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Hey guys, Spanners here. I'm still on holiday, but we do have the Bahrain Grand Prix coming up, and because I've missed most of the news, I don't know what's going on, I don't know what to expect. The reason I wanted to record more than anything is so I could jump on and I could ask Matt Trumpet...
what's going on what i should look forward to and what on earth is going on with the fia so the person here to be the sayer and teller of things matt two rumpets joins us now hey matt Hey, I'm trying not to be miffed that I didn't get invited to go on your family vacation.
We are well-wishers in that I wish you no specific harm. But apart from that, no. Yeah, I'm still here. I'm very relaxed. We're about to go out for dinner. I've got a can of San Miguel on the go. And I have seen things popping up. about the FIA, an organization that has been creaking at the seams for the last couple of years. But now I'm wondering if this latest surge is going to be the surge that breaks the dam.
So there is going to be in this recording some preview stuff. Of course, we want to know what tyre compounds Pirelli has used and how conservative they've gone. I also want to know what everyone thinks about Lewis Hamilton's hair. which is apparently a big deal. And also, I want to talk a little bit about what expectations you should have for certain Grands Prix, especially if you're a newer fan. I was so, so shocked.
at how surprised everyone else seemed to be about suzuka being a a quote-unquote boring race because to me we had set our expectations properly and so you go oh okay It's the same with Singapore. So I might go through a few of the upcoming tracks and talk about what expectations I have as well. But before all that, Matt, big breaking news at the FIA. What's going on?
Well, the big breaking news is that Robert Reed, who is the director of sport, or I should say was the director of sport at the FIA, has officially turned in his paper. Saying that recent actions, specifically decisions he says are being taken behind closed doors and evading processes. that are meant to allow for transparent evaluation of decisions are being skipped, and he can no longer in good conscience be a part of this. Now, this is... Yet another high profile resignation.
And it accompanies also, and this is where you begin to get the idea that perhaps there's a certain behind-the-scenes element at play. We saw a statement from ex-CEO Natalie Robin, who... said she had resigned mutually, mutual agreement with the FIA, but is now saying specifically she was forced out because she had disagreements with MBS about certain decisions. This means that it's starting to look like there's a bit of engineering going on, because as I'm sure we all recall.
This is an election year. The presidential election for the FIA is in December. Right now, there is no challenger. But if you throw in the fact that there's been a new round of correspondence between Motorsport UK and that chairman, Dave Richards, who is still not allowed into WMSC meetings because he will not sign the updated...
non-disclosure agreement. It's starting to look like there's a real push coming from or being led by Motorsport UK to mount a very serious challenge to MBS. Whether or not it's successful, it's going to be hard to say. MBS has undertaken certain actions with regards to budget and financing, particularly
ASNs, that would be the national automobile clubs that make up the WMC. He's changed how they're financed. He's given them more money. So he's thought to sort of have a lock on it from a counting votes right now point of view. But there's also great dissatisfaction amongst a lot of the old time tracks. And that civil war that I talked about in the FIA is getting closer to a whiff of grapeshot, if you know what I mean.
So obviously, whoever's going to be FIA president relies on votes from these local motorsport associations. Yes. And the funding for those local motorsport associations is dictated by the FIA president. Yes, that is correct. And I believe this is part of... The change in the financing has happened after Dave Richards was barred from the WMSC and sort of a larger complaint that a lot of these are being taking place remotely, which allows for no debate and discussion amongst the members.
So Motorsport UK has told the FIA they plan to pursue a legal challenge to all of these decisions because they don't feel they may meet the minimum. of the FIA's own rules. So legally speaking, these shouldn't be binding and they cannot be enforced. That has to be adjudicated in court. And Motorsport UK, as of two Thursdays ago, when I talked to people in the business about it,
seems to be fully full steam ahead with their plan to take on the FIA directly. And looking at these actions, wouldn't be surprised to see them putting somebody, maybe Robert Reed himself, forward. as a candidate against MBS. Okay, but which court is it and what can that court do? I believe it would probably start out in the... Well, I'd have to do research on that. Probably the International Tribunal or the Court of Appeals.
