Ny säsong. Nya vibes. För att bara vågade råva med Zalando. Vad ska jag på mig för en weekend i Köpenhamn? Vad ska jag ha på mig för att jag är ett statement på promenad? Vad ska jag på mig när jag vill impa på barista? Hitta den perfekta luckan för våren så sa man att alla planer What do I wear? På Zalando. Enklast är allt det godaste. Som att njuta av en grillkor med mjölk. Tack till elever och personer som hjälpte med videon! Det är lite större, det är väldigt bra.
Korvrättsbakan. Livet blir vad du fyller det med. You are listening to Myst Apex Podcast. We live! Welcome to Miss Apex Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Reddy, but my friends call me Spanners. So, let's be friends. This is our Monaco Grand Prix Race Review. And how did it go? What did they fix?
the monaco grand prix i think the fact that they tried it is admirable and something that gets forgotten is that even five six years ago probably pre-drive to survive i would sit on this show and i would say
Monaco's like boring and it doesn't work and you can't overtake and nothing can save it and there would be so... まっ pushback but thankfully the americans came in and said hey you know sports meant to be fun and we're meant to be enjoying watching this and actually there are so few holdouts now
that the broadcast media and the authorities said, hey, we can't keep going. I can't believe that last year was the catalyst when there was a safety car and that meant that there was no strategy at all because that's how I've seen Monaco. For the last 15 years. But now I do feel validated. They tried it, but did it work? Even my favorite commentator of all time, Martin Bundle,
Seemed to throw the towel in a bit and said it didn't work. But I don't know what people were expecting. It was never going to create a delta for overtakes. Maybe introduce a little bit of chaos. but I still think there's plenty of interesting talking points. A lot of things our main characters did and a lot of storylines to explore.
And at least they tried. So we'll discuss. Could Ferrari have done more? Could Mercedes have done less? Is this a turning point for Lando Norris? It was a banner race for Visa Cash App and particularly Hajar and critically. We'll ask that question. Did they save Monica? Yeah, I've messed up, haven't I? Because I've gone, oh, all these things didn't work. And then I go, we'll ask, did they save Monaco? But look, we have
some defenders of Monaco as well on the panel today, but we are an independent podcast produced in the podcasting shed with the kind support of our patrons and partners. We aim to bring you a race review before your Monday morning commute. We might be wrong, but we're first. We're joined by streamer extraordinaire F1 YouTuber Scott Stuffy Tuffy. Hello, Scott.
Hey Spanners, it's good to see you hosting this year because I was in that position last year. What's come over you? You even suggested that I was going to be hosting this year, but then you went, no. I'm going to be watching it and I'm going to be in the hot seat. But good to see you.
It was better than last year, I still think. Low bar, but still better. Yeah, and my fear is they're sat there going, well, it was a bit better than last year, so that means two stops was a little bit better than one stop, which means that next year... Free! 18 stops. Let's ask Alex Van Geen, how many stops should there be at the Monaco Grand Prix?
All of the stops. So when you messaged me saying, did I want to come on? And I was like, yes, because I try to get on Monaco most years because I like Monaco. And I like to defend Monaco. And genuinely. You genuinely like the Monaco. I do. I do like Monaco. And I'm coming on here to defend it. And I'm going to struggle today. Because. Despite, okay, we didn't have a red flag and then everyone stopped and then nothing happened, but we had...
Things that didn't happen, then people stopped, then things didn't happen. and not much changed when there were a pit stop. So I'm a bit frustrated. Yeah. But let's try and dig into it and find out why.
Yeah, I think actually the big story is the tactics. So I definitely want to talk about the McLaren dynamic. I think Verstappen gave it a really fair go today. Interesting stuff going on with Hamilton and his race engineer. But the real story is did what they tried to do pay off and my cynical approach to this when it first started I said well look in Monaco you normally have one pit stop
But because everyone's managing their tyres, really everyone can respond to the undercut. So if someone comes in and... Bolts on fresh tyres and sets fast lap times. Everybody's got a little bit left. And in the best case scenario, say sixth place pit. Fifth goes, oh no, undercut. Fourth goes, oh no, undercut. And it just changes. And then the race is over. My most cynical thing was that will just happen twice. And apart from the midfield,
double pit stop, leaving a gap shenanigans at the top. Essentially, that's what happened. We just got that same process two times. Yeah, it was exactly what happened. And then we had people trying to game the system, which didn't quite work. But when you talk about the tyres... being good and people could just respond. The best example of that was the last lap of the race. Max Verstappen got out of the way and Lando went and set the fastest lap time of the whole race on 17 million lap old times.
It's a shame. It's down to these cars being too big. And we need the cars to be about 25% smaller to make racing worthwhile on this circuit now, because we are now at a point where we have definitely outgrown Monaco. So I don't want to stray too much into how to save Monaco, because in my mind... It's been beyond saving for a while, but...
As soon as the double stops started happening, saying Martin Brundle on the commentary was, I don't like this, I don't like what it's done to the sport. But can they be surprised when they introduce something that is a bit of a Mickey Mouse?
gimmicky thing only for Monaco can they be surprised when it produces gimmicky tactics only for Monaco I really didn't like this from Brundle and Ted Kravitz as well since the first opening episode or show of Sky that I watched, Ted Kravitz was very much calling it gimmicky. And then Jenson Button openly went, well, you could say that one mandatory tyre compound change is gimmicky. Yeah, of course you can.
And when I heard Martin Brundle say that, and it was towards the end of the race saying, oh, it hasn't really worked, and he was kind of going off on one, I thought, Martin, you've been in F1 for 40 years. When have you ever seen Monaco work as a one-stop? At least you have to give credit. for them thinking outside the box to try and make it more exciting. Yes, it didn't really...
provide us anything better. I am actually glad that the race was a full green flag because I was more worried about there being a red flag because there was the whole loophole of being able to serve your... It wasn't actually two mandatory pit stops. It was three mandatory tyres that you had to use with two tyre compounds. Oh, it's two mandatory pit stops was actually a bit of a false narrative.
Credit to them for trying, but overall, yeah, up front, it didn't matter. But at least it provided us with those midfield slowing up shenanigans. See, and I've always been saying this for a while, is the reason, the thing with Monaco was, Monaco used to be the only street salesman. It was the only point in the year where we had this happen. But it was fine because it was a spectacle and it was something different and it made qualifying super special.
And it meant everything had to, we would believe that everybody was pushing the whole time and you're racing between the walls and it was dangerous and it was exciting. But now we have a billion street tracks. that actually all have more space and even the ones that have similar amounts of space have stupidly long straights so you can actually get an overtake done Monaco isn't Special anymore when it really really you
Positives, though, on TV, it looked gorgeous. So with the correct expectations, which I had last year, this year I was like, oh, maybe that'll fix it. This year, yeah, I was disappointed because of the expectations, but the drone shots were incredible. really static drone shots that you can't do with the helicopter, and I guess they can get places that a helicopter can't.
showing that elevation change like how have i been watching this since 1986 and i've never really seen that that uh that drive up to casino square just shown like that they always had the front on one where they're coming up the hill and it looks slow but to see them actually really going up the hill with the start finish straight or the pit lane to the right hand side spectacular so my enjoyment of of the race was actually enhanced by that my enjoyment of the race was also massively enhanced
by again i keep mentioning the broadcasters because they've been so key in in what i've been upset about with monaco in the past which is building up all the excitement and saying it's amazing To be honest, I preferred the honesty this time round. And David Croft is the commentator on the thing I watch.
He had one attempt of going, can LeClarke do it? Can he make that? Oh, not on this occasion. And then he gave up because we know that that's not going to happen. I know commentators have to build up those passes. It was a more realistic. I think it was a more realistic kind of broadcast that looked beautiful and it held my attention. And by the way, it really helps that we've got the patrons and the panel and everyone to hang out with in our Discord.
So today you had a few strategy options. We were looking at these really sexy options with Mike Colfield midweek saying, can you do a double pit stop at the beginning? Do pit one, lap one, and then lap two. And then also... Lap 74, lap 75. In the end, because of the way they were having to run, I don't think a team could run to the whole race distance just on a hard time.
especially the guys at the front. So there were times, Scott, when the front guys were having to open their legs and having to push and having to get the best out of their tyre. Yeah, well, you're saying there is one driver who did try to do the whole distance on one tyre, and that was Yuki Tsunoda. He did 70... three laps on, or 72 laps on the hire. He pitted on the first lap. And then right as he got points? Oh, hang on. No. It wasn't a winning strategy, was it?
But yeah, the tyre management, they still had to have a little bit out there, but you saw Lando, the key for him today was, as it always is at Monaco, but in particular that McLaren, we've mentioned it a few times this year, it is The fastest car and clean air. But as soon as it gets in dirty air. It's not this all supreme car. And that was key for Lando today to get into turn one. But he nearly didn't do it. And I'm surprised he even made the apex. I think it was all four wheels he locked up.
