Chequered Flag Extra: Verstappen’s Future, Bearman’s Crash & Jack Black

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You know what, if Max Verstappen doesn't like it, he's gonna go. I yeah, I mean I think he's gonna go anyway, I think he's had enough. Piastri's well and truly in this title fight if he keeps the form up and Who knows, mistakes can happen. Russell finished off the podium. Crucial points lost. Jack Black is possibly the funniest person I've seen. I think we need him at every Grand. Izzy, you've dragged me to brand hatch today for our our second podcast. Um

Because you're drifting. I'm drifting today. I've heard you've already broken the car. I've broken two cars today. Two? Yeah, which even for me is actually quite imp impressive. Well hang on, why two? So my own car's not very well. I drove here this morning and it broke down on the motorway, so that was lovely. And then I got here and I've done some drifting in an M three. Nice. And I snapped the steering column. Oh that's why we've not heard much from you since Yeah. Is it hard?

Yeah, really difficult. Really difficult. Really difficult. Not a natural talent then. Um I don't know about that. I would say now I'm quite good, now that I've been doing it for two days. Yeah. But it wasn't a case of jump in and you're just amazing at it, which is frustrating to me. Okay, fair. Well it's not the worst place. To come here at Brown's. It's quite cool. And we're we're sort of randomly on a helipad. We're sat on a helipad. Which gives us a a a lovely vista

Over the circuit. I quite like the circuit. It's nice. Lot of um Undulations. Yes. A lot of up and down. Yeah, it's really cool. No, it's delightful. Well, look, it's excellent to be at Brandatch. Um, but of course, we've just come off the back.

Of Suzuka, another legendary track. Very cool track. What'd you make of it? Three races down, Japanese Grand Prix, thoughts. Yeah, thoughts. It was fine. I don't think it was the most thrilling race I've ever seen in my life. And I really got the vibe that people were not happy. Really unhappy drivers.

Well, uh yeah, I mean y you heard Max Verstappen obviously and he's like threatening to basically quit the sport'cause he hates it so much. Carlos Sainz hasn't been happy. Charles Claire seems f fairly happy. The Ferraris are all right. But I would still say it wasn't like Australia and China were better racing. It was more exciting than Japan, I thought. Yeah. But I wonder if that actually is just a little bit of the track as well i in terms of like the modern day cars, we just don't see

Like we got more overtaking than last year. Like literally last year there was one, I think, legitimate overtake done on track. Okay, so arguably it could be the track. Yeah.

Fine. But I I still don't think it was the most gripping race. No, it wasn't. It definitely wasn't. And qualifying is obviously like the biggest problem people have. But it must be so weird. Like you obviously you've got a need for speed. It must be So alien to ha someone like you being behind the wheel and then imagining having to sort of like lift and coast is a very good thing. Getting them to go against all of their instincts.

Weirdly but like drifting today. You have to do everything you feel like you shouldn't do in a car to make it do the right thing. And I guess for a racing driver to suddenly do that after years I mean someone like Alonso, his whole life has been doing the same thing to suddenly do something completely different must be really weird. Um and actually I

I wanted you to explain some things to me. Pressure. Okay. It's not press it's not pressure. But because obviously there are a lot of new rules and regulations, a lot of new systems now within F one. Yep. We watched Ollie Behman Plant himself into a wall. Correct. And it wasn't pretty. No. Made my crash look pathetic.

To be honest. I did twenty five G's, he did fifty. Fifty. Was rough. Do you know how fast you hit the wall in your Formula E crash as well? What speed you were doing at the time? Maybe like eighty miles an hour. Yeah, okay. So h I mean he left the track at uh what three hundred and eight ki kilometers an hour?

Oh gosh, that makes you feel about sick. Yeah. But this is what I wanted to talk to you about, closing speeds. Because we heard that phrase again and again and I want you to tell me exactly what that means. I think I have a rough idea but Well it's essentially

So a a closing speed is how much the car behind is closing in on on the one in front because the one in front is going at a much slower speed. So naturally the difference is huge. In this case the speed differential was I think it was about thirty one miles per hour, which is, you know, is a standard sort of mile per hour on the road that actually adds up, especially when you're thinking so quickly in a Formula One car.