but would almost certainly wind up being adjudicated in France, where the FIA has its partial headquarters, or maybe Switzerland, which is the other place they have headquarters. The problem for anyone not happy within the organisation about what Mohammed bin Salim has been doing and now they've left and they can vote with their feet. And that's all they can, that's their big weapon where they go, okay, I'm resigning and that's a headline and I'm using that headline to hurt.
the head of the organisation who I disagree with, and say in the UK when Boris Johnson's government was falling apart, I say this not to be political, but they went one by one. And they almost went, what's the maximum time that my resignation would have the biggest, greatest impact? So for this one, you go, well, the timing probably isn't a coincidence. This is the first time the FIA president is going to a Grand Prix weekend.
for 2025 he's going to be in Bahrain and then this resignation has come days before those appearances and now he's basically guaranteed that any questions he gets are going to be about this resignation Yeah, that would be correct. And we know also from Dave Richard's own correspondent, he's planning to be in the Middle East and is going to try to talk to MBS directly to resolve these quote unquote concerns.
The pattern is troubling with regards to the decisions being made, whether you agree with them or disagree with them. What we've seen is essentially a shutting down of the democratic process. of the WMSC in decisions increasingly being made only by the executive and often without the input or even going through the processes that are set up for him to make these decisions without the WMSC.
Yeah, but it's not a country. So if this was a country and it was being run more and more like this way, like imagine a country where the head just kept getting more and more executive powers to implement things under the dilution of emergency. Well, it's one thing to get more emergency powers. It's another thing to just give them to yourself.
And I think that's what's happening here. It's not that WMSC has said, yes, we've had a full debate about it. And we think we actually, from an efficiency point of view, it makes sense for you to make these choices directly, or we feel like we should revamp these. Normally, these all come out of different committees. They go to...
go to whoever, and then they wind up being voted on. This is just him saying, I'm going to do it this way. And in a situation where no one can argue about it, and then already having the votes in his back pocket. It's it is fundamentally problematic from the way the FIA was meant to operate.
So I know a lot of our listeners and a lot of the feedback we get is unhappy with the current FIA administration. And we've gone through the reasons why. The bad news for anyone hoping, I think, that this would be... a changing of the guard or indeed that surge i was talking about that breaks the dam is that all he has to do really is to survive and not have to resign until the elections come up even if the motorsport uk put forward a candidate
It doesn't change the fact that the current local motorsport groups are probably likely to still vote for. They are likely to vote in their best interests. They're not looking at this from a fan point of view. They're looking at it like, how can we stay afloat? How can we stay in the inner circle of who's in charge of the FIA?
So if he rides it out until the next elections, he gets voted back in and then just reappoints all these positions that have resigned with people who are more likely to be in line. with his policy so i'm assuming that a lot of these people have been within the fya because we've lost like a dozen people from the FIA, right? A lot of them would have been there before the FIA president. So now he can get re-elected on a new mandate and just replace them all.
Well, I think I've heard in certain cases he actually can't because he got rid of them in violation of employment law. So, no, they can't necessarily all be replaced. But yeah, if you are MBS, you simply are hanging on to December and you know you've... properly funded enough small ASNs.
that you've assured yourself their loyalty. I won't use the B word to describe that because that could potentially get us into trouble, I'm imagining. Plus, we're guessing. Let's be very clear. We're guessing about the motivations of those things. But it's a funny way. that that system works. It's a company. It's not a country. So therefore, ultimately, they can run themselves however they want to run themselves. Well, I believe it...
There are some legal issues present in ignoring your own company written guidelines, if you want to look at it that way. And I think the... The lever here again, and this is the civil war that I'm talking about, is we all know the FIA scooches by, monetarily speaking. They are the poor cousin. to F1. Without F1 and without Liberty making all this money, they could not exist. Their balance sheet would be severely in the red.
