Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to this week's episode of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast with me, Matt Baker. Now, schools out for summer, but before I let Bernie Collins and Sky Sports news craze later go, I thought we'd do one more podcast before the summer break, Hi Craig, hi Bernie, how are you doing? Craig, I'll start with you, because since we've been on air in Belgium, you've been working overtime. There have been so many stories that we're going to get
into in a second to discuss. Yes, yes, Sainz and the Perez confirmation. I have to say, obviously, if Bernie receives a distress from international rescue there, we'll have to let her go. Obviously busy working for them in the holiday period, holiday cable, I like the world map there. Yes, busy couple of days, complicated by the fact that I took an electric car and the Le Shuffle train to Belgium. So I was kind of on the road when some of that stuff was kicking off, particularly
the Sainz thing, but yeah, interesting. And I still tried to get some more detail on what the wise of those two decisions, the size and the Perez one, but so we can work our way through that. Yeah, we'll certainly get into that. Yeah, for those of you who are listening to us, Craig, are looting there to Bernie, your background being a world map. If anyone was confused by Craig, was talking about Bernie joining the international, whatever, whatever, whatever. Bernie, you
well, all good? Yeah, I'm glad you're I'm not on any sort of other government body or anything. It's just just a background of my kitchen, just for interest. It's lovely. Craig, you've alluded to it there, tons to get into. We're going to talk about Colour Science. He has decided to move to Williams from next season. We learned yesterday that Sergio Perez is going to stay put for now, at least. And we're also given we've got Bernie on the podcast this week. We're going to get into
the detail of George Russell's disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix. But let's start with Carlos going to Williams. He's been without a drive, hasn't he? Since, or for next year, he's been without a drive since Lewis Hamilton announced he was going to Ferrari taking Carlos's seat. It's been a whole six months of speculation. And Craig, as I understand it, he kind of had three options, right? The Alpine, Salva Aldi project, all the Williams project. Was it clear that the
Mercedes Red Bull seats, which we know potentially could be vacant over the next few years? Was it clear? Those weren't the options and it actually had to decide between those three teams. I think that's right. I think he has chosen the best available option. And I think the options were limited. I don't think the Red Bull seat, certainly for the past month, at least, has not been available to him. I think there was some towing and frowing once he lost the drive for next
year at Ferrari, between himself and Red Bull. And possibly the fact that Christian Hornenau has the authority there now, rather than Helmut Markov, which is a situation which has changed during the course of this season, may be counted against him because Hornenau has stuck by surgical parés in particular. But yes, that does not seem to have been an option. Mercedes I had reported six weeks ago as being a no goal for him due to the time frames within which
Mercedes and signs wanted to make their futures decisions on. By, it seemed like it was possibly he was a contender again or this discussions of some kind could reopen in the last three to four weeks where Mercedes, but it hasn't gone anywhere. I've just been trying to check with people on it who have a window on Mercedes plans. I don't believe any kind of concrete offer was ever made to Carlos signs by Mercedes or even the door open for a season there potentially. So I think it's
always been a long shot. And ultimately he's had to decide between Williams Audi and the late bidders from Alpine, which did turn his head a bit. But ultimately he's gone for Williams. It's not a great short term option based on on current form. And I think that has been upermost in Carlos's mind. I think he is conscious of the fact that some of these projects you get in F1 for a driver at least can be damaging in the short term to your reputation. You can very quickly
go from hero to zero. So I actually do think as well as admiring the project and it's a great coup for Williams, I think his opinion is next year I will look best in the Williams. I've got the best opportunity for good results in that car. Interesting. Bernie, from your perspective, why do you think he picked Williams out of those three teams? Yeah, it's sort of echo a lot of what Craig's just said there. But I think when you look at next year, you can't see the order of
the grid. She can up a lot from where it is this year. So you would argue between Williams, Alpine, cyber or already, then the Williams is probably the best of those three next year maybe anyway. But I think and you know, I've got no insight into Carlos's decision, but looking further ahead to 2026 with the proposed new regulations that are coming in, that's going to put the focus much, much more on the engine. We don't know which engine provider Alpine are going to go with.
