Previewing the Dutch Grand Prix

Hello and welcome to the WTF1 podcast. After a long summer break, we are back. I am James Coker along with Ash Vandele. Hi, Ash. Hello, everyone. Y'all. It is the end of August. And once again, it is Rossi. Well done. It's time to record this in the morning. What? Imagine we record this in the morning. That'd be so much. Well, it's the morning for me still for another half hour. Oh my gosh, it is. Y'all, we are back.

We are so back. It is race week. And this week we have the Formula One Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2025. Very excited. But before we get. into our race preview. We have some motorsport headlines to talk about, right? Yeah, I think the biggest one is just Cadillac. As everyone's been joking, the worst kept secret in all of motorsports, Cadillac has announced its driver lineup on August 26th. For 2026, it's Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. The boys are back in town. Interesting to see some reactions from folks. Some folks a little upset there's not at least one American on the grid. Some folks surprised they went with, obviously, some older drivers. I say older, and I really don't mean any offense. If you watch sports, you understand. what i mean right you know baseball wow the oldest pitcher in the league 25

when he comes right out. So they need to select the best available talent. With a new team, there's going to be steep learning curves. Obviously, there's a cost cap, which is the first time a new team is... joining under one, so something to consider, and joining the grid at the beginning of a brand new set of regulations, one of the biggest set of regulations we've seen probably in modern times. So you need experienced people.

You need people who've been around the block a couple times. For sure. According to Nate Saunders of ESPN, Valtteri was really keen to return immediately. I mean, he's in part of the grid, right, and things like that. Sergio Perez was less convinced to come right back.

Ultimately, Cadillac offered both drivers something tangible, immediate, and for more than a single season. So it's understood that at least two other teams with their lineups locked down for next season told Sergio that he would be in contention for something in 2027.

So Alpine was potentially looking for someone because of Franco Colapinto, etc. But Sergio Perez really wanted one multi-year contract. So supposedly what Nate Saunders is alleging is that that's what Cadillac has offered both of them.

That it's going to be at least a two-year contract is what we're hearing. And really the big question is what do we expect from Cadillac in 2026? I'm loving the enthusiasm I'm seeing of them wanting to be championship contenders, but we're going to be really realistic, right?

A solid midfield run is what I'd love. If they complete more laps and they DNF, that would also be great. But, you know, be supportive. They're a new team. Obviously, people working for them are not completely new to Formula One, right? The drivers are team principal, etc. but there's still going to be some growing pains. It's not the Jamaican bobsled team from Cool Runnings, all right? Right. The people, everyone working on the team for the most part knows what they're doing. But I think-

it's a very good situation for about three, both us and Chico Perez, because the expectations are very low for, for, for a new team coming in. Nobody is expecting them to. be battling for podiums and battling for wins right out the gate everyone understands the growing pains that come with being a new team on the formula one grid so

I think the bar is, is so low. If they get out there, they finish races. They maybe occasionally get into the points. People will be saying, these guys are doing a great job. You know,

Yeah, I would also like to clarify a comment I made. People are complaining about no Americans. Sergio Perez is obviously from North America, right? People are complaining specifically about the United States of America, though I think he covers a North American base pretty well. I'd also like to emphasize, because Sergio Perez is not... popular in the United States of America, in the area that you're in, does that mean that he's not popular?

Literally everywhere else. This happens with K-pop discussions. Some people are like, why is K-pop so popular? Because billions of people listen to it in other continents. Because it's not popular in your continent doesn't mean it's not popular everywhere else. Admittedly, he was responsible for 30% of Red Bull merch sales.

