¶ Welcome, Ads, F1 Primer
This episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels and music are made for each other. They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless, while being a part of legendary nights, from backyard jams to sold-out arenas. There's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org. Jack Daniels and Old No. 7 are registered trademarks. Tennessee Whiskey. 40% alcohol by volume. Jack Daniel Distillery. Lynchburg, Tennessee. Coca-Cola. For the big.
For the small, the short, and the tall. Peacemakers. Risk takers. For the optimists. Pessimists. For long distance love. For introverts. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola. For everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you. and welcome to shift f1 a podcast about speed race cars that by the way is arabic for with dissection of the soul meaning that uh something that was done with great difficulty
After a fair amount of soul dissection over this season, we finally have our driver's champion. Soul only partly damaged. Still good, like new. I'm Drew Scanlon, joining me, Danny O'Dwyer. How are you, Danny? I'm doing good. I'm broadcasting live from a room in my parents' house. It is very windy outside. There's a storm. They probably named it. I hope they gave it a cool name. What would you name a storm? Storm Max.
Storm Sonoda, perhaps? Ooh. That's also Rob Zachney over there. How are you, Rob? Tsunodami. Is that anything? No, probably not. Might be a little bit, you know. Also, I hope no tsunamis hit Ireland. That would be... Although it would be very impressed because it's kind of rocky and sticking out of the ocean quite a bit. So a tsunami just hammering it, that'd be an impressive tsunami. There was one in the late 19th century. I believe it was off the northern coast of...
Portugal, that did hit some Ireland, and I think it killed some fishermen or something. Yeah, so there you go. It happened. On a long enough timeline, none of us are safe from tsunamis. Tsunamis come for us all. Except maybe the Swiss. you know? That's true. That's true. Landlocked nation. Yep.
Well, if you are new to this podcast, a very warm welcome to you. And if you are new to Formula One itself, well, this is an interesting time to join. We were talking about the last race of the season. The season has concluded. But if you want to go back and listen to... An entire season of F1.
You can go start with our preseason primer episode, which assumes no prior F1 knowledge and explains how the sport works and who everybody is. So if you'd like to go back and listen to that, it's episode 298. But we will be doing a preseason primer ahead, of course, of the 2026 season. Yeah. That's going to be interesting because we're not going to have a clue. Oh, yeah. A lot will be changing. Yeah.
will be fascinating to see. That'll be probably, I don't know, late February, early March? Right, yeah. Well, we'll set up that Patreon goodies coming.
¶ Patreon, Movies, Patron Shout-Outs
That is true. This show would not be possible without our audience over at patreon.com slash shift F1, where every month we release ad-free versions of the podcast early, along with bonus podcasts and videos that are exclusive to our patrons.
They cover racing documentaries and films, F1 video games, experiments with other racing series, and a lot of weird things. So if you would like to support the show and get access to all that fun stuff, head over to patreon.com slash shift F1 or click the link in the show notes. What do we have going on this month, Danny? Dear Lord, do I even know what we're doing this summer? This is our good friend Zach in Savage, Minnesota, the most savage of towns up there.
Suggested a movie to us. We got a bunch of suggestions for some Christmas fair, perhaps. And we've chosen one. Best of a bad bunch. Maybe worst of a bad bunch, I guess. It's called Journey Back to Christmas. And apparently it is about a World War II nurse who somehow, in the midst of battle, I assume, is transported. back to 2016. Look, that was happening a lot. Time warps in World War II. You got the final countdown. All that weird Nazi...
you know, technology from the Wolfenstein games was being utilized, sending people, zombifying people. I've read books. I'm sure they touch on that in this film. I hope so. You know, we do have to, you know, shout outs to Outlander, where the faith decided that with the fate of the world at stake in World War II, it would be really cool if a lady went back in time and got laid right.
I was surprised to be the entire premise of that show. Forward in time. Yeah, back and then forward. It's all over the map. Outlander's going all the places. Could you imagine being transported 50 years in the future? Just think of all the new positions. that people have come up with, you know? Just ways of lovemaking that are beyond our...
our simpleton minds. See, I think you're being horrifically optimistic, my friend. 50 years from now, it's going to be like... Are we peaking? So you just go on the apps? It's going to be like the Demolition Man sex scene. Exactly. It's going to be like, oh man, this is dismay. What do I do with shells? Should I fuck this shell? Who knows? Journey back to Christmas coming soon. We'll have it ready for you for Christmas, presumably. And you can journey back with us to...
a time when movies were still bad. You can also go back and watch The Love Bug, which we did last month. Herbie. Which was not bad. It was not bad. What was the most recent bad movie? Oh, Tork in September. Nope. Not bad. Honestly, if you asked me to write two sentences about what twerk is, I would struggle. I cannot. It is completely exited. Was that the bike's fast hilarious one? Okay, I do remember. It has the bike equivalent of the bully brawl at the end. 1969 is the Italian job.
Okay, that movie sucks. I like that one. We did that one in January. It's just four hours long and they keep singing. Those are the things I was expecting. Self-Preservation Society. Chorus 12 times. We should do like a 12 Days of Christmas with these movies. That's what people should do. If you've not listened to these, go back and give yourself 12 Days of Christmas. We're acting like we've seen a bunch of shitty movies lately, but actually we've been on a run of surprisingly good ones.
Like starting with Earnhardt where you're like, oh, wait, I thought a boilerplate sports documentary. That's what we were in for. And like my life has been changed. Yeah, that was great. And then we were like, there's no way Herbie Lovebug's going to be good. Banger. Redline. I'm still thinking about Redline. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. You know, this time of year.
We need to remember who it's all about, the original Funky Boy. Oh, my Lord. Yeah, okay, sorry. We're not padding because there's not much to talk about, I swear. I mean, a championship, presumably, was won. We got stuff. We got stuff. We got stuff. We got some news. We got some news. We've also got some incredible title sponsors, quite a few of Hume.
if that's how you speak. I'm in Ireland, so I don't know how to speak English anymore. Top of the morning to you. Changed their names this week. And some, we have some new people too. So welcome to Let's Margo Racing. Eaching Wells. Dr. V. Don't hire this Horner dot com. Papaya rules, question mark. So I guess papaya rules. Madden Harmony. Deenj. It's a me, Ferrario. Petro States. Mojo Nixon.