We know why he's coming in for the first time in what is currently cyber and we know that or we suspect that Williams will stay with Mercedes. So maybe we know that Williams will stay with Mercedes. So the Mercedes engine, I think the majority of us consider that would be the strongest given what we've seen in 2014 when we knew engine regulations. So the expectation is that even if it's not you know, up for podiums or wins or strong points in every race next year, the potentially 2026
brings an opportunity and that's maybe only one year of that's a lost results. So I think it's that sort of slightly more forward sight on Carlos's behalf and particularly when you look at we don't have anything written in stone for Alpine in terms of engines. So that is definitely at this stage the riskiest one when you look ahead to 2026.
And in terms of stability as well Craig, I think when you look at all of those projects, there's you know actually James Vales has been there long enough now to to to show his vision and I think you could hear if you were being convinced by James Vales it would be a compelling argument.
You look at Alpine, they've just lost Bruno Faman, haven't they to you know and they're getting someone else in with the Saudi Al-Di project, Sidler's gone, they're now getting Benotto in, it's there seems a lot of moving parts in those teams actually Williams probably is the most stable
of all of it. I think it's it's a vault of no confidence for so far out the chiefly when you think about the family connection with signs and Carlos signed scene new winning Dacar with Odie and the Volkswagen group for him to walk away from that when it seemed the most obvious place for
him to go is it is a is a clear sign that things are not right there. I spoke to someone who has a good window on what the goings on are like currently at that team and it's it's not he's not saying anything which isn't isn't obvious but he described it to me as a mess and observed that this is a team that can't even put a wheel on a car properly at the moment so the terminal at
the top is reflective of things going backly wrong at the moment. They also expressed to me the notion that they have underestimated Odie and this isn't the first time we've maybe heard about a manufacturer doing this how difficult it is to to to get things right in Formula 1 in the time
of time scale they're working with so I think all of that has been a turn off for signs I think he is worried if he goes there then they're kind of situation that bought us and jarring or not much better next year and who's to say what happens the year after that as well so that that I think
in a way that he's chosen the best option available to him as with without wind and yes I think there's a lot you can someone as as logical and as practical and pragmatic as signs and it's a shame that he's kind of in this position I can't quite understand it but all his driver
moves have made sense at the time it's just that they haven't the fault they've all not worked out correctly I think he will look James Valls in the eye and be convinced by him he someone who knows what he is doing and what he is doing with Williams makes sense even if there are
some sacrifices along the way and that is not clear at those other teams. Bernie what what of then James Valls and the job that he has done to convince Carlos Carlos to come you now look at their lineup for next year with Alex Albon on a multi-a-deal obviously Carlos as well that is an
incredible cue cast your mind back two three four years ago to that Williams team that were really struggling and were very much at the back of the grid and now all of a sudden there's a lot of experience there's race-winning experience with Carlos in that team isn't that yeah I think so it's
going to be a very strong driver lineup I think and that's so you know that's important in every team we talk about a lot in the front-run teams but equally important the teams that are fighting for the final points score in positions because you need both drivers there are there are bites doing
it weekend we go and that will make quite big differences hopefully to their finishing championship position James seems to be doing the right things in the team he obviously is awful lot of experience behind him in terms of how to set the engineer and team up how to get the most out of
the car how to make the big decisions when he's trying to deal with the resource restriction and make the right upgrades and get all these things onto the car so they definitely seem to be moving very strongly in the right direction and given you know James's background at Mercedes you'd
have to put faith in them getting that team more towards the front and it will be incremental steps it won't be overnight but you can see progress already who but only then would you put as number one in that team next year but think Carlos and Alex I think it's not too hard to question
to ask well it's going to be an interesting type of side comparision and against across the two of them I think for any driver to make the step into another car another team a different group of engineers a different way of working you know he's been in a Ferrari engineer be going on a Mercedes
engine there you know it's opposite almost to what Lewis is doing in terms of the changes that will will come a come about you know and and stuff will be more of a struggle they won't be the same number of people working on data they won't be the same sort of information coming through to him
it will be a start for Carlos to try and embed himself in that team so I think initially album will continue to lead whether that's a on paper he's the leader or not he will continue to lead because he's already settled in that environment he knows what's going on around him he knows how the
