Canadian F1 GP Race Review 2025

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Papaya rules got thrown in the bin of trash and Norris said, nah, I'll do what I want. And I think we are going to start the show by talking about the incident with the McLaren teammates coming together. But also, it was a bumper weekend for the magnificent Mercedes men, pending the Red Bull protest that hopefully we'll get a result on as we record. A frustrating but also solid, I think, and ultimately...

optimal weekend for Verstappen and yet another disaster class for Ferrari. We are an independent podcast produced in the podcasting shed with the kind permission... We aim to bring you a race review before your Monday morning commute. We might be wrong, but we're first.

Joined in the shed by Matt. Two rumpets. Hello, Matt. I got one. Stop. Do I hear two? Anyone for two? Stop. Hey, it was interesting that the tyres did their job in making this an interesting race. So we were talking to Mike Caulfield in our race preview.

titled How to Lose the Canadian Grand Prix. And they seem to have found a way with this C6 tyre. It's worked. It's been a success. And I still don't know quite the difference between tyre wear and thermal deg, but I'm starting to get it in my head.

So although there wasn't a lot of wear today, you've got to look for thermal day. Lap times did drop off. So we did see tyres struggling. We did see certain people struggling with graining. And I think Pirelli have kind of fixed the situation a little bit. Yeah, no, they gave us good race tires. The goal really was to avoid the one-stop. But if you were clever and managed your tires well, you could make it work.

But most of the people did go for the pretty much standard two-stop because we were a little softer with the tires this year, and it was a lot hotter. For me, the amazing thing was how well Mercedes did with their tires. Although some of that may be down to just the nature of this specific circuit.

Rather than an overall we have solved the problem. It could have just been super George. Let's not play down his season and his session so far. We're also joined by our video guy and all around video guru from Australia, Steve, Amy. Cannot wait, Steve, to find out what you thought of the graphic at turn 10 with just the looping F1 trailer.

going on in the background. Oh, God, I saw that, and I couldn't believe my eyes to start with. I thought, hang on, someone's made a mistake. Then the next time they cut to it, the next lap, there it was again, and there it was again. paid money to sit in those grandstands there and trying to watch the race must have been totally racked off. Oh right, so apparently that was green screen for them.

So they weren't seeing that on the track. Oh, is that right? Okay, I wasn't aware of that. That makes it not so bad, except why do I have to put up with the same trailer, you know? So do you know what? The first time I saw it... went oh that's actually oh that's quite cool because i'm excited about seeing the f1 thing but what kept happening was a part of the trailer is a crash scene

So I thought they were like cutting to a picture in picture and there was some crash happening. And then it was actually driving me mad. Someone has to pay for this. And they did stop it eventually. And I just I wonder if it's because the whole Internet. was screaming about it. So not green screen, but CGI. So they were seeing the normal big screen. But if you look carefully on what you were seeing on, say, Sky or F1 TV, the trailer was actually bigger, like superimposed, just a block.

uh over the top of it but into the race i think we go straight into uh the mclaren situation really i want to focus on mercedes versus verstappen i think that was the race but obviously the big dramatic thing was that crash between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. And I genuinely had to go and knock on my neighbor's door because this is the first time they've heard me in F1 mode. And it's summer.

So the windows were open. And honestly, I let out just like a blood curdling, like, no, like, what have you, what have you done? What have you done? And initially, it wasn't obviously clear who was at fault. But it looked initially like, oh, it's Norris. And then as you see the replays, I was just stood there in just disbelief. I mean, we are going to ask whose fault it is, but it is one of these.

key moments like this is going to be a core memory of ours for the 2025 season especially if Piastri ends up you know winning by say 10 points this is one of the races where you're going to keep you're going to look back, it's going to be replayed over and over again. And it gives us such an insight into the psyche of this Norris versus Piastri battle. So I think now I will ask. Whose fault is it?

I've got a feeling that there's not too much debate on whose fault it is. So let's go to the Australian first. Australian Steve Amey, whose fault was it? Well, who do you reckon? It was obviously Lando's fault and I don't think that there was any question. He tried too hard. Oscar... was on the normal racing line for that part of the track, heading for the turn into the first corner. And I couldn't believe it when I saw the overhead shot a little later that...

Lando actually tried to go up the inside on the left-hand side. There was a closing gap. He was just never going to make it. Just decided he was going to try and blast his way through. Matt, any defense of Norris? Well, I mean, I would just point out to Steve that that's the normal racing line when you're in fact trying to... defend against your teammate who's trying to pass you on that side of the track because it is a left-hander to start normally you would want to widen that a bit uh it's

It's hard to blame Piastri for that. I'm trying really hard. But I will point out that that defense did take Lando onto a very dirty part of the track. So some of the really bad part of that accident might have been as much not having normal traction available to him. But it just, it looks like he just got the closing speed wrong.

I mean, yeah, we I'll let you talk because I have many thoughts about this. OK, so I will just say I tried to blame Piastri. OK, so I in my head when that happened, you know, the thoughts are 2011. Canada, where, you know, Button puts Hamilton into the wall. I think Hamilton's a bit alongside at that point. The same with Barcelona 2016, these kind of classic teammate defending moves and you move over. There's not room to move over. You crowd your teammate out.

And you look at the replay and instantly, no, Lando's hit the back of him. So Norris is not alongside at any point. So I don't think that's up for debate. He was not entitled to any room. And the only kind of question mark would be... Did Piastri move erratically at that point? Was there a gap that Norris thought he could go through that was then suddenly shut? And you go, also no. No, Piastri moved.

very gradually onto the normal racing line-ish, but it was a robust defence of your teammate, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I was just looking for, like, frame by frame, was there a point? Where Norris kind of goes, yeah, there's the gap. I'm going for it now. This is do or die. And then it got shut. And you go, no, it was never. I don't think it was ever there, Matt. Well, I mean, I think the gap was there.

But I think when he got there, it had disappeared. Because you're right, Piastri made one single move to that side, to the side that he saw Norris coming on. The only thing I could really say in Norris's defense, one is obviously it's very hard to locate the front wing. exactly where it is. I mean, we talked about this in Austria a couple of years ago with everybody being out of bounds. It's just these cars are so big. It is kind of hard to know where your exact limits are.

So to me, this was literally, he just touched Piastri's rear wheel with his front wing, and that's what set off a much worse thing. But I suppose you could always say that perhaps he expected to be left eight cars with by Piastri. And then was surprised when it continued to disappear. I mean, you could, you could say just as teammates, you know, you could make the argument, well, you know, it's teammates. I might've left a cars with there, even if I thought he might pass me.

Matt, why would he be expecting to be left a car with you? Yeah. That's true if you're coming up beside another car and trying to, you know, perform an overtake. He was well behind. Where did he think that he had the right to any kind of track space at all? And the second thing is that... I mean, Oscar's move was gentle. He was just drifting to the left-hand side. He wasn't like making jagged movements in response to what Lando was doing. I think that this whole thing...

is kind of reflective of something we've seen that Lander has done in the last few weeks, the last few races, and that is he's trying too hard. He's overdriving. He did it in Barcelona in... The... Qualy? Qualifying. And he did it here in the qualifying too, in Qualy 3. He overdrove and sort of smacked into the wall. Steve, yeah, well, in the first run in Q3, like we know he's got the pace because we see him, you know, up until that point.

I saw him in the race today. I think uncontroversially, I'm going to say he was probably the better of the two McLaren drivers on race pace and on tyre wear. I know that I'm not just saying that because, look, Piastri was struggling a little bit. with the tyre wear, not critically, but enough to give Norris that final advantage that let him hound him down and get into this position to try these overtakes at all in the first place. But he has overdriven it.

In the first run in Q3, he went off at the final chicane. Second run, hit the wall. You can't keep doing that. He keeps doing it race after race. And then it doesn't matter what you're doing on Sunday. You're four places behind. your your your teammate and then you get to this point and you go yeah did he overdrive it like or was it just poor race craft now uh did oscar lift a little says alan in the patron live chat the closing speed seemed to increase at the last moment

That is initially what I thought as well. But Adrian's coming up with a decent reason that perhaps it's just the slipstream effect and then you start to see that overspeed. And I think Norris had DRS. for that one or did they and both at that point even for the start finish straight yes all right okay so anyway those combinations start to kick in and there was a closing speed which makes it all the more frustrating

Because you go, well, there's a big open space to the right hand side as well. And the outside of turn two quickly turns into the inside. Outside of turn one turns into the inside of turn two. And you go, Piastri wouldn't have been able to go over under the rules and block. on the right-hand side, again, he'd have had to have left a car's width, having already defended to the left.