Get Rich, Odai Ryan, Agave ATX, Cyphus Training, Turf SES, Michael Maves, Xenomorphin Sun Sprinkler Solutions. That's like a joke within a joke within a joke. Because we had... We had Eccleston-Yutani. Oh, right. Oh, shit. Okay, now I get it. Yeah, so now we're just like one layer deeper in the Ridley Scott verse for this one. Cigarettes, you know, Telemetry Deck, Racing Team, FTC, Tracy Syntax, Drew Stewart, Helmut Marko's Driving Insurance, Bailey Foote, High Speed Low Drag, Abraham Getchel.
Bunny Jerk, Snigs, HireThisWalker.com, Alex Couchet, Max Faltar Keyboards, Jeff Foster, Troy Starmer, William Romph, Lachlan the Maddened Man, Samurai Love Story, and as ever. Our stalwart right on the front of the bumper, Jason Kelly. Thank you all so much for supporting us each and every month and most of this year. I feel like the vast majority of these people have been with us since.
the start of this season and probably the last one. I feel like you really need to buy Bailey Foote a drink sometime. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's some people here who I know. I say their names probably more than they do, honestly. Yeah. And I definitely dream their names more. I always raise a glass of Bailey's this time of year. Oh, that's a great idea. I should whip my foot. That should be. There you go. Yep. Post those things. Drink Bailey's.
with my foot. That's probably a kink, right? Yeah. If not, it could be.
¶ Irish Shenanigans and Horner Redirect
It is. Especially with the color of Baileys. It's very suggestive for multiple liquids. You got some time while you're hanging out in Ireland. You could really degrade yourself before you come back. Just see if there's traction in it. worst case scenario it stays on the island you know what i mean what happens in ireland stays in ireland honestly i i just i just heard about like last week this like story that's been going on in ireland for the past like multiple years where a
like prized hurling player called DJ Carey, who was like the biggest hurler for actually. As in the county? The county is Kilkenny. Okay. He plays with Kikadi, who are our biggest rivals. I'm from Waterford. We hate Kikadi. And he was basically there like Michael Jordan. He was like this amazing...
guy, player. And apparently over the past couple of years, he's in prison now because he pretended he had an illness and was asking people for money. And in one of the things, people were telling me this and I was like, you're making this up. Because I would have heard about this. As himself? Or he was scamming outside of being a hurler? So he's retired. but he was he but he was like rob there is a picture of this man with an iphone cable up his nose pretending he's in hospital
Okay, well, first of all, someone needs to be optioning the film rights right now. Are you kidding me? This is a movie. You're the Michael Jordan of a hyper-regional sport. and you just decide you can pull this off this is like a lonely island movie or like whoever did cocaine bear like those are the people that need to do this yeah absolutely yeah so so i you know If you do something, that's the limit of bad behavior.
and degrading yourself that you can do on this island that it doesn't break containment. That's incredible. I could get up to some shenanigans over here, and you'd never find out. Speaking of shenanigans, I did go to donthirethishorner.com. It redirects to Shift F1's website. Oh, thank you. It's going to be really awkward when we announce the fourth chair next year.
He'd be so good on a podcast, though, is the thing. Like, he would be, like, you know, you have to hand it to him. He had bars. An orange. Oh, yes. I think he'd be a very... effective politician. Yeah, better bars with his words, fewer bars on his phone, please.
¶ Abu Dhabi Qualifying Analysis
History would have been so different if only that had been the case. People are losing their minds right now listening to us not talk about the title. Let's get to it. The grid, everyone. I think it was nine or maybe ten times that in the last ten races that had been won from pole position at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi. This time, Max Verstappen will sit atop the pole. Behind him, Lando Norris, championship leader. He had two fastest laps. I think he was five tenths up on Lando.
near the end as well perhaps but he beat his own fastest lap but didn't Lando never got near him like like Verstappen's pace was just blistering two tenths was fine it was two in the end okay difference yeah but yeah max had it was purple sectors all the time Oscar Piastri lines up third. He will start on the hard tire. So McLaren already up to strategy shenanigans. Yes. Splitting their strategy there. Probably to stop Verstappen being able to control them.
that early because he's not going to back them up if oscar's on a different tire then he can just wear that he can weather that and and come at him again so i think yeah it was as much that for the first part of the race as anything else shenanigans danny is that irish
I think so. I think so. Super Troopers would make me... I think the Irish bar in that town is called Shenanigans. Isn't that how they get to say it again? Yeah. Got it. Super Troopers wouldn't be wrong. They're Canadians. Come on. You boys like Mexico? George Russell is fourth, just wringing the neck of his car, nearly losing it in both of his fast laps in Q3. Really fun onboard shots there. That one under the hotel was insane. He had to turn the wheel towards the wall.
to get the grip back. That feels like this era of F1, the amount of having those snap rally abilities is so crude. Because when I watched the sport, it was all about like... as smooth as you could be i don't remember seeing dudes do nearly as much uh like torque steering counter steering as you do now but like it is a mandatory skill uh with how you have to abuse these things around the track
Yeah, I mean maybe it's a it's a factor of the ground effect cars because you're so dependent on that You know the air currents sucking me down to the track when you lose it. It's suddenly very gone Charles Leclerc lines up fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso in sixth. Gabriel Bortoleto gets a Sauber up to seventh. Estevano Ocon will start in his Haas in eighth. Then we've got Isaac Hadjar in the Racing Bulls in ninth. And Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull.
His final race. With Red Bull. With Red Bull. For now. In Q3, it was able to give Verstappen a toe. It seemed like that's really what he was there to do. I think he got into Q3 from like five thousandths of a second or something. He barely got in. Yeah. And it was really important that he did. Right. For staffing. Oliver Behrman will line up 11th ahead of Carlos Sainz in 12th. Liam Lawson in 13th. Kimmy Antonelli in 14th.
He hit Sonota in the pit lane in free practice three, but escaped a penalty. Mercedes was merely fined. 10,000 euros. Lance Stroll will line up. 15th, Austin Martin also caught a fine for 20,000 euros after Stroll and Alonzo failed to attend a fan session. Oh, that's hilarious. Wow. I feel like it conspired. Like, hey, do you really want to do this? No. I'll bitch off school if you do. Yeah, we both can't get in trouble. Also, I love the complete, like, you know...