So if what I've heard being the case that a lot of the European ASNs are extremely unhappy. Well, then, you know, they can always just leave the ASN and set up their own race series with liberty if that's what's going to be the case. All right, I think that's enough of that, and I think we'll definitely catch up with Joe.
midweek as well, who always has fantastically strong and candid opinions on the FAA. I spoke to him today and I think Tuesday is the day that we could catch up with him. No disrespect to your covering of the story, Matt, none at all. Well, no. How can I compete with someone who's been to every race and knows all those people?
i just put together what i learned from the few people who occasionally tell me things and uh i speculate a lot yeah the bottom line is uh you were you were available today and joe wasn't i know All right, we've got a few other things. Since we've already strayed into politics, how were you on the Haas story? They issued a statement.
about the the tariffs and about it hurting them and i can see a confused look on your face yeah yeah basically they've said these tariffs and and look i'm not going to get all over the the u.s political situation i I would say that watching your country basically put economic sanctions on itself must be a little alarming and troubling. I've gone through that process myself.
However, there's some question marks over whether this is just hard negotiation or whether this is tariffs that will come into effect. But in any case... You've got a lot of businesses over there panicking and F1 is a business. Haas F1 is a business and they seem to be suggesting that basically they've got to put a pause on all recruiting.
They're going to be in big trouble when it comes to bringing in parts. And it was basically a plea, an open plea to say Haas F1 isn't going to survive in America with this approach. And they join many, many other businesses in pointing that out. I think the best way to look at their statement. currently, and that would be probably for the remainder of this fiscal year.
Is it simply the start of a negotiation in which they and a lot of other businesses are going to make special pleadings to be exempted because they're just not going to be able to continue to run at a profit if they don't? Whether or not they succeed in that, I don't know. Longer term You'd think that what they need now would be a stronger partner, almost maybe a large corporation that's not in the U.S.
Like maybe a car manufacturer that is really into motorsports. Yeah. So this could simply be, yeah. This is why I was not surprised by the statement because I went, oh, hang on a minute. Aren't you pretty much going to be selling to Toyota anyway? And is this an easy way to go, oh, well, it wasn't our fault. It was the tariffs fault. And that's why we're selling to Toyota.
Yeah. And then what you're looking for is essentially someone to come in and replace the Haas budget or maybe even a little bit less of it. So that same group of investors that bought Wrexham and bought into Alpine might be a really good shout. You could have other people from the States or outside of the States. And, you know, you've, you've still got Andretti floating out there. Who's now not part of the GM thing, but cause is.
For all of its other faults, they're a really good race team that operates very efficiently and doesn't cost a lot of money relative to a lot of other Formula One team budgets. So I'm imagining unless the whole thing takes a massive global downturn, which, you know, this can always happen. We've seen it in 2008. We've seen it before. Unless the whole thing takes a massive downturn. They're a very attractive operation right now because they're in sixth place.
They've already made really good progress. They literally just sort of... bodged the floor for Japan. They said, we think we know what the problem is. We can't make a new floor, so we're just going to locally bodge it and see what happens. And at least in Behrman's hands, it worked very, very well. They're definitely worth investing in, and I'm not concerned about the team itself. not continuing. Haas as their main sponsor.
Yeah, maybe not so much. Oh, you mean the outfit. So the outfit, the group of people continuing, but whether that be under a Toyota badge or a Haas badge. Or a something Toyota badge. Yeah. Okay, so you've got Komatsu there as team principal, who is there as an engineer, and we've heard reports, and I've heard first-hand reports, by the way, that he's hands-on, like literally still hands-on the car.
spannering away himself making setup changes himself and if we've got that kind of engineer mentality This is something that I've done in the field a lot where you go, I think we know where we're going wrong. I think we know why this system isn't performing to optimal. Okay, can we do it with duct tape and lock wire and just love?
and some WD-40, and you go, oh, that worked. Okay, okay. And then now you go back to the factory and go, You go back to the real, what we would call the real engineers, the design engineers and manufacturing and go, you present them with this mess of duct tape and you say, this worked, can you make a grown-up version of this?
Yeah, and I think that's where they're going with the floor. They have isolated, they've understood the basic nature of the problem. They've made a temporary change to improve it for the drivers. The question will be now optimizing it and putting it onto a brand new floor rather than just, you know, bodging up the one they currently have because they didn't have time to make it.