And it's it's all while it's not the first time we've seen crashes like that in terms of having a massive speed differential. If people remember I think it was Have a l if you go online and have a look,'cause there's a there was a crash back in two thousand I think I want to say two thousand ten in uh Valencia where Mark Weber, who was racing for Red Bull, was uh going and overtaking a slower car. It was the lotus of Hakey Kova liner.

That car was really slow, was at the back of the grid, he was lapping him, but misjudged it and then hit him right in the back. flipped up in the air and came crashing back down. Huge crash. So that's kind of what we mean when you see the speed differential. It was essentially just the car in front was going slower than the car behind and it caught Oli Behrman out. Yeah.

But we do think it is to do with the new It definitely is having to conserve energy. Because normally you wouldn't lift and coast and you wouldn't lift that much going into that corner normally. So I think it's a little bit to do with what we're seeing in the engine rags and a little bit to do with Oli Berman being caught unawares as well. But it means I mean it was a hefty crash, fifty G's really nice. I was you know, seeing him limp away.

That often anymore. No. So it is a testament still to like the safety of these cars. Like they're they're built to kind of take that kind of a hit.

Yeah. But it's still never nice to see but you know, he's got a few weeks off now to to recover, I suppose. But also talking about different tracks, you know, your Monaco, your jedder. serious concrete walls. And actually if he was going round a track like that.

arguably could have been a lot nastier. I mean it bet i it's a massive question that people are asking. Like Carlos Science, who's basically uh along with George Russell heads up the the Grand Prix Drivers Association, which is basically the the drivers' union. And they've been saying this since the start and

Do you remember the first race? A lot of them are being caught about the uh caught out with the start of the race. Do you remember Colo Pinto again just missed Liam Lawson at the start? So it's a similar thing, although this time well it is a speed differential, but this time Liam Lawson couldn't get the revs high enough to get a good start and that caught Colapinto out because there was a million cars in front of him and suddenly he's presented with a slow going Liam Lawson just avoided him.

That has been happening on the first lap, on the in the early parts of battles where you see like in Suzuka George Russell suddenly lost a lot of time'cause he lost power. Max Verstappen lost power as well because Suddenly you use up all your battery and you're left with nothing. Yeah. And it's causing drivers to suddenly slow. And that is a big safety issue which they are trying to address.

It's not it's not an easy thing to do. How do they address it? This is what I don't I don't know how you address it other than changing the entire setups of the cars. And they can't they can't change the inherent regulation of the sport for at least another three years.

Three years. That's with the cycle that we're in at the moment until the next big change. So they the FIA, which is the the sports governing body and and the team principals are all gonna meet in this break that we've got now and try and work out what kind of Middle ground.

we can reach where, you know, can we allow the battery to be uh to charge itself at a higher kilowatts percentage is where it starts to get a bit complicated. But there's a few tweaks that they're gonna try and make which which will hopefully help not only the spectacle for the sport for stuff like in qualifying But also to avoid any huge shunts like we saw in Japan.

I think Lando said and I think Alonso said as well, a lot of the time when they're overtaking it's basically by accident. Because all of a sudden they've got this injection of power and if they press it, either they're gonna go into the back of the car in front or they're just gonna nip round them. But they know full well that they'll just pass them.

'Cause they're they know their car is not faster than that. Well this is where you get everyone talk about yo yo racing and man in their cart racing, right? But I mean I'm I don't know about you, I'm torn on this'cause I like seeing overtaking on a Sunday. I like it. I like the back and forth. Sure.

And it's it is a little bit artificial, but we've had that in Formula One for years, whether it was DRS, where the the rear wing flap would open when within a second of the car in front of you and you could drive straight by. Yes, agreed. Everyone loves overtaking, but Arguably there's not really it's not really a battle.