I'm sure they were just like agreeing that, yeah, fans will be as disappointed that I don't turn up as you, Fernando, you know? That's right, yeah. People clamoring for Lance Troll's autograph. Lance has actually taken it off for the past 23 races. It was only when Fernando did two that they noticed.
Lining up 16th is Lewis Hamilton. He crashed in free practice three after a spin. I think it turned nine Nosed into the barriers. So his car had to be repaired ahead of qualifying Hamilton always good about picking up Helping to pick up the pieces, he put his front wing kind of in his cockpit so it would be easier to transport. His third consecutive Q1 elimination. He was despondent.
Afterwards, in this quote from Race Fans, he says, I don't have the words to describe the feeling I have inside. There's an unbearable amount of anger and rage. Not really much I can say about it. You know, Ferrari did back off their 2025 development. earlier than the other front runners. But Leclerc is still up there. But as they point... You cannot... take out of this how tight the field is. Like, Juan Pablo Montoya was doing commentary for F1 TV this weekend. Like, literally...
How often in F1 has it been the case that the entire field is covered by a second and change, but down to 15th, it's within a second? so like you know we're not in the days anymore where Williams is showing up reliably taking the two, you know, their 19th and 20th. And then Haas maybe is, you know, 17th and 18th. It used to be like every race there were four cars pretty much that you guarantee were going to be...
You just didn't need to follow him the last one. They're just margins that don't exist anymore. And so they showed Hamilton's lap that he bobbled a corner exit. really subtly. Like I had watched twice to see what his actual mistake was, but that was the difference. And so I do think like Hamilton is... in a super bleak place. And it has not been, this has not been a fun season to, to follow. And as you pointed out, Drew, this had all the hallmarks of like a sacrifice season for Ferrari, which I,
kind of suspect he knew going in the door was going to be the case. It's just hard to live with it. But I do think I would be a little more inclined to be like, is Lewis washed? If the margins were wider and he just wasn't getting, like just wasn't getting there. Yeah. But they're super tight. And like the difference between these Q1 exits and getting to like.
Q3 is really just a couple tenths. Yeah, I'm with you. I don't feel like I'm... Alarm bells are not ringing for me. I am, though, anxious to see whether the 2026 car... suits Hamilton better than these crowd effects. I do worry that he got too close to Russell Wilson when, because he's part owner of the Broncos, and Russell Wilson came to the Broncos and was like, you know...
Broncos country, let's ride. And I'm worried. Mr. Unlimited. I'm worried. Yeah. I'm worried that the losers think maybe got on Lewis a little bit. That is the. Although Wilson's having a. Oh, no, he's not. Sorry. No, he's not. No, he's not. He's not. Unlimited. 17th is Alex Albon. 18th is Nico Hulkenberg. 19th, Pierre Gasly. And 20th, Franco Colapinto.
¶ Race Start and Norris's Overtakes
Danny, do you want to take us through the start of the final race of the season, the championship decider in Abu Dhabi? Sure. I mean, the first turn that everyone was talking about for the whole week, especially his last year. Lando and Max did have it coming together, and that would have definitely been a fun time for one Oscar Piastri.
The lights went out. Max had a decent start initially, but then got bogged down a little bit in the second phase. You could tell when they were lining up that Verstappen was pointing his nose to the left and Norris was pointing his nose to the right. But Max pretty quickly actually shut the door on Lando once he got a nose ahead of him. That forced Nars to slow down a little bit. And honestly, Piastri...
was pretty defensive too. The three of them had gotten a good jump on the folks behind them because Russell had an awful start and got gobbled up by two cars immediately. So because of that, the three of them were not really under pressure from anyone from behind. And they sort of went through fairly, you know, carefully, I would say. By the time they got down to sector two, Verstappen had already seemingly gotten half a second ahead of the other two.
And yeah, away they were. No massive incidents, at least in that first turn. There was an F2, but not an F1. The question for me is just, was there choreography with Norris and Piastri? As Piatri goes around the outside of Norris in the next corner complex. I'm not sure there's choreography. I don't think so. Do you think the split strategy implied an awful lot about how they saw this race going?
But I do think Norris comes into this very much in the, I'm here to close. You know, you didn't fight. Max that hard down to the first corner and then Piastri made it clear that again Piastri has to win basically to have the championship hopes and I think Norris was throughout all this being like Do not get into this with these guys who have way less to lose than you do. And so I think Norris is just not going to fight his teammate at this moment. And Piastri is also...
kind of, his strategy aligns with what the team wants to do. Yeah, I can see how the thing that... rustles me a little bit with that is that Fiastri did seem to have like weird amount of pace on the hards and Norris didn't to the point where he was getting gobbled up. in the early laps by Leclerc. But you're right in that if they have a strategy where Piastri is there to guarantee a podium for Lando, it makes more sense for him to be in front of Lando. Because if he's...
Behind him, he only has one opportunity to defend the people against him. Whereas if he's in front, he's able to slow down a car who might be in third and also ultimately hand over the position if needs be. But it just seemed like Piastri had way more pace in that first... He did, but I also don't know to what degree is Norris playing the part of Alain Prost with his entire race. Because you're right. I was like, oh, shit. He's got real problems here with Leclerc. Like as DRS opens.
second lap Verstappen's already out of it. Leclerc is hovering around DRS range of Norris for this entire first stage of the race, it feels like. But never actually that close to jeopardizing Norris, which makes me think that Norris is doing the, I'm going to drive exactly as quickly as I need to. And also, there's a lot of upshot to keeping people in your dirty air.
but not a threat. And so I do wonder if there was a bit of the best way to take McClare out of this fight is to just keep giving him those tastes of like a chance of hope. And then keep shutting the door. Yeah, like have him ruin his tires faster than you are ruining yours. Yeah, as you mentioned, Danny Russell did get that terrible start, which has allowed Leclerc to...
to then come after Norris. And it's also Alonso who gets by Russell. So Alonso behind Leclerc. I do have a quote here from the-race.com from Andrea Stella. He says, in regard to the Piastri Pass of Norris, we did discuss that we obviously wanted to have absolutely clean racing in the first lap. We also discussed that with Oscar on the hard tire.
kind of letting or not making life difficult for Oscar to take the second place and then try to attack Verstappen. That was a strategic option that Lando supported, so it was good and fair overtaking by Oscar. So not exactly like... choreograph like this is what we're going to do but Lando I think to your point Rob did not fight it because that was it was opportune for the team it was also a good overtake like it was also yeah yeah
that corner complex in f2 as well there was absolutely loads of attempts around there it's biastry made it look a lot easier than it is i think yeah um He found some grip on the outside of that turn early on. On cold, hard tires. Yeah, exactly. Heavy car. It was a really good overtake. Lap four, Russell has caught back up to Alonso and gets by with the aid of DRS down the inside of turn six. for fifth place. Further ahead, Leclerc, still looking pretty fast, closes up to Norris with DRS.