Yep. Because he is, he's so popular. So they really just bought themselves. I mean, one or two, I mean, Valtteri Bottas has a fan base, but I would say Sergio Perez is probably one of the most popular. Drivers as well. Like after Max Lewis, I'm trying to think. Maybe Charles Claire's up there. He's very marketable and huge. You look, if you've ever been to Mexico, Checo is everywhere. He does so many different.

partnerships with different brands, so many different print ads, so many different ads on his socials, so many different broadcast ads, like Checo Perez prints money. He, the guy loves to push product. That's probably behind driving fast. His second love is pushing product. That's what you really need from two drivers too. Valtteri's – and both of them are very well spoken. They were on Good Morning America yesterday. Dan Taurus, who's the CEO of Group 1001, who –

owns right twg motorsports which is how it goes down the line um he was on bloomberg television they had a lot they were in the new york stock exchange ringing the bell they were doing the whole kit and caboodle in new york city yesterday with their two drivers and they were giving a lot of interviews usually sergio perez as we've seen in

Red Bull. He's pretty outgoing. He's on the social media stuff and everything, but I don't think he's had to have talked or promoted himself as much as he had to yesterday in New York City. I think sponsors really love him and they love Valtteri because Valtteri has that fun honorary American personality of his wakeboarding with an American flag behind a boat. Valtteri Bottas is one of the most American drivers in motorsport.

He just embodies, you know, he's also the most Australian and one of the most Finnish. He's just a global citizen, you know? But what I appreciate about Valtteri Bottas is he's always down to clown. He has like a good sense of humor. ever since he left Mercedes AMG Patronus as a driver and then moved to Alfa Romeo and then eventually Sauber, like he really came out of his shell and found a.

unique voice and a unique identity that we never really saw when he was at Williams and Mercedes. And they said in an interview yesterday, which you might be, you might be referencing later that. Cadillac wants him to be authentically who he is now. They don't want him to be the reserved person he was at the beginning of his career. And I think that's great. Yeah, they have really good history in Formula One. They obviously have.

If you read books by folks who've worked with, let's say, Sergio Perez when he was in Force India, and Valtteri Bottas, things like that, everyone loves working with them. They both can develop the car very well, and they both know what they're doing.

it's interesting to see how people have turned around on, let's say, Sergio, when they're like, oh, get him out of here. He doesn't know what he's doing. I'm sure we've all seen some of that on Twitter or threads or whatnot. And now they're like, oh, I'm so happy he's back. I was like, please. I was there when you were a hater. I saw.

driver pairing is kind of a no-brainer. Yes, I agree with you 100% and we've now learned that the issue was not Checo Perez. It was actually the situation. It was the second car at Red Bull, the second seat at Red Bull. Toxic work environment at Red Bull. But this driver pairing to me and to a lot of people is a no-brainer because these are two of the most beloved drivers in the Formula One space. who are experienced, who are proven, and they are the total package.

And chat can correct me if I'm wrong, but I will always appreciate Sergio Perez as he saved so many people's jobs when he forced India to go into administration. They were just running out of money, and it wasn't good. And therefore, they were then subsequently purchased, and now it is Aston Martin. But he made that happen. Wait, what? Do you not know this?

No, please tell me. Yeah. Essentially what I just said, right? They weren't paying his salary. Like the owner was not, it just didn't have any money. So Sergio Perez essentially forced it to go into administration, which means he was going to go. Right, but what did he do? Did he go to the FIA? I believe... Alright, please hold everyone. Do you feel like some drivers would have kept quiet about it? Um... Arrested the unusual step as a creditor to save the team.

I'm trying to see what exactly what he did to do it. He went through like essentially essentially went through the administration legal process as a creditor that he needed money for like he was supposed to get money from them and force them to. to get sold, which is a highly unusual move that you don't do. Um, and saying it was the best outcome for creditors and stuff like that. So he said, money's due. Um,

He kind of pulled the trigger and put the team into administration. So he was the person that first reported it. Or he was the person that dropped the first domino. So he was the person that pulled it. too short and blew the whistle. Yes. Got it. He's like, there's, I think he said it was like 400. He's like, he's here to protect 400 people who are working on the team. It wasn't about his money. And I was like, that's cool with me, dude. Appreciate that. Great.

Thank you so much. Yes. So it's obviously, again, I think I mentioned that he's great to work with. So is Valtteri and they obviously been on the formula grade for as long as they have or around the formula in space for as long as they have because they know what they're doing.