We can go to McLaren now. I think we've probably said enough about Monaco. If there's anything else towards the end, we can get it in. But yeah, Lando Norris with that big lock-up at the beginning was really worrying. And I say worrying... Because I have pivoted. I'm wearing my Lando Norris McLaren shirt. I have fully pivoted.
towards supporting Lando Norris for the rest of this season. I know. What have I become? Well, I'm looking at you, Piastri fans. I am what you made me. Because I've just had so much correspondence. from Piastri fans and Aussies, and I have to say, not in a terrible, terrible way, more like in a cricket-ashes rivalry way. But do you know what? You've done it. You've tipped me over the edge. I am now fully gunning for Norris for this championship.
So the thing that was scary about that... front tyre lock-up, the double front tyre lock-up at Turn 1 is, not only could he have taken himself out, he would have taken Leclerc with him, because Leclerc was fully alongside him on the outside, so that would have thrown everything into chaos. and actually would have played very nicely into the hands of Oscar Piazza.
who I think Oscar didn't have a great weekend this weekend. He was ragged, like properly, properly ragged. I think I saw him hit the walls. four or five times over the course of all the sessions. And yeah, he just didn't seem at home for a guy who is super cool and doesn't get hot-headed. He was the lairiest guy on the track. Bar, maybe, Pierre Gat... Okay, this is interesting because he has got this Iceman reputation and the last two Grand Prix we've just seen just a little hint of.
Has leading the championship changed the way he approaches things? So... Covering off George Russell, breaking a bit early into turn one, into Imelaya turn two, and not really pushing Verstappen to the edge was quite un-Piastri-like. And then the way he approached qualifying this weekend, he just didn't seem to have that kind of, hey, I'm doing 95%, I'm getting my laps in attitude that he has brought to all season.
I think, not to linger on Imola too long, but yes, I think there was a definite impact there into Turn 1, how he approached it with that advantage he had in the World Championship. But this weekend... I think what really took a knock to his confidence was when he locked up going into practice on Friday and he went straight on. And ever since then, it was only until the last lap in Q3 or the last two laps in Q3 where he actually...
looked like he was on Lando's pace at all. And I think he had it. We know Monaco, you have a slight dent in confidence like that. He's already scraping the walls anyway, and then that happens. You just... You don't go into that turn one as quick as possible. And I think that's what really lingered over this whole weekend for Piazza. I think sometimes it can come across like I don't have respect for the challenge of driving around Monaco. I just want to say, though...
Every time I've played an F1 computer game and gone through the season, I skip Monaco because it's a nightmare. It's an absolute nightmare. Why would anyone go racing on a track like this? That one. And what's the Australian one where you go up a hill and through all the mountains and stuff? Bathurst. Bathurst, yeah. There are some tracks... I've never done a fun game, though. No, I know, but, you know, on iRacing or whatever, I just go, no, skip.
Some tracks just aren't meant to be right. So I do have respect. Obviously, it seems very difficult. I'm specifically talking about the challenge on Sunday. I'm acknowledging that if you go out on a Friday and bin it into the wall, the rest of the weekend, you're going to be going, oh, blah, blah. That'd probably hurt as well. I don't want to do it again.
So on that, Lawson was saying in his interview, he said it really surprised him this weekend because how much you have to build up to your laps. So you go out and practice driving at like 80%. just trying to find your way around the circuit and find where the grip is and find how things move forward. And then you just get faster and faster and faster and faster at session. But then if you have a knot... Your confidence is completely shot and completely blown.
Someone like Lewis Hamilton can get over it. He had his crash in practice three and can get over it and get on with it. But I think for someone like... like Oscar for any of the new guys coming in, they're still trying to find their legs and find their confidence around this very, very difficult circuit, which you definitely don't have enough respect. It's just race day. It's like the Isle of Man TT. I have respect for that. I'm just not going to watch it. Yeah, but they're all idiots.
It's a crazy, crazy race. I don't know how they sit on those bikes. The Isle of Mount TT is the most bonkers thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, I just wanted to say that. Not to divert, but that just shows how impressive Hadjar's performance was. And he's bounced back this weekend after, what was it, Q2, bringing out two red flags, hitting the wall twice.
That just shows the resilience of the man. I mean, he's shown resilience anyway after bouncing back in Australia. But yeah, it just shows that Monaco still is like these cars. I mean, Lando set the lap record in Q3. I mean, that was just... a tremendous lap but it showcased how strong the McLaren still is at every circuit this year and I think yeah he controlled that race beautifully today until Maybe Max Verstappen.
arrived in front of him when he was least expecting it and he wanted some help from his championship contender teammates. Let's break this down. Let's break this down then. Let's focus on my new favourite, Lando Norris. I'm now part of the Norris Fossey.
Let me know if there's any things I'm meant to be doing as a Norris fan. If there's any special places that we go to cry. No, you've got to wear the hat. The upside down hat. Oh, I've got one. It's in that box behind you. I have got one. I've got a Topps one. So I can use that.
So... The key thing is he has been not nailing his Q3 performances, had pace, and we've seen, oh, you know, in practice, he's got the pace, and in the race, you go, oh, he's got the pace, but then he's been pulling a Hamilton and just not getting, oh, I can't believe that, I just said that. It's true though, isn't it? Like he's just been not delivering in qualifying.
Oh, Alex is so upset with me. Alex is so upset. These are both Hamilton fans, by the way, and they're not arguing with me. But that's what he's been doing all season. He's been leaving that door wide open. He's wasted the dominant car by letting his teammate...
Be scot-free, go ahead, not really challenge, and then have to catch up in a race. It doesn't matter how far you are. If you're four places behind, you're fighting through the field. By the time you get to your teammate, you've used up all your buttons. So here he goes and nails qualifying. I would say what's worrying for Norris is last season, I think he had a bit more of a qualifying advantage. This season, when they both put in a decent lap, the gap is closer.
So although Norris has been messing up in Q3, if you track through Q3, Q2, all the way through, then you'll see that when they both nail a lap, it's close. And I don't think I've seen... Times where you go, oh, Norris has got four tenths on Piastri, for example. I think that is mainly down to Oscar has massively upped his performance. No, no, no. Yes, I'm saying that. I think Lando is doing the same performance.
but Oscar has just upped it massively, and that is in the race and in qualifying. But I also think Oscar has a cooler head and can handle pressure better than Lando can. I also think Max bothers Lando a lot more than Max bothers Piastri. Wait, wait, wait. There could be two meanings there. So you're saying that... They are bothered by Max in different ways. Mentally. Yeah, but also Max bothers them in different ways. Max is doing what you do to a mate when you don't want him to win stuff.
and you're just messing with him. And that's exactly what I feel like Max is doing. I feel like he goes away and has a giggle about it afterwards. The better my son does against me in Mario Kart, the more I'm specifically aiming all my weapons at him and trying to get my daughter to win instead. Basically. So what's your daughter? Scott!
But talking about gaps, though, yes, while those gaps have closed, this is the first time this weekend, all season, we've seen pole position separated by more than a tenth. Only just... but the gap between Piastri and Norris this weekend, and arguably the highest pressure... qualifying environment we're going to see all season I know every qualifying is important now this year as Alex has already touched on that's kind of why the specialness of
Monaco has lost a bit. What a qualifying lap from Lando. You could feel the pain in Charles Leclerc's voice when he heard Lando was improving. hats off to him job number one done and then Turn one. Never look back. Yeah, turn one. Piastri said, oh, I thought you were done there. I think everybody kind of went, oh, oh. He probably did well to recover that, to be fair. So, gone. Well, if anyone had seen the F2 race prior...
I mean, what happened with the leader there, he got slowly off the start and caused an absolute pile-up. We nearly saw the same thing happen there. But also, good awareness from Charles because he saw it in his mirrors. Props as well to the McLaren pit wall, I guess, for the qualifying. It was one where track evolution was...
Really important. And so I thought they'd blown it. I completely missed that they were going to do another run. Okay, you had as well. Yeah, so they did their run and then Leclerc came out and I was celebrating. I was watching. I was watching the F1 with new friends who had never seen me watch Formula 1 before. And at the end they went, you should stream yourself watching Formula One. I'm like, no, no, no one must know.
what I'm like watching Formula One. I will only watch Formula One with Formula One people. Oh my God, I'm not. I refuse to watch Formula One with non-Family people. I didn't even realise. It won't come across well. I didn't even realise and they went, oh my God, and I was like, What? What? What's going on? I'm celebrating Leclerc getting over the line. But then I didn't realise that they had this other run in the bag, and I think that was a great time.
I don't think the commentary team did either. They were like, they're going out first to get a clean run so they don't get any red flags and they'll get their runs in nice and early but it could be a risk because of the track evolution. And then all of a sudden they're on other laps and I didn't notice that. And I really don't think the comms team noticed either. No. So, yeah, definitely props to McLaren there and Norris. Perfect delivery. What I want to get to is the end of the race.
where we had Norris leading Nett with Leclerc behind and then Piastri in third, but you had Verstappen out front. who'd gone long and was trying something different. And I think there was no real point where he could create that gap to Piastri and get ahead and get that P3. But I also feel like he didn't want it.