To me, it ruined what was great racing up until that point because there was some great defending from Priastri and there was some really solid attacking from Norris as well. You're on mute, Steve. Sorry. Sorry, for the three or four laps before it happened, it was great racing between the two of them. And I really thought that Lando was going to get past him. I really did think that that was the outcome of the tussle.

And because I thought Lando had the better of him, I was stunned when Lando ran up the back of him. And I think he ruined the race for himself. Obviously, he ruined the race for himself at that point. It just feels like there was a chance to back out. Like, as you were going for that wedge, it seemed like there was plenty of time to go, that's not going to work. He'd effectively run into the back of him.

On first sight, it looks like, you know, a side-to-side contact. But no, he's just run into the back of where a car is. And there was laps left to fight. And if you look at the tyre wear situation over the course of those first two stints... Norris was much better off on the tyres, did have more race pace. Piastri's tyres were not lasting as well, having pushed early against Antonelli. So Norris had a tyre advantage that was only ever going to increase.

And there were still laps to go and get him. So I don't know, Matt, if he was just like, you know, could we call that, you know, a rush of blood? Could we call it impetuous? I think it's just target fixation in the amount of time you have to make these decisions. You're looking at the car, the closing speed and the gap and you're committing to it. And I think.

I'm going to bring up one more thing on Norris' behalf here that I haven't heard anyone mention. But I think as he got closer to the back of this, and this goes to Alan's point, it looked like...

Oscar lifted. But no, I'm going to go the opposite way. As he got closer, he got more and more into the slipstream of Fiastri. And so his overspeed would have increased. And perhaps... so fast that he was unable to keep himself out of the back of piastri so that's something i can come up with that's a genuine and legit thing but yeah if you're sitting there on the couch

There's all that space to the right and you've got the overspeed. Just go there. By the way, if you're accusing us of being armchair idiots, yes, we know. We know. But that doesn't stop us talking about it. My initial thought was. Holy smoke, Lando was looking onto his...

his steering wheel screen, you know, making an adjustment or something as he was, you know, and that caused him to whack into the back of Lando. I mean, I don't think that was necessarily the case, but that was my first thought. Yeah, it's a poor one and it's a real missed opportunity here. It's a real missed opportunity. Got to get into his head and figure out what he's doing on a Saturday and cut out the disasters.

I always compare it to golf, and I don't care. I'm not sorry. But if you do the layup, if you hit your 7-iron even onto the fairway and accept your bogey, then that's one thing. That's like the equivalent of... of Norris finishing P2 to Piastri P1. But what he seems to do is he gets the big driver out. He's going for a big hit. It's going out of bounds and it's a blow up.

And so we call that in golf, we call it blow up holes where you go, it doesn't matter how steady you're going, that one hole where you got 10 just ruins your entire round. And at the moment, this is what Norris seems to be doing in Q3, gets his big driver out and that's it. And he's going out of bounds.

It feels like even if he'd have been P4 today, he would have had an opportunity to go and win the race. But from P, what did he finish in the end? Where did he start in the end? I think P7. Yeah, P7. You're always going to be struggling there. And I think it's worse than just a mistake for him. I think that he has done his championship a whole bunch of bad through this because...

He's now 22 points behind. Norris is now 22 points behind. That's going to be hard to make up, and the team have to at some stage. Make some sort of decision about who's going to get the preference. Well, not the preference, maybe, at this point, because I think if no one else is challenging, they might not do the preference thing.

But what about the papaya rule, Steve? Because I thought it was all about the team. You know, they didn't seem to want to go and chase that podium down. They seemed more concerned with letting the drivers fight it out. So I'm a bit confused. of where the McLaren mentality is. What did they want?

What do they want? They want to win the World Constructors' Championship first off. That's the most important thing. Secondly, they wouldn't mind winning the Drivers' Championship. So, you know, if there's a fair chance of that, all I'm saying is that... There's, what, three races now before the summer break? Yeah. They're going to have to, at some stage during that summer break, sit down and begin to think about...

What happens later in the season if they're in a situation like they are now? Or like last season. Are they going to say, okay, guys, you can race as much as you like? Or are they going to say, hey, listen, we have a real chance at both championships here now. Let's think about strategy. All right, Matt. But look, I'll put to you that they didn't do a swap order when Piastri started dropping off. They didn't say swap and go and get after Antonelli.

No, and that would have been the move to chase down Verstappen and Antonelli with Norris because he had more pace than Piastri. The interesting thing, and I'll just hold this up for the future. is they brought a front suspension update that Oscar did not run in the race and that Norris did. And they made this specifically to improve the feedback of the front end, which is the thing that Norris has really been complaining about it.

And he absolutely loved it. He was much happier with it. So yeah, this was a bad moment for him, but I think net he's only out eight points if he'd finished behind Piastri. So this is not like, uh, it's not. The entire and total catastrophe it might have been if Piastri was leading the race and he did this to himself. Yeah, they were slightly let off the hook. Norris was slightly left off the hook by the fact that Mustadis and...

And Verstappen were ahead. Now, I'll ask you this, Matt, as we transition and we move on to Mercedes, which really, they deserve all the glory this weekend. I think it kind of starts in qualifying as well. So there was much made of McLaren's struggles. But why was the medium the tyre to be on in qualifying if that was the deciding factor that put the McLarens behind?

Okay, I'll take you back to Imola when you were hearing people being unhappy with the soft tyre. When you said take back, Matt, sorry, I was just like, oh my God, how far back is he going to go? Okay, Imola. Okay, that's not too bad. Well, that's our first stop in our time machine. And people were complaining about the tire. And it's not that it's not grippier.

Then the medium tire here, which is a C5 tire, but it's also more flexible. And at a certain point that flex can be problematic for the drivers. And I think what you're looking at here is. Literally the tire just wobbled too much so that on entry, the drivers didn't feel as confident with this. And that can take you all the way back to everybody's favorite Australian, Mark Webber.

and Sebastian Vettel in the explodey tires era when they changed the sidewalls and ruined the exhaust blown diffuser on the Red Bull. So... The stiffness of the C5 is a bit more, it's more predictable and it manages temperatures better. So for if you're struggling with your rear tires on traction.

it maybe will be better across a whole lap, whereas in a sector, it might actually be quicker on the C6 tire. So I think you're looking at those two things, and they were very clearly teams that had identified that and chose to go that way in qualifying. Okay. This is like when Mike Caulfield was talking about thermal day. Sorry, did that not help at all? That did not help at all. I felt like I understood all the individual phrases, but then I can't string that together. I can't use that.

As an armchair person now to go, should I go on the softs or should I have gone on the mediums? Think of it this way. Would you rather try and balance on something that was hard or something that was squishy if you had to stand on one foot? It's like you're trying to balance on a ball versus trying to balance on, you know, a chair. It's a lot easier on a chair because it's more stable.

And I think that's what you're talking about with the C6 tire. So could that possibly be on the C6? It's a bit more wobbly. So that might have led to some of Norris's mistakes, or he would have been less likely to have overdriven it if he'd have been on a more stable platform.

But I think overall, it did look like the medium was the better choice. So the medium drivers ended up on the front row. So you're going to go, well, that validates that decision. And it just sets up this great battle between... Sorry, it's late at night here. Between Russell and Verstappen and you go, oh yeah, continuation of the beef. If at the end of the last race, after Verstappen deliberately drove into George Russell and was super angry at him.

you would say, what would be the number one scenario that we could wish for? Dear F1 Santa, could we please have a front row with Staffan and with Russell? And I love how he immediately put that to bed by... parking up on the grid aimed directly at George Russell. I know. And while they were both doing that, they were both kind of pointed at each other. Russell takes a big barb at Verstappen in the podium interviews and saying, well, I've got more penalty points to play with. And you just know.

that will have got underneath Verstappen's skin. And I think the only thing from here is that I think Verstappen might have overchased Russell at the beginning because I think it would have been a big prize for him to go and get Russell. Because Matt, I don't know if you were looking at the lap times, but they were about second faster than the rest of the pack. And you kind of go, is this too fast? Why are they doing this? And I think it's the beef. I think they were just continuing their beef.

Yeah, well, I mean, I still feel like we see this with Verstappen and Norris. Like, he fixates on people, and sometimes he is reactive and doesn't really think about his overall position in the race. Well... I agree with that. I think that he went after George in a big way. And I think that that's what led to the fact that his tyres went off faster than anybody else's.