And you've worked with Checkout when you worked with Red Bull, correct? Yeah. He's a more reserved guy, but he's very nice. I mean, he did the social media thing, right? Whatever we asked of him or when I was walking around, whenever they asked him, they just gave him a rundown. He's like, yeah, cool.

Great. He's like, sounds great. He's like happy to do it. Yeah. It's interesting. You know how people say they change personalities when they, depending on what language they speak, right? I think when I speak Polish, I get more angry like my grandma, but. He definitely has a lot more, I guess, fuller personality speaking in Spanish.

And it's always fun to see him. And I guess you'd say a thing about Max when he's speaking Dutch. So it's always fun to see them in their environments with either journalists from their home country or journalists who can speak their language and interact. But also seeing them interact with fans who just really appreciate...

appreciate them and are just obviously not trying to gain autographs if that makes sense. Right. And always making time for little kids. I think that's all the drivers. I just want to just fluff up those two because I worked with them, but I haven't seen a driver really just.

Lewis gets mauled, which I kind of feel bad about when he's in the paddock. So he tries his best, but it's like a lot. It's a lot of freaking people. It's like Beatlemania. It's crazy. It's like zombies clawing at him. Yeah. So they do try to make the best of what they can. But usually when it's a little kid, like done, like shooing. No problem. But excited for both of them. And they were doing great on their press tour. So let's go Cadillac 2026, baby.

Let's go. Red, white, and blue. These colors don't run. These colors don't run. The only time I feel patriotic. Yeah. I will say before we move on. talking about athletes when they speak in their native tongue. Have you ever seen the clip of Nikola Jokic at a press conference? And like, as you know, the Joker plays with the Denver Nuggets and the NBA.

Hates doing press conferences. He might even hate playing basketball. Like for him, like playing basketball is like clocking into like a nine to five, like working as an accountant. He never seems like he wants to be there. And at this press conference, he clearly doesn't want to be there. He's bored out of his mind, feels like a slog. And he hears someone pronounce his first name the way. Where is he from? He's from Serbia. Is that correct?

I think he hears someone pronounce his name like in his like it with like a Serbian accent. And he immediately perks up and the guy starts asking him questions in Serbian. And he's so animated and he feels so relieved to like get to speak his native language. And it's like it's awesome. It's cool to see those different personalities. within one person my parents have been in has been in America for for

over 30 years, but it's sometimes just easier to talk to them in Polish. I just don't want to find the words in English to explain to them. If I talk to them in Polish, there's no problem there. It's just it makes everything makes sense. There's no communication barrier there. Have you ever interviewed an athlete in Polish?

um i did during an uh esl esports uh run sports sorry um the whole thing in germany and whatnot i did interview in a sim racer in polish i did in english and then i did it in polish because i thought it'd be fun because they were both polish but um i've not interviewed like a like an athlete athlete in Polish. You know what we need to make happen? You have to interview Robert Kubica.

I've luckily talked to him in Polish and English when I met him in the paddock, but it wasn't like a formal interview or anything. It was just videographer Mark Urban knew I was a huge fan and he knows Robert. So he introduced us and I was like, oh my God, that'd be sick. What was it like speaking to him in Polish? Did his body language change when you started speaking to him in Polish as opposed to English?

Yeah, it becomes just more genuine, I guess. Like, you're just like, oh, okay, like, I get it. And you're just having more of a colloquial conversation. Usually what I don't...

Not that drivers are strange, but you're respectful. You're having a normal conversation. But with him, he was just like shooting the shit. It was just like we've known each other for a while and it was nice. And even with my heavy American accent while speaking Polish, he was like, no, you're doing great. I was like, thanks so much. I haven't spoken to Polish since my mom from like two weeks ago.

So it's always nice to practice too. And he's like, oh yeah, I've been, cause he also knows Italian, right? And French, et cetera. So he's like, it's always nice. So yeah, practice your native language or speak your native language. I should more so say. Finally, after weeks of speaking Italian in a Ferrari team. Yeah, for sure.