I almost felt like he was inviting this situation where we go, right, we'll just stay long. And yeah, there's a bit of confusion. Christina saved us because we all thought the same as the commentary that... if you didn't do your... Oh, you didn't, Alex. All right, you're clever as well, Alex. That's fine. But I thought that you'd just get a 30-second penalty if you didn't do that.
mandatory stop but no it was a disqualification so Max had to come in the thing that he was holding out for was if there was a red flag I didn't get hit if there was a red flag he would have had 30 seconds added to his time, so he still would have been fourth. But if there was a red flag and then a restart, He gets a free change of tyres, satisfies all the new rules, and would be ahead and start from pole at the restart. And I think given where he was...
That was a smart tactic. So that would have been the number one thing they were hanging on for. The number two thing is what we were talking about before with my Mario Kart comparison, which is, well, while I'm here, I may as well try and back... Norris into the clerk. Scott then on it. 100% yep obviously that's what he was planning for was the red flag but
Max, I actually don't think he did enough in backing up Lando into Charles Leclerc. Because if you think about it in the grand scheme of things, Lando is going for the World Championship. The last thing he wants is for there to be any sort of contact. Charles DeClaire He wants to win this race more than absolutely anything. He's not in this championship fight. So if he gets an opportunity to send it into Raskar, Sord, and the Valsh, any corner whatsoever.
He's going to take it because if I'm Charles, I know this man in front of me is going to be thinking about the world championship. But Max, I was keeping an eye on the intervals and I was looking at it and you could see him backing up and I'm like, oh, it's 100% the right move.
Could have done so much more in the end. It wasn't that slow, was it? It wasn't that slow. No, it wasn't. Not from what we saw from the teams in the midfield. He could have gone so much slower. He could have fully Lewis Abu Dhabi 2016 there. Yes, that's what was going through my mind. I was like, it's back to Hamilton and Rosberg. And I loved it because you're absolutely right. Because the other thing as well is, Max is still in this title fight.
Yeah, of course. He's definitely still in his final fight, so who would he rather win, Leclerc or his best buddy Lando? He'd rather Leclerc won the race. And if it took a front wing off of Lando and cost Lando more points, he won great. But the only thing he knew, he didn't have the pace to beat either McLaren or Leclerc. He did have the pace to beat Lewis, and that was all he was concerned about, which was, if I'm going to have to make this pit stop as long as I come out ahead of Lewis.
It doesn't really matter because I'm not going to get any better than four. And then I might lock into a red flag. Yeah, and the thing is, he had more than a comfortable gap to Lewis. I think he was 50 seconds ahead because Lewis... 47 seconds, like ridiculous. Yeah, I'll get into Lewis later. Yeah, we'll get into Lewis, but he had that three-place good penalty and was...
Who knows what happened with his race, but that's why I was also thinking the same thing, Spanners. I thought, this is genius strategy from Red Bull here. They've got nothing to lose. If they take 30 seconds at the end, They're going to finish where they started, which you always do at Monaco anyway. Like, happy days. Why not try it? This is Max Verstappen and Red Bull all over.
I still think he could have done more. I think as well, Verstappen and his pit crew, they're the boldest combination when it comes to strategy and just pushing. pushing those limits and ultimately they would have risked a crash in the area if someone ended up in the back of him because he was going so slow they'd have gone well yep that's the tactic we'd gone for it makes me worry that
Norris might not, doesn't have that same mentality. When Norris comes over the radio and says, I think he's doing it on purpose, you know, and you go, yes, Yes, everyone else knows he's doing it on purpose. But he said the line, he's not even pushing.
Ooh, you haven't seen what he's doing. This is crazy. And then, obviously, the second thing was, can Oscar come and pick me up from the train station? Because I've lost my GoHenry card. That was so pathetic. I'm sorry, Lando, because I know I'm a new fan. Oh, my God. I will admit, and I will give Lando some credit, is that after that, he read the situation. I didn't hear any radio messages from McLaren, so I think he learned this on his own.
He backed off from Max. Yes, yes, yes, he did. He backed off to ensure he could get a bit of cleaner air. and that he could get the superior retraction that McLaren had, particularly through the slower corners, so that Leclerc never had an opportunity. And I think Leclerc even said that. in the cool down room as well he was like oh you were going so slow through turn 10 and he was like well i had max in front of me i was like trying to get get away and so
Very clever reading of the situation there, Lando. And I think he did that on his own because, yeah, he could have just sat behind Max and been like, oh, he's holding me up. And Leclerc then takes an opportunity, you know. I'm going to take this opportunity because I want to give a shout out to a charity and I want to make more of a habit of this. If we've got causes within our community that people are supporting, I want to highlight it.
Because about this time last year, Missed Apex happily supported a charitable fundraising event that Uncle Steve and his partner Jane are involved in. The event is called Darkness to Daylight, and it's on again next weekend. The support by the Miss Apex patrons and audience last year was amazing and made a significant contribution to the success of the event. The charity organizing this is called Challenge DV.
and it aims to increase awareness of domestic and family violence and provides support to people caught up in it. The event has three levels of participation. There's an 110km overnight multi-marathon, which takes about 13 hours. It's open to teams and individuals. Jane, Steve's partner, is doing the 10km Dawn Run.
And there's also a three kilometre run walk. So there's a maximum level of participation for this event. If you'd like to help support this worthy cause, you can find the link in the show notes to Jane's contribution page.
where you can make a small donation if you'd like to. I know there's people out there who like to look for this kind of thing where they can make a personal connection and contribute towards a charity that way. So check out that page and see if this is something that you would like to contribute.
I think we've covered that little battle at the end at the front and Norris survived it. We gathered it together. I think, you know, it's a very survivable thing because I don't think the Delta... existed really at any point for anyone to have a go anywhere and then when Verstappen eventually went in Norris set the fastest lap of the race. So, you know, the pace was there all along. I'd like to talk about the other attempt that Verstappen made to get ahead.
So under, not VSC, it was under double waved yellows, Gasly sailed up to the back of Yuki Tsunoda. And I suppose I should ask, So Gasly is blaming Tsunoda for that and saying that, yeah, yeah, yeah, he said that Tsunoda was weaving in the breaking zone and that's what caused him... No!
It's Monaco. You know people are going to break. He's just locked up and ended up binning it into Tsunoda. And I think his following comments can easily be put down to shame. I haven't seen his following comments, but I know the stewards have ruled. in Tsunoda's favour and have given him a reprimand
And yeah, I don't know. The thing is, he was following him for multiple laps, so I don't know why he all of a sudden got caught out by him. It's like he just had a... Unlike Gasly, he had a clear lapse of concentration because... He was never going for an overtake, which is supposedly what he was doing or something like that. Yeah, so no, they did nothing wrong. Okay, I think that's fairly simple. Sorry, we won't drag that out anymore. Yeah, basically, Gasly just biffed it.
So, what happened is, because it's a downhill section, you're heavy on the brakes, and what generally happens is, the way they have their brake bias set, is you'll have a lock-up at the rear. And what happens is when you get a lock up at the rear, the rear tries to overtake the front of the car. So what he would have had to have done is the rears would have locked, he'd have come off of the brakes to stop the rear.
going pirouetting on him but by that point he's out of control he's got a little bit of side on we've seen it loads of times into that area but the problem was he after hitting the back I think put his foot back on the throttle and was like, I'm just going to continue on for some stupid reason because then he nearly wiped out his teammate. As he re-entered the track, he very, very, very, very nearly killed...
Help me out. Colopinto. Very early, nearly killed Colopinto. And then just proceeded to drive around the track with a massively damaged car, dropping bits of car all over the set. Yeah, so the key thing that you're discussing here with Max tried to overtake, so Gasly's front wing flinged off to the left-hand side. of the exit of turn 11, so the second part of the chicane.
So they were waving double yellows because there's debris there, and it's actually on the racing line because they get tight to that barrier, don't they? And Lando slowed down for double yellows. Of course, he's been stung for doubles in Qatar, if you remember, where he...
Got that drive-through penalty or that stop-go penalty, whatever it was, but cost him a potential chance of the win. So no doubt, maybe that is in the back of his mind. But Piastri also here to the double yellows, can significantly slow. And Max just... I'm actually quite surprised it wasn't even investigated. I was waiting for it, for an investigation to come through, because he was one and a half seconds back, two seconds back, and all of a sudden he's under his rear wing. And I'm thinking...
Sorry, excuse me, that's an investigation at minimum. Do you know what drove me mad, though, is on telly, and I know we keep talking about telly, on telly, they were going, oh, I don't think Piastri did too much wrong there, because so, Verstappen... was basically saying, oh, he cut me off, he cut me off. And if you look at it, while Piastri moved over a little bit, it's impossible to overtake through there. It's impossible to overtake between the new old chicane and the...
