Miami 2023 preview and Sergio Surge?

The podcast host discusses the challenges of finding the right intro music for their show. They also talk about the excitement of the upcoming episode, which will focus on the battle at Red Bull. They mention the lackluster sprint format in Azerbaijan and express their preference for the older setup. They discuss the difficulties of passing in the current Formula One cars and the impact of tire overheating. They speculate on potential changes to improve racing, such as a reverse qualifying grid or heat races. They also discuss the potential impact of the hot and humid conditions in Miami on car performance. Overall, they express their desire for a more competitive championship and hope that Red Bull's dominance can be challenged. I don't know, this song's got a little bit of a ticking clock feel to it, right? So the thing with trying to find these intro songs for the podcast is you've got to find something that sounds good, it's on the internet, and it's within our company budget here, which is free. So the free part is really tricky, but I don't know, we're going to keep trying, we're going to keep looking for new sound, new intro music until we find it, and that's what we're all about here at the F1 Funcast, you tell us what's working and what's not working, and we're going to keep changing it until you get what you want. So I'm very excited about this week's episode, we talked a lot about what's shaping up to be a battle at Red Bull, and after qualifying, it certainly seems to be more of a battle than we could have predicted, and I'm really excited, excited about this episode, excited you joined us. If you ever want to give us suggestions on audio to change, send us tracks we can use, ask us questions, give us feedback, it's always at F1Funcast at Gmail, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, it's just going to keep, that list keeps getting longer and longer, eventually we'll just have to say wherever you find people out there in the world, but thanks for joining in, thanks for being a part of this community, and had a lot of fun with this one, had a lot of fun, but yeah, thank you for checking it out, and without further adieu, let's play that podcast, play that funky podcast. Welcome back, everyone, to the F1Funcast, I'm James, this is Connor, we've got a lot to catch up about, it's been a little while, so why don't we get right on into it today. Connor, it's been a long time since we've talked, about a week, we've had a grand... It has been a long time, and you know, it's tough to coordinate things, because I mean, we live on opposite sides of the country, quite literally, so it's sometimes pretty difficult to coordinate timing. This is one of those weekends where I know we were not watching anything at the same time, so I felt like I wasn't even talking to you about it as it was happening, you know, like I knew you watched the hours before I even tuned in, and you know, it's just different times in the middle of the night, but hopefully this week in Miami, and back on US soil, it'll feel a little more normal, we'll be able to watch it. Oh yeah, absolutely, it will. So what did you think, what did you think of Azerbaijan, and mostly, you know, the race was the race, and we all know how the results went, but how did you feel about that sprint setup on Saturday? I'm not sold on it, to be honest, I still, I think I prefer the older setup, I think like I've said before, I understand why they were trying to change it up, but I think it didn't really make a difference, and to be honest, I don't know if the current state of Formula One is helping, or making it worse, with the cars not really being able to pass, they shortened the DRS zones, so there's a little bit less passing in the DRS zones too. Right, right, I agree, I thought, heading into it, I thought it was going to make for a really exciting Saturday, where anything can happen. I did too, and I was really open to it, and I wanted it to be good, like it's one of those things where they're trying something new, and you're like, alright, I want this to succeed, I want something good to come out of this, and it didn't really do anything. No, it was pretty anticlimactic, and it felt like, if you were a team, and not a top ten team, what are you, what was even the point of the day for you, there's nothing to race for. If you weren't in the top eight, it's almost like they shouldn't have even been on the track. It's almost to the point where I wonder if they could make it, I saw a suggestion online about doing heats, like heat races, or, I don't know exactly how they'd set it up, but you gotta make it so that every car has a chance for some kind of points, so that anybody that's not in the top eight actually wants to race, and they're not just sitting there like, oh, why are we even doing this, this is a waste of time. Why even put our car at risk, or our driver at risk, or be out there at the end of the Or, I don't know, maybe have just the top ten do a race, or something like that. I don't know, but I think something like that. Have you heard the idea of a reverse qualifying grid? So you're slower? Yes, I have seen that. That's something I like, but then I just wonder if it'll be two laps until we're back to normal order again. You know, if... Well, I think it would definitely shake things up a lot, I mean, we saw last year with Max in Spa, I mean, he