Challenges him around the outside of turn nine like Piastri did, but can't quite make the move stick. I think you're right, Rob. Norris is staying a little too far ahead. But, you know, I didn't expect Norris to be this fast. You know, the Ferraris did not look that great in qualifying. And now come race day. Leclerc? I'm sorry, Leclerc. Yeah. Hamilton also doing some passing, getting by three cars on the opening two laps after starting on the soft tires.
Lap 17 Norris is the first of the top three to pit compelled to do so to protect against an undercut from undercut from Russell who pitted two laps earlier. Leclerc follows Norris in, and with two good pit stops, they exit in the same order. They'll both come out ahead of Russell. They're now behind the DRS train of Lawson, Stroll, Sainz, and Antonelli.
Yeah. And so Norris is going to have to work for this. Otherwise, he's going to lose a lot of time and potentially, you know, with LeClaire right behind him. And who knows how the rest of the pit stops are going to shake out, whether we're going to do two stops, how that's going to...
work out. It only takes a lap, though, before Norris attacks. He dives up the inside of Antonelli at turn five, and then by Albon with DRS ahead of turn nine on the same lap. It might have been Sainz. Are you sure it was Albon? Oh, you're right. It is. It is. Science. Yeah. Yeah. And that was the end of Science of Stint. So like he wasn't going to fight it. And, you know, God, he would never hurt his boys. Oh, of course not.
Yeah. Yeah. Carlando has to has to write again, shake and bake. So, yeah. So signs like lets him by and he goes streaking past. I started a little nervous because that leaves. Stroll and Lawson up ahead and... you know, to what degree is Racing Bulls going to be playing the team game and we are just going to become moving chicanes for Norris? Because think of that stage of the race. That's your real fear. Like, if... They can plausibly, you know...
Just cause a little incident. That is the only way, that is the best way for them to deliver a championship to Max. I'm not saying they'd be necessarily that unsporting, but Lawson already has, if they're like Liam. defend hard yeah we know historically that dude has left bits and pieces of race car uh around the track his and others yes yeah um so
Worth pointing out that none of the DRS train folks have pitted yet, so they're all kind of older tires. So one lap later, Norris gets DRS again and gets by Stroll and Lawson. In the same move down into turn six, Lawson does fight back around the outside of turn nine, but can't get the place back. I loved seeing this. Norris doing what he had to do and doing so efficiently. Yeah.
¶ Tsunoda Controversy and Norris Wins
I think it really showed his skill and it made me feel like he was earning it. Yes, I loved it because it was some overtaking and this race did not have very much of that. No, this is probably the most action-packed part of the race, which is him needing to carve through this field really quickly. I don't think... It's weird. Similar stakes, similar dynamic to guitar. Qatar made me never want to watch racing again. This, I'm like, yeah, yeah. What's going to happen next?
Oddly enough, Leclerc basically overtook Stroll and lost it in the next lap with similar double move, really sort of highlighting... How evenly matched the cars in the DRS train are and how categorically behind the front runners they are in terms of those like, you know, straight line speed and attack into the corners. But that left Norris closing on Sunoda.
who is... Well, that's interesting. My take on it was he doesn't have a whole lot of incentive at this point. They benched him. Well, he's going to be a reserve driver next year, so he doesn't want to... He's still going to be part of their thing. Right. And, you know, who knows? Maybe they'll discover like Hajar also sucks in this car. Maybe Hajar gets hit by a wrench going back to his dressing room or something. Oh, so like Yuki Harding, basically.
is what happens here. So I actually wasn't sure how hard Yuki was going to fight this actually. Well, it got my answer. Wow. So they show this on the broadcast with a... shot from Yuki's rear wing. And I'm like, man, they're like, it really kind of looks like they're oscillating a lot as they go down the straight.
And it's like, no, the reason it looks like Land is oscillating wildly is because, of course, the plane of reference is Yuki's rear wing. He's weaving down the straight, complete, like... public lobby uh like behavior and then runs lando off the track and lando says fuck it and floors it over the uh over the rumble strip
through the marbles and overtakes him off track. And then it's gone because he's much, much faster than Yuki. He's way outside tire life. Like he has no pace left in that car, really, which injected a lot of suspense. Because he had passed with all four wheels clearly off the track. But also, Yuki was through the gray area.
and into the black area yes exactly metaphorically and probably on the track too yeah um yeah it was it was that that's that is the story of this race is that like you know when you look back and you know in hindsight not all that much happened but the theater of the mind provided all of these you know possible roadblocks and possible situations and scenarios that could you know lead to
you know the entire championship being flipped on its head and of course we all have michael massey ptsd as well yes this race so like and a legacy of like the rules being interpreted in such a way that tends to work out really well for Max. Right. And so it is, at that moment, the real fear, it is plain to everyone, what Yuki is doing, you can't do.
And that's that predates even this era of rules like weaving down the straight like that going back to actually used to be even more frowned on because it was so lethal back in like the 60s and 70s to. to play games like that. It was, it was considered really shitty behavior. So like that, that part is clear cut.
