British F1 GP Race Preview 2025

Turn it up at breakfast with me, Fleur East. Me, Will Best. And me, James Barr. On Hits Radio. If you're tuning in for the first time, don't expect anything too serious. No, or professional. Or professional. It's pretty hard waking up in the morning, isn't it? You both actually just make me very happy.

And that's quite difficult to achieve in the morning. That is quite difficult. That's the best thing about this show. So sarky. I was actually trying to be sincere. We just have a laugh. Before quarter past six in the morning, we've already listened to so many amazing tunes. Hits Radio Breakfast. The biggest hits. And the biggest throwbacks. You are listening to Missed Apex Podcast. We live F1.

Welcome to the Missed Apex podcast. Jonathan Simon hosting today, subbing in for Spanners ahead of the Silverstone Grand Prix preview. And as always, it's brilliant to have Matt Trumpets on board. How are you, Matt? I'm busy calculating the aspect ratio of next year's tires. Thank you. Well, I would...

I would make fun of you usually for saying something like that, Matt, but pre-podcast you've been very helpful to me because I'm taking over what is going to be a... This is a very good preview. We've got a few good topics to...

To unravel today, the first one is a Max Verstappen deal that's done with Mercedes, or is it? That's the big question in the F1 paddock at the moment. Not to forget Pirelli's big bet on their new tyre construction at Silverstone. There's an interesting decision at Pirelli this weekend and for the tyre selection they've taken on here for Silverstone. And...

The top secret test revealed for next year. That sounds pretty juicy to me. But first, we must remind you, we are an independent podcast today produced by Uncle Steve Down Under with the kind support of our patrons and partners. to bring you a Grand Prix preview before the race review. We might be wrong Matt, but we're first. And I mentioned it before that the Max Verstappen to Mercedes deal is imminent.

At least that's what's being reported. Sky Sports Italia reported Max Verstappen has agreed to a deal with Mercedes. The funny part about this is Autosport have denied it.

in the last few hours at time of recording here. And I think, Matt, that the interesting part about this is... The report says the deal's been agreed to, but it needs approval from the Mercedes board. So what I take away from this is that it's going to be a massive, massive payday for Max Verstappen. Yeah, I think that's the general conclusion here. You're not going to get Max.

for less money. And kind of like we saw, and now this is interesting because this is what sent Louis away from Mercedes is the board refusing to fund his long-term ambassadorship. and his charitable organizations to help improve diversity in Formula One engineering and driving. And now they're potentially considering doing this for Max. So, yeah, that's an if spelled in like 50-point font. If we're getting down to it, it is not a done deal. But it is...

Interesting to me for the reporting of the specific detail that it's actually fourth in the driver's championship that... that triggers max's release clause now he's still under contract so that means if he does go to mercedes and that exit clause doesn't get triggered and again this is a rumored exit clause

If it doesn't get triggered, then Mercedes will be on the hook for his, I believe, around $55 million a year salary to see out his Red Bull contract. As Horner has already said, well, if Max is that unhappy... Sure, we're not going to stand in the way. He should go where he's happy. But that's going to be a lot of simoleons heading towards Red Bull's coffers if it does come off.

Well, that's why it might need board approval, because as you said, they're going to have to buy out the rest of his Red Bull deal. And he's contracted until 2028. is what we know about, at least that's out there publicly. And so they'll have to buy out the remaining years on that deal and then offer him what we think is going to be a record.

F1 contract, potentially. I wouldn't be surprised to see it go from 55 million euro, like you said, upwards of 80, 90, maybe even 100. Will we see 100? That's the big question. Because if you remember back to round one in Australia, Matt. Max Verstappen did that interview with Dutch TV and he said, well, McLaren spoke to me about signing me and they...

They basically turned their backs when they realized how much it would cost to get me. And it was a funny grab from Max Verstappen at the time, but it kind of then led to Oscar Piastri re-signing with McLaren because they obviously went for a Lando-Max partnership, which didn't work. they couldn't afford max but at the end of the day it's about the team that can afford the buyout here and mercedes we know

have a lot of money, and they certainly poured a lot of money into the team in that turbo hybrid era, which we're still in, but I mean the early parts of it when they were so dominant. Well, yeah, but again, I'm going to go with, if you're looking at a team like Mercedes,

And if you look at Formula One as a sport, and I'm going to annoy a lot of people here, and I apologize. Actually, I don't apologize. It's just the way life is. He doesn't make that much of a difference. Max Verstappen. No. It doesn't because your car is either going to win a Grand Prix and win a championship or it's not. And it's incredibly rare to have more than one car that can even win a championship. I will point to this season as an excellent example.

max is an amazing driver but he's nowhere near winning a championship and he's he's peddling backwards in in the red bull which is a very well-funded team with a lot of smart people working for it Your driver really doesn't make a huge amount of difference. His value to Mercedes is going to be more on the marketing side because he is the generational talent. So the business case here for Max at Mercedes is literally the drama that it's going to create, especially...

Because a lot of people still have a sore backside about the events of 2021. Yeah, I know. It seems blasphemous that Max Verstappen is going to sign with Mercedes. By the way, I'm looking at the record time. We're six minutes. This is our first podcast solo together, me and you.

Matt, and I've already disagreed with you six minutes into it, that you think Max Verstappen, as a driver's talent, you don't think that he will make the difference? I think any team would love Max Verstappen. He's the best driver on the grid right now. It's by far an easy decision for any team. I think the hardest decision out of all teams on picking up Max Verstappen is Mercedes, because arguably they have a driver lineup that includes...

two very promising talents. I don't even think that's an argument. You've got Kimi Antonelli, who could be a star of the future. George Russell, who is incredible. Now, what happens here, because the rumor is likely that Antonelli is going to stay. That's what we're hearing. That's the male from the F1 paddock. And I think that's a bad decision. No offense to Kimi Antonelli, but I do think they should keep George Russell. But it could mean that it's a straight swap.