procedures work the maintenance the feedback all these other things so and I think given you know what we've seen of James I don't think they're necessarily will be a number one driver it'll be whoever's scoring the most points I'll get the most opportunity whoever's on a track will get
the most opportunity and that's maybe the way to have it going forward and hopefully both of them will push each other forward science is going to surely be paid a lot more than Alex Alba just by it because I mean I gather the terms Williams were able to offer him were comparable to the big money
out the deal so it's just it's an interesting aside at any sports team when that is the case whether it's you'd quite often get football players insisting that they are the highest paid player at the team that is their contractual and it's pure well that's ego and and priority in their
mind that they are they are the the favored one I think you're you're spot on about the you they're not going to overtly favor signs I don't think but they have come to the team in a different dynamic carless has come in as as a unlucky to be lost they're left out at Ferrari
still winning races and and William's self have helped Albon fantastically revitalise his career and you know what the point about Albon being more used to racing at this type of the field is this will maybe give him an advantage initially but it's that'll be an interesting dynamic it's
not they're not equal in terms of what they're being paid and that's often a marker of well we will invest their all this money in him we need them to succeed we've seen that in in teams before Bernie just final point on the on specifically on Williams with with number one and number two
is it is it fair to say when you're in a championship winning or championship fighting team at the front it is more likely you'll have a number one and a number two but actually it's quite as this field is sort of closed up we're looking at what Williams are offering for a relatively
for a back marker they've got two excellent drivers that they're disposable it's it's seem it's quite a unique situation isn't it that we would be even having this discussion I mean just look at say Salber at the moment with with Bottas and Joe I mean they're they're sort of even they
bought us is more experienced they're not really a number one and number two there are they yeah I think I think that's true probably not in that a lot of teams don't set out to have a number one and number two at the front obviously there's more on offer if we think of it that way so
someone wants to always give you given priority in a pit stop or the better upgrades or the better selection or whatever it might be and then further back you do need to really pull together as a team because every championship point in I'm talking constructors championship point is so vital
to the teams rank in order and the money that you bring in which can make or break a team at the back of the field in terms of you're not getting the same you know level of sponsorship and Carlos would bring a lot more sponsorship I'm sure to the team a lot more you know really re-is the profile
a little bit and so I think it will it should be more level and often you know teams further back naturally in our number one progresses because they are the people that have been scoring the points which up until this point has been album you know he has been the one that's been carrying that Williams team doing some really strong drives to get a point here and a point there that have really added up to the difference you know at the end of last year on this year.
Magnuson famously said a few months ago that science was the cork in the bottle where now that cork has been released the whatever is in that bottle is flowing what where does that leave the the likes of you know doing bottle show as as Alpine and Salba looked to fill those other
drives what what are you hearing what what perhaps do you expect to happen I was trying to check him with some people at Mercedes to see what they with that that through they are planning now to because it's for a while it seemed they were going to defer Kimmy Antonylle's entry into
our fund and this results in F2 have picked up I presume though it's all about his formula one testing and so on so I guess that's the big scene to still be filled in and he once again looks favorite in these in and around that we say these are lots over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend
wasn't he and so so it looks like he's maybe going to get the Mercedes seat bought us I guess is probably favorite to to maybe stay at sober now even though that it looked quite a bitter falling out with the his race engineer dropped all of a sudden and you know but the change in management
there I suppose maybe makes a difference to him that that was the thinking that Benotto would maybe be able to persuade signs because they had a bit of a good relationship relatively when they were at Ferrari Joe it seems he has a lot of backing financially but can't seem to get in
anywhere there was that link with Gile and and Renault Stoke Alpine which you know made him maybe a feasible option for them but Jack Duhon looks the strong favorite to partner gasoline there next year so things pretty much filling up now and I'm curious to know what you think Bernie about
we say these have they made a mistake not going for signs could they have not taken their time with Antonelli and and now that they look like they might have a title challenging car next year um again is is is that going to put a lot of pressure on what might be answered at least debut
you with them yeah I think none of us can see what's happening in the chest and with Antonelli so we don't know how strong or not that's been obviously like you say you know the other series results can't really look at them in their own because of car performance team performance it's really