I mean, he was the first to pit on lap 13, I think it was. And I think that that was purely down to the fact that he tried to chase George down at the beginning. And you could see that he was giving it everything that he could. Yeah, because it would be much more normal in that situation to back off a couple of seconds, like give it a go initially, but then you kind of go, no, it's not really working out. Russell definitely had a little bit in hand.

But yeah, the fear was, oh no, is this Russell doing a Russell from the last couple of years? I don't think it was that. I think they happened to have that pace. Yeah, and then Verstappen eventually, after like 12 laps, starts to drop off and you go, oh. And then when he pits, you go...

Yeah, I think he did do that. And that's not very Verstappen-like. Verstappen is strategically spot on. So I think Russell might have actually got into Verstappen's head quite a bit at the moment. And then let's start. from the end and go backwards, the stuff with the safety car at the end, Steve. What's your take on that? So Red Bull have protested that.

and said that he's done something dangerous. I think they're silly. I think they're very silly. I mean, having looked back at the replays of that, I think that... the person the driver who could lose most out of having that sort of inquiry is in fact max the rules state that once the lights go out then you can't speed up or slow down or, you know, the leading car has to stay fairly constant. But the lights didn't go out. You know, the whole race finished under safety car. Secondly...

When George, supposedly, according to Red Bull, brake checked Max, George was on the left-hand side of the... track and Max was on the right hand side and the couple of frames I've seen Max is well and truly ahead of him and I've got to say that the penalty points for overtaking under a safety car is two

And if they decide that he's the one that's going to cop it, you can say goodbye to the next race, Max. So I think Red Bull are a bit silly in pursuing this. This is another thing. It's like they're definitely in each other's heads because are they just so confident that... they think the telemetry will show that Russell did something bad, or are they not thinking about the fact that it just highlights that they might have done something bad? I think they're missing Jonathan Wheatley. Ooh.

Well, I mean, you can take the best defense is a good offense stance. And so if they lodge a protest against Russell, maybe they can just create enough. both sides of them so the stewards are like not going to pursue it but uh like steve i actually went back and found the onboard and and the entire course is russell gets actually kind of irritated with the safety car for going so slow drives right up as close as he's allowed to get and waves at him like you know come on move it on move it on

And then he drops back, but he doesn't drop back by braking. He's just using engine braking to slow down. And as he's backing away from the safety car, suddenly zoom, there goes Max's front wing off to his right. Wow. Okay.

So do I owe Russell an apology then? Because in my head, I've definitely been going, he did that on purpose. So let's say he was in front of... of Max and he did that and it looks like a brake check but it wasn't he moved over to the left he seemed quite deliberately and then lost all that speed just as Verstappen was kind of approaching

And you kind of go, he did that by purpose. Surely he did that to try and get a penalty point. Well, he might have done it on purpose in order to try and get into Max's head, but he didn't slam on the brakes, as Matt said. He lifted off and let the engine braking retard his progress, and I think Max wasn't paying attention and ended up way past him. Okay, okay.

The funniest version of this is if Russell did it on purpose to try and draw a foul. Let's say he did or did it. Let's say you can't prove it. How naughty is it? Russell did. Let's say he did do that on purpose. He tried to kind of draw a foul. I think that's penalty worthy, isn't it? That you're driving erratically under the safety car. And I think especially if... He'd have to admit that he did it on purpose to sort of prove it, I guess. If he'd slammed the brakes on hard, yes, but he didn't.

OK, the live chat saying I'm not mad, like everyone has jumped to that conclusion as well. Because when you go into the race going, we think that Russell is going to try and draw a foul. And then he does something that looks like that. And look, if I'm Russell, I would love everyone to think that I was smart enough to just bait Max into committing an offense like that when he's got...

You know, his license, you know, he's got a race suspension looming at him if he makes a mistake. Yeah, I would absolutely, and I would come out and I would talk like I didn't do anything wrong, but, you know. Maria, the George Russell fan in our Patreon Discord, isn't happy with me. I don't think I am seriously calling for a penalty. I think if you do those kind of shenanigans on the restart...

on the actual restart, there's more call. But, you know, with it going fairly slowly, I think it might have just been, you know, just one of those things where they're both, I think Verstappen mentioned the safety car going slow as well. So you could kind of say, well, should Russell be that close to the safety car? It would be hard to draw where the penalty would come from. The official race director rules is that...

All of the driving and accelerating has to be consistent once the lights on the safety car go out. So the lights were still on and there was no restart of the race that lapped. So you have to drive with your eyes forward and stay within 10 car lengths of the car ahead. Yeah, OK. I think we're all on much the same boat here, except that Maria's angry with me. Sydney says, yes, agreed. Restart versus general safety car following are not the same stakes. But if they establish in that appeal that...

Russell didn't do anything wrong sadly they have to give Verstappen a penalty they have to because Russell did nothing wrong and Verstappen overtook there doesn't seem to be many mitigating circumstances that is going to be penalty points and that should be Like, that should be a five-second time penalty and penalty points. I can't see how you would... Basically, you've got to do one of them, haven't you, Matt?

They're going to say it wasn't an overtake. I have a vague memory of a similar situation and it's going to come down to like, oh, you know, the rear axle wasn't in front of George's front axle. So technically it's not an overtake. It's an over. lapsed so we're they're going to come up with some some some sort of uh legalese like that kick max out of his home race uh well yeah because austria's red bulls home race and it's not just that as well i genuinely think

F1 would think it would be bad for the sport to have the champion suspended. I think the genuine, there'll be a massive backlash. If he's suspended, the Verstappen fans, if there's one thing they can do, they can mobilize. But that's bending the rules to suit Max. Yeah. It's not up to the FIA to say, oh, we'd prefer to have Max in for the Austrian race. If he's done something that excludes him from that, they have no right to suddenly turn around and say, oh, but we'll change the rules.

or interpret them in a different way in order to make certain he gets in at Austria. Steve, that is just the most darling thing I have ever heard. Oh, you sweet summer child. I think there will be a lot of commercial pressure. I honestly think there would be. And they shouldn't be. Because I think in F1 there has been a long-standing habit of thinking about what the consequences of the penalty will be. Not saying specifically for Stappen.

But I definitely can think of situations where that's been the case. But I think, yeah, there's been a long running history of how does that affect things? And, you know, would that be a hassle? Going all the way back to Hill, Schumacher, it would have been a big shout to disqualify Schumacher the first time in 94. But when he hit Villeneuve and he was already second in the championship, they threw him out of the championship.

When it didn't really matter at all, like fully for that one incident, threw him out of the entire championship. Do you think they'd have done that if he'd have crossed the line first and won? No. They should have done it in 94, but it would have been a hassle. So they do think about the consequences as well. Anyway, let's see if the results of that come. I don't know what time it is in Canada, but maybe there's still time for those things to...

to be revealed before we finish the live stream. So back to Mercedes though, Matt. Okay, here's the question. Why were Mercedes good and will it last? We don't really know. Yes.

uh i'm gonna i'm gonna say what it is is that for this race in particular they brought their new rear suspension remember then they they brought a new suspension they couldn't get it working right they reverted well they brought it back here and it worked a lot better this is a track that's got low medium speed corners and a lot of straight line acceleration and this suspension update was meant to help with mechanical grip particularly

And there's a lot of it in a straight line here. So that may have been the winning factor for them. Also, for most of the race, you had Russell in clean air. So that might be hiding some tendencies that would get a lot worse in traffic. But yeah, no, they were on the pace from the moment they showed up on the Friday. They had it dialed in and they were quick.

And they, even the reports over the weekend, they weren't having much graining unlike other teams. So yeah, no, whether it's special or not, I think they've made a clear step forward here and we should look for that to continue. I was a little surprised given the temperature differential during the race, you know, as...

Yeah, good point. Compared to the qualifying and the practices that Mercedes did so well because they've always been ones that have complained about higher temperatures don't suit them. Suddenly we've got higher temperatures and they're doing better than everybody. yeah explain that trumpet if that is your name yeah okay so it comes up

It is my job to come up with plausible explanations for observed phenomena, and that's what I'm about to do. First of all, I will note that with the exception of today, the air temperature was pretty low relative to the track temperature.

And you have lots of long straight line driving where your tires can cool down. Oh, and I suppose if the air temperature is... cooler you're getting cooler air in it makes it easier to cool so my suspicion there's conductive and convective cooling on your tires so that's going to help and engine as well so i suspect Mercedes always run that lean on performance side

you're right by a body of water, but also it's a park. So the whole track isn't always in direct sunlight. You're going through shadier bits and brighter bits. So that too may have been a particular help to them.

in this situation. But Mercedes has always been great at iterative, gosh, I'll learn how to say that word eventually, iterative improvement. They'll take something that doesn't work and gradually make it better and better and better and better and better until they're more or less competitive.