George Russell straight to Red Bull? Is that what we think for next year? If I was Red Bull, yeah, I would absolutely take Russell. Because who else is, I mean, maybe you could, are you going to sweet talk signs out of his Williams contract? There's not really a lot of drivers proven to consistently be able to finish in the top five. And you also have to consider that while Max has been at that team quite a while, Russell will be learning a new car. And we've certainly seen with Lewis.

how much of a challenge that can be, because I believe he's been a Mercedes power unit partner his whole career. So it's not a nothing burger for him to, he's not going to walk in and perform it. quite the same level maybe in the race he will but certainly in qualifying you know there will be those missing tents for a while till he gets on top of the car plus it's a brand new car brand new power unit so so there will be like

double the amount of learning to be done. Frankly, I like Hajar. If I'm Red Bull, we're building an all-new car. I'd bring Hajar up to partner Sunoda for a season since Sunoda Elise is... been in the team. And then if Russell's available, then maybe I bring Russell and leave Hadjar put. But I don't know. The problem with Antonelli is... Because of the Lewis situation, they essentially plucked him out of finishing school early. He really was due another season of Formula 2 before he showed up.

So he doesn't look like the same rookie that Hadjar looks like, or even that Lawson looked like when he first stepped into the, I guess we're calling it the Red Bull now, the Visa Cash App. I cannot get it. I'm too... I'm too old. I just, like, you gotta stop changing team names every season, because I will never get it right. It's still called Toro Rosso in my mind.

That's what you see what I'm saying there. It's like it's like they plucked him out of finishing school. So he's he's still I mean, come on. He's like finishing his high school exams in between Grand Prix. So so so I think I can understand Mercedes betting on the future. The future is.

also a lot cheaper, especially if you've got Max in the other seat. But it is a bad beat for Russell if this actually happens. You know what would be funny is if the Red Bull becomes very difficult to drive next year. And then George Russell and Yuki Snowder are both Q1 exits because only Max Verstappen can drive that car. Can you imagine if they pick up George Russell? He's a crazy good talent. I don't think he'd be that bad.

The good part about this, Matt, is because based on the rule change, you don't have to design a car around Max. So the earlier this decision is done for Red Bull... the better it is for the team going into next year because now they can just design a generic car. It'll not only be good for, let's say, their pickup George Russell.

himself. But Yuki Snowder might not look like a bad driver anymore, because anybody who steps into that number two Red Bull car, it seems like it's, it seems like that car was built on an ancient burial grave. It really is cursed, to be honest. Yeah, and I think we can absolutely go with the fact that next year's cars are going to be entirely different. But also, again, this brings up the weird timing of this.

in the sense that if i'm max well there's no guarantee uh mercedes power unit aside from paddock gossip there's no guarantee the mercedes is going to be that much better than the ferrari or um certainly the honda And, you know, I mean, why not collect another 50 plus million dollars, even if it's an offseason?

And then you are going to be at the top of everyone's dance card. And you can simply pick the car that's going to give you the best chance of winning more championships. And be guaranteed you're going to get paid almost exactly what you want to boot. Well, that's exactly what I was thinking too. Why doesn't Max wait until he gives the car a go next year? See how the rules go? Because if it's a new rule set, a new regulation change, some people are bidding it as the biggest F1...

regulation shift of all time. I don't know. 2009, 2014, they were pretty big. I don't think it's going to be that big of a difference. It's still going to be a massive shift next year in terms of car design and everything. Give the Red Bull a go next year and then make a decision. The reason he can't is because I'm pretty sure George Russell doesn't want to sign a one-year deal. And I don't think Kimi Antonelli has much of an option, but...

I'm assuming he'd like a long-term deal as a youngster as well. So that doesn't help Max Verstappen with timing with that too. But we know a decision will be made by the summer break, which is, what's it now, 3rd of July? It's the 3rd of July in Australia. Can you believe? 1 a.m.

Timer recording. I think my eyes will just get blacker and blacker as we get through the next hour of preview. So we've got a month till the summer break. So I think that's pretty cool that we'll know who Max Verstappen and George Russell are probably going to be driving for.

next year in a month. It was kind of the... I would say the decision on this, if Verstappen leaves, is the nail in the coffin of the whole Red Bull empire crashing down. Do you remember when Christian Horner, now I'm going to say allegedly... had the incident with his assistant which I'll leave it at that.

A year and a half ago, that seemed like the beginning of the demise of Red Bull and then intrafighting and arguments between his dad and Helmut Marko and Christian and all this kind of stuff happened publicly. Then they had the radio messages last year, I think at Hungary. stage he started to flip out at his engineer as well Adrian Newey's gone Jonathan Wheatley it just seems like Red Bull had their dominance period and it just feels like it's been gone in an instant

I don't know, these last three years, to me, have flown. They really have, although personally, I would put the beginning of their downfall with the death of Dietrich Matterschutz. That created a fundamental power vacuum in the team. And you have Max's dad, Yas. You've got Marco and you've got Horner. All... three of them thinking that they are, you know, they are the authority and very stubborn people who are always convinced they are right or mostly convinced they're right.

And then you have the complex business case for Red Bull in the sense that the technical owners are the ties. But they're not really that interested in Formula One. But the Germans, who were the minority owners, very much were. And yeah, this is a classic fall of the Roman Empire. but they still at this point they have the resource they have the knowledge and they have the tools so yeah this may be more of a retrenchment i mean certainly look at how long mclaren were out um but that was

That was financial. Here, I don't expect it to last that long, but I think some eventual stability in structure is going to proceed full on. rebuilding of the team and then you have the very large and uh i think somewhat terrible decision to build their own power unit which is really the joker in the deck next season didn't they have to

They had Honda pulling out. It was kind of like their hand was tied, really, at that situation. I don't know. It's a bit of an interesting one. I don't mind them taking over their own power unit. Look, I feel like this Verstappen and Mercedes topic is going to be done to death until it's confirmed. So I think we should just move on because this is once upon a time, Matt, where Verstappen almost signed with Mercedes people who might be new to Formula One.

When Max Verstappen was a youngster in 2014, Mercedes almost had him, but they couldn't give him a race seat, and Red Bull ended up offering him that Toro Rosso seat, which is what the Racing Bulls team is now. I still call them Toro Rosso. Do you want to stick with that, Matt, for the rest of this podcast? Fine with me, because I know what you mean when you say that. Yes. There you go.

Yeah, we'll go back to Super Guri and some other teams as well. Minority, yeah. Too far, too far. Too far in the past. All right. Well, I'm interested in the Silverstone race this weekend.