difficult to get read but as you say the results have picked up a little bit there I was interested I think he came out and commented somewhere that he might not be ready himself which is an interesting comment from a driver because these guys are um confident beyond what we can imagine
generally when they're you know selling themselves and getting in a car so I thought that was interesting I think the other aspects as interesting and obviously George George's reach into Mercedes was through Williams you know the Williams if we think of it as a junior team um which you know
it still takes our engines and their gearbox and stuff so I sort of wonder you know internally if meabegeeims files are said we don't want to be this junior team you want to build the team on our own right because that would have been maybe a softer land and for Antonelli to go through
Williams and then go onto the Mercedes C to year later um but these guys you know we were all impressed I think by Oliver Barman's step in an Injera aided a fantastic job in the Ferrari when potentially for Ferrari would have been much safer to take Magnus and Erhulkenberg from
their junior team if we wanted to put it that way but yeah next year he's going into the house so it's interesting the two different ways that the Ferrari and Mercedes have attacked the younger driver that they want to try and get in a car somewhere if we think of it like that um but
these young guys I have no doubt can step up to the mark when they're asked to do it and he'll see it as a chance to prove himself well in that car and if the the mind of testing that we're led to believe he's doing he should be ready for it we shouldn't really blame signs for being the
cork is actually you should complain to anyone it's total wolf because he had a Mercedes seat he also had kind of old con management in a way and he's you know he's got links to both of us and everything else so I he's been I suppose influential in controlling the chronology of all of this um
um but yeah I think it's obviously I think yeah and Tadele is the most interesting while in it's it's I can't see another option for Mercedes I just can't yeah no it seems like the obvious yeah the obvious choice of where he's going to go and let's move on to talk about
Sergio Perez because we found out yesterday that he is going to stay at Red Bull for the remainder of the 2024 season at least that's what we're hearing publicly uh who knows what's going on behind the scenes and we know that talks were held yesterday uh between Helmut Marko Christian Horner
and Red Bull team members were there and were then informed of the decision at the factory afterwards and I was surprised that this happened and it happens so quickly and that the decision was come to uh as such I mean Bernie what was your reaction when you when you knew that
Sergio was was going to stay yeah I'm surprised that if that was the decision they were going to come to that it didn't even happen earlier if they were going to get there or um you know just he obviously had a very very strong qualifying in Spa um but it was right on an i-Fedge you know
we nearly went out at the end of Q2 so it was it was it was close to be in either P15 or the P2 he ended up so it was real um you know close in terms and that wasn't all done to Chaco so I'm I think it's in many ways they have to look at their championship and say who could we put in that seat
that is guaranteed to do a better job for the Rameen and Ten races and I don't think given everything that's going on you know a few races ago we were talking about was Ricardo C. if in that seat and we've gone through the cycle of all of it so I don't think they can look at the
the two in the junior team at the moment and say definitely they are going to do a better job and that I think is what's been the key point of this decision and you know was Craig alluded to there's still some in fighting happening within the Red Bull team and it's all just
ponds in a chess match I think a little bit it is how you've put it off I the one aspect I take issue with you there are matters that he stays for the remainder of the season I think and as I was dealing with that news yesterday I said he would be back again after the summer break but I think
it's an absolute given that he does complete the season I think the team would look well Christian Warner would like him to people I mean I know you you've worked closely with with with Jack Colburnian and I'm a big fan of his and I think he's great and I want him to finish the season
strongly as well but I don't necessarily think it's out the question that they might if things don't pick up in these next races after the the resumption that the talk will swirl around again if the title is in the balance it would have been a helmet Marco decision this it was a Christian Warner
decision and that that might be significant I think Marco is more of the tinker man is in the likes to move people around quite ruthlessly they honor takes a few there's up evil in all of that do we really gain so much Daniel has not been really banging on the door hard they don't for whatever
reason want to promote Yuki Senoda and Liam Lawson's a bit of an unknown quantity so not not straightforward what to do um but yeah it's it's such a shame but you know we have to remember a lot good drivers have really struggled to deal with this it is at the style of car that Max
prefers and that's where the development path has gone so he's not really exceptional in that sense check or what he's got well by 30 35% of the points that Max has I mean it's it's right to say if that persists with the scoring with hard they won't win the Constructors championship and that