was at the back of the grid, and he ended up, I think he ended up winning that race, but he was absolutely flying. But I think it would be pretty interesting to have all the top few teams at the back of the grid, you know, kind of just see how that shuffles out. And I think it would give them, you know, more incentive to race hard, and to drive hard. Absolutely. Because you don't want to be the one that falls the farthest. If you're starting in 18th or 19th, you're going to finish in 18th, 19th, you know, somewhere in there. But if you start third and you don't want to fall out of the top ten, you're going to go a lot harder the whole day. Yeah. It's going to make the top teams fight harder to get up the pack, and it's going to make the midfield teams that are usually at the back anyways, they're going to be fighting even harder to keep those points that they can get. I mean, I think it's a fairytale idea, but from all the things I've heard, I think that sounds at least, you know, interesting. I think that with the way that the drivers even received the sprint format for this past weekend in Baku, is that I think even they weren't really thrilled about it. I think that they're open to some kind of a change as well, and again, I think it kind of goes hand in hand with just the way that these cars are now, and they aren't really living up to the hype as far as allowing more passing. I think a lot of it has to do with they've raised the floor up, what, like 15 millimeters from last year because of the porpoising to try and eliminate that. And in doing so, it made it so that teams focused more on getting a little bit more out of the stuff, the aero surfaces that are on top of the car, on the bodywork, and it's creating more dirty air, and it's kind of having a negative effect on what these regulations are supposed to do. Right. Which we saw at the start of last year or the year before how close the racing was and how tight it was. Now you can't, it seems like you can't get anywhere near, you know, the whole race in Baku was seeing if Hamilton could get close to Alonzo or Russell could get close to, I think it was Stroll, but they couldn't even, you know, anytime they were within DRS, then you get back up to a second and a half, two seconds, and it just seems really hard to be on anybody's scale the whole race. It also seems that the tires are not really helping. The tires are overheating way too easily this year, which also goes hand in hand with cars not being able to follow as closely for as long. And I mean, it's just, I think they showed one shot in the Grand Prix on Sunday where the two Red Bulls are like, it looks like they're a mile ahead on the front. Right. I remember that. They're starting to break into the first turn, and I think it was Leclerc that's like just coming into view. Right. Just going, just coming up over the hill. There's no way, there's no way you could get close. Like they were running their own race around a different track or something. Yeah. Oh yeah. I think it's a lot more of that. I'm happy for Perez, though. I'm happy for Perez in taking the fight to Verstappen, even if it's just for this one race. I think it's fantastic that he's- It's great for everybody. It's great for fans of the sport, you know, and I think it's good for, in the end, it's good for Max, too, to have someone pushing him and have someone making it so it's not just a cakewalk all the way to the championship, you know? I think what this year could shape up to be is kind of reminiscent of what 2016 was between the two Mercedes drivers with Hamilton and Rosberg, where they, the previous two years Hamilton wins the championship, it was not very close, really, either year. It was, you know, it was close, but it wasn't tight, but 2016 was like back and forth, back and forth the entire year just between those two drivers and it came down to the last race. And it was phenomenal. It actually made you kind of forget the fact that Mercedes is just running away with every race. Right. It makes for, like, at least there's some title chase going on at the top and then you can watch the midfield because, yeah. And there was a lot of clashes between the two of them, too, throughout the season. It made for a really, really good season as far as from a viewership perspective. I think we could see that, a little bit of that, at least personality-wise with Red Bull. I hope so. Perez and Verstappen seem to be, you know, Perez wants his respect and he deserves his respect, but Max is the reigning and defending and, you know, it's... He's also Red Bull's, like, the class, the teacher's pet almost, you know? Right. He's Red Bull's favorite driver. He's been with the program for years now, so he had a good reason to have... Yeah. Yeah. He signed with them through 2028 as well, so it's like, even though you're my teammate, this is my yard and you're trying to come in here. And I think that could be... Now, do you think on the racing side of things there's an opportunity for Perez to make it interesting or do you think it's more of a, let's see how long they can keep this close type of thing? I think it's more how long they can keep it close because I think unless Perez can minimize the weekends where Max just absolutely blows everybody out of the water, and if Perez can't stay on pace with Verstappen at the majority of these races, then obviously he's not going to win this