What's the... Tabak? Tabak? What's the next one? Yeah, the entry, the corner before the swimming pool section. Yeah, so... You can't overtake that unless someone's had a real moment going through that chicane. Or they're slowing down for a double wave yellows, right? So yeah, he made up a lot of time. And then, so his big argument was, you know, he cut me off. And on TV, they were going, no, no, no, I don't think Piastri did anything wrong there.
And that was it. They left it. Yeah, what about Verstappen making an overtake attempt? And it even came up again on a replay. And they showed it in the cool-down room. And no one is talking about an investigation into Verstappen for racing under yellows.
Piastri just mentioned the call down room. Piastri even said it. He went, yeah, he's trying to overtake me under double yellows. Don't know what he's doing. So Lando even said he had the VSC keep popping up in that section as well, which is maybe a reason why they even slowed down. If every driver received the error of a VSC, then why was Matt...
Not doing that, but the data doesn't lie. He gained significant time through there, and I don't think it's through Piastri going too slowly. I think it's because Max was going too quickly. But Max doesn't get penalised when he blocks two people in qualifying for Miami. So, you know, obviously rules don't apply to Max. But to be fair, what Oscar should have done was let him go.
Because if you'd let him go, he'd have done an overtake under yellows and would have got a penalty, hopefully. Scott doesn't like that. Was Derek Warwick in the stewards' room today? No, there's another issue. I'm not going to... Nah, I've enough Stuart's chat. Right, I've got, uh, Scott. Sorry. No, I was saying go ahead, Spanners. No, I don't want to. Do you know what they were doing? They were just giving me enough rope to hang myself. Not today, Satan. Not today.
But the rule is you race. So this is confusing because it is different from track to track and series to series. When you see the green light, is that good to go or do you have to go past? The green light. So that section they were under was definitely under yellow. So I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know anymore. These kind of rules, Alex.
In the chat, Pete Shorcox asked, what are double wave yellows anyway? Double wave yellows is what comes out just before you get a VSC or a safety car. It is basically slow down and be prepared to stop. And that was the conditions, it has to be said, in Suzuka. When Jules Bianchi was killed, they were going around on the double-waved yellows. So they should have been able to stop on track. Obviously, lots of conditions, lots of ill conditions and monsoon conditions there.
But yeah, double-waved yellows is the panic before even a red flag where you kind of go, guys, this is serious, slow down, because Gasly was just spewing debris all around. All around the track. Has he got in trouble for that? I don't think so. Because the whole thing is he's supposed to have stopped. Gasly got a reprimand. But the Double Yellows weren't waived as soon as he made contact.
The double yellows were waived because there was significant debris in that section. Is the reprimand for the crash or is the reprimand for driving around the circuit with a completely destroyed car where he should have parked? Because that's supposed to be the rule, is if you have a car that is not drivable, which when you're missing one of the corners of the car, it's not drivable, you should stop. So, yeah, I... I am mad about this. To me, this comes under exactly the same bracket as
I'm going to say Abu Dhabi 2021. We all know the things that everyone's angry about, but Verstappen undertook under the safety car and it just got ignored because It would be a hassle to enforce that rule, and it's like, oh, that would be a hassle, let's just wave that one away. This, to me, it's clear, he's racing.
Under double yellows before the green, but whatever, it's not even going to... Are the stewards scared of Christian Hornham? Oh yeah, no, no, there's definitely... Complaining and moaning and calling victim. Definitely, there's definitely that effect. They have that effect on the media as well. Sky are... Sorry, I don't like doing this. Sky are a little paralysed about criticising Red Bull. As soon as Ted Kravitz came out and mentioned that Hamilton should have a championship,
They just vetoed, they blocked him and they said, we're not going to speak to Sky anymore. And they can't risk that. That's bad for business. So that's the power that Red Bull have. But yeah, yes, I would say yes, Sky are more reluctant to criticize. Yeah, they are more...
I don't know. They were a bit brave asking him about the four-car teams, though. I can't remember who it was. That was funny. Yeah, they said, hey, you've got four cars to deploy for your team tactics. And Horner had the gall to say, what would make you say that? Is it the evidence of us doing that consistently over many, many, many years? Well, that's my Red Bull hospitality cancelled.
Going forward. We are, I think, just before I move on to Visa Cash App, a quick note on Tsunoda, Alex. It's hurting for me. It's not happening. I feel a bit sad. It feels like there's too many mistakes and he was very angry after qualifying and then there was another qualifying where he had a crash, another qualifying with a mistake.
It just feels like there's no weekend being strung together. And even in this chat here, people are saying Hajar should replace him before the summer break, and I don't like that. Do not put Hajar anywhere near that car. Protect Hajar at August. Protect Hajar. Hajar needs a couple of seasons before it's even considered. Yuki, I think... Has spayed? and everything else can come after it. It all depends on how patient red bull want to be with him but also um
I think it's a case of Christian Horner actually said this weekend, well, the Constructors' Championship's out the window, which he never admits to, even when there's a chance of it. So he's been like, right, we've just got to focus on Max now. So I just don't think they care anymore about that second seat. It is literally a case of how far up the grid Can we get Matt?
I mean, the strategy they put Yuki on today, I think they thought they were defending Max and just put him on a strange strategy to defend Max from coming there. Other than that, I have no idea what they did with Yuki today. It was an absolute... I am going to defend Yuki to some extent, but also not, because some of it is his blame. He is not using the same car as Max. He doesn't have the same update.
He's got, I believe, an old chassis. He's got some old rear spec parts on his car. And we know how much of a handful that Red Bull is, that Red Bull also. is not good in the slow speed corners. Hence why Max was 7 tenths off of pole position on Saturday. That's the largest margin Max has been back from Lando Norris or pole position all season. The next worst was Bahrain. But it also, the blame does lie to Yuki because he pushed so much in Imola and caused that big crap.
that he is now using wrist, the old spec parts. But yeah, he complained about the balance all weekend. Super frustrated. And I'm actually concerned for Yuki. I genuinely think that with Arvid Lindblad doing very well in F2, a driver that they really highly rate. I think one of the RB drivers could be moving up. The Honda Cash may run out at the end of the year, and we know that second seat's a pay seat.
I mean, yeah, there's a very long way to go in the season, but the last few races have not been good for UK. Vi på Citygras har sänkt priset på kött, frukt och grönt och massor av vart. Välkommen till Citygras, matmarknaden där du kan numna dig allt. Kan dina kollegor ringa. Till samma pris som hemma För det finaste man kan ge är lite mer. Hälsningar från oss och tre företag. Pass. Check. Såglas avgång. Check.
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No, as a Yuki fan, he's just not had that one event, that one race where he strings together the whole weekend and then just pops up and he's like, P3. Do you know what I mean? Like a podium, a P4. I think if you're in a Red Bull... It's perfectly reasonable to aim for a podium.
It's just not happened. So on to happier things, because I might pivot to being a Hajar fan. I don't want to be like a glory hunter, but there's some glory to be hunted here, isn't there? Oh my goodness. Isaac Hajar has been an absolute... revelation and that qualifying performance was just insane and he was so happy i think that's his highest i think the p6
Did that end up being promoted to P5 in the end? Yes, it was P5, and then Alonso promoted to P6, and then Hamilton demoted to P7. Don't worry, Ferrari's probably next. But Hadjah was just ecstatic. I get fed up with drivers being bored or not excited about the fact that their F1 driver is doing amazing things. And it looks like... As Isaac Hadjar is living all our dreams for us, that's how we'd react.
if we got that dream come true. As bravado as we're being and toxic masculinity about him being upset in Australia, I'd probably cry on my F1 debut if we ended up. Alex is putting that all on me. That's true. I've had the love I had. I felt for him and it was fine to cry. You said suck it up. You have the toxic masculinity. Do not put that on the rest of your panel. Thank you very much. Alex said to me, hashtag suck it up buttercup after he had that formation lap crash.
uh in uh on australia but like really bounced back well from it has been incredible and you can feel his emotion and i think i like emotional drivers you know i'm really i i i I like when it's Hamilton. That's why we're Hamilton fans. Yeah, Hamilton wearing his heart on his mouth. That's what we've always said about Hamilton. No, with Hamilton he wears his heart on his mouth. There's literally zero filter from brain to mouth.
I know the famous phrase. Is that even a saying? No. I've never heard the saying heart to mouth. It's always where your heart just leaves. So the joke is that I slightly adapted. the saying from heart on your sleeve to heart on your mouth. That's why you're not a stand-up comedian. No, and that's probably why my radio...