is what is being that is senior figures in Red Bull have been saying to all Christian Warner look at this can't ignore the facts it's you a decision ultimately you know that you you have got to take responsibility for this one way or another and so far he's he's keeping check or
in situ when we look at the history and what it was 21 the first championship that that Max won 22 the first championship that Red Bull won I think from right and that so when I win your three of Red Bull potentially winning world championships and in none of those years have they really
tried to figure out getting this second driver you think as we check all that time getting the second driver up to speed they've always relied on the car being fast enough that for stop and just fit to drive off into the sunset so they've had three years to get on top of this this is not
year three that they could have been on top of getting a team working well together and making sure both guys are scoring points which the others have been doing you know so it's not this isn't a new problem it's it's new in the fact that they've don't have the advantage but anyone at Red
Bull that didn't see the disadvantage feed in a way as the regulations marimian stable and they've got less wind on all time and all these things then there should have been potentially more foresight to either get that car and driver working well how do they get the best out of that combination
and like Craig said nobody in that second seat at Red Bull since for stop and spin and seat one have been really fit to step up to the mark Alex how bonds not looked anything like as good as he does knows we'll see what Gazzley yeah 100% is it is it easy to run a second you know design
or or strategic I guess it's kind of semi-design isn't an optimizing setup but in such you know it's such a divergent way from the other cars is it is an easy thing to do that well we talk about that that car is very strong because it's very on edge and how the you know the downforce is
added to it you know it was described really well actually by our devison to me and say in that in order to balance the car you know the only way you can balance cars you take down force off one end or the other that's only the only balance the metric is to remove downforce and as soon as
you remove downforce you instantly make the car slower so you know the car will probably in order to be balanced for another driver be slower than the baseline car which max appears to be fit to drive regardless of what the balance limitations are but we've had a lot of time to figure that out
and other teams are figuring it out you know and the two McLaren drivers are doing well the two Mercedes drivers two Ferrari drivers are all neck and neck now is that a fault of check out the car of the team we don't know from the outside so they they needed to have been working on that problem
over the last two and a half years I think I think ultimately it just kicks the can down the road right nothing is really changed I mean as we've said over the past couple of years see we're still having the same discussions with with his four mark we mean just some of the stats to to paint
that picture so the gap in the constructors is now 42 points which is over the course of the next 10 races is actually very little and then you know max obviously potentially has has still got a huge advantage in the drivers championship but we don't know what's going to happen there and
check out scored 28 points in the last seven races and compare that with the staff and you scored 141 since Miami so those are the kind of numbers that we're dealing with and yeah I think ultimately it's yeah I guess if if if they're still in a championship fight at or sorry if if McLaren are
contending and pushing them and even overtaking them in the constructors championship it's going to be very difficult for the narratives to remain positive around check if he's not pulling his weight against against McLaren but we will see right does it remind you of Gazzley a few years
ago and the announcement of that timing Craig in terms of what what was that they announced it just at the start of the summer break and then by the middle of the summer it had it transpired he was losing the drive difficult I like this idea that we haven't even discussed much of
of a task force at Red Bull genuinely grasping in a technical sense how to make the car better for a checker and this is a guy who's who has won races and taken multiple podiums with a with a midfield car you know if he could sustain it doesn't seem so hard to to imagine him producing
those results with a what's a largely front running car but it's it doesn't seem that much effort gone into into doing that but that that's and then maybe part of this is they've the history tells us that the other driver alongside for staff and really struggles to produce
the good form and they wanted a kind of boycott you know drop anchor batter to weigh in points while for staff and grabs the headlights I mean that really ages me as a actually Jeffrey boycott but you know I kind of someone to keep guard and to score heavily that's
Kimmy Rykin in back of the day I can the day was a that owner had identified or a new he wanted him I think to partner was it vital at the time or was it to replace Vato because they they knew he's heavy point scorer had the had the experience to maybe do a solid number two job
um so yeah I mean but that's exactly what you'd imagine check all would have done yeah it's a surprise the way things have come to pass um so yeah let's see I think he's I mean I don't think this is necessarily a guarantee to the end of the season I think this is let's see
the next three or four after the summer break and then we'll look at it again no doubt we'll come back to this over the course the next few podcasts uh into September uh right so the final fun piece of uh of the podcast that I want to get into is the end of the Belgian Grand Prix