But sometimes F1 takes a real like two wrongs don't make a right approach with, but you can never pass all four wheels off the track. And I'm sitting there being like, if they do him for this. If they give him a 5 or 10 second penalty, and they've tended to give 10 for these because that, you know, 5 is such a marginal penalty.
that could be it. They could be really weighing in here and sort of, again, putting their thumb on the scale really hard. And also, sometimes the way these rules are interpreted means that... you're actually incentivized to drive really over the edge as a defending driver because... heads you win tails they lose right like either they back off and then there's no incident generated at all for the stewards to review because they evade the accident or they force the issue
and breach their own sporting, breach the sporting regulations, and then they get penalized. So there was a lot of nervousness about, and I'm really curious, like... It's sort of like you can't pretend the Supreme Court is not a political body. They are highly sensitive to how they're portrayed and perceived. I wonder to what degree you have stewards sitting there being like, we can't.
We can't. I don't want to be Michael Massey, too. Yeah. Yeah, I was a little bit concerned about that, too. Interestingly, Lando was not told by his engineers that he was under investigation. Did you hear Lando speak once during this race? I feel like I heard him getting updates, but I feel like he never heard his voice on the radio. Yeah, not too much. I think they asked him for a strategy thing, and he was like, yeah, whatever. But who knows? Maybe they just surfaced him up.
Either way, the stewards eventually hand Tsuno to the five seconds and take no further action on Norris. Yuki comes in, lap 33. Just one more thing on that. I think it was a really dirty move by Yuki. I was actually quite surprised. But also I think he just did a really bad job doing the job of trying to slow down Lando.
He was sort of slowing down a little bit for the previous half a lap that he had him behind him at like sector three and on the previous lap. I don't know why he just didn't slow down and then like, you know, if he's going to get a... a sporting penalty for us like make him sit behind you the whole way through the hotel and like cut a second off of him
Like, why try and defend on the straight? Like, it just didn't... I don't know. It just didn't seem to... You know, when you compare that to what Perez did last year, like, I just don't think... He did a very effective job at it. And in the end, he did like a really... Made himself look bad. He made himself look bad. Especially not even for his own sake. It looked like you're basically... you know, Max's little goon in that case. And yeah, you don't even do the job. I do think like...
The problem is he's dead to rights on that straight. There's very little he can do. I also think it is easy to look like a jerk in these situations because... You look and you think you're cutting off. You think you've taken an angle to cut off the straight before the corner entry. And then you realize you haven't.
been dramatic enough and then you try to correct and that's the second move where you look it looks like you're trying to like cause an accident but it can't just be you misjudged it and you look stupid but yeah I don't think it was a you know Brundle was also saying like actually pretty disappointed to see Yuki doing something like this. There's a universe in which Yuki took out Lando and Iris and everyone in the world hates him.
You know what I mean? Well, except for max fans, maybe. But like, I really like Yuki Tsunoda. And if that had happened, I would have been. Oh, and if you're McLaren, you'd be like, I need to know every radio communication. Actually, this is not a sporting thing where we're going to get into what was said behind closed doors. Also a little disappointed, Albin racking up another pit lane speed violation. The mandate of heaven. It's fallen from him.
Things are bad with him. Let's get back to the Rays in just a minute. We are going to step... away for an ad break, but we'll be back with the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This episode is brought to you by eBay. Buying parts for your car? You'll know that. Will it work? Feeling.
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There's a reason Chevy trucks are known for their dependability. Because they show up no matter the weather, push forward no matter the terrain, and deliver. That's why Chevrolet has earned more dependability awards for trucks than any other brand in 2025 according to J.D. Power. Because in every Chevy truck, like every Chevy driver, dependability comes...
standard. Visit chevy.com to learn more. Chevrolet received the highest total number of awards among all the trucks in the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study. Awards based on 2022 models. Newer models may be shown. Visit jdpower.com slash awards for more details. Chevrolet. Together, let's drive. All right. Lap 24. Verstappen makes his pit stop, having gone long on medium tires. Lap 41 is my next note.
Norris making another stop, his second, this time compelled by Leclerc, who is still making things difficult for him. And maybe he won't catch him, but he is able to force... their hand at things like this pit stops for reasons of undercut. At the same time, Verstappen has caught up to Piastri, who has yet to pit on from his hard tires that he started with. And Verstappen gets by with DRS down the inside of turn six to retake the lead.
Piastri then pits a lap later and puts on mediums. And with that, we are back to Verstappen in first, Piastri second, and Norris in third. Piastri trying to chase down Verstappen on his new tires, but it is a tall order. 23 seconds in 14 laps. We do get some excitement in lab 52 elsewhere in the field with Hamilton getting by Okon into turn six, but only briefly as Okon zooms past in the next DRS straight to retake the position. Hamilton tries to attack in the next corner.
but has to correct a big slide. He now sits in eighth, having started from 16th, but I imagine somewhat cold comfort for him this final race of the season. And that's the race. Verstappen wins. Piastri second, having closed about half the distance. Norris third, securing his first driver's championship. He hugs his parents.
Gets handshakes all around and hugs from Verstappen, Piastri, Russell, signs, kisses his girlfriend, seems happy and relieved. And so am I. I'm glad that we did not come down to something stupid. Uh, yeah, still feeling the after effects of 2021, but congrats to Norris. Uh, yeah, thoughts. Enjoy the congratulatory head pat from, uh, Ben Sullyman.
¶ Post-Race Reactions and Yuki's Future
He did. His hand coming out from below the frame into the cool-down room to tousle Lando's hair. Good boy. And Max looked fucking shocked. Like, just the expression. You know the what the fuck Veep meme? laughing nervously, what the fuck? That is Max. The only meme I know is the Kermit the Frog one. Did you see Carlos Sainz talking about that last week?
No. It's great. In an interview, they asked him about how Hamilton's having a hard time at Ferrari, and does he have any comment on that? And he said, it's none of my business. And then he said, I'm like the frog with the T. Do you know that one? He's asking like Ted Kravitz and Ted doesn't know. And he's like, yeah, I'm like the frog with the T. It's none of my business. So the subtext there being like, he's sort of enjoying seeing that happen. Yeah.