That's why I'm not on radio career. I haven't got a radio career anymore. It's officially ended, by the way, my radio career. Not that anyone cares. I like you on the science show. Good. So, like Isaac Hadjar, and that performance was incredible, and it's not a fluke, it looks like that is the kind of thing we can expect from him. He has got raw pace, and I touched on it towards the front end of the show. His bounce-back ability is phenomenal. Bounce-back ability? Did you really use that word?
I did. It's a word that I'm not even sure if it's in the English dictionary or not. Oh, I thought you were doing it. Ignore him. I like that word. No, it's a callback to a Saturday morning football show from, like, 2001. I was 10. If it had Tim Lovejoy in it. It did have Tim Lovejoy in it. Anywho. I hate Tim Lovejoy.
Australia could easily have got down in the dumps after that. Worst start to his F1 career. Followed it up tremendously with some solid performances. And then this weekend in itself, as I said, two crashes on Friday. The rookie mistake of, he's a literal rookie, but that rookie mistake of, as we saw Antonelli do as well, into turn 11, just misjudging the width of your car and catching the wheel there and suspension damage. I mean...
He had the performance this weekend that arguably he should have been able to have converted last week in Imola as well because he made that error in the first couple of corners.
on for maybe a top five there he could have been in Albon's position if he had a decent qualifying last time around so yeah it's a breath of fresh air I think to be honest all the rookies have been a breath of fresh air and bring it on i'm really excited to see how this lad who i did watch him in f2 he was quite a potty mouth quite hot under the collar he still shows a little sliver of that every now and then but i like it he's he's very passionate and
I'm excited for the rest of his season. Yeah, it's okay. You can swear if you're not, so no, no, it's fine. Okay. Visa, cash app, RB, tactics. Fair or foul, Alex? fair and I think and it could be easily lauded that RB did an amazing tactical job they had the track position to do the amazing tactical job. I think if any other team was in, except Mercedes, if any other team was in that position with those cars,
At that point, they'd have done the same thing. Williams did the same thing, but two places back. And yeah, that was the strategy. If you're not going for a podium, you have to play. And they made it work and they did a really good job of it. And Lawson played the team game. Very proud of Lawson. He just got on with the job today. Was a team player. Okay, I'm gonna say foul.
At what point are you driving so slowly that you are driving... 2016? 2016? No, you can't make this comment. If you disagree with 2016, you have to. If you disagree with this, you have to disagree with 2016. I'm a daddy. It's any choice. I'm Sergio Perez. Driving as slow as he did with Lewis. What teammate behaviour. Unbelievable. Look how good he is for Max Verstappen. It's allowed in the rules. It's allowed.
I knew my argument was wrong. Can you let me get it out before you shout me down? No, don't. I'm going to say it was foul because how slowly do you have to drive before you are driving in an unusual or dangerous manner? Surely there's a point at which you are driving.
dangerously slowly and 40 seconds built up over a short period of time to me maybe it constitutes that and I believe it in my heart and as far as I know I'm unaware of any examples that might counteract that Slightly slower than Albon was driving is the correct answer to that question, because Albon was so slow, George got bored and just drove round in for the road again.
Okay. Yeah, I think we have covered the fact that that tactic was available and they used it. And James Vowles was on the radio going, this is a disgusting tactic. It goes against... Everything that we have ever stood for in racing. If you could hold my point for a second, that would be fantastic, because we're about to do exactly the same thing.
It's come out that he actually sent an apology text to Toto. Sorry, sorry about that. Yeah, so he's, look, the thing is, is that Albon going as slow as he did. actually eventually allowed Lawson to secure his position further up the grid because Lawson was a position ahead he did his job and then He got told on the radio album and signs of switch positions and he was confused going, why have they done that?
but it was genius because it secured him a double points finish. But I have to say how slow is acceptable. There's a manner in driving slowly, like not dabbing your brakes. not seeming like you're great checking people. George Russell, I don't think I ever heard him complain about signs driving slowly. He just knew this is the game. This is what the aim is. They were going to do it themselves, Toto said in an interview afterwards.
But then Albon got in front of him, and Albon, I don't think, was driving in the same manner as Sainz, and that's when George just started to get really... miffed-offs, complaining about break-checking and so forth. Oh, you don't get the first word on Russell. Surely, Alex, no. Okay, Alex is the Russell apologist on the panel. It's not quite worthy of a who's fault, is it? But I'll show you what I tweeted in the moment, okay? And look, you know, we all fire tweets off.
that we're not proud of, alright? But my one was, yeah, Russell has been a cocky little turnip there, and they've thrown the book at him quite right. That's my initial reaction, which I'm not actually going to pedal back from, but I'm going to give you right of reply, Alex. When they gave him a drive-thru, I laughed. Oh my god, it was so funny. I mean, listen, I understand what George did. Kimmy then tried to copy it and did a slightly better job.
But then we're told instantly to give the place back because George had got his penalty. because the whole thing was George was getting frustrated and I understand when you are stuck behind somebody that you are clearly faster than but there's nothing you can do about it you just boil and boil especially because when you look at the perfect season that George Russell has actually had and the great job that he's done, he's like...
This is a really crap, frustrating race. And he was in that position because of not his own fault, because the car broke down over a bump. Don't get me started on Mercedes, just generally this weekend. He got frustrated, he made a little mistake, came off the brakes and went, sod it, I'll just take the 10 second penalty. Which... Max would have done. Probably would have just got a 10 second penalty. This is conjecture. So, yeah. It was poor form from George.
It was the right decision from the stewards to say, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not getting away with that. It was a 10 second penalty and driving off the distance. Getting the pets. It was good parenting. It was good parenting from the stewards. It really was. For once. If my kids turned around and went, Fine, then. Lock the TikTok app off my phone. See if I care. And I'd go, lock the whole phone. Boom. Gone. Also, your debit card. Boom. Block.
Yeah, and the thing is, the point that I'm going to make that Greg in the Patreon Discord didn't at all give me is that actually one... Once Russell said it about the, I'll just take the penalty, it was so smart. He was so pleased with himself in that moment. As soon as he did that, the stewards actually had to do it. Scott, they had to, didn't they? Otherwise, everyone would just go, oh. I'm actually reading the stewards' ruling on this now. Brilliant. Brilliant.
They've stated that they spoke in the driver's briefing about actually turn 10 and gaining an advantage deliberately, and that a 10-second time penalty, if judged, that it was gained deliberately. Wouldn't be sufficient. There'd be another rule or a penalty dished out, which is a drive-thru penalty. But there's a little bit of a line in here.
It's a bit of a response to George Russell from the stewards, which I love. So they've gone, we therefore considered that car 63 is deliberate infringement was warranted a drive through penalty. And we so imposed. We're in charge. This is what you get. What George should have done was gone, whoa, he's break way too early. I've had to to dodge out of the way he should have gone completely in that direction and gone
What do I do? Shall I get the place back while also pushing on? Is what he should have done. because then they might have seen it a little bit more. He should have made more of a meal of it. Um... Yeah, it was the wrong way to go. And then fight it afterwards. It was the wrong way to go, wasn't it? Because it was such a, I'm a clever clogs and I'm just going to game this. And the thing is, I love George. I love his honesty. And I like his character.
But he sometimes does stupid things and says stupid things that posh rich boys say that they shouldn't say that gets them in trouble. And sometimes he has to shut up. And this was one of those days, and he's been penalised. That was Alex Van Jean. That's Alex Van Jean. It's a V-A-N-G-E-N. Tell me he's not hush. Tell me he's not a rich boy. I'm not going to tell you. Scott, it's fat! I'm not getting involved in that. All I will say is that you mentioned Kimi Antonelli did the same thing.
He did it a lot. He did it how George should have done it. But I thought what was quite funny is that literally as he did it. The stewards imposed a penalty, and then Antonelli clearly got told to give the position back straight away. Oh, that's hilarious. Bono basically shouted him, give it back, give it back, they've just given George a penalty. Honestly, that's a bigger moment than you think.
that the interaction there between driver, team, rules and stewards, that was a pretty significant moment in the canon of Formula 1. By the way, because I don't think I've actually been on this season, or I might have been on early, I'm missing Bono with Lewis. I don't like hearing Bono with Kimmy. However much I like Kimmy... Okay. We'll cover both of these, okay? So that's a pretty good segue to get to Ferrari. And I know, I feel it as well. It's an iconic relationship.
Like Massa and Rob Smedley and Hamilton and Peter Bonington. That is an absolutely iconic driver-pitwall partnership. And it's not going good. over at Ferrari with the new relationship. So I didn't really pick up on it during the race, but I'm feeling this massive outpouring from Hamilton fans being really, really unhappy about the communication from the Ferrari pit bull, Scott. Yeah, I mean, this has been going on for quite some time.