With the new rear suspension, well, you know, Austria will be the real test for them in terms of temperatures, I think. Okay, but for now, we can enjoy this. And I have to say, I'm very, very happy for George Russell. And I think this is not a performance out of the blue and it's not a fluke. And it is something that is like you would expect. from how he's been driving all season. So he was certainly in the first six or seven races, he was our standout driver of the season so far.

He seems to have his head screwed on. He seems to be leading the team. He seems to be, in many ways, being a stalwart of the sport, coming across brilliantly. And then you go, they have the performance. That's the time to step up. Yep, you're hitting great shots when you're in the midfield. Performance is for picking up those points, being really solid. But then you get the car. that can win you the race and can you hold it together are you a peaky driver do you

Unfortunately, do what Norris has been doing for the last couple of seasons where you've got the car now for the win. You've got the car for the championship and you're not stringing it together. Now, Russell is so in the zone. that you gave him the car for the race win and he puts it on pole and he wins the race. And I just want a massive, like, that is a huge validation of Camp Russell.

He did a perfect job this weekend, better than I've seen him ever drive. I'm not a big George Russell fan, but I can't, you know, say anything bad about him this weekend. Maria will love me. He did well during the qualifying and the practices. He won the race from pole and he took the fastest lap and he was cool, calm, collected. We've seen Russell. do some fairly you know hot-headed things occasionally he did none of that this time he knew he was in front he managed the race and his tires

better than I've ever seen him do, and he absolutely deserved the race. And Antonelli deserved his podium. I mean, the team seemed to have got it together well enough now that... He had confidence in the car this time. Hey, it's Jake and Damien here from the High Performance Podcast, and this message is brought to you by Salesforce.

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No matter what. With 4G backup and our stay connected guarantee, better believe it. Let our dedicated Sky Business team handle your switch today. That's more like it. Okay, so I'm glad you mentioned Antonelli, obviously. And it would have been such a shame if when they because he's been not, you know, top level. He's not been shown some performances, shown some exciting flashes of driving, but he's not in that same thing of Russell where you kind of go, if you give him the car, he's going to.

definitely do it so i'm glad this was the performance where he did enough to be his pace was really good his qualifying was was decent and then goes up there and picks up a podium and you go oh i'm sort of relieved for for him and his fans that that happened and that worked out. And did you hear the roar when he picked up his P3 trophy? And in fact, when he was interviewed at any time, Antonelli is quickly becoming one of the most popular drivers on the grid.

So, you know, that's a real good news story for Antonelli and for F1 that you kind of got this rising star that is popular and has delivered today. Do you feel a bit bad for George Russell that Antonelli kind of overshadowed it? Almost like Antonelli's first podium was more special than just some win. Just your fourth boring win for Russell. I really think Russell deserves all the plaudits. Whereas Antonelli kind of got a bit more. I don't know.

Well, yeah. I mean, isn't he like the youngest podium getter ever or something like that? It's hard to say. No, he's not. He's the fourth youngest. Third youngest. Fourth youngest to do it in June. of his debut season with the wind blowing northwest you know something okay it's good though i'm not happy and he did he did all of that he made that happen at the start

by taking out Piastri very surgically. It was a really impressive move from him and clean by both drivers. So it was lovely to watch. I'm just going to put a little plug in for Russell since we're in the big up Russell club. I saw a video of him going through his pole lap with Dorian Pan of F1 Academy.

And if you can catch that, it's a fantastic insight into what he was thinking and how he was approaching getting that pole position. It's totally worth a watch. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, F1 Academy, there's a new documentary. that uh that followed last season and me and meg schuster we did a review of that for the ringer and i think i'll try and include a link in the show notes but before we go too much further i do want to say there is going to be a link in the show notes for buying a ticket

to come and see me and probably Matt and Stuffy and some of the other Miss Apex crew at Milton Keynes on the Saturday after qualifying at Silverstone. So watch the action at... Silverstone and then nip down like a 20 minute south in an Uber to Milton Keynes to Formula Fast and we'll be doing a live podcast recording and a quiz

And there's a bar that you can buy pizza there and we'll try and find somewhere else to carry the night on afterwards. So that'll be from 7pm. Before that, there'll be some carting slots open so you can see if you can beat Matt, which is a fairly, you know. That's doable. He's gettable. I'm easily gettable. See if you can beat me. And it really does depend, you know, how I do on my diet over the next three weeks as to how difficult.

that is but there's no no pressure to do any karting at all come and hang out at seven we'll probably fire the mics up around quarter to eight and um we'll just have a good fun hang out there so that'll be at formula fast fifth of july Click the link in the show notes below to get full details and a £15 cover. I'd love to do it for free, but all we're doing is covering the cost of the venue. Even if I sell out, there's no profit on that. So come and hang out.

Yep. So I think just rounding it up on Mercedes, you know, there was some great racing by Antonelli. So that pass was delicious at the beginning to get past. Piastri as well, which was great. So he deserved to be up there and he deserved the right to be able to defend that. And when you go, that's the championship leader. That's no small task either and was putting the pressure on Verstappen at some point as well.

All I'd say is, you know, that's good. He's now at the minimum that I think you'd want him to be. If you've got your teammate there, so that car is capable of a race win, he's there picking up a podium, that's real. and going in the right direction. Not too much more on Red Bull, really. So Stappen, yeah, was a bit of a drop-off, I think we've mentioned. It was telling that he attacked again in stint two.

And did the same thing, like really trying to put pressure on. And he was definitely, he was on the attack. And I don't think we've seen that kind of specific tactic from him before. So I'd like to see how that mentality shifts in the next race. is able to race there. And Tsunoda, I think, is the only thing we haven't covered from Red Bull. So just quickly, that red flag penalty behind Piastri.

That really hurt me as a Tsunoda fan. I just felt really devastated. Yeah, he's made a bunch of mistakes in qualifying, which meant that he hasn't been able to show what he can do. Even when he's had some good pace, it's been lost because he's been starting from the back.

And then there's been many races where he hasn't had any pace either. And I can make excuses about different setups and the cursed second Red Bull seat. But then something like this happens and you go, oh, come on, you know, give us a fighting chance, at least us.

the uh the sunoda army but the red flag to me utterly unfair piastri was just you know going around the track stranded slowed down the red flag has come out but he's driving abnormally slowly and i just he was he was driving 90 kilometers an hour that's you know whether or not it was a red flag so i don't know whether that's necessarily terribly slowly i

Well, I think it was. And also like Tsunoda's defense was like there was bits coming off of the car as well. You know, it depends if I don't know what if there's a specific rule, Matt, I just feel like it just seems so harsh. Like if you see a stricken car.

that to me then doesn't count like it's a it's a clearly it's a disabled wrecked car you're not looking at that as that's the race order you're looking at is well that car's kind of out of it and i'm trying to make my way safely back to the pits with the rest of the cars Let's not forget that is the car that caused the red flag and it was still going. Yeah. And this is the thing where I feel like this this is maybe.

When you come up on that car, you're like, I'm Piastri. His car looks damaged. Parts are coming off of it. I'm going to go around him so that I don't accidentally, so I don't get injured with junk coming off of his car. I think his only failure was just not being alert enough to create a good defense for himself. I don't think there was anything particularly, I mean, that's just a tough choice and you make it and you live with a consequence.

Personally, I tend to agree with you. If a car is broken and chucking bits off the side... And you're headed back to the pit lane and you're nowhere near anything that resembles a racing speed and you're still going faster than it.

Well, then I think you have a reasonable argument to say that, well, there's a minimum speed at which I safely drive my car. Yeah, but that isn't, like, stated. So Adrian says there's no provision in the International Supporting Code for the red flag procedure to pass cars at all. Then you go, well, what if a car stopped and just gently rolling down? There's got to be some common sense. There isn't.

But you have precedent. At Imola, when it was wet, there were cars spinning off and people overtaking when they were behind the safety guard. And there's a whole argument about, you know, if this car has spun off the road...

and people were slowing way down and like no no no go past the car so like no this is this has definitely come up before and i don't think it's as open and shut as the rules would have it be I think you did right I think that Yuki got fairly badly done by it I mean from what I remember Oscar was keeping well out of the racing line he was pulled right over to the left hand side of the track I don't know whether there was lots of stuff coming off his car I think that might be a slight exaggeration

He had brushed the wall for sure. I mean, and I guess if Yuki had pulled further to the right-hand side of the track and made it obvious that he was just getting away from a car that was distressed. he may have been all right. I think he was pretty badly done by, to tell you the truth, though. Yeah, but look, I mean, he had okay pace in the race. I was looking at that and he'd go, yeah, that's a pretty good pace, but again, so what? So as Tsunoda fans, we're still...