Which is coming up, as most people are listening to this podcast. The thing that caught my eyes, and I had to actually double take on this, is that Silverstone are going, sorry, not Silverstone, Pirelli are going a step softer at Silverstone. They're going with the C2, C3. And C4, a step softer compared to last year. Is that the right call?

around a racetrack like this. Well, it is a very interesting call given their somewhat, shall we call it, checkered history of tyres at Silverstone. At this racetrack, yeah. At this racetrack, yeah, absolutely. But I do think it is. They've had a construction change, and the... They must have the information from last season to know that the construction change has made the tires more robust, both in terms of thermal degradation.

And having the ability of the shoulder where it joins the tread to withstand the amount of energy that's... put through those tires when they go through maggots and beckets it's some of the highest energies that go through those tires all season long and and we have seen probably maybe some circuit improvements to improve curb cuts and stuff like that for when the cars run off track. But at the end of the day, I don't think they had any choice because it's...

You don't want a race like Silverstone to be an easy nailed on one stop for every team. And I believe thinking back to the last dry race, that's pretty much where they were headed. So they were sort of caught. in this trap of continuing to need to make the strategy more challenging for the teams to provide alternate strategies that tend to come out at about the same race times.

The only way to do that is either to change the grip level of all your tires or just to go softer as the tires get more robust, which is, I think, what we're seeing here. Well, I don't mind it as well. Based on what we saw, I know... I don't want to flick back to Austria, but a quick rewind to Austria. And like my girlfriend sat with me and she doesn't...

care about F1 at all. And I said, how about we just watch the first lap and see how we go. And she was engaged to lap 30. Somebody who does not care about Formula One at all was watching till lap 30. It was a great lead battle. Strategy was interesting by that point. And I think Pirelli personally nailed it there. And I think they've nailed it here. They've done it two weeks in a row here. The C2, C3, C4, it's a step softer. But here's where the risk comes in. Because let's flashback again.

2013, anybody who remembers that race, there was multiple tire bursts. The construction of the tires... Just didn't last. Matt, you've obviously said that it's a little bit stronger and so they can now take this risk and go a step softer because it's not necessarily where that was the issue. It's more so the construction. Silverstone's a high-speed track. You're going through corners.

200 plus kilometers an hour what's that in miles 150 plus pretty much like very fast corners not many braking zones as well the brakes get very cold around here and so it puts a lot of stress on the tires so if anything can go wrong it's Silverstone. for tires it's a really high stress track and so we saw multiple tire bursts in 2013 and the one that people will remember the most was during covid that 2020 race when max verstappen changed his tires almost won the race

against Lewis Hamilton who finished the race on three tires because one of them had burst on the final lap. Yeah, I think the 2020 race is maybe a better comparison. In 2013, the teams were... not following Pirelli's instructions about how to run the tires, and this meaning specifically they were designed with a forward direction. And the teams were swapping directions and they were also swapping sides. So there was a specific right and a left tire. The teams were basically ignoring all of that.

because they they were like oh we get better traction but what they hadn't what they didn't realize was that of course that meant the tires were going to explode because you were putting a lot of stress on a weaker part of the tire, because you're going to design the outside shoulder of the tire to take more stress than the inside, depending upon the number of turns. Anyway.

That's something you don't care very much about. But to me, it's always like the Vettel spa thing too, where you just take that hard tire and you run it, run it, run it, run it, and you run it past their recommendation. And then it goes, boom. Because it literally didn't have the strength. I don't think we're going to get that now. I think Pirelli had to be extremely confident that the tire is going to run out of pace before it fails.

unless there's some kind of a mechanical damage to the tire, like a curb cut. for example, or damage from a minor contact with a front wing in-plate, that sort of thing. Well, then you can just blame a curb cut. That's perfect for Pirelli. Be like, we chose the right tyres this weekend. It was the kerb's fault. Point at the kerbs. Everyone blame those stupid old kerbs. I think there's a couple good things for strategy here because it should...

Well, I mean, we should see a two-stop race. A one-stop is... I mean, that's going to require some management, really. I reckon somebody will pull it off somewhere in the grid, but it's really, at the moment, not going to be the preferred option. Three stops could even be possible. And the reason I say that, Matt, is because it's a short pit lane here.

You only lose about 20, 21 seconds driving through the lane, which I think there should be a rule. To be an FIA grade one circuit, to be able to race in Formula One, we need shorter pit lanes because it means more pit stops. More people on aggressive strategies. And we need to see more of that rather than these other pit lanes where the pit lane lost time seems to be so long. Well, this is actually something I did research on a while ago. And the old, I was using the old, old Canada.

speed limit pit pit stop loss was like maybe 11 seconds what the ones when they used to drive like 300 through the pit lane yeah those before they instituted speed limits your your pit lane loss was like 10 or 11 seconds And we saw it, oh man, when... I think when Album was still driving for Toro Rosso in China, same thing. There was like a well-timed VSC and suddenly the pit stop loss was like 10 seconds. And then you could add that extra stop and make up the time before your tires wear out.

But I've been off on a tangent. You mentioned one stop, and I'm going to bring up a little point of order here, which is I have a team that I think might, if it's at all possible, and a dry race because... let's face it it's silverstone in july so it's probably going to be eight degrees and pouring down rain with howling which is what it was last year but if it's a dry race i've noticed something

The last two races, Canada and Austria, the top midfield teams, with the exception of Alonso and Aston, which I'm not counting the top midfield teams. all ran one-stop races, and in particular Sauber. has absolutely run a one-stop the last two races so they might be one to keep an eye on in terms of their strategy and how successful it is because if anyone's going to do it right now my bet would be on them

Well, this is what we want. We could see three different strategies, three stops, two stops, and one stop from probably Nico Hülkenberg or Gabriel Bortoleto. Who knows?

This is a waste of time and I'll tell you why. And I'd like to apologize to every listener out there because it's probably going to rain.

