Fans Torque F1 - Episode Two - Saudi Arabia 2023

Red Bull's car is dominant in F1, with a second lap advantage and aerodynamic benefits. There are no signs of anything suspicious going on. Perez stood up for himself when asked to slow down, questioning why the same request wasn't made to Max. Joss Verstappen showed bad sportsmanship by not congratulating Perez after his win. There was controversy surrounding Alonso's penalty and the safety car deployment. Stroll had a mechanical failure and caused a concertina effect in the Mercedes. This is Fans Talks F1, the podcast. Should we, should we start with the obvious? Should we start with the, with the, um, the front-runner, should we? And we're going backwards? Let's, let's go then. Red Bull, I mean, what can you say? I mean, honestly, as much as we all joke about it, that car is absolutely dominant and I know it's a combination of driver and car, don't get me wrong. But that car's pulling like a second a lap. Yeah. I think I messaged you during the race, 17 miles an hour under DRS. I mean, that's unheard of. That's like mind-blowing. It's the same old, same old. The only when you get a team at the top and we've had it with Mercedes for many, many years and you know, in the top teams, you'll always have people that will say, you know, the biggest conspiracy theory, what are they doing? Is it legal? And I suppose we, we briefly texted each other up on it, didn't we? And said, you know, 17 mile an hour under DRS. I mean, it was child's play. Yeah. I mean, it's an engineering phenomenon, isn't it? You know? Yeah. There's definitely a lot on that car that nobody has seen yet. Especially under DRS, there's some aerodynamic benefit there, isn't there? Yeah. They're, they're quite, they're quite clearly using that extra, you know, area they get from the DRS input. Yeah. Airplanes, huh? Yeah. I mean, you know, I've, I've not seen anything to suggest there's anything underhand going on there, to be truthful, not even a murmur from anybody. So I don't believe for one minute there is. I think it's just pure engineering, the ability of it. It's just Adrian Newey is just absolutely second to none. Did you see him before the race having a look at the Aston Martin? I didn't, to be fair. I didn't catch that bit. Yeah. Martin Brindle caught him. I thought he was going to have a word with him, literally. Martin Brindle cuts past Lance Rowe's car and literally, there's Adrian Newey stood there with his, with his notebook and his pen out, just literally studying the Red Bull, more likely drawing it in his head so he can sit back on the wall and just literally, you know. Right. Let's, let's, let's start then with Perez. We've, we've called Red Bull slightly, isn't it? And let's start with Perez then. What was that about Perez? I thought he did well to, to manage it and got a bit feisty in there when seized, didn't it? You know, I mean, when they asked him to slow down. Yeah. And do you know what, right? And I think we've touched on this quite a few times in, in terms of will there be coming together? Will there be harmony in the team? Um, and I think I listened to that conversation, you know, in fair, fair, at the end of the day, the engineer came across to him and said, um, what was it? You need to target thirties. Yeah. You need to target one thirties or something like that, wouldn't it? And, uh, he came back on the radio and Perez was like, well, what's Max doing? Uh, one, what was it? One 29, one 27, stuff like that. It was a bit fast, wasn't it, to be honest. Yeah. And then Perez was like, well, why, why are you asking me to do that? But you're not, you're not asking the other driver to do it. You know, it's a little bit unfair. So it's, I wouldn't say early signs of any, anything going on in the team, but Perez is definitely standing up for himself this year. He is. And I think he needed to, he really does. I think if he hadn't have done, then that would have been it for the season, wouldn't it? That's been nice about that. And in a way it was good to see a bit of, you know, Max going back to it to get the fastest lap off him to stop him taking the championship, weren't it? So. Do you know what? And you bring me on to a good little point there, because did you see Perez's face in the cool down room? I did. Someone said about, um, Joss's reaction to, um, the win as well. I didn't catch that. So I was, um, on the way to the train station. What was, was it bad? It was just, it was just downright bad sportsmanship. Yeah. You know, Perez walked up to him and rightly so, celebrated with his mechanics and celebrated with the team. Joss didn't crack a smile. Didn't even look at him. Didn't congratulate him, nothing. And I get it. I get it. His son's just missed out on winning a race. I get it. I fully understand it. However, at the same time, you can also be happy for the team, can't you? Yeah, of course. It's a one-two. And it's a really Joss as well, isn't it? It's not like it's a championship deciding win or anything. It's a one-two. Like I say, if something, I think something happened in the race to cause that reaction, it's a bit different, isn't it? But when it's just a genuine one-two, like it was, so I mean. Yeah. So let's move on to Aston then. And Liam's just asked a good question there. What's your thought on the Alonso penalty? Well, my personal opinion, you start the season with a platform and, you know, we said to each other, didn't we, you know, Aston last race got a 10 second penalty, you can't give one person a 10 second penalty and then the race