That's cool. Should we jump? What else do we have to talk about? We've had, we officially had the F1 summer break. We are now back into race week. What were the drivers up to? Yeah, I think we saw a lot of drivers just relaxing, shooting some b-ball outside of the school, spending time with loved ones, lots of boating and golfing, up to no good. Started making trouble in their neighborhood. Lando Norris with the Esports World Cup.

He was going to have his own grandstand at the 2026 Australian GP, which was actually a lot of people made a big deal, which is awesome. Let's see a hometown hero. Ghastly apparently has his guessing with like a cryptic post hinting at a launch of a potential new brand. A lot of intrigue. People are confused, right? Lewis Hilton dropped something, turned out to be I believe a mezcal that he dropped along with his

I think tequila that he also has. Oh, the 8-8 thing and the match. And everyone's like, what does the smoke mean? Retirement. Different team. What is it? Which makes sense when you consider the smoke. Speaking of Lewis Hamilton, him and his dog Roscoe took center stage in a special feature in Vogue, or as people are calling it, Doge. Love it.

So a little fun interview with Roscoe and Lewis Hamilton there. So yeah, it seemed pretty chill. I can't think of anything, any crazy rumors that came out of the summer break. Everyone seemed to be taking it all in. There was a very funny TikTok I saw, and it was a, I believe an Australian creator who took a picture with Hattie Piastri, Oscar Piastri's sister.

And the caption said, she doesn't know it, but in 2026, there's going to be a grandstand at the Australian Grand Prix named after her. Well done. How exciting. His sisters better get the front row seat at the grandstand. Forget padding passes. Give me that grandstand. I'd have so much fun. If I had a...

First of all, if it was me as a driver, but I'd rather be in the grandstand. I can't handle the pressure of competing. I get too competitive and they'll get in my head. So I'd rather have a sibling or a cousin or whatnot. Let's say they were a driver and they had a grandstand. I would be...

like not the cheer squad do you know how in soccer they have like the fan grandstands that are specific they always have someone the supporter section but they have like someone who's always like the ring like essentially the ring there's usually someone at the front like leading the chance yeah that would be me

I would love to do that. And I want her to do that for her brother at the Piaget Grandstand. Just like waving the flag, being the one that starts the chants. They should allow drums. They should allow flares. Foo-foo-zella. Let's go. Foo-foo-zella. that's such a throwback they were banned though for a lot of stadiums they made so much noise so much noise wild all right uh should we get into our race preview yeah let's get into your fun fat corner

Let's do it. James's Fun Fact Corner brought to you by Lights Out Blog, a.k.a. Nick Heldenby. Some fun facts about the Dutch Grand Prix, the Formula One Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2025 is Zandvoort's penultimate. Formula One race with its last year on the calendar being 2026. There have been 34 previous races held at Zandvoort since the Dutch Grand Prix first came around on the World Championship in 1952.

What? In 34 previous Zandvoort races, there have been 21 different winners. Fun fact, this will be the first time that an F1 race has been held on August 31st in 45 years. Wow. I did not know that. 1980 Dutch Grand Prix, also held at Zandvoort, is the only other race to be held on this date. Jim Clark holds the record for most wins at the track with four, a record which Max Verstappen could equal in 2025. Ferrari.

might have the most wins at the track with eight, but Ford are the engine manufacturer with the most Dutch Grand Prix wins, having powered 10 cars to victory. Shout out to Ford Cosworth. There have been four races at the track where the top three on the grid have also finished on the podium. Them finishing in the order that they started in 1970, 74, 78, and 2021. McLaren have recorded one, two results.

all of the last four Grands Prix of this season. Another 1-2 finish in the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix would see McLaren set the longest streak of 1-2 finishes in their team history. If McLaren takes the 1-2 result of the Dutch Grand Prix, they will become the third team after Ferrari and Mercedes to record as many as five consecutive 1-2 results.