Because the car that's being overtaken knows that they just need to wait for the car to overtake them and then I'll just go past them again. But then you end up with scenarios like Australia, we saw George Russell and Charlotte Claire going wheel to wheel with the other. Yeah, that was that was a good watch. That was good. Two Ferraris. Yeah. In Japan and in China. So it is leading to really close back and forth racing, which yeah I think is exciting personally. Is it perfect? Absolutely not.

But with a few tweaks I reckon we could find And I guess maybe that's the thing, you know, maybe we're expecting too much. These cars are so different, the rules are different. There's been a massive change. We can't just expect it to be completely right straight away. And actually maybe it's a time thing and we need to be a bit more Uh less impatient. I think look we've had three races, haven't we? So it is a m it's the biggest

This is the biggest overhaul of car and engine regulations in the history of Formula One. So it it was never gonna be brilliant, nailed it from the start, ever. You know, and already coming into this year people had their reservations. It's not a hundred percent bulletproof. So they'll make some tweaks and it's probably quite handy really that we've got this gap now until Miami in May. Yeah. So we've got about four weekends until we get there.

To just settle, let the dust settle, see what we can do. And I still think we need to give it a few more races before we properly judge. Because we've had three very different kind of tracks where braking zones differ, top speeds differ. We're still ironing things out and until maybe I wanna see what we do in Monaco and a track like that then I feel like you can start to make a proper judgment on the sport. And I think I often, you know, with the drivers

being very unhappy and voicing that. I think people are getting a bit finding it a bit tedious, but actually they're the people that we need to hear from. They're the ones that are actually going to tell us what's wrong and work out ways to fix it. You know, they're at the helm of the thing. So they need to tell us what they don't like and what is and and what feels dangerous because at the end of the day they

It needs to be safe. Yeah, and you know what, if uh Max Verstappen doesn't like it, he's gonna go. I yeah. I mean I think he's gonna go anyway. I think he's had enough. I think he's had enough. I think he wants to do twenty four hour racing. And go around the Nurberg ring. Bit of GT's bit of drifty. You can teach him how to drift. I'll teach him I I'll teach him how to drift if he wants, if he fancies it. Bring several cars as as backup.

But I can do that. There's a BBC Sport YouTube channel in that. 100%. Yeah, not a problem. Izzy Drifts. Sign her up now. Jag har fått in lemon med på skönhet barn. Hej, Alexandra Rapporta här. Jag spelar Veronika Gren i serien Veronica. Jag undrar om du har sett mild. Du är inte fattar. Vilket det är vi har att göra med. Den här utredningen som jag håller på. problematisk för oss. Streamar Veronica Säsong Trén nu, bara på Sky Showtime.

Med ving kan du skräddar sy din resa, sol och bad, storstad eller kämprad. Paradis långt bort. Upplevelser som är lätta att älska. Svåra att lämna. Är du inte vill hemfrån, se våra bästa erbjudanden på wing.se. Samla jämför upp till. Så du kan få bästa möjligheter. När livet växer finns vi här.

I think it's time for some hot takes. Let's do it. We've had lots of ladies and gentlemen message us with very interesting takes on on F1 at the moment. This is the first one from Miles. Verstappen to Mercedes announced before summer break. Verstappen to Mercedes Before the summer break. Oh I mean all last year Toto Wolf was courting Max Verstappen. Whether he was just doing it to ruffle feathers or not. But I can't see that happening. Can you not? I I think

Verstappen would leave the sport rather than sign with Mercedes. Because I think Mercedes last year was the chance to get Max Verstappen and then they locked in and doubled down with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. And I think that's proving beneficial next. Yeah. And also arguably i w it wouldn't it would be really cruel. I know it is, and I don't love that about it. But I do think I think Verstappen wants to move, whether that

team or out of the sport. I think he's getting a little bit itchy. Well the other thing is if he wants to stay in the sport it needs to move to the most competitive team and that is Mercedes.