championship, but I think that if he can show that pace, if he can find that extra gear and get on pace with Verstappen at a bigger track that's not a street track, then I think that's something that we could look into a bit. Now, so I guess that's what it is, is there's not enough street tracks really in the season to... Thankfully. Right. Now, Miami's a street track, right? This weekend, this is another street track. Yeah. Well, technically it's a parking lot, so... Is it really? Is that what it is down by? Yeah, it's built in the parking lot of Hard Rock Stadium where the Dolphins play. Oh, okay, that's right. I saw a lot of Dolphins stuff. I thought maybe they were just kind of sponsoring the weekend, but I didn't realize it was right in the stadium. That's funny. The paddock area where all the team's trailers and stuff like that are actually in the stadium on the field. I think one of the F1 accounts posted a picture of it, and I'm like, man, it must be so hot on that field, because I know all the stories from all the NFL games that are played there where all the teams complain about how just hot it gets on that playing field. And that's in the fall. I think I heard one of the commentators say something about it in FP1, saying that they were in there the day before, and they were cooking. Well, I just saw, before we started talking, I just saw Williams Racing posted a picture of Logan Sargent looking like he was just melting getting out of his car. Oh, I'm sure it's hot. Yeah, and it just looks like everything is just melting off of him, and I imagine the dehydration over the weekend is a major concern for those guys down there, because it's not just a one-day thing or an air-temperature-controlled, you're spending four days, three days in those cars at those temperatures. I can imagine this race, because of the humidity levels in Florida and how hot it can get during the day, I can imagine this race being a lot like it is in Singapore, where it's a very physically demanding race weekend and race in general, because it's just so hot and so humid. Right, right. Yeah, Miami is, if you're listening and you haven't been to Miami, it is, you get off a plane and you know, it's tropical. It's basically, you know, I know it's not technically a tropical climate, but it is always just like you're breathing in water. It's so humid and it's, I can't imagine trying to drive a car or do anything in that heat for a couple hours, two, three, four hours at a time. It's crazy. I feel bad for the Mercedes guys, they're wearing all-black fire suits in an all-black car. That thing must get pretty hot. Right. So do you think that could play a factor into car performance this weekend? Could you see, you know, is it more likely that we could see car issues just because of the heat and the stress it's going to put on the vehicles, or do you think these teams are so prepared that that's not something that could, you know, because overheating is a thing with any car, and if you've got these conditions, I mean, we're looking for right ways to make the championship interesting. You had a Red Bull overheat at the front, and, you know, is that what we're looking for? Because otherwise I feel like we're looking at another Baku with Red Bull, you know, running their own race, and then two through five or six, or three through six kind of bunching up. Yeah. Well, different cars work better in different climates. Like I think a few years ago the Ferrari performed really well when it was hot, or the Mercedes didn't perform well in a hotter climate. When it was hot out, the Mercedes lacked performance, whereas everywhere else it was almost bulletproof. I think you kind of see the same thing here as far as each team has strength, each car has strength, the way that the cooling is packaged, all the radiators and stuff like that, the whole cooling package of the car, how much airflow gets through there. If it's tightly packaged, then you're going to see a lot of teams opening up like louvers on the top of the bodywork to get some of that heat out of there. But if their cooling package is fine, then you're not going to see stuff like that. It all comes down to the kind of package that each team brings to the table. That's interesting. And you know, the way it is in southern Florida too, I mean, you could have a pop-up thunderstorm in the middle of this race, or in the middle of qualifying that changes everything, you know, over... Well, they're talking about rain on Sunday, so... I think it's on the forecast, they were talking about it in FP1, that there's rain potentially in the forecast. That's the ultimate equalizer, right? I mean... It is. Especially if it happens mid-race or, you know, kind of a flash storm or something, that's totally... See, that's what I really enjoy. And even in Baku, I really enjoy these split-second decisions that these teams have to make because of changing circumstance. You know, like everyone was talking about Max's pit stop because of the safety car, and it's... You think these guys are just driving around, but it's a whole team of people monitoring every contingency, everything that could happen on the track with the weather, with the other cars. I can't... You know, it's really fun to watch, and like, I would love to be a part of that decision-making in real time, or to watch them do that, to decide when to go to these tires. Is it going to rain? Who's going to