What's going on with Ocon, man? What is going on with Ocon? I've been on your side here saying that Ocon is going to be... Solidly ahead, but Behrman's been so impressive. What's going on, man? Okay, well, I'm going to break this down into two categories, if I can. First of all, qualifying. If you ask me, that's always been Ocon's weakness.
Like Alonzo, he's always been like that half a tenth, tenth behind in qualifying. So I'm not really surprised at all that someone as young as Behrman would be better. But in terms of performance, if you look at who scored the most points in the team, he's well and truly, he finished fifth place after the disqualification in China.
do I think he's lost anything? No. The car was being put into a window where he felt comfortable with it. Now, what I can tell you about Japan is the bodged floor was something that Behrman was able to really get on top of quickly. And specifically, they had a mismatch between the stiffness of their suspension and the way the car worked with the floors that made it hard to heat up the front.
So if I had a surmise, I would suggest that because he's naturally very, very good at managing and preserving tires. He might have been struggling getting the fronts up to temperature, especially on corner entry. Wasn't that hot either. So this all makes sense to me. But he said fundamentally on Okon's side that the car was missing something for him that it had had in China.
probably related to the change in the floor, and they're going to have to figure out what that is. What I'll also bring up is that Nico Hulkin... said that someone asked him, like, well, how long do you, you know, like, you look kind of lost out there. How long is it going to take you to get up to speed with this car? And he's like, six to eight race weekends, really, if you're being realistic. Wow. We've had three, so, I mean... Put a pin in it. We'll come back to it.
That's fair. And I mean, Fred Vazor talked about this being a qualifying season and qualifying is going to be key. And as Snuffy pointed out in one of his TikToks. And it will be you, me and Stuffy, by the way, on Sunday, reviewing the Bahrain Grand Prix. But Stuffy pointed out that we've had four events, if you like, and in none of those events have we had an overtake for the lead. And actually...
We've had some fairly tall races at the moment. So people are asking, is this a worry for Formula One? Now, we always say the secret to a happy life is, of course, low expectations. Everyone was so surprised and was kicking off about the Japanese Grand Prix saying, oh, it's really a sign that if they can't overtake here and if it's boring at Suzuka, then F1's broken. That's not the opinion I had going into it. I mean, even when we've raced. Formula 3 cars on iRacing, we know.
incredibly difficult to overtake you really have to get a hell of a run out of spoon to be looking to do something into 130r and it's very difficult into that first corner because you're losing your downforce and you're having to break and turn at the same time And then you're into the S's. So it's a very narrow old track.
without rain our expectations were very low and so within that context if you treat it like a a silverstone you know sorry not oh my goodness i meant a singapore if you treat it like a singapore or hungaring or a monaco and you've got those expectations set out, you can be more prepared for it. And you know that, so you're watching the whole race in the live timing. To the point that, you know, I was in a family vacation, so I was in a hotel and I couldn't find...
I'll just say I couldn't find an illegal stream. I couldn't legitimately stream Dazen F1 because it was a Spanish territory and F1 TV. And don't say VPN to me. Because I don't know how those work. It's magic. I paid for a VPN and it didn't work. So there was a point where I thought I wasn't going to be able to get any video.
And I was saying to you, I don't think it matters. And this was ahead of the race. I said, I don't think it matters. I'll just watch it in the timing screen. And you said, yeah, timing screen, track map. That's all you need for Suzuka. Well, yeah, I don't want to make you feel bad, but there are certainly at least qualifying sessions in the past that I've covered just watching a track map and the timing tree and listening to the audio from...
Five Live or whatever. And no, you don't really. And in fact, you probably would have found it more enthralling. Like I'm like, really, it was boring because I'm watching these last 10 laps unfold and I'm seeing Piastri and Norris and Verstappen all taking chunks out of each other and making progress and then losing it. You almost don't need to look at the track. This is a race that's much better done on a timing screen because it's a lot more tense.