If Lando Norris wins the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, he will join the list of eight other drivers who have won as many as 10 Grands Prix without ever winning a title. Ooh. Wouldn't yet. Yet. Yet. We don't know yet. Still close. If Oscar Piastri scores a point in the 25 Dutch Grand Prix, he will equal the third longest scoring streak in F1 history set by Lewis Hamilton.

If Piastri finishes the race, he will equal Max Verstappen for the second longest finishing streak in Formula One at 43 races. Wow. That's like a Cal Ripken Jr.-esque record, right? Iron Man. The Formula One Heineken Dutch Grab pre-2025 will be 72 laps around 14 corners for a total race length of 306.587 kilometers or 190.5 miles.

I like those facts about McLaren. They're clearly, I mean, hence why you're a Constructors' Champion, right? Once you're doing those one-two finishes and breaking those records, you're like, oh, this is a big deal. This is sick. They're just crushing it.

Will McLaren Domination bore fans? I guess we won't find out in 2026. Or maybe we will if they've nailed it, but TBD on that one. So, Sentry's sponsoring the show. I'm a comedian, not a developer. I write jokes, not code, but the developers who listen keep telling us it's the thing you use when you don't want to spend all night debugging nasty software issues in production. Let me explain it in F1 terms. Sentry, that's S-E-N.

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shows you the bug and how to fix it. And I love that. So if you don't want your code DNFing every weekend, go to S E N T R Y.io or click the link in the show notes and tell them.

Ash and James sent you. Let's talk about some storylines for the Dutch Grand Prix. As you mentioned, Zanvoort's penultimate Formula One race. So yeah, let's last schedule for the F1. Season will be 2026. However, it's looking to schedule a NASCAR or IndyCar race for the future, which I find... Interesting. I'm assuming Euro NASCAR and not American NASCAR when I read that headline. There is a Euro NASCAR, believe it or not. There's also NASCAR Brazil and NASCAR Mexico.

Looking to score some Euro NASCAR. There's going to be rain in the forecast all weekend long. That can still currently change right on the... right there on the coast and things like that. But yeah, rain in the forecast. We'd love to see it. Hopefully not too much of a heavy rain so the spray isn't crazy. And then we have this whole argument again where we have to explain about the wet weather tires displacing 85 liters of water and rain. And one second.

they go 300 kilometers an hour and all this other stuff so fingers crossed it's a rain race but not a wet rain race i guess you should say a sprinkle i would like to see some uh Some element of weather mix things up because without it, Zanvoort is like a Monaco, Hungary-esque race where there are not a lot of opportunities for overtaking.

Yeah, throw some snow on there. I'm just kidding. Yeah. It'll be interesting. I think whoever gets pole will win the race if weather isn't going to come into play, right? Yeah. Also, Zandvoort would be great for IndyCar, especially with Rina's VK. IndyCar's not going to stand for it. Be a real Dutch treat.

Any cars barely going to Mexico, okay? Oh, I know, I know. They can barely get their trucks to a car. They can barely get their cars to a race via trucks. I don't know. What are they going to do? Fly them? Whoa, whoa, whoa. So when they figure that out, hopefully IndyCar can race around the continent of Europe until then. We'll see. Last year, Leno Norse won this race, and can he do it again?

Or will Max Ruseppin make some hometown magic happen? Or will Piastri challenge Norris? We'll see. And we'll make our predictions in a little bit. But yeah, Lana Norris won this race last year. storylines kind of to watch the rest of the year right as we go back and forth of course who's winning the championship Norris Piastri this conversation happening every single gosh darn weekend Norris has to be feeling good

I'm kind of on a win streak here. Piastri may be feeling the pressure a little bit, only nine points ahead. We talked about this in our most... latest podcast weeks ago that after summer break last year, Piastri did not do as well as he did in the first half of the season. So that's something to keep on.

on a lookout here to see how he performs. If he, summer break has been good to him. If he's locked in, if he can continue that momentum that he's had from the first half of the season, keep challenging Norris with those single or hopefully double point leads there. And if Norris as well can. keep up the good work. It's fun to see this back and forth. There were also conversations about how McLaren have talked to each driver about how to handle if the other driver wins the championship.