I mean, it's always been going on on both sides of the garage, but they at least made a change on Leclerc's side of the garage. I think it was Xavi was moved on and he's now got a new one. I think Brian. But what we saw this weekend with the lack of communication is not something that is new for, unfortunately, Sainz's and Hamilton's side of the garage. Because how many times has Sainz actually been done for impeding in qualifying?
a considerable amount of time when you look at it and this isn't something new and look people will no doubt and there probably is a language barrier at the moment because He's Italian. Apology, I don't know the guy's name. I think it's Ricky. Adami. So he's... Adami is Italian. Adami is English. I think so, but it does seem like it is just basic information that is not being relayed to Lewis.
or that you'd expect from any engineer to their driver. And ultimately, it cost him a three-place grid penalty this weekend in the one track of the season where you cannot be given up positions for the grid on Sunday. Yeah. Look, the radio messages are damning. So they said to him, Verstappen is on a quick lap. Oh no, don't worry about it, he's not. So Lewis just gets on with it and starts accelerating. Realises himself, I think.
then that that was not true as Alex headbutts the microphone in frustration. And then, yeah, it's off the racing line, but it is impeding because Verstappen would have gone, okay, I can go. I can go down that way, Hamilton's slowing down, then Hamilton speeds up. And so you've got to adjust what you're doing. So I'm not complaining about that penalty. Even though I put a tweet out that made it seem like I was, what I'm saying is, if there's mitigating circumstances for Verstappen in Miami,
then there's mitigating circumstances for Hamilton here. So the race report, the stewards report from Miami was like, oh yeah, the wind was blowing the wrong way. His dog wasn't feeling very good. It was something to do with the deltas on his timing was a little bit off. But at the end of the day...
Him and his team put themselves in the way of Lance Stroll into the final hairpin in Miami. Hamilton and his team impeded or put off Verstappen here. If one's a penalty, the other one should be a penalty. That's my only point, really, on that. I know. Yeah, you go, oh, there's different stewards. Yeah, I don't care. If the FIA say, oh yeah, but there was different stewards, yeah, that's a you problem. Like, Spanners doesn't have to deal with that. I'm allowed to be angry.
I have no issue with Lewis's penalty. No issue at all. It is a slam dunk impeding penalty. It doesn't matter whose fault it was. It's a team game. It doesn't matter whose fault it was. It was impeding. You get a penalty. It doesn't matter whether it was Max or whether it was Lando or whether it was Hans. Yeah, like the unsafe release as well in Miami for Verstappen. That wasn't his fault, but he got a penalty. Exactly, right? It's irrelevant.
The communication continued into the race. And did you hear post-race communication where Lewis is asking something? Or lack of it. And then asked if... No, no, no! Did you laugh at me? Did I do something wrong? And there was no answer. Alex, repeat that because I was crying over the top of that. Sorry. I can't believe it. Lewis said something along the lines of, Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Something along the lines of that. And nothing.
Radio silence. And, again, apparently they'd all run away from the pit wall at this point. But again, why? I don't know. I had nothing to say. Oh, I had a podium to do. But anyway, and again, I don't blame Ricky entirely because there is a language. Lewis obviously has a very particular way that he likes to be dealt with in the car by his engineer. That is something that him and Bono had worked on over 12 years. He was at Mercedes and that worked.
genuinely believe the miscommunication and the Just them not being synchronised in their relationship is entirely responsible, not entirely responsible, most largely responsible for Lewis' performances because that connection is really, really important. We're hearing more and more and more of it. And it makes me wonder how many relationships between driver and engineer are actually poor and effective. Yeah, totally agree. It does make you think. And also...
I'm not putting the full blame down to Ricky either. I think a large proportion of it is at his feet. But there's clearly... How often do you hear him say, we'll come back to you? Oh, we are checking, yeah. Ferrari has. somewhere behind the scenes in the data that is correlated and communicated to their drivers. I don't know how that all works.
But clearly something is wrong there and that's been going on for many a year. This isn't something that's new and Lewis Hamilton has just come straight into it and it's been highlighted. so much because he is arguably the most high profile driver driver in f1 but also there's something else across this weekend and I mentioned it to you guys before we started that Lewis Hamilton was on a clear banker lap in Q1 and they brought him in and they actually didn't communicate to him why he is
just used a brand new set of tyres and had to come in. He was only, I think, a tenth and a half behind Charles. would have easily got through. And instead, they sent him out on another set of brand new tyres, which meant that when he got to Q3, he hadn't had one... set of tires brand new tires to use and at monaco that's so so important uh so yeah just a whole really poor weekend from them on the pitwall side my opinion is
that there is a chain of command at Ferrari that has to be gone through before a decision can be made. So I think Bono could go, this is what we're going to do. He'd get a nod and then do it. And I think with here, Ricky's got to go to someone who's got to go to Fred and then Fred's got to come back down. Do you know what I mean? I think that's the reason for it because...
We've heard this about Ferrari before, where they're so tied up in bureaucracy and management schemes and all the kind of stuff in the team that it just slows them down. So we've spoken to enough.
strategists here on and offline the idea i had in my head is you have the pit wall and then whoever's in charge of strategy is kind of generally working with the race engineer and perhaps the performance engineer and then making these calls as they go and someone like Toto or James Allison would only get involved Perhaps if there was a big decision or if it was a conflict between the teammates. And so it would be running itself unless the management wanted to come down.
Now, I would believe you because these structures exist where actually every decision has to go up the chain and down the chain. So they're not... what you would call the ultimate decision maker on the pit wall. And that's a really good observation, Alex, because we never get the impression that Adami can just kind of go, let's go, let's go for it. There was a really, really weird communication where I felt like Hamilton pitted way too early for one of the pit stops. In fact, probably for both.
So he pitted too early when they were probably trying to cover off Hadjar. And it was a shame because Hadjar was only out for six laps trying to get the soft out of the way. But he didn't jump Hadjar. Yeah, but they saw him come out on the softs. Hadjar was always going to go. Those softs, that was the C6. So the C6 was never going to last long, whatever. And Jump Alonzo as well. And they did Jump Alonzo as well. So, yeah.
Okay, that felt like it was a little bit early, but then they went early. So he had free air and they said, okay, this is your race now. Push, push. And I go, okay, but why? And later on he said he didn't know why he was pushing. So they said push, push. And then he came in a lap later.
And so, and that was still early. So I think what was happening there was that was hammer time. So in the olden days, that was hammer time. That's clear. We know what we want you to do. We're pushing for an undercut or we're pushing to defend hammer time. Let's go. Just saying, okay, let's push. This is your race. Okay, but why? What am I doing? And then later on in the race, he just wanted to know how far behind he was. from the top four. Yeah, Alex is creasing and dying now.
And he had to ask it several different ways. Okay, he'd go, right, imagine there's a train leaving Liverpool Street, and I'm the second train. How far behind? How many carriages behind that train am I? And then they finally go, oh. You're 45 seconds behind. It didn't sound like they cared about giving him the information. It was sad. I think I figured it out. Go. Ferrari have one radio. And because...
Leclerc was fighting for a podium. They only wanted to use the radio for Leclerc communication and they occasionally listened to Lewis. Okay, Luke in Miami. grabbed me by the collar while I was walking around, grabbed me, said, like the show. Thanks, guys. We had a picture together. It was a lovely moment. And then he said, I know you're Hamilton fans, but you never talk about Leclerc. We're talking about Ferrari. Leclerc came second.
We spent no time talking about him. But in my defense, in my notes, I've put Leclerc. Didn't put any pressure on. Stayed behind to stay out of the dirty air. Pretty standard race. Leclerc did the job that he was supposed to do. The only thing off the tick list that Leclerc needed to do was pass Lando Norris. I don't, apart from passing Lando, I don't know how Leclerc could have had a better... kind of qualified on pile.
I know I'm being harsh there. That's very harsh. I'm sorry, LeClaire fans. I am a LeClaire supporter. He was really upset not getting that poll. I've never seen someone so miserable being P2. taking my sentences van gene sorry believable completing my sentences uh but yes exactly what alex said just But that's, Leclerc, he knows this is his home track. Like, he grew up around here, and he's just a demon. I mean, turn one should be renamed Leclerc Corner. Is it Sandovant? Like, he is.
so quick through there it's unbelievable and he just that ferrari We always know when we turn up to Monaco that cars that aren't particularly performing at a whole host of traditional circuits can come here and they can perform, which is why we expected Mercedes to do better. I mean, they went well off of it, but their mechanical issues and crash was that. But yeah, Ferrari really turned up this weekend. Even Lewis, I think even Lewis could have got on the second row comfortably.
I don't think he could have. He was a tenth or two behind Leclerc basically all weekend. And then obviously the impeding thing. But he didn't have the pace in the race. It was every single time I looked at the live timings. Generally is all of the time because I basically have a button clicked on Lewis. No, no, me too, me too. Pretty much the entire race. Me too. And every time I looked, it was at least six tenths of a second slower than Max, Lando, Oscar.
I have to get in. Out of that top five, he pitted on lap 16 and then had those tyres all the way to lap 135. There's no deg, Spanners. Lando set the fastest lap of the race on 700-year-old tyres. There's no deg on McLaren because they've got angels just behind them sprinkling ice. on their tyres and cooling them down or whatever it is they found. Hamilton is in the same boat as Verstappen. Verstappen was losing his heart.