When you see that forward progress happening, you see those green sectors happening near the end of the race, you're like, oh, man, here it comes, here it comes. And it's exciting watching it on track, especially if there's overtakes. honestly you can follow the race in an exciting way with the commentary and the live timing in f1 a lot and i thought yeah if there's any overtakes you know i'll find them on i'll find them on social media to see you know whose fault it was so no
I was really surprised by the community reaction. And I thought, OK, well, let's have a look ahead at some of the races ahead and go, let's manage our expectations. Well, yeah, and we should, because in a lot of ways, Formula One has become a victim of its own success. We see this often in regulation sets as you get nearer to the end of a regulation set. Suddenly, the field finally compresses. If you look at the qualifying margins or if you look at the margins between fastest laps in the race.
you'll see that this is one of the closest fields we've seen in quite some time. Problematically, they've also really developed the aerodynamics in ways that make following harder. This is the dirty air problem. So that cars have less of a performance, delta, we'll call it, difference. And they are much closer together. And they have much more of a problem passing. They need a larger delta to pass. At Suzuka, I think it was seven or eight tenths of a second.
But the cars are like a tenth or two or three apart per lap. So you've naturally created this problem for yourself by being successful at Formula One. And this is one of the reasons why we see the regulations upset every so often. Got the idea? You've planned it all through. This start-up needs starting. The next move is you. With support from NatWest and this thought we impart.
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Cheaper rates from 12am to 7am compared to our standard variable rates. Smart meter and direct debit payment required. Costs vary based on charging conditions and usage. T's and C's apply. So I looked ahead to see, right, which tracks should we have high expectations for or low expectations? And I went, oh, no. So we look ahead and Saudi aside for a second, Bahrain and Saudi. After that, you've got Miami, Imola, Monaco.
Spain, Canada, and then after Canada, then we get into what I call the classic European season where I think we can have higher expectations. For Miami, I can say, Matt, we can now officially announce and we'll have a link provided after the race review. That Missed Apex podcast is going to Miami. So we've got a partner that is going to be with us all the way through the Miami weekend.
which makes things a lot easier for us. And it means that we are going to be able to put on an event like we did last year. And it is going to be some we've got a great guest speaker lined up as well. I haven't even told Matt. But I'm really, really excited. Plus, we're going to do a review of the weekend, a bit of a quiz.
And we'll do the audience participation. Basically, we'll do things you reckon, but we'll do it live in Miami as well. So that's going to be a load of fun. If you're going to the Miami Grand Prix... swing by there's not going to be an entry fee but i will need people to register so i'll have that sorted out by next week so part of me is always terrified that no one's going to turn up
But given the response we had last year and the crowd we had last year as well, also, I want people to register so that we're not over subscribing the venue. But things will be laid on there. All I require from you is your company and the rest is going to be sorted out. So Miami, Matt, will you be there? Oh, yeah. With bells on. I'm assuming this is the same venue as we had last time. It is. I can tell people. Yeah.
It was glorious. Yes, a lovely place to be as well. And we haven't sorted out the complete lineup of what we're going to be doing, but you will be entertained from start to finish. And last time that... We did this last year. I think I got around, I spoke to everybody who turned up and it was just a fantastic time.
So we're also going to make sure that we have somewhere to go afterwards as well. This time that that's we didn't realize how long everyone would want to hang out last time. OK, so looking forward, though, to the. Oh, in fact, just email me if you say. feedback at mr apex.net that's the email if you just make the subject line miami um i'll start making a list of people who are interested in coming
So if you look ahead then, if we look at Bahrain, normally with Bahrain, I would have high expectations of some action. And I did see someone tweeting, right, if Bahrain doesn't have overtaking, then this season is broken. And I just wanted to caution against that because have Pirelli chosen a harder... tire set than they normally do for Bahrain. I'm testing that now. Come on, surely you remember what compounds they picked for 2024.
You know, my memory is a bit dodgy, but if we're talking about Bahrain and last season, it was basically a two stop for everybody. It was a hard song. The medium there, which was the C2 tire, was, you know, completely useless. And that's the same range they brought back. In fact, I would say to you, one exciting thing about Miami is they're going a step softer with the top.