George Russell being disqualified finished obviously Mercedes-Benz 1-2 so we thought however after the race uh Russell's car was found to be one and a half kilos underweight of its 798 kilos target without fuel on board um this is all happening as Ted was doing his notebook if so is a good
hour after the race so we have the amazing images of George Russell celebrating and then the sort of heartbreaking realization that it wasn't going to be a win and then it would of course be inherited by Lewis Hamilton Bernie you've written a brilliant article on the Sky Sports website uh that
that kind of outlines how this process happened I guess that is really the first question isn't it people will look at this in the outside and go how does a car come in underweight you know with some of the most technically gifted brilliant minds on on the planet in one place how how does
this happen and that's sort of my my first question to you really yeah so I guess the first thing to say as you know it's a breach of the tactical regulations the tactical Regigilation say the car at any time in the championship at any time in the weekend must be not less than 798 kg with
I fuel so strung you know weighing something is one of the easiest measurements to take so it's a slam you know a slam dunk if we like that it was a breach tactical regulations it was going to be excluded so and there's no excuse for it the first thing that you know it's a race engineers
responsibility that the car is legal and I guess the only other thing to out of this is the second time in two years that we've seen Mercedes be excluded for legality and to put in in motion sort of just to clarify what what happened in this case all of the cars come into park for me after
the race they all line up we see quite regularly the drivers get north with their helmets and things are going to get wet as as them as a driver unit and then the car gets put on the scales separately and in this instance we know that it was wet there's a satis scales out in the petlean
and there's a satis scales in the garage and it was wet on both and we know that at that point the car weighed at exactly 798 or that'll be some rounded number but very close to 798 which is the minimum so the FI at that point decided correctly either this car is doesn't have the fuel
that we require for example which is one liter of fuels required for example either that's not in the car or that is in the car and when we take it out the car will be under weight and so that's sort of the procedure that happened they proceeded to check for the fuel the fuel was there and more
and and they actually stopped training the car at that point is what the word and suggests it says the car was not fully drained according to the drain and procedure and because they already had the fuel sample so because they so we know that the car was at least 1.5 kg under the limit
probably more for to read that document and in the fact that they said they stopped empty in it so we know that it was under weight so how does that happen we if one is all about you know pushing the margins lure are Russell finished half a second ahead of Lewis so tiny differences
are massive in this game in terms of the car weight and you're trying to get the car to the minimum weight you possibly can in order to have the biggest advantage throughout the race so 10 kilos is probably three tenths each lap so a kilo was 0.03 a lap so it really adds up over the course of
the race you know if you're carrying an extra weight throughout obviously the weight of the car itself doesn't change so we think of the wings the body work the engine all that stuff doesn't mean but the car consumes a number of things those things include tires, bricks, engine oil,
driver drinks a number of things that start in the car get used through the 44 laps there's a degree of variability in all of that so if we think of the bricks for example they wear away they are lighter at the end of the race that is you know one method of loot the car losing weight through so
we try and predict what the car will wear at the end based on all of the things we know we take a lot of historic data we take the data from fp2 etc etc so my belief obviously we don't have all the information you know all the engineers do very good job trying to estimate all of those losses and
calculate what they need to add into the car at the start and but George did an exceptional 34 laps stint on a set of hard tires when we were expecting 15 laps on a set of tires so the tire engineer from Mercedes will have asked me to the loss in the tires now I knew set of tires for brown
new tires between the heaviest and the lightest set of brown new tires can be 1.2 kilos and that's a brand new set of tires so you can imagine the differences in the where we it is you know many times that between a new and a warren set of tires and I think that's partly what how it is they've
underestimated the where that potentially the tires will bring through the race and that's what's led to being on the way I listened to all of their video yesterday there's no panic on the video to George or Lewis about save and fuel or managing anything it just seems to be an underestimation
on behalf of the engineer inside us to high much the car would be light at the end of the race I you know maybe it's not now even in my part I don't get the impression they're trying to fudge the rules because every car was wet you know the car is going to be wet so if you're trying
to fudge anything in the rules it's a really dangerous thing to try and fudge I think it's just a bit of an anomaly and I think like I said in my article this be careful thing to be careful of noise not overreacted next week you don't want to suddenly be out and kilos of margin for everything
