, isn't it? Is that announced or is that rumored? I think it's heavily rumored that it's going to happen. There's been so many second announcements. I'm trying to remember what's what with the different things, but either way, well done for delivering because I certainly didn't think it was going to at the start . And yeah, just what a fascinating couple of weeks now to wait for well a week for the next race to see if Hamilton can continue his charge in a very different circuit, I think, as well, with it just being very much a power track . No, it has been announced. It was announced in February. So it's swap. Oh, it's yes, of course. Because it's because like spar is obviously such a legendary track and people are like, oh, you're really swimming at the Bas . We had a great race, Tommy? When there's already Madrid going to be on the calendar, so let's see if Spar can deliver a banger. That's the big question. That's the big test. Monaco actually was all right and it was not overtaking but it was chaos . Other tracks you've seen very chaotic. So I'm interested to see like spa. They might have to genuinely get out and push the car down the straits because I don't even know how they'll be able to recharge around there. You almost mentioned the whole podcast . I know saying it. But fifty four minutes in. I just thought I'd remind everyone that wins do in twenty twenty six. That is it. We'll see you soon. Lots of love. Take care, Alios. Bye bye . P one is a stack production and part of the ACAS Creator Network