make the call? You know, it's just... I love seeing all the people online after these races when something, like some bad strategy call happens, and they say, oh, I could have made a better strategy call. But they don't understand the mountain of data and information that you have to go through, and you have to be so precise about where you... When you pull somebody into the pits so you don't let them back out into a group of cars, you want them to be in cleaner, so you're looking for that gap, and just all sorts of other things that come into play. It's not a simple game to play. Right, right. And those are happening in split seconds, too. They're not... It's not like you can take your time and think about it for a while. You've got, you know, seconds to make that call, which is fascinating. So what do you think? What do you see going on in Miami? I know you're watching FP2 right now, and... Yeah, I've got it on mute in the background here. I'm trying to catch up a little bit. I've had a... I've had a long day. No, I know. I know. And it's... These two races came so quick back-to-back after having a... It's fantastic. ...break like that. It is. It's like too much of a good thing all of a sudden. Like, I... It's a breath of fresh air. I know. Well, those cars could get a breath of fresh air. That would be nice down there. But what do you see? Miami to me is kind of an interesting track itself. And really, I only say this from playing the Formula One video games, but you do get a feel for the course. And it's got some... You've got some hills to climb, and you've got some long straights, but it's just... I don't know. I don't remember the race last year too well. Do you remember how that one played out? Was that just sort of Red Bull domination? Well, you have to remember last year had a much more... Ferrari had a much more competitive car last year. That's right. That's right. At the start of the season, anyway. But Leclerc was in the lead for a majority of that race before Verstappen reeled him in, and then he was off into the sunset. But I think it was Verstappen, Leclerc, and I forget who was in third. Yeah, it was a decent race. I enjoyed it. I think that this year is going to be a little bit more interesting. I just don't want a Red Bull to run away with it. I know that they have the race pace currently. I think they probably will for a while. I think Ferrari's catching up to them as far as one lap pace. Sure. But you're about to see... I don't know if anybody's going to be able to catch them in race pace. So with that pace, I know they have from last year the cost cap and the wind tunnel reduction in time and stuff. Is there any way by the end of the season you think that could eat into this pace and you could see Ferrari cut into that? Or do you think it's just so superior at this point? I think if we're going to see anybody catching up to Red Bull by the time this year is ending, I think it's only going to be because Red Bull is taking their foot off the gas and they're now putting all their effort into next year's car. Or you're going to start seeing bits and upgrades being put onto the Red Bull that are only going to be for next year's car. And they're trying to get a jump start on that. I don't know how much of an effect it's going to have. I'd like to say that it will have some effect, but I don't know. They're so far ahead. What an advantage it is, too, to be able to almost already pivot to next year when teams are still bringing upgrades now. And you can turn around and take your championship-performing car from this year and already be working on next year's improvements. If they continue at this pace, I'd say probably by the summer break they'll start taking a look at next year's car and start moving that direction and not really focusing on bringing upgrades to the current one. That's crazy. And good for them. It's nuts to think about. You put yourself in that type of position. Hard work pays off, right? That's right. Some would say hard work and flexibility with rules and the Patriot way a little bit. The Patriot way, yes. Finding an edge wherever you can. They've taken their medicine this year and they've got to deal with those penalties and it hasn't slowed them down one bit. No, not at all. If anything, I think the raising of the floor has given them more of an advantage. It's to have hurt everybody except for Red Bull. Really? That's interesting. You think even the floor raise is just another example of something where they were just ahead of the curve? I think they already had the best car last year before these rules were done up. Ferrari was better in high speed and medium speed corners and they might still be at least the best if not close to it this year. I think I saw something that was pointing out how Ferrari maintained that edge on those corners. That's good. You're watching FP2 right now and they do really well. It ends up being Max and then I think Carlos Sainz and then Leclerc and then Perez. Red Bull, two Ferraris and a Red Bull which, you know, compared to last weekend although Charles... I was so happy for Leclerc last weekend. He deserved it. I guess that's what I was thinking about Checo when we were talking about it before and it kind of came in and out of my thought. If he wants to stay in this title race he cannot fall off that podium all year long. He can't make another mistake like he did in Australia. Yeah, exactly. Because