We're still waiting for that moment, but the pressure is starting to build. People are just talking about his replacement now. It's frustrating, but I do want to put it out there that he ran a one stop and he gained six places. I think that's not so bad. You can take a little comfort, Sunoda fans. I'm sure he hit whatever marks Red Bull had set for him this weekend very easily. So if Verstappen gets a ban... Does Yuki get his car or does he get to drive the number one car?

Oh, they're both the same, are they? Yeah, they finally got them back to being the same spec this weekend. Are they in the same car? Yeah, pull the other one. It's got legs on. It's got bells on. Would you want to drive Max's car? Me personally, no. Right, let's go on to less happy things. Yeah, that's right. It can get less happy because this is the bit where we talk about Ferrari, like loads of media turmoil and Fred Vazur comes out all guns blazing saying, hey, leave me alone.

Quit being mean. It's making everyone at Ferrari feel bad. And I have to say, when things aren't going well and you're a very high-profile boss, your head is on the chopping block. The Italian motorsport media is a lot like the British soccer media. So if England don't get a result for 30 seconds of a game, the press are calling for their heads.

I don't think it's strange or bizarre that the press are starting to question Ferrari's performance because this is a season where really people were expecting better. It's an open goal with some teams focusing on 2026. with your superstar driver signing. And whatever you think of Hamilton in his age now, the money that they paid is money for a superstar driver. You can expect that there was meant to be some performance coming with that, and it may well be coming.

But it hasn't shown itself yet. And then you've got rumors of your driver that is performing, not being happy and looking elsewhere. And every single race, there's headlines about the race engineers, the race engineers who we barely know the names of. Yet immediately, you know, with Hamilton.

all the Hamilton fans straight away. They know the race engineer for the wrong reasons. You know, these are characters that should really drift away in the background and you're only going to hear from them if something goes wrong. And there's strategy calls that are being questioned week in, week out.

I can see why Vassour would be upset, but it is not insane to me that there is questions about his job because the performances aren't there and this is his team. This is his team. This is the house that Fred built. And so, yeah, I get it. But there's a lot of smoke and people are starting to assume that there's some fire. And then today, Matt, and this is where I'll hand over to you. They got both strategies wrong. Again, not doing anything.

to put out those fires and those criticisms. Yeah, it's Groundhog Day at Ferrari, isn't it? Poor Lewis. Who can't think of a worse driver? to have murdered an animal with his race car than animal-loving vegan Lewis Hamilton. I'm sure he's feeling very bad, but it's not unprecedented. Didn't Hamilton hit a seagull? as well, at one point. Vettel lost time of waiting seagulls. I think Ricciardo hit a groundhog there a few years ago. I'm pretty sure...

Verstappen finished with a bird wedged into his grill work at one point, too. So in one of the Australian tracks, there's a wallaby flag. Is that Bathurst? Yes. Oh, yeah, you're on mute again, Steve. The kangaroo flag. Yeah, they've got a kangaroo flag. So is it time that there was a groundhog flag in the Canadian Grand Prix?

Well, it's an island. Why don't they just take them all and put them somewhere where they can't come back? Whoa, whoa. Or can they swim? That's a little bit, I don't like the idea of rounding anything up and sending it away. That is Steve Amy. I'm talking about, you know, just getting groundhogs out of the racetrack. I don't wish them any harm. Yeah, that's unfortunate, Matt. Obviously, we can talk about the...

The struggles Hamilton had specifically, but I want to focus on the team because they're the ones that are saying, you know, this criticism is unfair and we shouldn't be having it. But it did look like they got both cars. strategies wrong so if we start with hamilton you know pitting into traffic um i mean maybe they got the exact pit wrong uh

lap that he pitted on wrong, but they had the right strategy for him. They started him on the medium tire. I thought you'd have been very excited about that. They pitted him around the same time as the leader, so he was on the same strategy as they were. But as I recall, it was lap eight that the, shall we call it, the incident occurred.

And it was just a loss from then on. The car simply wasn't as good. They said it was 20 points of downforce and it was consistent. They could see it on their telemetry. He never really had the car to be competitive. Erica just says apparently someone else hit it first. So Lewis basically ran over a dead groundhog. Someone hit it first. But yeah, it's still going to do a bit of damage.

20 points of downforce is a lot it's enough and it was at the front it was at the front entrance of the floor where the venturis are that distribute the air underneath the car which makes most of the downforce of these cars. And so it was in a bad location. So I think you're effectively not just running with less downforce and less performance, but then that's going to affect the tires.

going forward as well so yeah you're not going where it's supposed to behind that point as well which has downstream effects that might not be specifically downforce related but cooling and stuff like that yeah so i guess the hamilton one was a bit of a bust and apparently a break issue as well but i think the leclerc one was worse matt what was leclerc getting animated about

Well, and he has sort of a point here. He had started on the hard tire. Now he and Norris both started on the hard tire, which was potentially a one-stop strategy. gave you the option. And he said he wanted to go to plan C, which the announcers on F1 TV all took to mean the one-stop strategy because... You could look at the midfielders behind Aukon and Tsunoda and not Hülkenberg.

But everybody who'd started on the hard tire was still setting really good lap times as fast as the people who had already come off their mediums and gone on to the hard tire. So there wasn't the kind of drop-off that we saw with the medium tire. And, um, and so they said, okay. And then they call him into the pits and they put them on another hard tire. Yeah. And he was like, what is this? Now I understand why Ferrari did that.

because they had seen the medium tire not be good for Lewis and not be good for Verstappen. So being on the hard tire for your second stint meant that you could, in fact... you know, control how, when and where you went onto that medium tire. So, so they were like, basically we can, we can go out for like the last 10 laps and we know it won't be a problem for you. That's what they were thinking. And I'm going to defend them here a little bit.

A one-stop would have been an excellent strategy for him to try. Except that they already knew Hamilton had damage and he wasn't fast enough to do much of anything. So now Leclerc is going to be my maximum points giver. And maybe I'm going to think very conservatively about how I use him in this race. Because if I try a one-stop and it fails, he might be out of the points entirely.

Whereas I know that if I use this strategy, yeah, he's going to finish like, what did he finish? Like sixth or whatever. You know, we're like fifth and sixth. or 6th and 7th. They're like, it's not going to be great. He won't get a podium, but we'll get a guaranteed hall of points. So I kind of think that might have been where they were coming from, but it was really frustrating for Leclerc because they didn't tell him.

If you look at the team who could potentially have done a one-stop, you could have had McLaren with Norris on that same strategy. And you kind of go, right, if Norris didn't fancy the one-stop, then maybe it wasn't on the hard medium. But then with Leclerc's mind, I guess that tactic has gone completely. But in Leclerc's defense, he was saying, A, I told you that the hard was okay and I could have gone even further. Hence, that means that...

the medium's got less to do. And secondly, he said, I was pretty good on the medium. I was happy with the medium. So, yeah, he was upset, but the level of frustration from Leclerc matched only by Albon. It shows that, yeah, maybe he's getting a little bit frustrated. Yeah, but he has also only himself to blame because he's the reason they got no Friday data at all from his car and for the team.

So that also left them a bit more in the lurch when it came to figuring out could a one-stop work. Now we know from the cars behind, yeah, it absolutely could have worked and it could have worked either direction.

But would it have worked at the pace they ran at the very sharp end of the field? That I don't know so much. Yeah, I think the lack of data is the... data is the um the big telling issue here that they were struggling to you know find a path forward for him i understand his frustration because he said the tires are okay i can keep going and the team called him in and said, no, we want to make this change anyway. This whole race seemed to be a lot of drivers complaining about...

The strategy team's not listening to them. I mean, Albon did it too, a bit more vociferously than Leclerc did. What is it with drivers? Surely they understand that they see one particular perspective from the seat. And yes, they understand, you know, what things are, how the tyres are handling there, but they can't see the rest of the overview. Why are they now beginning to...

One of the strategy teams. You've got to trust the strategy team. So when you're pushing back that much, it means that you don't have a level of trust in the team. And with Albon's comments of, guys, I've told you, you don't listen to me.