Yeah, I mean, Lando Norris definitely has the momentum coming into the remaining 10 races on the Formula One calendar. But it's just like Chris Kornacki on election night. Too close to call. It's too close to call. The Papaya Electoral College. How many F1 races are there? F1 races. 24. Left, not total. Oh. Duh, idiot. Oh my God, you're right. It was 10. My apologies. I was unfamiliar with your game. As Shaq would say.

So I do think, I think Piastri is still going to perform well. I know we, something to compare to. I do appreciate, I guess, McLaren talking to them. I know we all love raw motion. We all want to see them kind of. not get into it we don't want them to see them damage the cars or do anything silly on track but i i don't want that inter-team battle happening again it's maybe fun in the moment but afterwards for everyone else it is not so

I'd be super excited. Up next, can Lewis Hamilton find his footing slash get out of his own head slash can Ferrari get their shit together? This all comes into one package, right? We talked about this earlier. excuse me, earlier, previous podcast for Lewis Hamilton. I mean, he was so enthusiastic at the beginning of the year. He was so raring to go. He wants to win a championship with Ferrari. He doesn't want to be like the other drivers. And then he...

not great races, terrible strategy. No one's communicating with him over the radio. It seems like we're listening to a strategy calls and he's like, maybe they should find another driver.

which is a huge juxtaposition and just hard to watch considering the comparison I made is like, right when you're growing up for me, my dad was like someone who was like, indestructible and six foot four and dad could do everything and carry all the groceries and pick me up and do all this stuff and unstoppable but now he's getting older they're like oh he's he's a mere mortal this is like a lewis hamilton rams like oh yeah you're the goat and he's like they should get other

driver this sucks i suck i'm like damn man everyone's got it reminds me of and it's relevant right now because it's currently airing on netflix it just came out there's a docuseries about the dallas 1990s dallas cowboys And there was a moment that happened where Emmitt Smith, towards the end of his career, gets cut by the Cowboys, wants to keep playing football, goes to the Cardinals.

And the first season with the Cardinals, he comes back to Texas stadium and it's the first time in his professional career. He's gone to Texas stadium and played as a visitor and not as one of the Cowboys. And after, I remember as a child seeing the press conference afterwards and Emmett Smith crying, talking to reporters. Because it was a mix of things. It's not the team he was used to. He also is not the athlete he wants to be anymore.

being overcome with emotion because you are not performing up to like a standard that you have for yourself. And, um, You you hate to see it. I mean, but you also like it reminds you that these people are human and have emotion and insecurities and doubt. We just don't often see that because. they often choose to be incredibly guarded. Yeah. We'll see how, oh, Ferrari, what have you done to our boys? What have you done to Louis Hampton and Charlotte?

If I may make another American sports reference that are definitely not going to anger anybody on this podcast. Yeah, Ferrari, like the Yankees currently, if I may say so myself. They have all the components to make a good team. But what are we doing in the kitchen, boys? What are we doing? Best New York accent.

Up next, will Camille Antonelli maintain his Rookie of the Year honors? And of course, strictly speaking, Rookie of the Year, the actual Rookie of the Year, where it goes to whichever rookie has the most points. We can discuss who we think the Rookie of the Year is at length at some other point in the season. But Camille Antonelli, right, there are those...

rumors is reports how they always classically do this and we talked about this as well previously he's getting in his own head he's not performing as well something's happening blah blah blah obviously kind of showed that up in the last race. And we'll see if you can just maintain it, especially in a Mercedes. The car is doing just well, as we can see with George Russell.