I think this is a bit of an outlier because of what happened in Spa you had to cover this story as it happened on Sunday night and you tread quite conservatively you read the documents out etc in our own little groups and afterwards we have quite a robust debate that I'm throwing questions at
at at Bernie just exploring every kind of conspiracy theory was this a deliberate tactic where they're disguising the fact even that they were going to go for a one-stop deliberately knowing they could make up the weight by leaving extra fuel in the car all of these cut we
I we threw all of these got all these questions out there behind the scenes after at the end of it all I am quite convinced that that and as Bernie's explained I think I think all the people watching are listening to this will understand that just this is not feasible and and just to clear what got
me slightly confused was the very first document that I liked it the weight issue from the FIA because it talked about the car not being fully drained as the word otter have been fully drained when it first made its way to the scales that isn't the case and so there's there's no question of
was say these deliberately leaving some fuel in in order for the for the for the car to be on minimum weight and therefore it escaped sanction here there would always have been the drainage for fuel and the red light comes on when you're on the limit and as Bernie very clearly explained the
taken out the fuel sample it's going to go to move you under and just to be clear I did ask I asked the FIA were all the cars weighed identically as Bernie's explained they would all have gone to the scales I was told at the top three were all checked in the same way so that Lewis Hamilton's car
would have been if it been anywhere near the the weight limit that drained as well and weighed that in fact I believe it was but obviously they made the two pit stops to the to the wall and I had had had the heavier tires at the end of the race it's quite interesting just where you
freestyle a bit year Bernie but it's one way to avoid that kind of embarrassing elimination or I'm raising the question here could it be like boxing and wearing my havedali t-shirt where you weigh in you weigh in the day before and then you're allowed to put on
as much weight as you want well actually there are some checks but you can typically a box of drains his weight makes the scales reinflates as well to be more powerful in the fight could it be part of the sport for the cars to be weighed before the start and then if there's any ingenious
methods of losing weight over the course of the race then that can be permitted and therefore they would not have to you would not have to satisfy an end of race weigh in and face the qualification it's very interesting because obviously the cars are weighed in in qualifying you
want qualifying to be as light as possible as well and then you know there's if you think of that your weight before the start of the race if you like so you need to be at the minimum weight for qualifying and then we do add things between qualifying and the race like engine oil like
and driver drinks there's a limit to what we can add and driver drinks we add a number of fluids as much as we count to the car forward predict him what we think the end of race we would be so we try and add at the beginning of the race to make sure that we wear all those other things dying
we're still right at the end of the race that's actually where I think the error is coming how much they added and you know for anyone that watched we've seen those images of the Mercedes leaving the Petlean spell and oil out the back of the car which is a bit like they've brimmed the oil in the car
and then some of it is actually you know just blow and straight out again so there's loads of things that go on in the background I think to try and try and make the weight and I guess one other thing of confusion is there's no in-lap at Spa there's been a lot of discussion about that we hear on radio during in-lap drivers been told to take the pickup now what that means is they drive off line their hot tires take up the rubber that's been discarded earlier in the race and you just you know
in a really random you know not very nice way I had rubber to the outside that tires again like the car obviously needs to be legal without that but it's just a little buffer and it's free to do so why not do it and then you get the skills and you're not close to the limits it doesn't
raise questions the FIA can ask you to fit another tire set so for example if George had done a really long stand at the start and then a very short stand at the end the FIA could ask him to go back to his earlier tire set and they would know that in the middle of the race the car discard
the fuel was under weight but that's you know so there's lots of different things there and yes in-lap he shouldn't be used for that method but it is often just a little buffer that's for free that people take and that's not in this race the car having fuel in at the end doesn't
surprise me when it's doing a one stop because you're managing the tires war lap on lap and push and less than if you were on a two-stop so it having fuel in at the end is not a surprise and I could see that happening in every car that converted from a two-door one stop well the my question was
could we just not do away with the end of race weight limit and make it you know you you weigh in the start your car has got ahead a minimum weight and then just and if if it's I mean without jetty-sitting full parts I suppose there you go you throw off the push bussens to release wing