God, it's a tricky one. I wouldn't like well, I would like to be a fly on the wall actually in those discussions. Perhaps every day of the week you want to be a fly on the wall in F on D brief discussions or contract discussions. Netflix are already on it. Of course they are. Yeah. Netflix are the flies upon the wall. Okay, next up, Johnny has said Piastri has fully entered the championship conversation. Couldn't agree more. Yeah. I mean

One race start, one podium. Not a bad statistic. It was blindingly quick, Oscar Piastri in Japan. He nailed it out of the box from Friday and Me look, he he's an incredible driver. He was in the championship contention for the majority of last year. He led the majority of the world title last year. We all know what happens. Oscar Piastri, I think, you know, with the Mercedes engine as well, once they figure out

The the little reliability issues they've been going that that been happening to them. Piastri is well and truly in this title fight if he keeps the form up and who knows, mistakes can happen. Russell finished off the podium, crucial points lost.

Yeah, I think he's definitely in the conversation. But but but equally I think there's so many in the conversation. The conversation is Who else is being in the conversation? Well, I don't think you can I think Norris will always be in the conversation. He he literally won last year. We know he can do it. Verstappen is Verstappen, so you literally can never count him out.

Both of Ferraris are quick, both of Mercedes are quick. It's a lot of people, you know. Yeah. Which is great. Which is great. And if we keep getting, you know, in a new era we get r reliability issues, that's what gonna that's what's gonna keep people in the fight all year long. Hopefully. So

More than Marriott. Okay, and our last one is from Ashley. Gasly MVP of the season. I'd hard agree with that. I give driver ratings now after every single Grand Prix. That's your thing. Big pressure. It's available on the BBC Sport website if you like to show you. Very nicely done. I gave Gasly a nine out of ten. Wow, that's big.

I mean I would give them a nine out of ten for the h the first three races as well. Look, points in every single Grand Prix. This is a team that finished last at the end of twenty twenty uh five. Gasly has put Colopinto well in the shade. He's stepped up, he's the experienced man in that team. When there's a point to be had, he's got it. Stabbin it. And Japan he kept the stappen at bay. Look, whatever you think about the power deployment uh regulations.

He still kept Max Verstappen at bay and finished ahead of him when Verstappen was right on his gearbox for pretty much the majority of that race. That is great driving and skill from Pierre Gasly. He is the MVP of the season so far.

We have only had three races. Yeah, absolutely. But maybe maybe not MVP maybe King of the midfield. King of the midfield. He's winning the Formula One point five World Championship. The Formula One point five. Best of the rest, Pierre Gasly. Formula One point five, best of the rest. Would we want that title? Like would you want that title? I think I w if I if I know that I'm in a midfield car, I think you want you want to get the best out of it.

And if I go, yeah, I finished seventh but I was ahead of a stappen and all our major competitors, I'd be pr I'd I'd basically call that a win. Yeah, you'd be ha I mean, let's face it, if either of us were driving in a in Formula One we'd we'd be quite happy. They wouldn't make a car big enough. Yeah, or small enough actually. Yeah.

Really, it's we weren't meant to be we weren't meant to be. No, no, we'll just talk about it instead. No, can you teach me to drift? Do you reckon I'll be alright at drifting? I I and I I say this with love, you're not gonna fit in that car. I'm really sorry. That's gutting. Even like if you you can't put the seat back. I'd have to cut the seat out. And I wanna just sit on the floor. Yeah. Essentially. Alright, we know what we're doing next.

Okay Harry, on to frankly bigger and better things. Jack Black is possibly the funniest person I've seen. I think we need him at every Grand Prix. This is what he had to say to Five Live at the weekend. We're in heaven here. I mean I can't believe we get to come to Formula One and get the red carpet. We're getting a front row seat.

We got to go behind the scenes at the Mercedes Garage and the Ferrari Garage. Ah, I love it. Um how does this compare to Hollywood? I mean this is a horse of a different color, but it is a very exciting horse indeed. We aims to ride it all the way to the finish line. All the way to the checkered flag, baby. I love it. Thank you so much. Bowser in the house! Incredible. He's fantastic. His energy.