I was recently on the back markers podcast, which is a podcast home, but hosted by Graham, who is also known online as average F one consumer and Zane. And they were like, who do you think is the best rookie of the season? And I was like, it's Kimi Antonelli. And they're like, really? I'm like, yeah. I was like, who else would you pick? And they're like, well, Isaac Hatcher has been really good. I'm like, yeah, but go.

look at the F1 standings, like Camille Antonelli is seventh in the driver's standings as a rookie. And he has like three times the amount of points as the next rookie in the standings. And I think he was in the, the argument I made is like, I think a lot of people are dealing with recency bias because Kimi Antonelli is a victim of his own success because he came out of the gate finishing in the top six in the first X amount of races.

And everyone thought, oh, he's going to be competing for, by mid-season, he's going to be competing for podiums day in and day out. And I think he just... set the standard and expectation so high for himself by doing so well at the beginning of the season.

Yeah, I'll definitely agree with you on that one, which might be the first time we agree on like a stat like that, where it's definitely that that recency bias and people like Isaac Hajar and like things have been pushed against him and we love seeing him classic hero's journey go through. push through where he's been. Australia was a huge downfall. Right. Um, and he's been doing better. He's doing a lot better and it's great to see that. And we love that kind of story, but it's also like,

What I'm looking for in Rookie of the Year, and we can talk about, yeah, Kimmy Antonelli definitely up there, but we're talking about consistency. Who's been the most consistent? Doesn't mean the most points. Not everyone has the car to do what Kimi Antonelli is doing and we'll never know. No, it's true. If Oliver Bearman, if he was in a Mercedes, what he would have done. Or Isaac Hadjard in a Mercedes, what he would have done, etc. That's fair.

It's so hard to equal out. And I always say one day, hopefully, and this will never, ever happen. We can get some numbers out here with these cars and they can finally tell. And then we can like calculate. performance equally um maybe get some balance of performance just kidding we don't want to bop these cars that's not the point formula one i'll watch sports car racing but one day i want to i just like want to know like i would love to know we're never going to find that out there

After the last race of the season, get everyone to swap cars just to see for shits and gigs. Please. I would love that so much. I want to know what matches have you can do in a Haas. Please.

Yes. I'd love to see what he does in the Sauer. I want everyone else to go into Max's car and be like, oh my God, who can fucking drive this? The second seat is terrible. What I would love to see is to see Max drive every- car on the grid max first happen like after the after the formula one season is over let's do like a post season session where max does like 10 laps in every car on the grid

And then like doing a time trial ghost racing situation in Mario Kart, we composite all of them together and see them racing against each other on the track. That's what I want to see. Yeah, it will never happen. But yeah, these discussions are fun because like who's grabbing, who's converting, who's gaining more positions during a race. These like little stats that you can think of.

and what's going to happen, who caused what incidents, who caused the incidents, et cetera, and whatnot. So very interesting to see our discussion at the end of the year. But currently, most points, Kimi Antonelli, Rookie of the Year.

Also on the Mercedes signs, we're awaiting George Russell's contract extension. We're assuming he gets one. Rumor on the street, and I can say this allegedly, maybe, potentially, so no one gets in trouble. There are some things that he has requested that Mercedes is currently navigating.

through which is why it might have been taking a while what are the do you know anything about the requests i'm not telling you on this podcast recorded got it like you know like a nixon case here i'll meet you in the parking garage and we'll talk about it So George Russell, yeah, reading the contract extension should probably get announced somewhat soon. And...

Lastly, I mean, overall, exciting battles in the midfield, right? We're seeing Sauber can continue its upward trajectory. We're looking for patterns, people. Patterns, as me and James always say. That's me at Joanne Fabrics looking for patterns.

So yeah, we're looking for Sauer, see if they can keep up the momentum, how Nico Halkenberg can do, Gabriel Brotilletto, etc. Can the Williams... get their stuff together unfortunately not having the best uh middle of the season but let's see how everyone comes back from summer break and a good reminder for a lot of folks uh we're really focusing we like me and james are building any cars the teams are focusing on 2026

Any upgrades that are going to come are going to be very, very minor. So whatever you see now, maybe the next two races. Don't expect it to change for the rest of the season. Yeah, these are going to be minor upgrades. We're not talking a full facelift. We're not talking about a BBL. You're getting Botox on the forehead at best. Like two units. So don't expect major changes if your team maybe is like, oh, we have a different floor, et cetera. Just don't. We're going to chalk this one.

if we need be and get ready for 2026 here. Shall we do predictions? Yeah, let's do your predictions. Exactly what I was going to ask. Would you like me to go first? Let me Google something real quick. You may go first if you're ready. All right. My predictions are Lando Norse is going to put it on pole and get P1. Oscar Piastri P2. Charles Leclerc P3. George Russell P4.