And that's not the first time Albon has done that. Those things, I think, only come out in the race when you start to feel that you are making better calls than the strategy team. So that's obviously how Leclerc feels. Leclerc had more confidence in what he's saying than what the strategy team is saying. And is that just because he's...

young and petulant or because he's got a bank in his head of times where he went with the strategy team and he thought different. And you look back at the analysis and you go, no, I was right. Well, we can blame Carlos Sainz for this very much, can't we? Because he started this whole thing. As far as I recall, he would be like, stop inventing. You guys are. Why aren't you doing this? Because blah, blah. But for some reason, his side of the garage would would at least half the time.

take what he said and and deal with it and in a serious fashion like oh yeah you might have a good point there carlos with the clerk they're like oh yeah plan c yeah great all right come on in And he's like, why have you done this to me? I'm on a two-stop now. This is clearly not what I asked for. You didn't tell me. It's just communication.

I just say to the live chat, no, I'm not suggesting that that's the real reason I'm saying Leclerc knows what he's doing. So if he's lost confidence in the strategy team, that's not nothing. But also, can I just say that when Vettel was doing it, everyone said it was genius. So everyone was going, oh, look at Vettel. He's doing the strategy from the cockpit. How brilliant. And then there's this pattern now of Ferrari drivers feeling that they have to do that. Just a quick one on Leclerc.

That's not race specific. Obviously, he crashed on Friday. And I think fairly, we used to criticize Leclerc for doing these Friday crashes. And to me, it was indicative of somebody who's you're pushing on the limit, looking for that ultimate performance.

even though there's a risk that comes with it. And the Friday crashes would then affect the rest of the weekend. So they have affected Ferrari's data gathering over this weekend. And it is fair to go that had kind of... gone away a little and I think we even mentioned at the beginning of the season that he'd kind of shaken that off but there it's not a surprise then still when he bins on a Friday because that old muscle memory of oh yeah Leclerc does this kind of thing kicks in

And I think that's savage because he has been pretty good recently. But I do think there's a mentality in Leclerc's head where his risk reward is different to, say, a driver like Lewis Hamilton. So I think for Leclerc... The dopamine hit of success probably outweighs the seven or eight failures that would have to get you there. And you see it all the time in iRacing lobbies and karting lobbies, which are the same.

And you see that there are drivers who will go out there and go win or bin. And so in your typical iRacing lobby, you'll have 10 drivers that are willing to do the maximum pace, even though there's only a one in 10 chance of it working. Because the dopamine hit of the one win... outweighs the rest of it. And say Hamilton and Norris are drivers who go maybe the other way where they go, no, let's maximise our results for more races rather than maximise a race.

you know the odd race here or there where it goes really well now there's just one comment I think it was Jack Villeneuve who said that Ferrari should build their car around Hamilton for 2026 instead of Leclerc the comment was because with Leclerc you might get the odd win with Hamilton You'll get more wins, more consistent stuff. That was taken to mean Hamilton is better and will win more races if you give him the car. What I actually think the general point was there is that...

If you design it towards Hamilton, it might be less peaky. And I wonder if that's actually where that comment was aimed at. Well, it kind of makes sense to me. in the sense that Hamilton has been around the block and knows what a car that can consistently finish first, second, or third, regardless of how well it does at the particular circuit or whether circumstances favor it or not.

has that data bank that they should draw on. But I'm going to argue with you a little bit. I don't think this was the kind of accident on the Friday that Leclerc had that we normally give him grief about. This was a genuine misjudgment because he had, the escape road was there. Rather than a win or a win.

But he really thought he would clear it. And then he got on the grass and he's like, oh, yes, I've judged this incorrectly, haven't I? It was Montoya. Thank you, chat. It was Montoya who I have touched. I have touched one Pablo Montoya. Yeah. I'm just saying. I'm just boasting. Yeah. But it was terrible, terrible timing for Ferrari because he looked really fast when he started. They could have had a podium this weekend with him, I think.

OK, so like Leclerc, are we done with Ferrari? Oh, with the rumor. I think I think we are. As how far are we into the show? We're nearly an hour. And as you know, I never, ever. exceed an hour. So there's definitely a few drivers I want to talk about. I think the Williams team had some adventures, Steve. Not quite the positive weekends we've come to expect from Williams this season.

No, they had a bad one to start with. I mean, Carlos was nowhere and was never going to get anywhere. And Albon, I think, you know, had two problems. One is he just had a bad weekend and was difficult for him. And secondly, I mean, he had a bad power unit again. Yeah. And they said it's the same as Barcelona but not as bad. So I can understand some of his frustration because he's saying, hey, I want to drive the car and the car can't.

perform but I've also got to say is it's got to be something that Williams are doing with the engine installation or management or cooling because the other Williams cars aren't having these sorts of engine problems. So this is a hard one. Sines was very fast, but got impeded by Hajar. So he was done, and he was always starting from a losing position. But like a lot of the...

midfield that was in Q2 or the top part of Q3, he ran a one-stop. Williams ran a one-stop for him, and it was actually quite successful. He gained six places with it and finished in 10th. Or night, the Falcon gets a penalty. But he's in there with the Russell stewards, who were apparently gone to a lengthy dinner and several bottles of wine before they decide to figure out what they're going to do. And Albin...

is my absolute case study and why you should perhaps just listen to your strategist and not yell at them. And I'll tell you why he yelled at them. He's like, why didn't you pit me with everybody else? I'm on the medium tire. I'm struggling. I'm starting to lose places. And they called him in and it was around lap 20 or 21. He was like, no.

No, it's too late now. I'm going to stay out. This is the only way we're going to make this work. But you know who did pit around lap 20 off of their medium tire? Hulkenberg. He went on a hard tire, went to the end of the race, and I believe he finished in eighth place. Alvin had come in and they put that hard tire on him. He'd have been on a one stop and potentially been up there.

fighting for those last points along with his teammates. So this is why sometimes the strategists hear the drivers say things and are like, well, is it possible that. he already had some indication that he had engine issues, in which case, I mean, that would have taken the wind right out of his sails. Well, I mean, I know they were watching a power unit issue that they said was like the one in Barcelona. So the possibility of not finishing was there. But I...

didn't hear anything on the radio that he was losing power or that the car itself wasn't driving well. It's just he drove those mediums far longer than they should have been driven. We have to sort of remember that there's a Hunger Games element to these drivers' career as well. You know, you have to win the crowd. So at some point you have to be Katniss in your dress of fire. And in this kind of vein, Albon...

doesn't look great on the radio at the moment. Like he's losing fans sometimes. I think he's losing some kind of sympathy. And that is important. You know, we had a big conversation a couple of weeks ago about which drivers play to the cameras.

We're like Alonso today with his, this is not a test. This is a risk a race, you know, and you go, yeah, that was for the cameras. Come on. He knew that that one was going to be broadcast. That's not exactly what he said. He said, this isn't a test. We're racing.

or something like that. Do you think he rates those in advance? Do you know what? They're so good. Do you know what? I think he practices them. I think, like, he'll be thinking about it all the time. Like, what's a cool thing to say? And then, like, when he goes, oh, that's a keeper. That's an absolute keeper.

And you know when he delivered the line. I want to see the onboard because I bet there was just like a little fist bump, like a little, yeah, vamos, let's go. So there's that. But with Albon, yeah, it's really that frustration is coming out over the radio. I don't feel like Albon is one of the ones that plays to the camera. I feel like he seems pretty genuine. And whenever they give him a media thing to do, we go, oh, Alex is giving us a tour.

around the garages or whatever he's just like hyper honest like he's not on TV he's like oh yeah okay come on then but I don't know if that's actually going to become a PR issue at some point career wise I don't know Yeah, definitely. Just not coming across, I think, how we'd probably want to. That lap one incident, though, I think he was lucky not to get pinged for an unsafe rejoin, Matt. That was pretty wild. Well, I...

I like the way it backs up a lot of the comments that were made when Vettel did a very similar thing. Yeah. about the difficulties of driving a Formula One car on grass. And you could see, I think he was very fortunate. And I think this happened in F1 Academy. with a much sadder outcome, that he was able to get the car turned onto the inside of the track where he rejoined and not lose the rear on the...

When he went from the grass to the pavement, which is what happened to F1 Academy, it had got a big oversteer and just absolutely took out an innocent driver. He was just like minding their own business. So yeah, he was very fortunate to get away with it. That said, I don't think there was much else you can do in that situation. There's absolutely nothing else you could do in that situation. He was going at a fair clip.