That's the Hamilton film. I was, yeah, I think I was relieved. I was really happy for Lando. I didn't, like, if Max had won, it would have been his greatest F1. It might still have been, honestly. But there's no getting around the fact that that double DNF or DQ was the thing that made this a real competition down to the end. So I was sad for Piastri having lost it, but he lost it a while ago. And I don't know. The driver in front is the one.
who's got one hand on the trophy and it's always terrible when they get it taken away unless it's maybe by an underdog or someone else and you know lando's had they were showing montages of his career and they showed that the uh the very infamous
crash in Russia under rain. Remember when we were like, and now you look at him and like, he really has developed as a driver and knuckled down and, um, ultimately the hardest test of any f1 driver is is being in the the heat of a championship battle right until the end and he was able to keep us cool and you know and and get it done so yeah i'm really happy for him you know we've watched him come up through the sport for years as a kid and um
He seems like a really nice guy. He won it the right way. He didn't win it by bullying people off of corners or having a car that was immensely powerful. He harmed himself more than anyone else this season. Right. Is truly like the Canada crash felt like him just lighting his championship hopes on fire because it was so unnecessary. Yeah, I think it was a...
Fair play to McLaren as well, I think. I think they took so much shit for the papaya rolls and trying to leave things even. But I think overall... They left a pretty positive... like impression on everyone coming out of this. The team doesn't seem to have a ton of discord. I think there are going to be people who were convinced that McLaren was showing a great deal of favoritism to, to Piastri. But like, ultimately I think it was just Piastri.
have shut that down if he'd been a bit more consistent and he just he wasn't and I don't think that's any real like great verdict on him because as you just pointed out like Norris had to go through years of choking at key moments like first choking away wins and then choking away like last year, a decent championship shot, actually, and not being able to keep it a competition.
These seasons are long. I think in years past, Piastro might have won this on the strength of the opening stage of the season just because it would have ended before he could have gotten himself in trouble. It is a mentally and physically grueling... season these guys have to do especially in these closely fought uh championships where there's no point you can just go into coast mode and and bring it bring it home like they were racing to the end and so i think piastri like
He had this one slip away in the way you kind of expect someone who hasn't been here very often before. It's going to slip away from someone like that unless there's someone really sort of preternatural. And there just there aren't many of those. Well, let's run down the rest of the result here. Max Verstappen on top. Oscar Piastri finishes second. This is the race. Orlando Norris in third. He confirmed that he will race with number one on his car next year, which the championship.
previous year's championship winner gets to do apparently he had he literally had to make that decision the after the race oh wow i think because of testing because they they swapped the numbers i think immediately so oh yeah that that was That was interesting. Charles Leclerc finishes the race in fourth, followed by George Russell fifth, Fernando Alonso sixth, Esteban Ocon coming home in seventh, and Lewis Hamilton in eighth holds on to the top six in the championship.
But this is the first new Ferrari driver, I forget where I saw this stat, maybe race fans. First new Ferrari driver in 44 years not to get a podium. In 44 years as well. Yes. Nico Hulgenberg in 9th, and Lance Stroll 10th. Behind them, Gabrielle Bordoletto in 11th, Oliver Behrman in 12th, Carlos Sainz in 13th, Yuki Tsunoda in 14th, Kimi Antonelli 15th.
Followed by Albon, Hajar, Lawson, Gasly, and Colapinto, who along with Doohan finishes the season with zero points. Not all on him, of course. He had half a season. Alpine was another one of those who turned focus 2026 exclusively at some point. But yeah, I'll bet he wishes he had at least one point. I bet he does. Maybe two if he's greedy. Oh, yeah. And that is...
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Shall we take it to the news, Danny? Let's do it. Yes. Confirmation here. Yeah. I had to leave last episode early. Did we get confirmation by the end of last episode that Hajar was in at Red Bull? No. Okay. So this is another just after the podcast posted situation. Classic. Yes, Isaac Hadjar, Isaac Hadjar, however you say it, will be in the second seat at Red Bull next year alongside Max Verstappen. Arvid Lindblad is coming up from F2. We'll be joining Liam Lawson.
at RB or whatever they rename themselves next year. And Yuki Tsunoda is out. He will be driving with them, or he will be their reserve driver, and we'll probably have some special responsibilities. in that regard. Lots of interviews with him over the race weekend, both before and after. He brought up, you know, how difficult it was when he joined initially that they were having this internal war. when he first joined.
great interview on racefans.net, which we'll have in the show notes. And it's sort of all eyes on what he's going to do, I guess, next. I think Rob was talking last week about how his connections with Honda might be strained. as they sort of look towards younger Japanese drivers, perhaps that they can throw their lot in behind. For 2027, though, the Aston Martin connection with them might provide a seat for him. There might be some more movement in the driver's market.
Indy has been touted, but I don't think there's much behind it, except Indy always gets touted. And then, of course, he could do, you know, I think... What was it? DTM is what Albon did when he lost his Williams seat. He spent time doing that. There's obviously Super Formula as well. And IMSA Sports Car Championship has also been mentioned as possible avenues for him to keep his wheels warm.
But yeah, we'll wait and see. I think probably over the next few weeks, there'll be some scuttlebutt about what he's doing as all the various racing organizations start spinning up their plans for 2026 and announcing stuff.
yeah i i feel for him i think it's just the we've gotten used to this red bull pipeline of of throw them in the hot seat and if they can't do it you know we need those two junior team seats free for young blood uh yeah you know he i think he's a good driver i think he's developed a lot over the years there is a question as to how high his ceiling is of course but um
Yeah, I think there's a bunch of teams, the four teams at the bottom perhaps, that you could easily see Yuki doing a good job in with the experience that he now has. It's kind of unfortunate, I think. such a strong rookie class came in that it makes it I think in the past it's been easier for drivers to find that second chance because there was kind of a fallow period for you know really trusted talent coming in but
this year, like, there's enough, like, Bortoleto even has flashes of looking like a really excellent driver. And, like, I think he's probably the one I'd say is the weakest of the incoming class. And, like... You know, Behrman seems excellent. Hadjar looks like Killer. It's going to be tough for him to get back in. But, you know, there's also another team.
And some of the seats are occupied by guys who are kind. They have to be in this one song. Right. Like, I mean, yeah. Alonzo is going to go away at some point. Hulkenberg is on this Audi thing in part because. you know, old connections to the, you know, it's a, it's a way to bring that full circle. So I do think there's, there's hope. And I do think he's like, I want to see him out race outside of a Red Bull seat. That is, that is the thing. Cause I,
I have now come to, I don't evaluate anyone based on what happened when they were paired with Max. That is where I've just come away with this.