Max Verstappen P5. Oh, wow. Max P5 just because the Red Bulls. Yeah, I think the Red Bull car is continuing on a downward trajectory. and Max is going to struggle to get out of it what he wants. He's probably going to complain on the radio a lot about it, but he is going to be able to get a performance out of it that no other driver can and still finish in the top five.

Okay. You went P1 to P5, is that correct? Yeah. Lando P1, Oscar P2, LeClaire P3, George Russell P4, Max P5. I did Piastro P1, Norris P2, George P3, Max P4, Kimmy P5. Oh, Kimmy P5. I like that. Yeah. Backing up my boy. No, he's not my boy, but I think he's going to bounce back just fine. Your son. Gosh, so young.

Our sweet baby boy. He's just, he's a child. And everyone needs to be nicer on social media. Can you imagine being that age? Which is, okay, this is also my next issue. Look, I'm Lano Norris. I have my qualms, but we will give him credit where credit's due. I also disliked, while he was also super young and into Formula 1, everyone had given him shit for his attitude. And I was like, dude, if I was getting paid millions of dollars, I would be way worse.

There's no way you're judging these young gentlemen who don't have their frontal lobe fully developed. We know this. What is wrong with you? If I had been famous when I was 18 years old, Ash, I would have been... canceled so fast i was such an arrogant piece of bro like it was i just like how how people in their late teens early 20s who are thrust into the spotlight are able to handle themselves and not offend a ton of people or not be portrayed or um

seen as like just an entitled piece of crap like is a miracle to me because at that age i was awful So kudos to them for coming off as semi decent, nice people, given their circumstances.

Yeah, Kimmy Antonelli is doing a great job right? Brought his classmates over for a race and all this other stuff. We got so much flack for that, too, which was wild. Did he really? I didn't see that side of the internet. That was... Jacques Villeneuve was doing his hot take. He loves to show up in headlines by saying... Being hot take Tyler. Is Jacques Villeneuve our Stephen A. Smith? Maybe. The thing is, his takes are hot, but he's not as entertaining to watch or listen to as Stephen A. Smith.

Yeah, like I know Stephen A. Smith is just doing it for entertainment and wants the discussion and the smoke and he can go back and forth and yell. Jean-Claude Neuve will say something, not really back it up, and then get mad that we're mad at him. The only difference is Jacques Villeneuve is a Formula One world champion and Stephen A. Smith probably can't shoot a basketball for his life. Oh, only one way to find out. Speaking of shooting...

Stephen A. Smith was on General Hospital and it's fucking hilarious. Was it bad? It's so good. It's so good. So he plays like a cop on it. You got to look up Stephen A. Smith, General Hospital. But there's a scene. Where he goes into a hospital room and there's an assassin dressed as a nurse who's about to inject poison into one of the main characters who's like on life support.

And he's like, he comes in as the cop and assuming like, hold it right there. And the nurse out of nowhere tries to pull a gun on him and he shoots the nurse. But the way he's holding the gun is like from like the 1950s movies where he's like holding it at the hip and like not even aiming. It's like so funny. It's so good. Anything else you want to talk about before we wrap this up? Nothing else. Let's wrap it up.

Thank you so much for listening to the WTF1 podcast. I've been your host, James Coker, along with Ash Vandele. Help control a pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered. Ash, anything else? Support local, including your local racetracks. We will be back next week with our race review of the Formula One Heineken Touch Grand Prix 2025. But until then, we hope you have a wonderful week and a wonderful weekend. Goodbye.