Max isn't making those mistakes and the room for room for error is just tiny. But to think that Checo is, what, six or seven points behind Max in the championship and he's the only one of them who finished off the podium. He only finished fourth. They each have, what, two, three wins? I think two and two. Yeah, Checo has two, Max has two. So, I mean it really only came down to Checo being off the podium for it to be that big of a gap. That big of a gap only being six points but still. So behind the scenes is he quietly at night when he's saying his prayers, is he hoping for Max to have a very safe no injuries but have a very safe turn off in one of these races and kind of have a couple mechanical issues. Do you think in his heart of hearts are just, you know? I think, yeah. I mean, as a competitor from a competitor's standpoint, I think it would be dumb to think that you're not hoping for something like that. I think that any competitor is always not just hoping for their best performance out of themselves but hoping that their closest rival has something happen. Doesn't have to be something major but something that gives them more of an edge. And he must know. He must know in particular that he would need some help from the racing gods to get in front of him. So what is the dynamic with the team with Horner and Verstappen and Perez or like you were saying back when it was Rosberg and Hamilton and how does the team usually choose to handle that? Are you racing on your own or is it said to you before the season starts look, we want max number one, your support or is it, you know? How do you think? It kind of plays out during the season. Like at the start of the season the teams don't really want you fighting so hard between the two of you only because they're looking for constructors championship points too. And if you both crash into each other and both cars go out you don't get any points. It's tough. Do you think it's up to the team though? Every team handles a situation like that differently? You know, I feel like Red Bull really is, everyone knows that's Max's team. Yes. I think everybody does handle it differently. It's just that when you have Hamilton and Rosberg they were going at it and going at it but as they got further in the championship they were free to just race. Whereas I think Weber and Vettel back in 2012 look into Malaysia of that year and the multi-21 incident that was a flashpoint for sure. For anybody who doesn't know that, Malaysia in 2012, Vettel and Weber were pretty close in the championship I think at that point there was some wiggle room there and Weber was leading and Vettel was in second and Vettel was catching up to him and so Christian Horner said multi-21 which is basically saying stay in your current positions don't fight and they were supposed to come home one and two, Weber taking the win but Vettel was like nope, not having that and he took the fight right to Weber and he ended up getting the win and Weber was not happy about it. So I think that we could start seeing some stuff like that maybe. I would love to see it. I would love to see some kind of rivalry. I don't know if Horner's going to take sides because I know he's Max is his boy so I can understand why he would be more on but I would like to see them see he and Checo have a nice fair even fight right to the end. Well and speaking of even fights right to the end I'm getting into this little group of cars from McLaren down to I believe it's Alfa Romeo. I think it's McLaren, Alpine Alfa Romeo and Haas are all within. I love the midfield. The midfield this year is fantastic. It's great and that's where really the action is going to be the rest of the year isn't it? It's going to be those teams and that means everything for them. I mean as much as a world championship means for the top of the field it seems like these teams they really want to beat each other every single week for a team like Haas and McLaren they seem to have a little thing going on. But it's so important for these little teams because these smaller teams don't have the kind of obviously everybody has the same kind of a with the cost cap stuff but when you think about it the revenue is different when you're a smaller team and creating that revenue is different so every point matters because if you're higher up in the championship you get a little bit more money to spend and so you don't want to be at the bottom all the time you want to be making as much progress as you can but at the same time all those other what six, seven teams are all doing the same thing so it gets tight and I think I saw something earlier today where it was like yeah we already know who's winning the Constructors Championship and then it's going to be between Aston who kind of fell off the last race I'm not going to lie. They didn't have a great performance it's going to be between them Ferrari and Mercedes for the second best of the best of the rest pretty much for second place in the championship and then the midfield is going to be a fantastic fight I think hopefully all the way until the end of the season. I think so I think in I have to say in that second group I'm starting to think Ferrari is going to pull away from both Aston Martin and Mercedes. I think so too I feel like Mercedes they can't get around their bad design they can't upgrade around it and Aston Martin like you said they're taking a step