and oil and everything else yeah but it it it would just avoid the the kind of clunky delays to results based on some of the things you've outlined there it's all these dark arts which have come in I suppose in order to to get things sort of legal and and even it's sort of like the worst
version of VAR isn't it you know you almost like that's that's all your two goals are offside after the match and therefore the result is X yeah so if you could check they feel so wrong on the starting line if everything conforms then fine if you burn off a bit of extra tire rubber
between now in the end of the race and your car is lighter I don't really sort of see the need to hit a minimum weight at the end but I can see how it entails all these punches which the more you learn about them the more yeah you've answered the own question there Greg because I think all
the engineers find really random ways of reason we're through the race which I imagine a sort of more like a lifestyle drop press button to drop some oil here yeah well I don't almost prefer that to to the stuff that you're talking about having to pick up some stones and rubber on your car
the way the way in though you know but anyway I just I'm just leaving that out there that's why it's a podcast you know I was crazy right here this is good podcast good podcast discussion and we should of course say you know congratulations to Lewis Hamlin 100% yeah for a second win of
the season and and just just as it's not even a stat really just sort of some facts of how I mean it's a Mercedes and now one three races this year McLaren of only one two and I think that's just quite an interesting when you think about the disparity of how quick those cars are
and how McLaren have had a quicker car across the season I think everyone would say that's been the quicker car than the Mercedes just kind of paints a pretty damning picture doesn't it of the mistakes and the that they've made over the past few races that's going to show you know
actually in Mercedes just winners aren't they if they get in those positions and get a sniff they tend to tend to come three I think Bernie's going to be subject of a big money transfer to from Sky to McLaren yeah I don't know if I've ever been to handle the pressure anymore crap yeah
we don't want to lose you Bernie that's for sure Craig's your agent he'll start taking a 100% yeah um let before before we go I think that sort of wraps up those those big stories and I just thought we'd kind of briefly discuss what we're excited for for the second half of the season we get to
August and then before sort of as we go racing again it's almost September we've only got only got 10 races left of the season they're going to come pretty thick and fast we're going to Vegas we're going to Austin we're going to Brazil um could we get more winners uh we're up to what we up to seven race winners this year could we get a could we get an eighth maybe that Sergio Perez uh who knows and then that that would certainly put some of those um problems to bed but yeah I'd you know Bernie
Craig what what do you sort of excited for second second half of the season yeah so from my side I think if we excrete the first few races where we thought Red Bull were a game just running away over the roll we have a really tight season nine and every race began we're going to it's really
difficult to project who's going to come out at the end of the race who's going to win you know what your top three and qualifying and what your top three and the podium are going to be so there's a lot to look forward to I think at the second half of the season
then lots of different tracks come out a few more street tracks running there as well so yeah it's just all to play for so we just don't know how the season's going to going to do and can my clarin really push on and close that gap to Red Bull I really want to see Ferrari
uh somehow find their way um maybe sign Adrian Newiel or no one's telling me that's that's a toll likely just so that we're excited really excited about Lewis going there next year and that and that you know that it could be uh the incredible pinnacle to his his career and I'd
like your own team Bernie I know they're putting in such effort Ashton Martin I wanted to see them get a bit of a what it was great when Alonzo was was up mixing it at the top again that that was just so exciting that would be an extra ingredient if he's backfired I've missed that missed him not
being there are thereabouts um yeah I mean Piazzat has been great hasn't he I mean that the you hope Landau can get on that the starts are not a problem I don't know whether you think they not invented this little was it clutch glitch but it's like when they change the chassis
sometimes it to to check we reset a psychological switch or something in the brain I don't know but yeah you don't want them to to kind of have have had the best part of the year already they'd be great if they can they can progress a bit but Ferrari's the big one for me I um yeah
I that looking at the next year a strong end to their year would be would be a great ingredient 10 races left of course for for Lewis Hamilton by extension being with Mercedes and I'm sure we're going to see some some nice tributes and stuff as as we head towards the end of the season
for for what he's done for them okay Bernie Craig thank you very much um fascinating podcast very very good to get your insight and fear not though everyone we still got our weekly podcast for you across august so next week we've got a chat with our very own uh Karin Chandok
to celebrate South Asian Heritage Month I recorded that last week at fascinating chat about how Karin made it to f1 and beyond so I'm stating for that next Tuesday we're also going to have plenty more as well um but yeah Craig Bernie thank you very much thank you very much yes we'll be back next Tuesday as always bye for now