And if you look at the forecast, it does look like it might rain this weekend. And not just Sunday, maybe Saturday too. The reason I didn't want to bring that up is because you know how disappointed... we get as formula one fans when we see a weather radar and there's rain and it just happens to to not come which i don't know i don't trust british weather at the moment because like three days ago

a british heat wave made australian news and everybody in our whatsapp for mist apex was posting their 43 degree hot rooms and then i checked the weather today and it's like Cold. I'm like, everybody's lying. I reckon it was AI. Those sweat drops were photoshopped. I just think the Brits need to toughen up.

like the aussies well yeah or like uh new yorkers you know we get all sorts of terrible weather here and we're just like oh well that's just that's just the weather no it is it is really fascinating because you look at it you look at a graph of the temperatures like 28 30 31

And then you get to this weekend and suddenly it's like 20 chance of rain, 20 chance of rain. And then it's like 31. It's like they know. It's like they know the race is coming to Britain. So they're going to just give it the. Weirdest possible weather. And then parking at Silverstone too for the fans that are going. It's pretty expensive, by the way, to go at Silverstone, I've heard, every year when you attend that race. But it gets very muddy and it's very easy to get bogged.

is what I've heard at some of the parking lots. So I don't know if that's been taken care of, but some of my British friends, including my Mr. Apex crew, have had those issues before. Yeah, well, since I did go on the Saturday last year, I can actually say I took the train to Milton Keynes, and then they had a bus that I got through the Silverstone app somehow.

the bus was actually super quick and tidy getting us to the circuit and it wasn't at the end of the day although it was a Saturday not a Sunday it wasn't at the end of the day it wasn't a terrible terrible tragedy getting away from the circuit either So I would investigate that if you're actually planning to attend the race. But beyond that, it's what's interesting from last season.

was that the choice of the hard tire for norris proved to be terrible because he wasn't able to get it warm enough to be competitive that opened the door for lewis and you can see the team choices when you have those transitional conditions you want a new tire but you also want you don't want the hardest construction so i i think the soft tire ran out

Got too dry. The medium tire, which is this year's hard tire, actually, I think was the correct choice based on absolutely not looking up at any facts whatsoever. So I'm sure, you know. write me an email feedback at miss apex.net. Tell me how wrong I am about this. It's right. But it, But it'll be interesting for the teams to have those softer compounds because that means they can maybe get onto that dry tire a little bit sooner.

and have some grip. So I just, I would not want to be a strategist at Silverson this weekend because it's going to be a nightmare if it does rain. Feedback at mistapex.net. Send it all off if you disagree with everything we've said. And good.

because Spanners will read it all and we won't have to deal with it. So send it off right now, get your phone out, and we will not have to deal with any criticism, which is great. In terms of Silverstone, I'm just going through some news over the last couple of days. One today, this really caught my eye.

I really got click baited into thinking that Silverstone was getting a lifetime deal on the F1 calendar. And then when I read into the article, it was just Stefano Domenicali saying that there's really no other circuit in the UK that can... host an F1 race right now, which is a real shame for Donington, which was a pretty decent...

track and had Ayrton Senna's lap of the gods pretty much to begin the race over there. So it's had some history and I don't know what's going to happen in 30 years. It's a pretty big claim from Stefano Dominicali and I won't let him live it down. Maybe in 30 years. We'll see how that plays out. A couple of special liveries. The McLaren. As time of recording right now. I was just checking out Twitter. Or X.

As it's called now. It's alright. We called Toro Rosso. We called Racing Bulls Toro Rosso. We can call X Twitter. They're releasing a Chrome livery. So Google Chrome, which is the browser of choice, unfortunately not a sponsor of Myst Apex, but they're going to be bringing back that kind of silver arrows Chrome. feel that we saw in the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes from about 10, 15 years ago. That's pretty cool, Matt, you got to say.

Yeah, that tickles the old memory cells a bit. I did sort of love that chrome livery. I know it wasn't everybody's favorite, but... uh to me that was that was when i came back to formula one sort of for the last time lewis hamilton 2008 and that that it was just such a distinctive and well uh to me very menacing looking

livery that that i'm delighted to see them giving it a nod because the orange i'm sure is much more fan friendly these days or the papaya uh but i liked it when racing teams tried to make their cars look dangerous Yeah, it doesn't look too bad at the moment. I do think the car feels a lot more approachable. Like if this car was a person and I saw it with the chrome, I'd be like, oh, this is like one of those rich lawyer, you know.

And I don't want to talk to them, for lack of a better word. But when you see the papaya, you're like, oh, look, it's a young lad just like me. And I'd love to have a chat to them. I don't know. Maybe there's some marketing ploy to this as well to try and attract the older audience back. into McLaren. Maybe I'm just overthinking it. It's missed Apex and I think wild speculation is really the best option right now for this preview for Silverstone. Racing Bulls, they also had their special livery.

And you may have noticed if you check out socials, our good friend Spanners was in the background. No, don't wash your eyes. That's actually him in some of the shots. And I'm going to leave the topic at that because I wasn't invited. And I don't know if you were, Matt, but I wasn't. And so I'm not going to talk about that anymore because I'm jealous. In terms of...

safety car odds because we said it could rain. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up, and you know I'm not the biggest betting man in the world, but the last time I did a missed Apex preview, I brought up the safety car odds and... I think after the podcast, now I'm not saying I'm responsible for this, it went down like 20 cents because I told everyone that there would be a safety car and the odds were high. Unfortunately for Silverstone, $1.30.

So in 12 hours time when I wake up after recording this, I don't know if those odds are going to go down to like $1.10. But it is funny sometimes how that works. I don't know if the bookies are listening to us. But there's a very good chance there could be a safety car. Imagine if it's not because of the rain. It's because one of the tires burst. Because they went too soft on construction.

Yeah, well, that would be a great story for us on the Sunday now, wouldn't it? I don't know. I always look at the historic probability of the safety car rather than the odds because, you know. the odds are never quite correct otherwise the bookies would never make money on them so yeah you have to take your grains of salt where you where you find them but uh yeah it's um with the rain it's it's um

It becomes more probable. And I imagine that will change as the weather forecast gets closer and more consistent. Well, as consistent as it's ever going to be when you're in England. Well, that's it. And there's gravel traps around this circuit too, which always helps in terms of cars getting beached and safety cars and all that kind of business. Final thing about the Silverstone Preview is Paul Aaron.

Paul Aron. No, it's not Paul Aron. It's Paul Aron. He'll take part in FP1 for Sauber, which makes no sense because he's an Alpine reserve, but Alpine have allowed him to... take part in FP1 at Silverstone and Hungary for Sauber, so that's good for them. And the most important part, Matt, and we should alert everyone, is that he's Estonian. What Estonian... facts do you know about that country um they speak estonian no um

I think they're a bit of a tech software kind of. They had like a big resurgence. There was like a lot of software development and stuff like that taking place there. And they also have produced some very good grantor writers over the years. if you're into cycling like I am. And as far as the Alpine thing, everyone's like, oh, it's all so interesting. Well, no, it's not. You know that they're paying for the privilege.

of letting Aaron drive the car. And they're probably doing that because they don't really have much of a junior program of their own because they've essentially saw where this is. they've essentially been on life support for quite some time ever since they didn't sell to andretti so they don't really have anyone in reserve and there are regulatory requirements uh in formula one that I think you need to have four young drivers in throughout the season, two per car.