And in Imola, they're going also a step softer. And we're going to see the C6 tire pop up over the parapet for the first time and be used on track. Maybe for only half a lap before it melts, but, you know, we'll see how it goes when we get there. So same tires as last year, but, and this is either good or bad. They redone the compounds a bit. So the C1 is pretty much the same as it was last year. And that was a preferred race tire. It did about 70% of the total race.
So teams started on the soft, and then they did two hard steps. But what testing revealed and what Pirelli thinks is that this year, the medium might actually be also a usable race tire. And because of how they've changed the delta between the compound. We might be in either one or two-stop territory, and it could be different depending upon how your car likes to use the time.
So we could, we might not see a lot of overtakes, but we could legit have a two-stop versus one-stop race, which as you know, when they work out, means the end of the race is usually somebody on fresher tires. with a pretty high delta chasing somebody on. on old tires that's just trying to hang on and eke it out to the end so that that could be pretty exciting this is barring yeah yeah yeah okay so that's interesting so but this is a track where you can you can overtake and it's rear limited
So, you know, the cars that are hard on their rears on acceleration will suffer. Yeah, it's a rear thermal limit. So thermal degradation, their rear is overheating and fundamentally... degrading the compound, not in the tread, is where you'll see drivers lose grip. And then unlike with graining, where you can sometimes drive through it. they can't get through it and they'll have to come in. So those people are more likely to wind up with the two stops.
So in Suzuka, the issue we had was, it wasn't that like, say Silverstone, there's 85 places to overtake and you can stay side by side all the way through it. We know Suzuka was never going to be like that. But there was never any tyre discrepancy or any delta to actually make an overtake happen. And I think if you look at Saudi...
It is windy. There is a lot of high speed corners where it's difficult to overtake. However, you have a clear overtaking spot at the end of and like a lot of indoor go-kart tracks. Yeah, OK, there is only one overtaking spot, but if you're faster. and you can get grip out of that final corner, then you will generally overtake. So the faster cars will go through. And I don't know if just overtakes for the lead in DRS into turn one will be enough.
for people who are dissatisfied with the racing this year, but it won't be the situation where you're stuck in a train like you were in Suzuka. Yeah, well, and even in Bahrain, you know, you've got turns 1, 4, and 11 that are decent places, but there you're making your time under braking. Whereas in Jedi, you're making it at the other end of the straight with the engine.
It'll depend on whether or not you can outbrake into those turns, whether or not you can make those overtakes work. And yeah, I guess if you're on the soft tires and you're catching someone on a hard set at the end of the race. It's going to be pretty exciting to watch those seconds get chunked out of the lead. But am I right in thinking that basically even say Bahrain or Saudi, you still need probably over a second a lap in pace in hand. Yeah, does that feel about right to overtake?
Given in Japan, it was seven or eight tenths, maybe down to half a tenths. Sorry. Seven or eight tenths of a second. So maybe half a second at a place that's really good for overtaking. You don't need as much. At tracks where it's difficult, then you would expect it to be at a minimum that and maybe someplace like Singapore, you know, it would be even more.
But if you had tyres that last forever, then it doesn't matter how much you were racing better or how much you were preserving your tyres better, you're going to be in a chain. And that's essentially what we saw. in suzuka which was yeah 19 out of 20 cars were able to manage their tires and not see anywhere on the medium 20 out of 20 cars were able to just
you know, on the hard stint. I know not all of them did that strategy, sorry. But all the cars that then were on the hard stint for the second stint didn't experience any tyre wear. And so basically on any track, no matter how good it is for overtaking in modern F1, if the tyres don't go at all, you're unlikely to have that delta for an overtake against a similarly grid-spotted car. Yeah, I mean, essentially, you're removing a whole skill necessary to be better than the next car.
I don't have to manage my tires. Well, OK, that's literally just one less thing to worry about. But the flip side of that is you then have to be so much faster. Your car has to be so much faster than the next car. that you just really don't see a lot of overtaking. Bahrain isn't going to be what we saw in Suzuka. Surely, surely not. We can have medium expectations for Bahrain, but it is probably, let's say that this regulation set at the moment, we thought, yeah, the cars are closed.