And we need him every weekend. He the vibe he was bringing and considering like for the UK audience it was a bit of an early start for the Japanese quadrup, that's exactly what you need. Yeah. But also can we talk about the irony of Jack Black being there, promoting the new Super Mario movie. He's playing Bowser.

You couldn't write it. All the talk about Mario Kart and Formula One this year. I feel like that that was surely planned. Or was that PR gone terribly wrong or right? I think it's gone terribly right. Really impressive. I mean just him waving the no one has ever waved a chequered flag in a funny way like that. And I don't think he was even trying. It it was sensational. Him on the grid

engulfing Bowser. Did you see the sort of jacket he was wearing as well? Like the sort of red Bowser jacket. I feel like I mean I like a shacket, I like a jacket. You do famously enjoy a shacket. I think I would probably I'd I'd buy one of those and and have it for for the commentary. I I just think he's hilarious. I think he's my favourite person that I've seen on the grid maybe ever. Also even his um every single time a microphone was in front of him he

like caricature of himself. It was pro it felt like the proper school of rock like guy on the grid. Because there was a there they always have like a DJ deck at the front of the grid and he w he was there along with all the other stars of the the film. Absolutely Vibe in a way. Brilliant start to the Japanese Grand Prix. Jack Black at every single Formula One race in the future. I'm into it. I'm so into it.

Do you want me to tell you some of my favourite memes from the weekend? Because as you know I I love a meme and I've been scouring the internet. Uh Williams have done well on the viral front, I would say. Firstly, they were talking about science he had haircut. He did. He had a haircut and they were talking about how that's gonna help them.

Um, because let's face it, they need all the help they can get. They need to save some weight. So he had a bit of a fresh trim. Although, did you see the unfortunate I think it was a video or at least a like a still from a video where he's I think he's on a uh I think he's either walking through the paddock or he's on like a little um

scooter and there's clearly a bit of wind blowing and it's it's really it's it's it's a poor look for Carlos Sainz. The hair is flat on one side, it's up on the other, it's getting out of bed hair. It's not great look for Carlos Sainz. Not great for Carlos. Also Alex Albon. And I really am fond of Alex Albon. I think he's fantastic.

really funny meme of him when they're talking to him and Carlos about how they think they're gonna do and Carlos is talking about pole position and do you see his face straight to camera. It's like a proper US office moment. It so is. It's such a gym moment. And you just see his fate and bless him, he knows it's not gonna happen. And then actually at the end of the I don't know if it was Qually or the end of of the race, a heartbreaking radio message from him.

really heartbreaking where he just kind of admits defeat. It's it's it's really sad. It's actually it's it's quite sad to see like where Williams are at the moment just because You know, they did so well last year. Yeah, they did. And then they they're and they're at and towards the back, you know, they're only really ahead of the Aston Martins and and the Cadillacs right now. Yeah. And You know, yeah, Carlos Sign's got a point in China but

The car's overweight. There's I think there's a lot of sort of logistical issues going on back at the factory. Let's hope that they're one of the big benefactors from this. But I mean uh from the brake that we're coming up to. But

You know what? They're not doing well on the track, but they're smashing it on the viral content. So you've got to use it. They truly are. They truly are. And it's a really strong set of drivers as well. I think that's what's do I think that's what I find frustrating to watch because they are a really strong lineup and actually in different cars Together I think they would be really impressive and and dominating but apparently Williams just can't do it.

Which is gutting, but you never know. They might pull out of them, they might do a McLaren and have tractors at the start and then That's the thing that's what we see. Uh whenever there's like a brand new regulation cycle, there's a big gap in between teams. The performance is quite there's quite a big sort of disparity between the front and the bat, but it closes up really quickly because we have you know the development, the race off the track.

So that that will be something that helps them. I also think that might be a a a thing more generally, th at the start of every season everyone's complaining a bit. No one likes it. It's all a bit wrong. And then it all just comes together.