And so this is just the cheapest and easiest way for them to solve that problem. Well, there you go. And pub facts too. Anybody ever has a... You know, a flag of Estonia and a pub quiz. You know a couple of facts there from Matt Trump. Thank you very much, Matt, for that. Estonia, great country, all tucked away.

over there in Africa. No, I'm just kidding. It's over there in Northern Europe. I'll just stop just joking around. All right. Enough Estonia jokes. I do love Estonia. I do have one Estonian friend and he's a good lad. Shout out to him. I don't think he's listening to this, but I'll send it to him anyway. Here's the next topic.

we've been teasing this for a while, the top secret test. Now, I don't know what to, maybe I should just throw this to you, Matt, because there's a closed door test for next year for the new regulations. and no media is allowed yeah no media no photographs no nothing and this is ostensibly at the request of the teams

Because for some reason, given a brand new power unit and brand new aero, fully brand new aero regulations, this isn't just like an update like we saw from 2014 to 2017, for example. This is just throw everything out. Start all over again. Completely new ideas with movable front and rear wings. And so they're afraid that if they have a car that doesn't go well, the very, very first shakedown test, that would be embarrassing instead of simply part of the process.

of getting it right for the start of the season. So they've decided to excommunicate the entirety of the media ecosystem. But they're going to be at Barcelona, which means that... that it's going to be seen by people anyway, because you can, I think you can at least get spy shots and, you know, people are going to be flying drones and taking video footage.

And it's just making it worse. If you just said, okay, yeah, sure, come. It's going to be freezing. It's going to be Barcelona. It's going to be really boring. We're going to do like a lap or two at a time just to make sure stuff is working. No one would care how well anybody did. No one would read anything into it because the first real tests are going to be once again in the Middle East later on. And you've got two of those tests, not the one. So it would be a flash in the pan.

if you allowed for sort of normal-ish media coverage. But by making it top secret, now everybody's going to be looking for any hint of weakness and they're going to seize on it and they're going to make it viral on the internet because in an information environment where there's almost no information

rumors run rampant. So I, to me, this is like a hilariously bad choice. Although I understand why they made it. It's like, yeah, you know, I'm just, I'm just, but also I'm irritated because I want to see what happens. Yeah, same. I want to see what happens. And it's going to be interesting to see like the circuit staff who risk their careers just to sneak in like a 10 second vision of a car breaking down at turn seven at Catalonia. That's where this private test is.

is taking place in Spain at the circuit to Barcelona, Catalonia. Now, you are right. Teams can learn about all these new regulations without the world watching. It eases the pressure off engineers. And all the bad headlines about the new regulations and people criticizing it and chastising it before round one. But I don't know. For entertainment purposes, it's not good for fans.

like how often do we get to see unreliability i think it's cool to sometimes see unreliability like if i see the mclaren breaking down if if you know Or let's say the Mercedes engines burst seven times for the rest of the year. That's not going to deter me from buying a Mercedes. Maybe I'm different. And maybe I don't think like the marketing team over at Mercedes who build very good, reliable power units. I don't know, Matt.

Maybe I'm completely wrong. No, you're not wrong. I just just to me in this day and age, the more you try and control information, the worse it's just going to be for you. Because at the end of the day. Look at how much of what we talk about is essentially just paddock gossip. Someone said something to somebody who said something to somebody who said it to a reporter or to an influencer, and now it's on Instagram and suddenly everybody's talking about it. So we're talking about it anyway, right?

So it's going to be like, oh, you know, smoke spotted from this car. And then it's going to be like, oh, this car is doomed this season. And, you know, the reality is they just didn't hook up the hydraulics properly. It was a little hydraulic smoke and they fixed it and the car will actually be fine. No one will. believe that. Because there's no actual media. There's no neutral-ish arbiter of information present.

And then the team's going to come out and say stuff and it's going to be like, oh, you know, team principal has our complete and total support and everyone will just take it to mean the exact opposite. You only lose when you make your sport less transparent. in a sporting sense and that's what i think is happening here it was beautiful in 2014 when we had the major rule change from you know v8s to

the turbo hybrid cars that we use today. And I think in the first race, you know, Sebastian Bettle retired Lewis Hamilton as well, eventual world champion. So we had issues on just going to the grid. Some of the teams at the time, I swear I heard Christian Horne. or somebody say they weren't even sure how many cars would finish the race like would it even just be like eight like it would be back to the olden days you had a couple races where um

I swear, like 20 years ago, we used to see races sometimes where like eight cars would finish. It would be ridiculous. Now that would be an absolute... Like that would make the headlines for sure on the news. So I don't know. I understand why they're doing this for the teams and to... to remove the pressure of that. Now, this would take place in late January, which is also a very early test mat because we don't normally see testing in late January, which would make this test even better.

Because it would not only mean the normal unreliability of testing, but it would be pretty much inflated because it's so early on. Some teams don't even have their cars ready till February. So they'd be very, very stock standard cars by that stage. We'll still get our other two tests.

in Bahrain. So that will be in February and then season starts in March. So that's how that structure will take place. All of this really already confirmed though, but I just thought I'd remind listeners who are taking in. Lots of information right now. Yeah, it's as much as anything is probably a power unit and just basic system shakedown tests. But don't forget Barcelona can get cold. We've had snow during testing before.

And so that could also make things more entertaining. But they're not going to listen to me. No, they won't. I will, though.

And so, yes, you've got my ticket of approval. The other one that I caught in this same article was about next year's race in Azerbaijan. will be on a Saturday. So much like Las Vegas that we see on a Saturday. And the reason is it's an Azerbaijani National Remembrance Day.

on the Sunday. And so the organisers have asked to push back the race weekend or push it earlier. So you've got pull it earlier is the right term. Practice on the Thursday, qualifying on the Friday and then race on the Saturday. thoughts on a Saturday race? I don't know. Is this a one-off? Is it every year? Is it a one-off? I'm like, you know, whatever. Stuff happens. If it's going to be every year, is it going to be like Vegas? Is it going to be like a night race?