But actually, the fact that the cars are close is making overtaking harder because you're less likely to have a Delta. So let's have medium expectations here and let's heed... fred vasura's words that this might be a qualifying you know a qualifying championship and and we tracked we tracked qualifying getting less and less important and so perhaps now you know qualifying is more important when the cars were really spaced out
I mean, Russell and Hamilton was a great example. This was used to slate George Russell. You'd say, Russell qualifies second, Hamilton back of the grid, they'll end up P6, P7. Now, actually, that wouldn't happen now. That wouldn't happen in this regulation set at the moment. You would probably get much more punished. for qualifying down the grid.
I may have been guilty of been using that against Russell. I thought you were going to say, because George has gotten better. No, no, no. Which is also kind of true. A lot of people use that tactic, but in reality, the Mercedes were always going to finish six or seven, and it didn't really matter where you qualified. Well, now qualifying is... Yeah, and this also brings other things into it, too, like defensive driving.
Now, suddenly, if you're a really good defender before you knew you were never going to keep somebody, you know, let's say you're in a Sauber and you've got a racing bull behind you. You're like, oh, you know, they're three tenths, four tenths faster than me. I'm not even going to bother because because I know in three laps they're by me now. It's a tenth or two. And you're like, hey, you know what? I think I could hang on.
No, Matt, let's say you're in a Visa cash app and you've got a Ferrari behind you and you don't just go, oh, look, that's Lewis Hamilton. Let's let him go. Oh, now. That's the argument we were having last week, though. Hadjar should maybe have fought a little harder to keep Hamilton behind. No, because I would disagree with... I'm so glad you're giving me a chance to argue last week's show, finally. No, I would disagree entirely because it cost you and Hamilton time.
And his certainty is, or the likelihood is, eventually Hamilton gets by him one way or another. And in the meantime, he's reduced his gap to all the people behind Hamilton by a lot. So, so being sensible. To be fair. Yeah. Being sensible. That's, that was a, that was a good and correct choice. Okay, so looking ahead, so we're thinking medium expectations for Bahrain. Saudi Arabia, my expectations is always...
Please, please don't let there be a big crash in the S's that the people behind just have no chance of seeing and we get some T-boning. I do tend to watch that race through. gaps in my fingers quite a lot. But you could say there's going to be overtaking at Saudi Arabia. And we've seen some great moves. We see also Behrman around the outside of turn three.
in uh in 2024 you know there there there is opportunities there i don't like turn one because it's one of those safety chicanes where yeah they have a little tussle and then The outside car ends up going over the chicane and cutting it, and then it's, oh, should he have to give the place back? It's just being decided in the steward's office. Yeah. And, you know, Canada, interestingly, can be that way, too.
I think the thing to recall, just the thing to think about in general, is that the nature of these cars is they're losing downforce when they're following each other through turns. But when you've got turns that are wide enough... for cars to go side by side. then that car that's making the pass actually isn't really losing nearly as much downforce as when they're nose to tail. So the fun thing about this is we might, because the cars are now closer together, we might start seeing more moves.
on turns and in places we don't expect, then it's sort of in your traditional, this is where we overtake with DRS into breaking. Okay, so to me, the jury's out, and I do have a fear that Bahrain will be like China and will be like Suzuka, because I certainly wasn't expecting China to be...
as dull as it was in the end for the Grand Prix. And then after Saudi Arabia, we've got Miami, which as much as we'll defend that because this seems like a great venue for Miss Apex and people tend to want us there. Yes, again, you might not get those million overtakes. And it's been a one-stop every time, hasn't it, at Miami?
I haven't looked, but I'm thinking unless there's weather, unless it rains, then probably that's what we're looking at. Although it will be hard to beat watching Norris when his first rain. Which is what we did last year. That was exciting as well. And I don't think it's a sprint weekend at Miami this time either. So you go, okay, so medium expectations for Bahrain. I would say medium to high for an entertaining race. Medium for Saudi Arabia.
Medium to low. I think expectations to be managed at Miami. That's fine. Same for Imola as well. And this is all dry, by the way. So we're not talking about if there's a wet race, that then does add an extra element. But yeah, Imola. is like Suzuka. It's from the same era of Formula One. It's had those classic races, but in the long, long ago. And then we're into Monaco, which I don't think I'll be on that show.