Straight onto the grass. The grass is very slippery. I think he held it together quite well. I watched it and almost expected someone to run into him. But at the end of it, I think that both he and the other drivers around him... acted very professionally and very maturely in order to let the race keep going. I mean, it was a first-lap incident, so they tend to be a little bit more lenient about it. F1 got a bit lucky there.

I'm going to move away from that, though, and ask Matt personally, at MattPT55 on all the social medias. I want to know what face you made when the engine cover just blew off. And then we got all those photos of the inner workings of the Williams. I'm not saying I've downloaded them all, but I will say Scarves did a lovely drawing identifying all of the little bits and pieces they normally don't like for you to see. No, I know. I mean, obviously we're not going to tell like, ah.

That's how they're doing that. But it was really cool. It was like in Robocop where they take all his armor off and you can see his heart and everything. No, I always love to see that. I always love it when things like that happen because it's just it's fun to see what's underneath. And James Vowles, again, far too honest. James, do you know what?

What happened there? No. Do you think it would be safe if you go out again? No idea. Well, it's happened before. Like, it's either not fast and right, or there's a... crack that's not properly taped down and the air gets under it and just lifts it off. But the point I wanted to make about the grass thing in the re-entry, because it just occurred to me, was that was when Hulkenberg passed him. and made his places at the start because he saw this happening.

avoided it and was able to speed up and pass uh two cars it was uh it was it was album i can't remember the other car but that absolutely made his race right there so uh yeah door closed for album but it sure opened for hulkenberg and salber who uh Once again, scored some points this week. Rough weekend for Visa, Cash App or RB for Racing Bulls. And I think Aston is probably the other team I want to talk about. I have to say the Hulkenberg result.

flew under the radar for me. So, yeah, there wasn't much coverage of it on TV. But again, just some persistence going on with what is going on? Why a stake suddenly scoring points, Matt? Explain it. Uh, they brought an update that worked and this particular track suited it. And then they put Hulkenberg on a one-stop strategy when they saw how well the, uh, hard tire was lasting for the people that started on it, which meant that he.

basically gains an extra 18 seconds. And all he really had to do was pit and get out ahead of the traffic that was doing the two stops. which they were able to do. There was a point at which all of the one-stoppers, it was Hulkenberg and Ocon and not Alonso, and you could see them just getting closer and closer while they were being held up, the two-stoppers were being held up.

So it was just, it was just good timing and good strategy by the team who I will point out is now run by Jonathan Wheatley. Ah, okay. With Bonato doing the technical stuff. So, you know. It's not a surprise suddenly a lot of the procedural issues they've been having have been cleaned up and cleaned up very rapidly. Interesting. And not too much going on with the... Visa cash-up with RB, Hajar. It was definitely impeding, but I don't think that that impeding rule is being policed particularly.

consistently uh lawson lawsoned himself a little bit a blue flag penalty for getting what that is this is the second time that he's been really in the way while getting lapped so someone might want to have a word with him about that He wound up retiring to protect the power unit. So that's why the blue flag thing didn't come to any particular deal. He did get a penalty though for that. In this race? Yeah, I think they issued a penalty for it. Oh.

I missed that. Yeah, it won't have had any effect, though. I think it was like an in-race, like a 10-second penalty, but you've retired anyway, so it doesn't matter. And then I think the last team before the awards that I want to spend any significant time on is Aston Martin. So apart from the movie quotes, oh, I did write it down. We are racing, not testing. And so.

I think that this was an interesting insight into the drive-by numbers that perhaps isn't sitting well with the likes of Alonso. So in Barcelona, when we were following closely the team radio to the McLaren drivers, that was the giveaway of just how much they had in hand. Because, you know, they were literally saying, right, you can push a little bit more now in turn three. We want it to be less in turn nine, basically protecting the front left and being very prescriptive.

about how they drive. And then when they tried to do that to Alonso today, he just went, no, I don't want to. And I can see why in 2015, or I think it was 2015, they tried to ban. this kind of instructions. I think they said that there was no communication between the pit wall at all and that famously led to Hamilton saying, well, I'll just press all the buttons then. They're like, no, no, no, Lewis, don't do that, don't do that.

I'm wondering if we could have some kind of return to the no coaching rules because they are literally using their computers and their systems to work out to the driver. where they should go fast and where they shouldn't go fast and where they should use their tyres and where they shouldn't. And it feels like that should be part of the driver skill. So, I mean, if they're allowed to talk but they're not allowed to do coaching, then there's going to be all sorts of clues.

and there'll be all sorts of code, and, you know, there'll be a lollipop waiting for you at the end of the race, which means go less slow, go faster in turn three. And you just kind of go, ah, but... The magic of the driver challenge is starting to be removed for me from hearing these very, very detailed tire saving instructions. And yet, if you listen to driver radio...

It's the driver's skill in achieving that without losing lap time that is often going to make the difference. And that's where you see the very, very best drivers start to separate themselves out. From the almost as good drivers, from the drivers who were just good enough to be there and have lots of money. Sure, but part of a driver's skill is knowing where he should go faster and how to approach a particular driver, a particular corner or a series of corners without relying on...

An engineer saying, take a little less curb as you go into the corner and that'll give you an extra, you know, three kilometers an hour as you come out, you know, come out of the turn. But he's not that specific. I think the engineers should not be allowed to coach. And I understand, yeah, Spanish, you're right. There will be all sorts of code that, you know, is put into the system.

But there's only so much code that a driver can memorize. Well, I know, but maybe it's more of a case of just because we've got so much access to what's going on. And it's like maybe I would be happy with a sweet, beautiful lie. Like if it was happening, but I just didn't know about it. But the more I learn about it and the more I observe it, I kind of go, oh, they're just being told exactly what. And it's not so much if you take more curb here, you'll.

you get more lap time. It's more about the management side of it, which I'm finding a bit dead and soulless, which is you've got to manage your tyres here. You've got to manage your tyres here. Okay, you can go a little faster through turn two now. That's the thing that is making me go, oh.

And also probably reducing racing in the end because you're reducing the opportunities to have a difference between drivers. Then you've got to take away the tools the engineers have that can measure those parameters. Whoa, that might be it. And you've got to take away the overnight simulator runs that all the teams do back at head base. Surely that's where they're learning a lot of that information from.

That's one to ask Mike Caulfield about the next time we speak to him. We did ask him that question. Well, we asked him how they do it now. We didn't ask what could we take away. I asked him, did he want a wind tunnel CFD or the most advanced simulator on the planet? He just picked one. And he said, I'll take the simulator. Interesting. Cut down on simulator time. But then it won't happen. But whatever. It won't happen.

Stroll is back and you go, oh, good. He's a little defensive in the press conferences, very moody. Another thing that ruins F1 for me is if you're going to be an F1 superstar, don't be... bored and grumpy about being an f1 superstar like be be angry be passionate that's fine i can handle that i can handle people being a bit of an arse some of the best f1 drivers in history were a bit of an arse

I can't stand bored and fed up. That gets me. He didn't look like he wanted to be there. Maybe he's still in pain. I'm sure there's mitigating circumstances. But he did launch Stroll a little, didn't he, by just swerving into Gasly. Steve, that's just such a stroll move, that just drift. Absolutely. I mean, and why he got away with it, I don't know. I mean, I get the same feeling as you. I think he's fed up.

with it he's had eight or nine years at it now surely even he knows that he's never going to be championship material surely he wants to go off and go fly fishing or skiing or whatever it is that, you know, will bring a bit of passion back into his life. I'm sure dad must be just saying to him, no, you've got to stay there and drive. I don't know whether he likes that.

Or maybe it's that parental technique of, okay, sure, you just go ahead and eat all the ice cream and you just let me know when you're tired of the ice cream, knowing that sooner or later that stomach ache's gonna happen. the old uh oh you like smoking well have this whole pack of smokes exactly you like it there that's the olden days so he got a 10 second penalty for that and uh you go okay well that's the same as max got so if you're gonna get 10 seconds anyway

Finished him off. Oh, I missed that he got 10 seconds for that. There you go. Yeah, I think I'm right. No, I think you probably are. By the way, well done. I'm pretty sure you did. Well done to the live chat here who are hanging on with us as the time approaches 1 a.m. in the uk so we're just left with the americans and the australians really but i think that is time enough to move on to the podium

An exciting, I think, good Canadian Grand Prix. I just had a friend actually message me before the show and go, well, that was dull. That was a boring race. And I go, I do wonder sometimes, am I just, am I... Am I watching it wrong that I've just convinced myself, I've gaslit myself into thinking that watching the strategy and the live timing is actually exciting? So for this race, for a long period of time, I thought, there's one of five cars that can win this race.