Exactly. So I think we just need to just give it a bit more grace and it'll be fine. It all works out in the end. Maybe we just need to spread that message a bit more. It's all gonna be okay. W y well you could tell Carlos and Alex that and see how. Guys, it's all gonna be okay. If you have some faith and you have some hope then everything will be fine.

And and it'll be fine. Also, just really one more little meme situation. The mini drivers Yes. Very wholesome. Love that. But actually do you know what? One of them could be an F one driver one day. You're so right.'Cause uh it's not quite the same. But if you remember, twenty eighteen, I think in Monza, they had grid kids. So these sort of mascots, these kids who are big F one fans, who were just assigned to drivers to basically like sta stand in front of their car.

Um Kimmy Antonelli was Lewis Hamilton's grid kid. Twenty eighteen in Monza. I didn't know that. And then in the he replaced Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. And now he's leading the world championship, youngest ever to do it. It could happen. Wow. We haven't even spoken about Kimmy. I mean Go Kimmy. I know, it's impressive, isn't it? So impressive. I think he did luck out a little bit with the safety car, but either way, 14 seconds at the flag. Two wins on the trot, momentum's with him, confidence.

And I I hope that this means we're gonna get a good battle between him and Russell. The young bar versus the experienced. I'll tell you what, actually, one more meme for you, which I'm gonna spring on you, I saw. is uh it was a s it's a side by side comparison of uh Nico Rosberg and George Russell both were rookies at the Williams F one team when they they joined Formula One. Then they joined Mercedes about four years before they the team became dominant.

Then their teammate was a seven time world champion. Nico Rosberg's was Michael Schumacher, obviously George Russell's was Lewis Hamilton. They beat their seven time world champion teammate. Then the seven time champion left the team and was replaced by a young, exciting star. And the young, exciting star went on to score multiple world championships with the team.

Now, let's not put that into the universe for George Russell. I'm not saying history repeats itself, but there's a meme. So watch out, George. George, it's all gonna be okay, maybe. Uh question Harry, what does an F1 commentator do when there's no F1 on? You've got quite a lot of time. That is a very good question, Izzy. Um uh a lot of time on my hands now. Um I last night my local pub was doing three pound Guinnesses. So three pounds. Yeah, uh you don't turn down an offer like that.

Three where'd you live? Well they they were celebrating three years as a pub. So it was a celebratory anniversary and you don't turn down three pound Guinnesses. So that took up um my first day of of unemployment. Sorry, also yesterday was a Tuesday. I I work. I work you unemployed. You are unemployed. Yeah, that's rough, not gonna lie. Apart from that, um

Try and get some more work. So uh Do you wanna come drifting? Yes, let's do that. Right, okay, done. Drifting, does it pay well? No. Okay, fine, but it's the experience that can be. But it's fun. Yeah, you can be fun employed. And then we'll go get some three pound Guinnesses after.

Brilliant. Decent. All right then. Well look, um we're on Jonathan Palmer's helipad and uh I've heard he's inbound. So thank you, Jonathan. We're gonna get out of your way. Uh and we'll we'll see you soon, is he? Absolutely. That's right. Let's go drifting. Let's do it. Wayne Rooney, Kerge and me, Kelly Summers.

Break down the biggest stories in the Premier League and beyond. He's gone in quite quick but he hasn't caught him high. Plus we'll hear the funniest and most outrageous stories from Wayne's career. I was going into positions and doing things I shouldn't have really been doing. But you do it because you feel like you have to and that helped us drive around and win the FA Club. The Wayne Rooney Show. Watch your night, player. Listen on sounds.

Det har fått in lär om det för sken barn. Hej, Alexandra Rapoport här. Jag spelar Veronika Gren i serien Veronika. Jag undrar om du har sett mils. Du inte fattar vilket är det har att göra med. Som är tillbaka med säson 3. Den här utredningen som ni håller på. Den börjar bli lite problematisk för oss. Streamar Veronika Säsong Trén nu, bara på Sky Showtime. Så du kan få bästa möjligheter. Villkor för dig. När livet växer finns vi här. Om du