¶ Helmut Marko's Red Bull Departure
But Rob, that's not the only change of personnel at Red Bull. Firing drivers. And? And then accepting the resignations of Doctor. Oh, yes. Helmet Marco. So this is interesting. The race has a good breakdown on like all the drama that his. uh been going on there these last couple years i kind of forgot that it was clear that back in uh you know early stages 2024 it was also clear that like
Horner was trying to oust Marco, and then Marco's firing back with Horner. There's a civil war within this team. The exit clause they added to his contract? Because he had been given... signatory power over the team. And so he was just able to modify his contract, Verstappen's contract, without Horner ever knowing about it until it was sort of faded. He got admin access on DocuHub and was like, yeah.
yeah, let's change some of this around. And so the other thing is, I sort of missed this, but the race outlines, there have been a lot of people. leaving red bull of of late uh that there is a there's a lot of turnover within the team. And so there's some concern that there's some real hemorrhaging of talent and knowledge. But... I think I kind of see it in two different ways. The way Red Bull is promoting this is he came, he wanted to resign. And...
We do have to acknowledge the man is 82. He's 82 years old. Yeah. There is a point where you're going to hang it up. He also has a chronic inability to shut up. And it's sometimes a public embarrassment. And so there's kind of two thoughts here. One is that, you know, they're giving him a dignified exit saying he resigned. But actually it was sort of clear that, you know, he was Dietrich Mateschitz's boy.
Dietrich is not with us anymore, and your time is over. You have no sponsor in the team anymore. That's one way of looking at it. They're kind of cleaning house. They're kind of done with him. I might also say, though, seeing how this has played out, in a situation like this, was, did he burn his last political capital?
ousting Horner. You know what I mean? Like, in a situation like that where you had this, what was stabilizing the whole thing was Dietrich at the top, Dietrich dies, the two begin infighting constantly. Jos Verstappen... sort of there on the margins of this weighing in I do wonder if to some extent it was like a lot of the stems to Horner wants to be like soul operator of that team. Marco puts everything on the line to break his whole team and like lead to his ouster.
And in that process, like he also has no real sponsors anymore. He, you know, it is time. This was his last job. To leave the team on a good footing because if he wasn't going to be around, he was the last person who was big enough in the team to pull the levers to get Horner out. I wonder if it is even...
I think there's definitely something to that. I think also that like, there's no getting away from like, you know, he was able to, to get them, to bag them Vettel and Verstappen and clearly had some. you know positive influence over their driver program at a certain stage they also had the back the back uh
the backup, I guess, or parachute of the second team, which a lot of other teams don't. And sometimes I think they overstate how much Marco... You can never tell. You're not in the room. You can never tell, right? Red Bull were a successful team. They had... multiple teams they had plenty of money there aren't whenever a generational talent comes along everyone knows it
It's not really like, oh, I found this guy. They're not baseball scouts out in rural Tennessee finding people. Like, yeah, you think Joss Verstappen's son is good at racing? So, like, I don't want to, like... you know, negate his influence. But I do also think that there's this sort of, there's this fairy tale around his career that, you know, maybe in some respects is overdone. But what I think is possibly the case is that Helmut, I think...
was as part of the old Red Bull as Christian was. And when he killed Christian, he was standing on the island that was getting cut off. And I think like... He is, as successful or whatever as he was, his processes were antiquated. And I think once Horner was out of the room, Red Bull was moving in a direction that was not the direction Marco was. Because of that, like, oh, sorry, Drew, go.
Well, I just, like, the other thing is, like, Red Bull has lately, the past, like, I don't know, seven, ten years, developed this reputation of, like, absolute chaos at their team, driver-wise, right? And how... much better could Red Bull the team have done without, you know, axing Kvyat, Albon, Lawson, Paris, Gasly. All this, like... They had signs.
They had signs. And I can't help but picture Laurent Mechie's coming in here and going like, so what do you do here? Right, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing. Like, Danny, I think to your point, because we've all, like... F1, to a degree, is a very corporate space, and we've all had different experiences in corporate landscapes. I actually was at Red Bull for a time. But the thing about...
Something like the dynamic at Red Bull is like, if the thing is reasonably successful and stable... corporations don't want to fuck with it because like once you crack into it a whole bunch of things have to change it's a big project and the reason killing Horner is going to kill Dietrich is because
If those guys can't like if the company is going to be like, if you guys can't get along, we will make the changes we need to make and they will be wholesale. If you guys could have like patched the marriage up and kept it going, we might have left it until you can like. produce better results and give you a longer runway. But like if you guys can't fix this, then.
So both of you are probably going to head for the door because we're not going to build around either of you for the future if there's this much drama. So, yeah, I do think the minute Horner is out of there and you got the team sort of revisiting like Newey's gone. Horner's out. Who knows how long Max is going to be around, but this guy's 82 years old. He's been important to the team, but yeah, there's just not much.
¶ FIA Election, Standings, Wrap-up
You know, we're kind of out of time there. Yeah. Well, we're also out of time, apparently, to stop the FIA election. It is going forward despite the... Laura Villers suing the FIA. So just to reset here, the head of the FIA is elected. and this happens every so often, but the past election... lot of the other presidential candidates raised flags saying like actually this is impossible for anyone but Ben Suleim to run because of the way that is structured the short version is like you need
uh, enough representatives from around the world, uh, in the motorsport council. And there's only one in Brazil and she is in Ben's William's pocket. So actually no one else can run. Oh, well, so. Yeah, so Laura Villers is one of the candidates who brought this to court. The court has basically said the election can go forward, but there will be another. Hearing I believe in February. So this isn't going away, but it sounds like the the quote-unquote election will be taking place
All right. So with that, that is the end of our news section. We're going to close out the show here, but I wanted to just remind everyone that we'll be having an episode next week to sort of just look back at the... the season, the 2025 season, maybe look forward a little bit to 2026. So, uh, we're not done yet for this year. Also, we will be having a patron episodes, uh, every one, one a month, um, throughout the break. So if you're a patron.
Stick around. But in the fantasy standings, you know what? I should go over the actual, the final constructors and driver standings here. No world change in the constructors' standings. McLaren's still on top. Mercedes comes home second. Red Bull in third. Ferrari fourth. Williams fifth. Then we've got in sixth, Racing Bulls in seventh. Aston Martin in eighth. Gene Hassen team. In ninth is Sauber. The final Sauber. Final time Sauber will.