I've managed to miss the last couple. That is the Miss Daypacks tradition. Well, it's a good chance for me to take a break, isn't it? And then so Spain and Canada, I think. are better for will you be entertained than then Imola and Suzuka but again they are races where you can have processions so I was looking ahead about managing expectations and I went
Oh dear, we're getting into a run of Miami, Imola, Monaco, Spain, Canada. It's going to sound an awful lot like I'm just an apologist for Formula One. But then you go, but then look, then I'll bet my hat that Austria... Spa, Hungaroring, and then Monza coming up after that. Baku, 50-50 chance. Then you've got a back end into Circuit of the Americas. You've got Interlagos there. Then you've got more of a fair smattering of low expectation, high expectation.
I just think everyone maybe overreacted to a dull Suzuka race. Well, yeah. But again, think about how exciting the end of last season was. And you just naturally want to carry over that momentum into the new season. But there are new cars, there are new parts. There's new tires. There's new surfaces on the tracks that change things. You just got to remember at the end of the day.
It's more like watching chess than it is like watching boxing, for example. You know, you settle in for the long term and there's strategy. And when you get the exciting, when someone stands up and kicks the whole table over, that's, you know, that does happen too. I definitely don't want to stray into, if you didn't enjoy it, then you watched it wrong. No, no, no, no. That's not what I mean. I'm just saying that the nature of your expectations should be.
I'm watching a nil-nil football game, for example. But here's my disappointment, which was largely, oh, it's going to be the most exciting ever because they're going to be so close. They're going to be so close in performance. And then this year it's like... Oh, they're so close in performance. Nothing's happening. Oh.
But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but we've had several different winners. So across the four races, we've had four different winners. We've had Norris, Piastri, Verstappen and Hamilton who have won events. So you go from that point of view, if it was this kind of regulation set, but you knew it was Verstappen winning every week, it would be worse.
So I'm certainly not apologizing, and I'm being an apologist, and I'm not dismissing people who weren't specifically entertained. But if you are going to stick with F1, and I think you should, because, you know, I like podcast downloads. If you're going to do that, then manage expectations, have the timing screen up.
and also be in the Missed Apex Patreon Discord by going to patreon.com forward slash Missed Apex. And that's a good enough reason, hanging out in our Patreon Discord during the race, that's a good enough reason to tune in anyway. And... We're back to normal social hours for UK and US people, Matt. Which is very, very... which is very, very nice for me and the family, I will say. You know, nothing like getting up, being up till four in the morning, working on show notes.
yeah i know speaking of family being very understanding thank you family they're all having to be quiet on holiday for a little bit they're just having infinite screen time and since we've been strict about it on holiday they're just like Yeah, I know we've been strict about screen time, but now it's convenient to me for you to be just stuck on your phone.
Well, that's good preparation for adulthood. You know, I want to flag up one more thing. You were right to point out that even if the racing hasn't been super exciting. The race for the Drivers' Championship does look like it could be super entertaining, even if not entirely on track. But Pirelli is bringing softer tires to Miami. They're bringing softer tires to Emelon. And I suspect if they're successful with that, we could see more aggressive tire choices from Pirelli.
for the rest of the season. And that could also change. how things play out in terms of leaning more towards a two-stop instead of a one-stop, which gives you greater advantages for undercuts and overcuts and just general chicanery and shenanigans.
Well, I hope you enjoy your race weekend. Join us on Sunday. I think it's going to be about 9pm UK time for our race review stream with me, Matt Trumpet and Stuffie. We'll have some show notes with Matt Stuff in the... in the link so when we say show notes if you're watching on youtube it is literally there in the description if you're on your podcast cast app
right or scroll down and you'll see them there and so you'll get the links to all our social media and the links to support us on patreon we are only here and able to do this kind of thing Do you think my wife would let me do a podcast on holiday from an Airbnb or from the hotel conference room last week if we didn't have Patreon support? Hell no. So until we see you next, work hard, be kind and have fun. was Miss Apex Podcast.
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