And I think Hamilton... Max was still way faster than Lewis. I tried. But I mean, the only saving grace Lewis did have was he did get slowed horrendously through the traffic. And that was a big contributor for the gap. But I was watching him in clean air and I was waiting for the timing screens to light up because that's what I do now in F1 is wait for Lewis to light up timing screens.
Sorry, we diverted away. You spoke about how we don't spoke about LeClaire. Oh, my God. So, I'm going to speak about LeClaire again. Thank you, Scott. Thank you so much. Saved us there. I did think that he would get at least an opportunity. Maybe it was just pure hopium, but I thought he would have.
In those closing stages, he'd be able to get close enough to send it down into the second to last corner. But I was intently watching the intervals and he got up behind Lando's rear wing through the swimming pool section. But the McLaren, as I said all weekend, particularly that chicane, you know, the chicane where Lewis, like, launched himself over in practice.
I don't know what it was. The McLaren just had so much traction out there and Charles just could not get close enough to even have a lunge. And that was the problem for the Ferrari round here in the slow corners. Still, Peter is nothing to slouch out about, but he wanted that win, didn't he, after last year? I was enjoying watching Leclerc's on boards because he really hustled. and it was really awesome to see, especially while he was trying to hunt down Lando while saying Lando was slow.
But listen, we know how the batteries and stuff work on these cars. And, you know, Lando is saving battery, saving battery to launch off of the last corner. Anthony Nogues to make sure that the DRS makes absolutely no... to him and he can make sure he gets into Turn 1 nice and easy. It was great to see Leclerc hustling and I thought he might have had a go into the seafront chicane.
But it was just never going to happen. I don't think he wanted to risk a crash either. So it had to be 100% on move. And it just didn't formulate. But listen, I would love to talk more about Leclerc. He ran a fine race. He was great. He did a great qualifying lap. Could have been a better qualifying lap.
I think that's on the pit wall, though. I think the McLaren pit wall beat the Ferrari pit wall in qualifying. And Alex did send me a message saying, for the love of God, if we have to speak about Leclerc, can we keep it to a couple of minutes? And so, Alex, you're welcome. I think we did do that. Final team I want to talk about is Mercedes, as far as tactics. So we did talk about Russell a little bit, but did we talk about the tactics of the sort of do-nothing approach?
And I used to talk about it when they were dominating. I used to say whenever there was a safety car or a yellow flag or anything, the whole thing was like, you know, do nothing. Let's wait and see. And I'm a massive hypocrite because I've been criticizing. Mercedes for years with Hamilton going, why are they going for the cheeky alternate strategy? Why is Russell going long and hanging out for the safety car?
And then now, when they run a normal strategy at Monaco, I'm like, why didn't they just sit there and do the normal strategy? Why didn't they try something? I don't know if it's correct or not, if he's lying through his teeth, but Toto Wolff said... We genuinely forgot it was a two-stop strategy. Get out. No, you didn't. No, he didn't say no. He's been quoted. I'm not sure if it's tongue-in-cheek. I've only read the quote. It can't be. It can't be.
But he went... I mean, it tracks. It tracks. It was a two-stop strategy. Like, they knew early on, like, he was so downbeat. He was being interviewed by Ted Kravitz, and he was like, There's nothing we could have done. We could have pitted on the first lap. We were never going to score points. Our race was ruined yesterday. As it turned out, they were never going to score points. But if you wanted to give yourself the best chance of scoring points, and you run this a hundred times,
The worst strategy would be just to stay where you are and guarantee no chance. He said as well, he goes, we wanted to implement the same tactics as... Williams or Vcarb. But, I mean, he then said, oh, as the race unfolded, we couldn't do that. But then they didn't even try anything else.
Like, very early on, they realized where their positions were, and it's like they just went 10 laps in. What's that Simpsons quote with Ned Flanders' parents? They're going, we've tried nothing, man, and we're all out of ideas. They didn't even split the damn strategy. Yeah, at least... Thank you. Thank you. At least split it. At least. The bare minimum is we're stuck here. Let's try something with one of the cars. And I'm trying to revolve, at least with you, Keith.
They tried. I know Max was a lot further up, but at least they tried. No, they just wanted Yuki out of the way so they could focus on Max. I do feel like they forgot Yuki was still there. Definitely. I did. How do you put on lap one? And then I think he was one of the last cars. To pit onto... I was quite happy that lots of cars pitted on that one. Because that is such a sim racing strategy to do, which is... We're stuck. Let's just pit.
But the problem is, it's such a short circuit. You then get to a point where you're being lapped. And when you're being lapped, you lose so much time that it just absolutely destroys your race. And weren't some of the cars two laps down or something? Yeah, of course. Yeah, they were. Crazy. Because of the Lawson effect. I think there's just one thing to touch on is that this is the second weekend in a row where they've had...
power unit issues, like Kimmy Antonelli and Imola, in an era where we don't really see mechanical issues anymore, to see two from Mercedes of all people, a manufacturer, I mean, it's a bit worrying. Actually, Alonso as well. His engine went for a FNASA Mercedes engine this year. So that's three engines in two weekends that have gone. Can I... Can I give a Lonzo prop? I don't normally do this. Hang on, do you want to save it for the awards? No, it's not that good.
When his engine died, he knew exactly how to park to not cause a safety car. Well done, Fernando Alonso. The unluckiest man in Formula 1. Oh, don't shut up. He is, isn't he? It's the unluckiest driver. Everyone is starting to pick up on this and then they're rolling with it. When he, oh, whoa, it's me. I'm the unluckiest person in Formula One. Unluckiest rookie in Formula One. Oh, I hate that. Playing on the heart, pulling on the heartstrings. Like his
He is very much like... It's called gaslighting, Scott. He has. No, but he has been unlucky the last two weekends, no matter whether you like him or not, because he got screwed over at the strategy and then this weekend, I mean, he was cruising in P6 or P6 or P7 or whichever it was. Midweek, we said, you know, some drivers play to their camera and they play to the audience. And Alonzo is certainly one of those. And now we will go on to the awards.
and I'll try to not give it to Alonzo for playing to the camera to ruin it. I have quite a few here that we haven't mentioned, so hopefully nobody steals mine. We'll go to Alex Jeansy Van Jean. The only reason he is here tolerating our company is because he has a YouTube video to promote Alex. You did really well in your go-kart race and then you made a video about it.
I did really well in my go-kart races until the final where I completely lost my head and ruined it. Oh no, did it not go well? Presumably we hear about it on your little YouTube video. Well, I assume you've watched them. I've watched it all the way through, but I was building suspense. I've got a couple of videos out at the moment. I got my full race video from my last race weekend at Landau Park.
was really, really good. After having not a great race weekend at Wilbur Mill, I was on the pace. I was top six. So, really, really great weekend. Out of seven. And then I... out of 51 and then i got to have a very good side quest where i got to have a go in a go-kart that has 35 horsepower Wow, that's either a lot or not very much.
It's more than the one that I drove on my 40th birthday. The one that I chickened out of driving and that you crashed and did a tumble. That failed on me and sent me into a barrier at 40 miles an hour. Anyway. And yeah, so that's also really, really cool. So if you want to go see me whooping and hollering in a very, very, very fast go-kart, you can do that.
I am trying to do stuff with my YouTube channel this year. So my aim is to try and earn some money off my YouTube channel this year. And with that money, buy a new helmet. And if you become a member of the channel, you can get your name on my helmet. That's the last one thing. I knew I'd get that in really quickly before Spanners cuts me off. You've gone too far. Spend your money on patreon.com forward slash Missed Apex to support an independent creator that's going somewhere.
Go and check out Alex's videos. He has worked so hard on developing videos that have a start, middle and end, have a good presentation. You've concentrated on it looking good and it's sounding good and you've overcome your talent issues to make something that's vaguely watchable. Thank you. I have worked very, very hard. Thank you to Steve Amy, actually. He's given me a lot of advice and stuff.
Link in the show notes below. Go and follow Alex's YouTube channel. Hang on, what do we start with? Hang on. We start with a negative thing, don't we? So we can end on the positive. So I'll ask. Oh no, you missed the Apex. Who missed the Apex for you? The relationship between Lewis and his engineer. I thought it would get better, but...
I feel like they don't talk to each other before the weekend. And I might be wrong, but that's just the feeling that I get. And I can't help but think that it is. part of the reason there is an issue with his performance because something isn't gelling between those two and they can't work it out. I think Hamilton is used to a different type of relationship and he is lost
as to why he's not getting Bono levels of communication. I think he's used to assertiveness. And also within the team, he's not the main focus right now. He's not the star. He's the number two driver right now until he sorts it out. Scott, stuffy, stuffy, love what you've been doing with your YouTube watchalongs. You've just hit a new record for your Monaco Grand Prix watchalong.