back. I think Ferrari is moving in the right direction I think they're kind of working out some of the bugs from last year the pieces are finally in place and it does seem go ahead sorry I'm kind of wondering all good man I'm kind of wondering if Ferrari kind of started to get they've gotten more on top of the power unit issues they've been having and they've been allowing themselves to open up the power a little bit more and getting more and more power from those engines because I remember that being an issue last year where at the start of the season they had by far the best power unit and they were the fastest car and then they started having their issues and they dialed the power back and they were like in the off season they were like alright this is priority number we're going to fix reliability and then after that we're good to go and then first race LaCroix had an issue after all that talk and it's like oh boy here we go again and I think now they've started to understand maybe what's been going on with it and now that they have that understanding they're allowing themselves to open that engine up a little bit more and get some more power out of it and I'm not saying they're going to be closing the gap to Red Bull but they're going to be distancing themselves from Mercedes and Aston. I agree with that it must be every time they open it up though it's still got to be a hold your breath moment and just hope that it's frightening because that was their doom last year that was really kind of set the tone for the whole season every time things were going right they just in an instant they went wrong for Ferrari and it's a shame because they do seem to have the best team to maybe challenge Red Bull in the near next two years maybe but we've been saying that since like 2017 when they were second place in Mercedes 17, 18 could have been well 19 as well should have been then they fell off a couple of years because of their engine legality issues and then the past two years they've been okay right there so yeah I don't know I want them to get better the other thing I was going to ask you about was there's no what I've noticed and I kind of like is there's no mechanism in Formula One for you know like in the NBA or the NFL the worst team gets the first draft pick you know I mean I know you get a little bit more you get a little more wind tunnel time you get a little but there's no like incentive to incentive to tank for anybody right there's no you're on your own you sink or swim without any you know there's no draft pick there's no there's no golden ticket at the end of the year to do poorly which is what I think will make that midfield battle so fun through the end of the year because they're competing for wins instead of competing for a potential player next year which we see a lot in American sports which can kind of ruin things near the end of the season yeah absolutely absolutely should be interesting should be interesting there and so we've talked Baku we've talked Miami we've talked Red Bull and Max Verstappen a little bit I would be remiss if I didn't bring up to you did you see Brad Pitt's going to be in a Formula Formula I think he's going to be in a Formula Two car I did see that I read about it earlier it's a modified Formula Two car that Mercedes is helping them develop and he's going to be doing I don't know if he himself is going to be doing runs in it in between like practice sessions and stuff like that to get on track footage I mean I think it'll be cool we're going to have to take a look at that when they get to Silverstone because that's when they're going to be doing it for the first time but they're going to be doing it every race from there on when the news first broke people online were saying that he was entering as an 11th team and he was actually going to be racing on track and like you look into it and it's going to be very safe no one else will be on track but this must be like Tom Cruise wanting to fly planes it must be something Brad Pitt is thinking that's what they were saying they're taking kind of a page from Taka Maverick as far as the way they have the camera set up they have like a 6K camera that they're going to be putting in the cockpit of the car to give you like an up close in your face look at what it's like to be a driver and Hamilton is giving a lot of insight as far as the storyline and some of the action bits that are going to be going into the movie so it should be hopefully a pretty good Formula 1 movie because we haven't been able to see that for a while that's important too to have a guy like Hamilton who's legitimate helping out and giving his point of view because anything we just finished watching we watched The Wire I don't know if you've seen The Wire but it was so real because they actually went into these neighborhoods in Baltimore where they were going to be filming and talked to the people that were there they didn't just do focus groups or they didn't just like have a bunch of people from Hollywood make it up and so that authenticity of really going in there so having Lewis as part of the project I think maybe will kind of lend that credibility yeah it'll feel more real it'll feel the gritty stuff that they want to polish over maybe they won't polish over so much it'll be cool very cool so what else you got for me heading into the weekend you got any more thoughts on Miami or well it's nice to see