Quick thoughts

The F1 Fun Cast provides an update on the current standings in Formula One after the Baku Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Red Bull's dominance is becoming evident, but Sergio Perez's win raises questions about a potential challenge within the team. The race for second place is heating up between Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Ferrari. McLaren, Alpine, Haas, and Alfa Romeo are closely competing for positions five through nine. The race in Azerbaijan had limited overtaking opportunities, possibly due to air dynamics. The upcoming Miami Grand Prix is highly anticipated. well well well welcome back to the F1 fun cast I am just checking in with everybody out there in between Baku Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the Miami Grand Prix just want to give a brief update on how things stand and what we're looking at over here at the f1 fun cast currently after after Baku it was I mean I don't know if you've listened to the other podcasts I'm not sure if you're up to date but we pretty much nailed it and it didn't take too much it's not I'm not trying to say where you know some sort of clairvoyant podcasts over here but the Red Bull runaway is real it's a real thing happening and we saw it coming if you listen to the episode a couple episodes ago we were talking about how this looked like it could have been a Red Bull runaway and it certainly was although interesting to see Sergio Perez isn't it back at the top of the podium so his reputation seems to be well-earned as a street specialist and it really brings up the interesting point of do we have a little bit of a race here at the top of the field I mean everyone was up in arms and it still kind of is true that Red Bull is going to run away with the constructors that's over the constructors is over give it to him now but interesting inside that team what's going on here and I mean Max Verstappen made some interesting quotes after the last after Baku saying about you have to be consistent it's all about consistency from here on out and it almost seemed like maybe a little bit of a little bit of a jab at his teammate they're saying yeah we've seen you do it on these street circuits but we have a lot of as Christian Horner put them a lot of proper circuits coming up here and are you going to be consistent enough to hang with me for the rest of the year that's how I read it for Max kind of a not laying down the challenge but putting down the marker of if you really want this if you think you are a world championship driver you need to be consistent from here on out and that consistency is going to go through me which so I think that's interesting I think it's pretty pretty interesting shaping up at Red Bull if you're a Red Bull fan obviously you're elated and if you are a fan of maybe a tight you know this looks like a couple months ago we were talking like this could be over in terms of Max Verstappen winning every race and running away with it and being a relatively boring season well you know that doesn't necessarily have to be the case if we have a a matchup of Red Bull at the top and then if you start to look at the race for a number two we've got Aston Martin in second place with 87 points then Mercedes with 76 and Ferrari with 62 so those are all and Ferrari is on the upswing right Mercedes looks on the downswing Aston Martin maybe started hotter than their season is going to show so if you're looking for a race there there's there's action to be seen between those three teams and I mean what an interesting weekend for Charles Leclerc after performing pretty well at qualifying at the sprint and then still it's I heard on another podcast and it's really true it must be frustrating like no matter what I do I just don't have the car to get it done like I can I can win a pole I can have the fastest lap I can do everything I need to do and I still just the vehicle itself is not it for me so interesting race shaping up there though for number two on the on the Formula One grid this year and frankly I think Ferrari is going to be the team to catch for that two spot I've given another two or three races Mercedes hasn't impressed and Aston Martin may have peaked a little too early and could be looking at some catch-up with Ferrari so that's interesting and then also the McLaren down through I mean really the rest of the grid but you could say Alfa Romeo it's McLaren Alpine Haas and Alfa Romeo and they are all separated by less than ten points at this point so again if you're rooting for a team in there you've got a lot to look at and a lot to fight for and McLaren looking stronger than we thought maybe at the start of the year Alpine hanging in their house you know it would be great for houses to get some more points and try to push for fifth or sixth I mean it's a big gap from McLaren to Ferrari in terms of quality and in terms of points it looks like like 48 points or something close to it and the difference so you're not really looking to get above fifth but any of these races any weekend five through eight five through nine are really up for grabs and I think that's exciting I think that's exciting for these teams that maybe don't have world championship expectations every year and they're looking for for reasons to keep pushing you've got the the two through four and the five through eight are really really tight in terms of points and in terms of in terms of total quality of race so I think there's still a lot to look forward to and I'm looking forward to seeing Sergio and how he does with his now I think he's only trailing by six points and in the constructors or not the constructors I'm sorry in the driver's championship and that lead is going to stay tight right if you think about it because it's going to be a Red Bull 1-2 either way so what's really going to matter this year is the fastest lap between those two in the finishing order and there's no guarantee that Verstappen doesn't have some mechanical issues or that Max doesn't you know I mean something something could go wrong and the door could be open there for Sergio Perez so very interesting stuff I think the race itself in Azerbaijan this weekend was kind of a clunker kind of you know halfway through it was it was it did seem and I'm looking forward to getting the chief back on here this week he's he's in the in the pit right now getting his he's got mechanical issues going on himself he's got to take care of he'll be joining me later this week I'd be interested to hear his take on what's going on it seems like you can't follow nobody can follow anybody right now and every time cars were trying to get close Lewis Hamilton was pushing Fernando Alonso and for a while George Russell was trying to push Lance Stroll and they couldn't it seems like that hot air maybe it's the local air in Azerbaijan but really seemed a little bit tough to stay close to the cars for overtakes and perhaps that's the Mercedes floundering performance as well something to be said there but it did seem like all across the grid overtaking was tough and I know it's a street track and I know it's narrow it's hard to run wide but there's something going on with the air and that's something I don't know a ton about is how the air air works in Formula One or I'm learning about you know I always say on this podcast that we're trying to learn and we're trying to grow our bank of knowledge and our wealth of knowledge through podcasting and through through interacting with you all out there so if anyone's listening to this and you can explain to me why that warm warm air you kept seeing guys you know coming coming off the racing line to get some cool air into the engine what is the actual effect going on to the car at that point that they are trying to cool down and I know overheating right it's kind of a term we hear but what does that really mean what's happening when the car overheats to the point where they're really trying to get that cool air in there and it was an interesting little race with little stuff like that and the tires tire maintenance was really a key for the weekend and the whole thing with Esteban Alcan taking his pit with everybody in that pit lane that's something that really should be avoided we'll probably touch with chief about that but yeah just wanted a little midweek update here on Baku and we're also looking forward to Miami in this coming week send us your your predictions your thoughts your who do you think could sneak onto the podium who do you think might fall off the podium this week is there going to be that midfield battle or that that second tier third tier battle is there going to be some shakeup there what do you see happening this week in Miami it's amazing we waited so long four weeks for the race in Azerbaijan and now boom it seems like there's not enough time to get ready for the Miami Grand Prix but that's a beautiful thing isn't it and I know I'm just going here but I've been excited to talk to you all I haven't had a chance it was a big weekend at the house here didn't have a chance to sit down and get my thoughts out but here they are those are my thoughts on Azerbaijan and like I said we'll have we'll have Connor back on here soon to to really color in and help with the detail and the shading and understanding and we will do a proper Miami look ahead and get ready for a little bit of a the first the first Grand Prix stateside this year which will put the American twist on it it'll be nice and we can't wait thank you for subscribing checking in interacting being there at f1funcast gmail Instagram Twitter now I'm twitch now on YouTube pretty much wherever we're going to flood the zone we're going to keep talking to you all and we love the interaction we love going back and forth the learning is great everyone's been so helpful so looking forward to talking to you all again probably tomorrow and we will hear about Miami pretty soon can't wait to talk to you later