Is it going to be a weird time for me? These are all the questions that I have now. But in general, it's not super great, I think, because you catch people. Like, you know, Friday practice is, well, it's a Friday. You're at your office drone cubicle. You can probably get away with, you know, watching it on your phone or whatever.

But Thursday, Friday, you've got two thirds of the action taking place on what's probably during what's work time for a large portion of your audience. So I don't know. I don't see it as a long term great trend. Because the whole point of it being on the weekend is people can catch up and they have time to watch. Now the race is going to be happening before people have any idea what's going on. Well, that's my favorite part about this.

for me is that normally this race is about 11pm on a Sunday night. And so, you know, for a lot of people in Australia getting up for work on a Monday, it'd be a pain. So selfishly for the minority of Australians that watch Formula One. which is actually quite a bit at the moment because of the success of Oscar Piastri lately, of course. Aussies love F1 down here. But a Saturday night race.

would be, I think, a lot better sleep-wise and would be a lot more or a lot less of a pain for Australian F1 fans. So selfishly, it's a big win. For Aussies. Really, this is a massive win for people in Azerbaijan and people in Australia and New Zealand. This really, well, New Zealand, not really, because it's, I think, you know, there'll be 1am for them. Anyway, good luck to you Kiwis out there. The next one I saw, which was from Stefano Domenicali as well, was...

There's a chance the final two races this year, Matt, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi could be under threat. There's a situation with the war over there. I don't really want to get into that. too much but there's a chance that those two races may not go ahead and if they don't Stefano Domenicali says they have a plan in place

whether that's going to another European circuit, whether it's going to Algarve again in Portugal. Do you remember that from COVID, the old Portugal circuit? I do. Portimao. Yes. Portimao. And there's also a chance Portimao, if it is, that circuit may host both of the last two rounds. Now, why I think this is interesting to bring up is because the battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, I genuinely think it's going to go down to the final races here.

So... we better have two final races to decide it and i don't think f1 want to remove that because it would really ruin the outcome of the title chase it would also cost them a lot of money which is i'm sure what they're looking at even more No, you would think that there would be some circuits that are open and available to host races in the event they can't be held where they normally are.

And yeah, this is exactly what you would expect. And I think they're really just putting it out there right now as a marker. So people don't get panicked about it, but it's, it's so far away in some senses that, you know, I'm not, I feel like, you know, you don't really need to waste a lot of time. discussing it until it becomes a laikly.

Next up, we'll bring in Ferrari again and Fred Vassour. This is one thing that... Well, it's a topic with Fred Vassour. Unfortunately, the news came out. The reason he missed Austria was... His mother had passed away is what I'm hearing, unless I'm wrong, Matt. No, I'm correct. I'm getting the nods from you, thankfully. Yeah, yeah. That's what had been put out there. I don't know. I think it started. Someone saw.

notice in a local paper and sort of put the story together. But I don't know if the official journalists have gone and reported it yet. Yeah. Shout out to the unofficial internet journalists on that one. But all respect to Fred Vassour, we'll let him here at Missed Apex. and send our condolences, I guess, from the podcast and wish them all the best because there were some rumors of him being axed.

You know, as team boss, which intensified, which now it seems very like looking back at it, you go, oh, those people have to feel bad for bringing up those rumors on a weekend where he's dealing with such a massive personal issue for him and his life. If he was under pressure, which I don't understand, and I want to bring up every Ferrari team principal since they last won a world title, Matt. And we go with Mattia Bonotto, who was before Fred Vassour. The Admiritsu Areva Bene.

You had Marco Matti, actually we'll skip over that because he was an interim guy. And then Stefano Domenicali. Now Stefano Domenicali won the Constructors title in 2008. So he was really the last guy. Stefano Domenicali, shout out to the F1 CEO. This is like the... 500th mention he's gotten in this podcast. But do you think Fred Vassour's the problem? I mean, would axing him be the right decision?

I don't think it would make much of a difference. I just don't get it. The whole team is premised around next season. You've got him, you know, successfully integrated and stealing Hamilton away from Mercedes. And just because... They made the decision to sort of seriously revamp this year's car, and it didn't quite pay off. That kind of a bet is really the kind of bet you do need to make to win championships.

we've seen some improvement and a lot of facets of the team others can be presumed to be ongoing but I feel like again this is It's just a fever dream that oftentimes will start with the Italian press, who are notoriously impatient results-wise. Ferrari has literally now overtaken Mercedes for second place in the Constructors' Championship. And given McLaren dominance, that's going to be the fight, Mercedes versus Ferrari.

for the for the for second place which isn't the most exciting fight we could have but again you know once once you write off the top step of the podium then then the fight is for second and if it's close enough it's worth watching And we haven't even seen, like, they haven't even finished fixing this year's car. They have another very big update, a mechanical suspension update coming, I believe, at Spa.

To complement the floor update that has already in Austria shown an improvement in the overall handling and performance of the car. So... yeah i i just i mean i just you just need to take a deep breath at this point and and you know just just get some context here but you know I will also admit I'm not normal, so maybe I'm just missing out on some kind of vibe that is very present otherwise. What's that breathing method? Four seconds in, hold it, four seconds out, something like that.

A square breathing or something like that. Yeah, square breathing. Ferrari fans, prescribe with square breathing. Not just for this weekend, for pretty much the rest of your lives, because at the moment it doesn't look like it's changing anytime soon. You were going to add?

Yeah, I was going to add, like I had seen, like, you know, they sort of totted up all the different accomplishments of these exact team principles. I forget where I saw this in an article, and they were like, well, here are all the statistics, wins, losses, polls, blah, blah, blah. And he is just like right smack in the middle. And it's what, is this his second year? Second full year as team principal? I mean, yeah.