It could have been either of the Mercedes, Verstappen. It could have been, well, maybe not Antonelli in for the win, but the McLarens, there's a scenario where the McLarens got into it and were charging up the field. There was a scenario where Verstappen was able to do something. He was disrupting the field, even if he didn't have the ultimate pace. Verstappen was disrupting the pit strategies and making people pit before they wanted to. There was a lot going on.

And there was a lot happening. You know, there are different types of F1 enjoyer. So if you do want to see constant overtakes, there was battles. And it culminated with what I think before the crash is one of the best F1 overtake defend battles of the season. It was really great until the crash. But if you're looking for more swapping of positions and overtaking, I can sympathize.

it didn't deliver. If you were looking for crashes and drama, it didn't deliver until it suddenly did. Personally, Steve, I was sat there, I was absolutely gripped that entire race. Well, I think there was a fair amount of overtaking during the race.

It was all the back markers overtaking Albon, but there was a fair amount of overtaking. That was absolutely brutal. Yeah, no, it was exciting. We had a two-stop versus a one-stop race. And if you were watching the timings on that, it was... epic and on top of it you you make the point yet again that you had these disparate strategies that wove together in the last 10 laps of the race you had the top five top five drivers

top four drivers within five seconds of each other going to the going to the top five going to the end you had ten laps and you had all those drivers within five seconds of each other That was going to be exciting no matter what. It just got ended when Norris unintentionally punted himself into the wall off the back of Piastri. Yeah, so I'd have to say I was entertained. So if I'm guilty of being too much in the live timing, let me know. We always want your feedback of...

how we watch the show, how we comment on the races. So feedback at mistapex.net. My argument would be if you don't have the live timing up and you're not watching that tire drop off, then you are missing out on something.

So in that race, like, for example, seeing that the front two cars were maintaining a much higher pace than, say, the McLarens, and going, ah, hang on a minute, what does that tell us? You know, we know Russell, we know their relationship, we know that they're fighting for a win. What does that tell us about what's going to go in this race and what can we predict going forward? And then seeing the lap times start to drop off and as they change tyres.

seeing what people can do out of the blocks. And now we can look at it and go, oh, actually, Verstappen took a lot out of that hard tyre in the early laps. And because we were talking to Mike Coalfield about how you have to bring those tyres in to avoid thermal degradation.

Some of it did go in. It's over thermal degradation. You know, you kind of look at that and go, oh, has he made a mistake there? And, you know, possibly it had because then instead of pushing for Russell, he was having to defend from Antonelli. And so I would say...

If you don't watch the live timings, it is worth second screening it with a laptop and just for these kind of street circuits, especially, or, you know, particularly like a race like Barcelona, watching where the lap times are changing and then building up. those patterns over the race over the course of a season i think it really does enhance the viewing experience but i do also accept that some people are like no bro like that's

That's too much work, like I'm saying. So I'm not keeping how to watch. It's just very interesting to me that my friend messaged me and went, that was dull as hell. And I was like, no, I was on my edge of my seat. There was strategy. And he just went, nah, dull. And I went, okay.

So, you know, people watch it in different ways. I think it's time for our awards. So let's start with the bad awards so we can end on the good ones. So I'll ask... Oh, no, you missed the apex. Who missed the apex for you? Steve, Steve, you don't do a lot of social media.

You lurk. You lurk. But you're in our Patreon Discord. So if you want to speak to Steve. Oh, yes, certainly. Go sign up. That's the only social media thing I ever do. Patreon.com forward slash Missed Apex. Steve is in there. But Steve, who missed the Apex for you? I think it's the Ferrari strategy team. Uncontroversial. They blew it for both of their drivers. So Matt's defence of the Leclerc decision doesn't do it for you? No. No. No, I think that...

This race is a culmination of some other bad races that they've had too. I think that the Ferrari need to look at the way they come to their strategy decisions. how long it takes them and how they communicated. Do you know what? I'm agreeing with just the last person who spoke. So when Matt was giving that defense, I was like, oh, yeah, no, good point. But now Steve, like I'm back on.

I'm back on Steve's side. Rachel said, is there a daft question? Is there a way of following the live timing when not watching live? No, but I will gatekeep this. Just watch it live. What are you doing? What's more important? What is it in your life that is more important than watching the Grand Prix? If you have a subscription to the F1 timing app, they do replay the live timing and you can sync it up with your viewing. So, yes.

That is the way I do it when I can't see things live. Yeah, people, Charles is backing that up. Yeah, live timing and multi-viewer will replay timing. But me, I'm not willing to entertain people who are not. prioritising it. Oh, my son's being born. No, your son will still be born once the Grand Prix is finished. Matt, who missed the apex for you? Well, this is a tough one because actually he's long been one of my favorite drivers. But it's Alex Albon. Oh, damn. I should have gone first.

Do you want me to go? No, no, no. Go for it. Go for it. I bet you're going to take the one that I was going to take then, perhaps. Yeah, just in a fit of peak, he cost himself what could have been a really good position, sort of a redemption race after his off in the first lap. by moving to the one stop. I know it wouldn't have come to anything anyway because ultimately they had to retire the car because of the power unit. But I hope he sees what Hulkenberg pulls off and takes it.

deep breath next time he gets himself into that corner mentally because we've all been there fair um the whoever decided that the f1 movie ad was going to be on a loop And also decided to have a trailer that involved a crash scene and kept making me go, is that a crash? Is that a crash? So, guys, that was a bad call. I really would, I will never find out. But I would love to know if the plan was just to have that running the whole time on the broadcast.

And at some point someone said, guys, you've got to look at social media. We need to turn that off. People are unhappy. Honestly, at first I thought it was cool. I'm not begrudging the trying something, but in reality it really interfered with the race. uh, now I think we get to go to the good thing award. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. Then Steve. Who hit the apex for you? Well, mine really doesn't have anything to do with the race per se.

Given that the subheading of this section is thing of the weekend, my thing of the weekend, is Lewis arriving at the track on a Ducati Panigale V4 Superbike? Dressed up in his Ferrari racing stuff. He looked mighty. Was that real? I thought that was like an AI. I thought that was real. I thought someone had just like AI'd that. Oh, AI is ruining my content. I honestly thought that wasn't real and someone had just mocked that up. No, it looked great. Now I can look back at that.

Unbelievable. Yeah, that's a good one. Matt, who hits the apex for you? Well, in fact, I'm going to go with Team Haas, who in their 200th race. came up with some good strategy for both their drivers and managed to score a point or two. So congratulations to them. There was definitely a time where we all were not sure if they were going to continue. And yet, luckily, they continue to hang in there.

Plus, I'm kind of an IO fan too now. So we've got Hulkenberg, I think, mentioned in Dispatches for this award because, you know, again, you know, it's him that's popping up. So, you know, I'm not saying anything bad about Bortoletto, but Hulkenberg is...

is bringing it. He has my attention and seems to be just pulling these results out. But my actual thing of the weekend has to be George Russell because this is, like I said, not a fluke. This is a culmination of, so well-deserved, a culmination of...

Just being in the right window, performing well, being mentally in the right space, pairing that with the media game that he's trying to play, that he doesn't always pull off. Like, he's definitely... playing the media game a lot and trying stuff and I still can't get over yabba dabba doo of like an example of like

Just pump the brakes on the doing everything for the cameras. But wow, what a season this guy is having. What a qualifying he had and just did everything right. Had stuff in the bag, managed the race. really thoroughly deserved that race win today. The only slight shame for him is that the conversation is overshadowed by the McLaren incident, that there's still this shadow looming.

over the Red Bull protest, which I suspect is ultimately not going to affect George Russell. We should also say there's like seven other cars under investigation for safety car violations as well. And I think he was a little bit... over overplayed you know overshadowed by the amount of adoration going to Antonelli and I don't think that one positive should should should become a negative in another way but you kind of if you're us you're thinking but I wonder

But I won the race car race and I'm the one doing really well this season. And I think George Russell might well be my driver of the season so far. So he gets my thing of the weekend. So do consider supporting us at Patreon.com. Follow me, Spanners. on Instagram, X and Blue Sky, and come and see us at Silverstone on the Saturday. It will be a chill hang.

If you've got any questions about that, message me, spanners at missapex.net, or just click the link that we'll have at the top of the show notes. Until we see you next, work hard, be kind, and have fun. This was Miss Apex Podcast. That music came in hearts. I don't have muscle memory on this new desk. But hopefully that means there's no high-pitched noises that only you young people could hear.

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