Yeah, it's odd for a brace, but everyone seems to complain about it. Honestly, on YouTube, Monaco, it always gets the biggest figures. People seem to want to know how it's getting on, and for the second year in a row, it's broken my PB. peak viewership so yeah if you want a different f1 experience With alternative commentary, head on over to Stuffy.
Stuffy on YouTube. Link will be in the show notes below. Do it. This guy. Be the one who says, you know, we got on that wave and we liked Stuffy before he became an international F1 superstar. But who is the opposite of that who missed the Apex for you this weekend? He didn't do it just once. But he did it twice. And that is Lance Stroll because he got...
Two impeding penalties. The first on Friday in FP1 where he moved in front of Charles Leclerc. Oh, that's bad, yeah. And broke his rear suspension. Charles broke his front wing, but he broke his rear suspension. And then, in qualifying, He moved back over in the way of Pierre Gasly down into the Nouvelle Chicane and went, oh my god, I thought that was Childs because the sun was in my eyes. I mean, generally it might have been, but yeah, even so.
Similar thing, maybe lack of communication on the radio, but he received... He was so bad in Q1. Sorry. He was so bad in Q1. But his three-place grid penalty didn't mean anything because he qualified 19th and Behrman got a 10-place grid penalty. It was four-place in the end, wasn't it, including the Leclerc one?
Sorry, yeah, he's got four overall, but it meant diddly squat because Behrman got more significant. No one in the history of Formula One has caused more accidents by just not noticing that they're in the way. He's done that so many times in practice. He hit Vettel after the race and you just go, there's something switches off in his brain and he keeps hitting people. I didn't realise until this weekend there are actually still lots of Lance Stroll apologists.
And there was a video of the Leclerc thing in practice, and I commented on it, oh my god, he's done it again, he literally does it all the time, has absolutely no spatial awareness whatsoever. And someone commented, Name me another time that he's done it. Oh my god, there's so many times! Hang on, hang on, hang on. And I forwarded him. a video that I can't promote in here that shows all of last season, and then another video that shows all of them. And the only response I got was,
See, he hasn't done any this season, has he? And then went and did another one in qualifying. I think I know that exact video. There's just details all the time. And I think it extends beyond F1 as well into his junior career too. Oh, it's... Honestly... Yeah, I can't mention him because he's incredibly offensive.
But he's very funny. Before the stroll people get too mad, stroll is actually my thing of the weekend, and I bet... Oh, no, I bet you guys don't know why. You're going to steal it! I was hoping I was going to do... This whole thing where he's my worst thing and then he's my best thing. I won't take it. I won't take it. I've got another thing of the weekend then that I can do instead.
But you owe me money, like £100, something like that. I'll buy you a pint afterwards. Go and follow Scott. So me, my thing, I would ask you to support the show because I'm not selfish, just trying to promote my own YouTube channels, guys. You know, it's more of a team thing. So I would ask you, please tell people that Mist Apex is a fun place to hang out. I know we're not like the deepest journalistic analysis. I know we're not. The biggest wild hawk takes what we aim for.
is a steady community, a rotating panel. So it's a place where you can sit down. Be comfortable. Everyone's included. And everyone has the right to be wrong. Look at Vanjean. Incorrect take after incorrect take. But he can still come on here and be part of the crew. It only means when I talk about Perez. That time is over.
For now. Is it? Is it? By the way, how much grief did I get for saying that he was going to be back for the Mexican Grand Prix? And if you look at their news cycle, it is starting to build up. We won't address that here, but I think Paris will be back. by the Mexican Grand Prix this season. But please,
Just tell two people in your lives that are F1 fans, check out Mistake X podcast. That is the biggest weapon we have. We've had a massive uptake on Patreon in the last couple of weeks, you know, to the point where, you know, instead of just crying late at night, I've gone... like people are supporting what we're doing and I think
People believe in what we're doing and they want to be part of what we're doing. So patreon.com forward slash Miss Apex. Join us in our patron only live chat. You'll have an ad free feed and also be the first to know about any events that are coming up. and just get a warm, fluffy feeling that you're supporting independent creator. My Missed the Apex Award is going to go to Bortoleto.
Just a little bit of an experience and hanging on in around the outside of Portier. I've never seen someone survive. Should that be a whose fault is it? Oh, sorry. Yeah, of course. Whose fault is it? I think it's an interesting racing manoeuvre, so obviously I'm putting that on Bortoletta, because I think the second someone's up your inner side at Portier, there's no way you're going to make it out. Didn't we see a similar thing between Gasly and Ocon?
And you just kind of go, the more you want to... And a similar thing between me and Alexander Dobitsberg on Friday. And didn't Button as well end up hitting... No, Alex, stop trying to... In fact, if you go and check out Mistake X Motorsport, you can see Alex basically punting someone out of P3, I think, at the end of the race. Just a little bit of a pun. I gave Scott lots to shout about.
He did. Also talking about inexperience, it's not just him backing out of that, it's the fact that he made a brilliant overtake around Mirabar. I think we saw... Three. Two of them were Bortoletto and... Spoilers for the Apex. No, no, no. And Antonelli in this same sequence because Antonelli regained the position.
He should have covered off that inside line because Anthony's not going to drive around the outside. That's why I think it's a good miss the apex. A bit of an experience all round, but that was good to watch between the two rookies. Yeah, should have backed up. Good. And then we get to end on the positive thing. Okay, so, Scott, who hit the apex for you? Oh, I stole one. Lance Stroll! Yes!
Do not adjust your volume or your headphones. Yeah, that is what I said is correct. Because while he had a shocker in impeding, he made probably... One of the best overtakes of the season. It was one of three. He drove around the outside in the closing stages around Hulkenberg. through the Neville Shekin, and
Funny enough, it hasn't appeared on any of the highlights videos that I've seen from Sky Sports, Formula One. I found it through Twitter. Someone snapped a screenshot, so I haven't seen any other angle that he's on board. Honestly, it's a great overtake. I'll link it in the Patreon Discord now so people can see. And what were the other two? Does the Antonelli on Bortoletto count as an on-track overtake?
Yeah, so literally that sequence, Bortoletto overtaking Antonelli, and then Antonelli would go again. I actually think that was a great move from Antonelli. And actually really good from Bortoletto into the hairpin and then through there. So that was actually a really great sequence. And it's a shame that Bortoletto just drove... It's such a shame that we just don't get overtakes through that sequence. So recently I rewatched 1996 with Panis.
And that race where only five cars were classified finished. And people were properly sending it into that hairpin. Through Portier, that was like a legitimate overtaking opportunity. I know why. because the problem we've got now is the braking is too good in Formula 1 cars, so the braking zones are much shorter, especially that race was wet, so you've got much longer braking zones, which means you can send out the inside.
I have a substitute thing of the weekend. And, well, it would have come up earlier if Matt wasn't in Italy. But Esteban Ocon qualifying in eighth and then taking advantage of Alonso. I mean, nothing really happened, but... Still, a P7 at Monaco is a great result considering how well Alpine have been doing. So, Alex. Who hit the apex for you? Mine is Pirelli. So they normally before the weekend put out a thing that tells you the strategies, the potential strategies for the weekend.
They didn't even try this week. No, I know. They literally put up a thing saying, possible race strategies, three different sets of tyres to use in Monaco Grand Prix, with all compounds in play, anything can happen. Brilliant. But they were wrong, though, because you couldn't go lap one, lap two. I don't think that would have worked. They didn't say any laps. There's no laps mentioned on here. That is just all it said on that entire thing. It's brilliant. Made me laugh lots and lots and lots.
Yeah, I was expecting them to put something silly up, like 10 different varying strategies. I think that would have been fun as well. Can I just end on a note? I think Lando Norris, just to keep this championship... Still alive. We're eight race weekends in now. Head to Barcelona next week with the new technical directive. He's answered a lot of critics, I think, this weekend. He's three points behind Piastri now, and it's game on.
Excellent. Thank you. It really is. And Spain will be a really interesting race. We've got this rule change that I don't know much about, but there's a rule change coming. So it's going to be very interesting if it has any effect. Yeah, right. We're going to do a preview show in the week. Calm down. Didn't ask for your life story, Alec. If you want Alex's life story, it comes across in his karting videos.
So go and click the link. At Alex Van Gin Racing. Yeah, yeah, they'll click the link. No one's going to sit there and type in Alex Van... Yeah, get your phone out now. Go to YouTube. They're not. They're going to go to their app and scroll down or left or right or whatever and click.
the link that's what we do here go and follow stuffy who's got an actual youtube career going at the moment and follow me on instagram please check out the stuff i've put on instagram and tell your friends about miss apex podcast we're going to see you midweek for a news roundup and a Barcelona Grand Prix race review. Until we see you next, work hard, be kind, and have fun. This was Missed Apex. Classy, Mr. Apex. And thanks for dropping by. 60% of the time we get up for Every time.
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