Rebel switching up their livery for the first time in years it's nice they gave their design department a little bit of something to do instead of alright just copy this design put it on next year's car no changes is that what they do they're known for very little oh yeah well if you look at their design since 2005 well I would say since 2008 is when they really had like the this classic like almost like a dark bluish purple with the yellow nose the rebel obviously on the engine cover the last big change I think was in 2018 when they went to or no it was 2015 I think when they went to a really more like a matte finish on the car right right but I'm in order to save in order to save weight but it's really been basically the same design except for a few special edition liveries interesting interesting I'm into it Miami the Miami colors the whole the fluorescence and all that I love it I think it looks great it's very familiar out here in San Diego the Padres have a alternate uniform that is the same type of thing it's like the hot pink and hot green and all that I think it's just a cool it's a cool I think it looks fantastic yeah very rebel rebel is saying that they're going to have a special livery at each of the United States races so I'm excited to see what they're going to be doing in Vegas because I think that'll be cool a big poker ship or something some kind of big I will say though I really miss a lot of these cars having a glossy finish on the paint you like the gloss if you look I love the gloss like it like if you look back at like 20 like a 2017 Ferrari it just looks so good it's interesting because the cars do seem much more muted and matte finished and they're all a lot darker if you go back and look the colors used to be a lot brighter now we've talked about it before but it's just getting that paint off the car and getting down to yep crazy get the weight down which is another thing I actually want to touch on really quick is that one of the I read something online today where they were talking about ways they can improve the racing and one of the biggest things that people are talking about is getting the cars to be smaller because if you watch any of the Formula 2 racing from last weekend they're much smaller cars but they look so nimble and they're able to race side by side like where where Russell went into Verstappen and lap one of the sprint was it the sprint or was it the Grand Theft I think I think it was a sprint though right but if you look at that them going side by side through there it looks so tight like there's no extra space but if you look at Formula 2 doing the same thing you could park a bus in the amount of space that they have really because the cars are so much smaller and they look nimbler and a lot of people have been saying because these full on cars they're not small anymore they're massive and they do seem a lot bigger and they don't look nimble like when they're going through some of the slower corners they just look lethargic like you're trying to turn a bus around a hairpin and I think that if they can get the weight the biggest thing is they want to get the weight of the cars down but the way to get the weight of the cars down is you have to make them smaller but the problem with making them smaller is that you have so much of this technology with the MGU-H MGU-K, the power unit, the hybrid system, all the battery stuff, it takes up so much space but that's also why you have so much weight is all that extra technology. Interesting. I think they're doing away with either the MGU-H and the MGU-K in 2026 as part of the new engine rules so that should take some of the weight away. I just I don't know. I want these cars to be smaller. I think they look great now but if you could make them a fraction smaller I think they would look even better. It's really a good point because whenever you send me videos I'm always struck with how much smaller and different the cars look even 5-6 years ago and you know you sent me stuff from all different eras of racing but I'm always kind of blown away with nimble is a really good word because they just seem like there was a time where yeah. They look they just look fast on a TV like you don't have to make it dramatic at all when you're doing the camera work. They look fast. Right. Even going through a slower corner because they're so small and they don't you know every little movement is dramatic when a car is small like that. So I think that one of the biggest things that F1 needs to do is make these cars smaller. I love the way they look but they need to be smaller. Yeah and that might in turn help the racing a little bit like we've been saying because It would absolutely help the racing. The racing does seem like it's not suffering but it does seem like you know you tweak one thing here and you gain here but then you lose there and this year seems like we're losing on a lot of that close racing that I remember last year when the season started you were texting me like my my god did you see how close did you see how close they're following you know and it was like really exciting stuff and now maybe you get into the DRS zone and you can get close but even with DRS wide open a lot of these cars. It's just like how it was two years ago. Yeah yeah it's uh I remember the only passing that was really happy was in a DRS zone. There was the bigger cars they don't leave room to have a