Appear. Oh, man. Did you see video? The Sauber team published a little video showing Peter Sauber was there and the fireworks going off over the track as the curtain comes down in the Sauber era. It actually did get me a little bit. Peter Sauber's an old man. now and you know it's like true end of an era yeah like Williams the other like name of a dude who built his car And then ran a team, was bought by, you know, venture capital a while ago.
I don't know the corporate structure of what Sauber was up to, but the man is still there at the track. Unlikely survivor, because you're right. It was always kind of an even chancier, more shoestring operation than Williams. Yeah. They went through so many iterations and partnerships trying to save this thing. In Switzerland, yeah. Yeah. And Alpine 10th. Alpine, who will be around next year, but this is the last year Renault making engines. That is true.
very very true and you know what good call maybe In the Drivers' Championship, Landon Norris secures the Drivers' Championship just two points ahead of Max Verstappen. 11 points back from him is Oscar Piastri. Then in fourth, George Russell. In fifth, Charles Leclerc. And in sixth, the other Ferrari teammate of Lewis Hamilton. In seventh, the other Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli. And in eighth, the Williams of Alex Albon, followed by just nine points behind.
Carlos Sainz, the other Williams driver. Look at that. And in 10th, moving up two spots in the final race, Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin. In 11th is Nico Hogenberg. El Planned. Tied on points with Isaac Hadjar, who statistically finishes 12th. Oliver Behrman is in 13th. Liam Lawson finishes in 14th. Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll both move up a spot.
to 15th and 16th, respectively. Yuki Tsunoda dropping two positions to 17th in the Drivers' Championship. Pierre Gasly comes home 18th. Gabriel Bortoletto 19th. And Franco Colapinto 20th with Jack Doohan in 21st. Quick thing, just because we should not. So many points out to me on Blue Sky.
We have to remember that Max picked up a penalty that dropped him from 5th to 10th following just driving into George Russell in a fit of peak earlier this season. And I was like, would that really have made the... Well, that really made the difference because if they had, because McLaren could have swapped Piastri and Norris. But I believe that would have left the points a tie.
And Max would have had the race wins count. Butterfly fact, man. I know, dude. If he had won that one, then who knows who would have won the next one? You know what I mean? But nevertheless, there is a... degree of like Max getting pissy on track like it it didn't seem that significant at the time but this thing was decided on like razor thin margins which does mean that like
Was the battle for the championship already decided? Who acted like a champion? When Max and Russell got into it last year. Oh, yeah. Oh, sure. That's your anime arc. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Razor-thin margins like the height of the board underneath your car as well. That's very true. In the fantasy standings... Wanted to close out the season with a rounding out of the podium from Abu Dhabi. In third, Max Bearman Pig. Oh, I love it. Very good. In second, Haas Bin Racers.
And in first from Abu Dhabi, Lando Norrisian. Oh, that's good. Very good. And I'll do the top 10 here overall. Overall, throughout the season. Congratulations to all of our amazing fantasy people who we have been fantasizing about and reading your names about all year. You've all done an incredible job. Let's do it, Drew. All right. By the way, my team rhymes with horn. Orange finished 225th. Not bad. More than like 2,000, 3,000 teams. Awesome. That's great. Thank you. In 10th, Excel Hexcel.
In ninth, bring back Marlboro. Wow. In eighth, Haas of the Dragon 2025. Very good. That's a TV show everyone's still talking about. Sure is. In seventh, Scuderia Potakito. Oh, yeah. In seventh, I'm sorry, in sixth, StoneworksPaving.ca. Getting the ads in there. I like that. Yeah. Actually, I take it back. Actually, having TV shows that are washed is a very F1 thing to do. It sure is. You want to watch Halo? Exactly. Landman. Yeah, I take it back.
In fifth, Badunkadunks. In fourth, Dress Zone. And the podium. In third, Brockville Canada Vince. Wow, he's doxing himself. in second the fast of us 2025 and in first by uh i can't do math it's like 63 points F1 banned my team name. Congrats. We'll never know. Fantasy championship. We never know what the team name is. Exactly. As mentioned, yes, congrats everyone and everyone else. Awesome work. We will have an episode next week.
We'll feature some emails, so if you want to get in some final emails of the season, send them to shiftf1podcast.gmail.com or go to f1.cool slash emails. That is us around the internet. Should we take it around the world, Danny? Let's race around the world. Yeah, can't wait to hear my parents ask me about that. There's nothing going on. There's no racing. Racing over. God damn it. I know. You made me do that. Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Formula E.
Kicks off in January, though. We've got the Mexico City E-Pre on January 10th. So look forward to that. But not a lot of racing in the wintertime. So stay... Stay warm with, I guess, our Patreon content. And that's it for us, I think, for the season. We'll be back again next week with a look back. But that's it for Abu Dhabi. Final thoughts, Rob.
I think Lando is very judicious to not like the pressures on to say something big and like final about your relationship with your girlfriend. And like you're just not in that place. It's tough. She's there. You just won the championship. And I got like shout outs. them i think for coordinating a way to just make sure there was no drama and weirdness around it uh because i do think that is a thing you got to stage manage a little bit yeah yep uh final thoughts danny
The only rings we saw were the traditional donuts you're not meant to do at the star finish rate. Yes, I should mention that I watched the first 10 laps at home. the next eight laps in the car on the way to my aunt's funeral. And then I paused it and then like 10 hours later came home and watched the end of that. So I was on media blackout for all of Sunday. Wow.
appropriately so i didn't want to go down as the godson who spent the mass with like an airpod in listening to the rest i thought that that would probably you know that might be something you know air you know airpod in the ear during a funeral that's not okay iphone cable up the nose that's that's not so bad so like i'm learning i'm learning where the lines are here amazing uh all right well
If you'd like to support the show and get access to all of our bonus episodes, which would be critical with your racing withdrawal over the winter, I might add, and the ad-free version of the podcast, as well as the official Shift F1 Discord, which will also, I'm sure, be popping off. in the off season you can do so over at patreon.com slash shift f1 have a good race weekend everyone we will see you all next week