You know, just look at how long it took McLaren to get their house back in order. And just, you know... Wait until there's a really good reason to say, OK, clearly we've identified the problem and the problem is Fred, because right now I just don't think the data or evidence is there to fully support it. And until then, you're just making.

you're making your team's life harder by going with this. But you are, if you're a journalist, getting a lot of people to click on your story. So I do understand that that's also a reality in modern times. Yeah, Ferrari are the big names. You can... get anybody to click on a story if you put the word Ferrari and pain on the back end of it as well Ferrari and pain they're a match made in heaven but in all seriousness you mentioned

I mean, Ferrari have really been the best of the rest, haven't they? In terms of the last, whatever, 15 years now since their last title, since that 2008 Constructors title. The rear suspension that you mentioned, that's going to be... ready for Spa in three weeks. Now, for fans wondering, there are a few Ferrari fans who are wondering, wasn't that supposed to be ready for Silverstone this weekend? Yeah, it was. And it could make a difference to that whole plank wear issue if that still exists.

If that hasn't been sold already. So there's also that could come into play as well for Ferrari. The new floor, which worked wonders in Austria. I wonder how that's going to play this weekend in Silverstone. Fairly flat track. from what i've seen at silverstone unless uh you know there's not really much elevation change around there so i wonder if the that'll help ferrari a little bit as well but

Their history. I mean, even when Mattia Bonotto was in charge, Matt, you know, this is a guy who found some pace in the car. Bonotto is an engineering prowess, really. I mean, he's very good at his job. The one thing he wasn't good at, by the way, can I just mention Mattia Bonotto, who oversaw a power unit which was illegal, allegedly.

And they signed that deal. He was the chief technical officer who signed off in a power unit that they later had to have a secret agreement with Formula One and say, oh, wait, it wasn't legal. Anyway, Mattia Bonotto was there, you know. Maruti Arvabene, he also came close.

to beating Mercedes dominance but they just seem to keep falling short it seems like P2 is Ferrari's best and then you mentioned this year like I almost started rolling my eyes when you said oh it looks like Ferrari are in a fight with Mercedes for P2 in the Constructors' Championship. Like, it just doesn't seem to be P1. Like, 2022, Leclerc had all those poles, pushing too hard in the races to keep up with the Red Bull, just couldn't keep up. You had Vettel.

as well pushing a bit too hard in that Ferrari some people say you know that car was the quickest I don't think so I think they were driving it you know, almost basically derailed it off the rails there. So I don't know. I don't know what you do with this team. I think stability is key. Look at McLaren and stability, how it's worked out for them. And it's really worked wonders for McLaren. Also worked wonders for McLaren is some Bahraini investment funds, which maybe Ferrari could use.

Yeah, I think they do pretty well as a business. But, you know, you mentioned the Alonzo almost win where he pitted and came out behind Petrov and couldn't get around him easily for like I was yelling at the TV when they pitted him. And I wasn't even following live timing. You could just see the pit window on the timing tower. This is 2010 you're talking about, the final race where Alonso could have won the championship. And he could have won the title in 2012. Had a two-race lead with...

what eight rounds to go seven rounds to go something like that ended up losing the title as well the Vettel so they've had their moments to shine really Ferrari and you do you know what it's getting to a point for the first time in my life and I I um If anybody from Ferrari would like to chat to Miss Apex, feedback at MissApex.net. It's a rough 15, 20 years growing up being a Ferrari fan. Luckily, I'm not. And that's why I'm happy. I'm very happy right now because I'm...

I've watched Lewis Hamilton win seven titles, so I'll take that with me to bed. Should we talk about Williams, Matt, quickly before we end up here? Their woes recently have just been, I mean, it hasn't been the best few rounds for Williams.

No, it really hasn't. And I'm of two minds about this. You know, after the events of Austria with the double DNF track where they were... Looking competitive through practice and even with Albin and qualifying You've got on the one hand this sort of ongoing issue with Albin and the power unit and the other one you had like this just wacky combination of events with signs having the huge issues with break uh he had um you know

As Spanners always likes to talk about asymmetric brakes, well, Sainz had actual asymmetric braking, and let me tell you, it doesn't really work the way you want it to when you get it the way he had it. And floor damage, which both cars had in qualifying. And then, you know, the next day, after you would assume they fixed that, he can't even get his rear brakes to unlock and essentially catches his car on fire, trying to just take the formation lap and get back to the pits.

So I think we've reached a point, and Science has said, you know, it's time to regroup. And I think what we've done is we've reached a point where... You know how if you've ever had owned a car like for a long time, you eventually get to a point where you have to say, oh, well, you know, we need to put new bushings here. And so you put the new bushings on and then half a year later, the next part down the line fails because suddenly it's getting.

And you replace that. And then the next part down. So I think that's where we are with Williams in sort of the top down 10,000 foot view. They've built a much more competitive car. They have a much more agile and dynamic team. But now that's brought them into an area where they have margins that haven't really been tested in terms of their trackside team and in terms of their performance, maybe their forensic engineering.

And so now they are learning these lessons. And they will then hopefully take the spiral staircase up. once they figure out where these process issues lie and continue to improve their performance. I will also point out that if you are not as data-minded, that they did do a big interview with f1 tv about their plan to be world championships and then immediately had a double dnf so you could also write this off to just commentators curse at least this last weekend that's fine too

But Silverstone is a track that suits them, suits their car. They're looking to be competitive there. It's their home race. And, you know, as much as anything else, sometimes when all these things happen at the same time, it's just coincidence. That's just the way, that's the way the cards came. That's the way the dice rolls. Sometimes you'd get a bunch of bad ones in a row.

And maybe that's all it is. Matt, don't you ever bring up front bushes on a suspension ever again? Because I just bought a car and I knew it needs... I know it needs new front bushes. And you've just reminded me that that's about 600 bucks I'm going to pay for at the mechanic pretty much next week. I'm going to have to take my car in. You've really done it this time.

Well, again, this is what I mean by coincidence. I had no idea, and yet I've managed to ruin your day. No, it's all right. It's not the biggest fee in the world. But Jono's new Land Rover, who can I shout out to EJ, Mistapix, Patreon. Named it Landrove Norris for me. And I may just call it Landrove Norris for the rest of its life. That might be the best name I've ever heard for a car. Well done, EJ. Shout out to you again.

There's a couple teams. We mentioned the Ferrari updates. Williams, do they have updates? I don't think so. I know we were talking pre-podcast. I think Haas, maybe Red Bull are bringing updates for weekend. Do you know what the situation is there? The two that are...

teased them at Austria were Haas and Aston. Oh, Aston. I'd be keen to see how they go. I think so. Again, you know, I'm going by memory here. And then when I say tease, that is not a guarantee they're actually going to show up. Those are the two I know, but we'll see. They'll have the documents out tomorrow. So all the teams that are bringing little updates and stuff like that, we'll know for sure tomorrow, which is Thursday. Yes, recording this on a Wednesday.