creative pass because they're taking up so much space. They're so big and so heavy you know we have thousand horsepower cars but it doesn't seem like it because they're big. Right right although I will say Fernando Alonso last week I think it was turn six or turn seven an unusual he made a great move on the inside that was a fantastic move that was one of those where I went back and I watched it a couple times because if you blink you don't realize that he just took your spot you know and that's he's very creative he took advantage of what was going on in front of him that's what I love about Alonso is that he's been in the game so long he understands the racing better than I think anybody on the track right now and he's so good at finding those gaps and he knows that alright this guy's got to be careful about his teammate in the front he's going to be breaking a little bit earlier so I'm going to dive down the inside of him. Right right and he just yeah he's in such control and he's not afraid and he's not it's great he's like having a renaissance this year it's a lot of fun to see. It's awesome it's awesome. So I guess before we before we wrap this up I've got to ask you the American team going to get some points this weekend in Miami? I hope so they've been looking I wouldn't say they're looking strong in the midfield but they're holding their own Right I think that they're in a decent position in the midfield I think that it would help if they can develop the car a little bit more but they're one of those smaller teams that they don't have the kind of budget to be able to develop some of the bigger teams do but I think you'll start to see them get a little bit better I'd love to see them just score just get a couple points something I know a lot of my friends that have been tuning in and getting into Formula 1 they naturally are Haas fans because they're the patriotic side of things and I think they I know I've got a group of buddies that are having a big party this weekend the first American Grand Prix of the year and I know they're all rooting for Haas and I just in my heart I'd love to see them get some points to give those guys a reason to fire down a couple extra Budweiser's on the weekend or something I can picture it I don't know I root for them because my other teams are going in the wrong direction I think one of the biggest surprises with Haas is Hulkenberg is outperforming Magnussen Is that a surprise in your mind? Is that unusual? Maybe not such a big surprise I know Hulkenberg has always been he's always been regarded as one of the best drivers he's just never really had a top seat he's never had a seat at a top team he's been with Williams, he's been with Force India who else has he been with he filled in for Racing Point a couple of times during COVID he was with Brno up until 2018 and then does when he does when he retired the first time and now they got him back he's always been regarded as a great talent he's just never really had the equipment to show what he has. Is it one of those timing things with him he just never had the right place at the right time to get that seat? There's a mixture between that and his performances too I mean he was never I wouldn't say consistent but he definitely showed that he had speed. Interesting well I'm rooting for him those two look like they could star in a buddy comedy you know those two look like two guys that could be This is funny because they hated each other a few years ago that's so great about it there's a great interview when I think one of them I think Holkenberg took Magnussen out and he Magnussen says something to him I can't repeat it here it was so freaking funny when he walks by him in the interview and just snaps at him oh yeah Holkenberg comes in and gives him like a pat on the shoulder like nice one mate and Magnussen comes back with something freaking hilarious some choice words oh that's funny well we'll keep an eye on that this weekend we'll see if those two are still getting along by the end of the weekend in Miami we'll see if and yeah hopefully maybe we'll be talking next week about Sergio Perez with another win here in Miami or maybe we'll be talking about Ferrari having a couple spots on the podium could be nice don't get my hopes up I know I'd like to see Mercedes finish I know in FP2 we just saw they finished like 7th and 15th or something so it's not great which is weird because they were 1 and 2 in FP1 but this is why free practices are so wonky you can't really go off of them because Mercedes 1 and 2 in FP1 but were they doing race pace runs, were they doing qualifying simulations like you don't know what the fuel loads were, the tire choices are different it's a smorgasbord it's crazy well anyway we got qualifying tomorrow we'll look forward to that and I'm sure we'll have much to talk about when we get back together next week sometime I think we will and I guess until then enjoy the Grand Prix everybody and we will talk to you next time see you next time guys I want to dedicate this episode to a good man my friend's good uncle Donnie the very friend we were just mentioning at the end of the podcast lost someone close to them and he was a good man the type that always made you feel like he was your biggest fan even if he hadn't met you so that's what we believe in here at the F1 Funcast and he was exactly that this one's for Donnie, we'll talk to you all next week