Not everybody will listen to this on Wednesday. Yeah. If you're listening to this on a Friday, yes, we've missed out on most of the pre-race interviews that they conduct on a Thursday. So I... One more thing, actually, I want to pitch to you is high-speed circuit. We know the McLaren... Well, first off, the McLaren's going to be quick everywhere. That's the pecking order. I think, number one, McLaren pretty much every race, we think.

There are some exceptions. Canada was one, as we know. But do we think the Ferrari is going to be quick again? You know, different characteristics a little bit to Austria here. Do we think the Red Bull suits the high-speed corners? Are we clear with that information yet with the pecking order with our top four? Okay, so here's my quick rundown. McLaren should always be at... near the top. They may not always win, but they will be fighting for the win regardless.

In terms of teams, it might actually do well. I think you do have to look at Mercedes. The temperatures are going to be very favorable to them, and they did do well with the longer straights in Canada, so they've made a step. certain conditions. So you might see them approaching Ferrari again. There's not a ton of low-speed corners. There's like two or three.

And that also, remember that for all of Red Bull's other problems, they are a very efficient car. And we didn't really get to see what the new floor did for them in Austria, thanks to Antonelli. Although that was just hilarious. So thank you, Antonelli, for providing that drama. So again, this could be a circuit that sees Max, you know. inside the top five and maybe trying to sneak a podium with very good strategy, which Red Bull has always had and continues to have. I wonder if...

This weekend, we'll see potential Aston Martin up the pecking order too. That's one thing I'm looking forward to. You know, the battle for P5 onwards in the Constructors' Championship, that midfield battle... It really, I'm not going to say it's like close because 20 points between Williams and racing balls or 19 to be exact. That's massive, right? Like if you're talking McLaren versus Ferrari versus Mercedes, that's pretty much like.

One driver could make that up with P2 almost. But I'm talking here in the midfield, it just seems closer than we usually have had in the past. So I'd be keen to see if Aston Martin, who I think have had, you know, along with Alpine, probably compared to expectations.

the worst starts to the year because we really thought Aston Martin was going to be better than this. And Alpine, we didn't think the car was going to be quick, but to only score 11 points at this stage, they've got some work to do there.

have Alpine. Mentioning Alpine, actually, there is, we'll just quickly mention this before we wrap up. Valtteri Bottas, who's been rumoured to sign with pretty much every team on the grid for next year. has also been rumoured as a potential Colopinto replacement. Is there any... From your sources, Matt, do we have any substance to that? Do we think that's true? I think that seat is very likely going to be down to the amount of money and sponsorship.

And if I'm Bottas, I am either negotiating with Cadillac. So it would be great for someone else to be talked about being in the frame with. Or I'm looking at them having a Mercedes power unit next year and having pretty decent aero this year and thinking, well, you know. I'll be a lot farther up the grid with them than I will be with Cadillac, which is sadly, but, you know, inevitably going to be true. Yeah, well, when Cadillac's interview the other day, who I saw on Sky...

you know, English Sky Sports. And there was a mention that they'll, you know, we believe we'll be ready for 2026. Can I just mention Big Red Flag, if it's even a conversation? that you believe you'll be ready for 2026, that's not a good sign heading into the next year. It basically means the car might not be ready, obviously, and it's not going to be as quick as you think. We've had situations in the past. If anybody remembers to the dreaded...

USF1, one of the attempts at getting an American team on the grid. And it didn't quite work out because you probably haven't heard of them. They never raced and they really struggled with funding and a whole lot of other issues and the car wasn't ready. to get on the grid. So good luck to Cadillac. Good luck to Valtteri Bottas. We did hear that Daniel Ricciardo...

Interestingly enough, I've mentioned the word retirement in a catch up with him. I think he's over watching some tennis at Wimbledon at the moment. I don't even know if he's going to be tuning into Silverstone this weekend. I hope he's there. I hope you'll be at Silverstone. We haven't seen Danny Reek in a while. Yeah, I think he sort of realized that he's happier not continuing the fight against his demons, whatever they are, his McLaren-induced demons. Let's just call them that.

And having been away from the track a little bit, he's like, oh, oh, actually, you know, I have unbelievable amounts of money. I'm stupidly handsome and everybody loves me. I could actually just sort of have a lot of fun now and enjoy that. good for him you know he put a lot of sweat and sacrifice gave up many many things attained some amazing rewards

And now he's off to enjoy them. So I think that's a reasonable life cycle for a driver and smart of him to just realize when it's time to hang the gloves up and just maybe get in a cart every now and then for fun. Although I think he's more of a mountain biker, kind of.

dude he loves his extreme sports yes it's one of you you australians in the mountain bikes i just honestly don't know i do want to speak to the usf one thing before we get out of here okay and just say that whatever else cadillac is going to be and i believe they will be at the back of the grid

they're not USF. They have the funding, they have the resource, they do have the engineering. But a team from scratch, as you rightly note, is entirely different than purchasing an ongoing enterprise and upgrading it. And so... for them to be anywhere other than dead last which is what i understand they're sort of making making it plain to the investors sort of like the general roadmap and timeline be on the grid run respectable raise pace

And that's the goal for next season. And that actually is pretty sensible, if you ask me. Well, there you go. And it's, I would say, big shame for Cadillac if they...

if they're not quick next year, but it's a long-term prospects for them. Cadillac F1, good luck to them for next year. I think it's time to wrap up here, Matt. It's been a good one. Really enjoyed it. And for everybody listening at home too, or on your commute, thanks for listening to our... Silverstone Race Preview. You can follow Matt

on socials. Check out the show notes, Matt. You'll take care of that. You'll chuck everything in the show notes. You can also follow me on socials too, at JohnnyS8, J-O-N-N-Y-E-S-S-8. Matt, you are MattPT55. Did I get that right? You did get that right. I'm impressed because not everybody does. Yeah, it's good. I stalk your account four times a day. Oh, sorry. I shouldn't have said that out loud. That's how I know your handle.

You can follow Matt, of course, and myself, so check it out all in the show notes, as we said. Spanners will be back for the race review on Sunday with Matt. I will not be there, but for now, take care. Hope you enjoyed our Missed Apex Silverstone race preview. See you next time. See you next time.