after not do exactly the same. I think you've got to look at it in different ways, don't you? So number one, was it a penalty? The answer to that is yes. And then, so number two, was the penalty justified in terms of the time? Yes, because it's consistent with, with our funds last week, as you said. And I think what people forget is it's a double penalty because you get the five seconds of breaking the penalty, but then you have to serve the original one again because you didn't serve it, if that makes sense. So I think that's where people get muddled over with it because it's actually, it's actually two separate five second penalties you get when it gets reissued. If you look at the, the stewards log on it. I think Alonso got away with it slightly in the terms that he's penning with serving the pit under the pit car, the safety car, sorry, wasn't it? So it kind of sort of evaporated a little bit. Yeah. But I think the big issue is 32 laps to decide whether or not that was a penalty or not. Ultimately, that's, that's the bigger issue. You've got, you've got a driver celebrating on the podium, you've got a team celebrating, you've got all of the social media stuff that goes out, you know, Fernando's 100th podium, all of that stuff. And then suddenly, bang, you know, you can't tell me that no one within 32 laps could have sorted that penalty out. It's not an end of a lap. It's, you know, it's, it's not that the penalty was unjustified. It's the fact it took so long. And also you've got to look at the, the rules on it. So you're not allowed to snitch on teams basically, that's a new rule. You can't actually turn around, you can't actually turn around and say to people, you need to look at, but did, did Mercedes not do that? Did George's engineer just not conveniently drop that into a conversation? Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, yes, it's probably a workaround. Yes. You probably didn't break the rules as such. And again, it's another team way of getting around FIA interpretations, isn't it? By, you didn't ask him to look at it. He just went, he's got another one coming. And then suddenly. Well, whilst we're still on the, on the factor of the penalty, um, Liam's just replied here to, to a comment from James saying that it was tactical for the safety car because I heard the engineer say, stop the car on track. Martin Brundle, Martin Brundle on air said, uh, and I think a few of the Sky commentators actually said, there's no need for a safety car for that. But the FIA haven't explained it. So the FIA have said, looking at the track data that they had at the time, the track data was showing the car on track. Hence they put the full safety car out. Take that at face value. Have they not got Sky? Exactly. Take that at face value. Cause I find that a little bit strange, if I'm being completely honest with you. I get it, but you've only got to look at the picture to see. And bear in mind that, that footage of Stroll's car was actually on the screens before the safety car was deployed. Yeah. So they, they would have seen that as well. Plus you've got the onboard from Stroll's. They've got access to all of the onboard. You can see where he's parked just by switching to the onboard. You'll be able to see where he's on track. Yeah. And I think someone's just put in here. Yeah. Jessica's just put on mine. It should have been a virtual safety car. Absolutely. As a minimum. Yeah. 110%. Easily. I mean, to be honest, you probably could have got rid of it under WLX where it was virtual, at least. There was no reason for it to be a safety car at all. You know, it was right by the, right by the junction to pull out. He actually parked it in a pretty good spot, to be fair to Stroll. It is. Fair play to him. Didn't need to. Whilst we're on after Martin Terry, this might hurt you a little bit, Lance Stroll. Oh, he's just so lucky, wasn't he? He was in it. We've done him stopping out on track and whatever else, but what do you think? What do you, what do you actually make of him? What do you actually make of the mechanical failure? It was smoking from the start, wasn't it? I think if you go back to the start, was it, was it his I saw smoking on the start? Did someone see that? But I think so. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things, isn't it? When it's mechanical, it's not what you do about it. He was driving right up until then. Yeah. We had exactly what we said would happen. Everyone stuck behind George, didn't we? I predicted that I saw on the video that George would cause this concertina effect in, in the Mercedes. And that seemed to happen. Yeah. Alonso was lucky he got past him. But also, yeah, but he did though, didn't he? That's, he literally, you know, yeah. Kimberley's just put it on my mind. It was definitely his smoking at the start. So the alarm bells ring there, but I suppose if it's, if it's working and if it's, you know, if it's on there, then actually what's, what's the thing, isn't it? I think, I think so early on, I mean, what, we're two races in and you, you know, we've had both Red Bulls changing the gear boxes. We'll come on, we'll come on to the Ferraris very shortly, but we've had both Ferraris turning the engine down for what they're saying is reliability. Um, I mean, would you say they were turned down still today? I think what you've got to look at is Aston Martin had the faster car than the Mercedes. They've clearly got the, at the moment, they've got the second fastest car on the grid. Alonso's clearly extracting loads more out of it than Stroll. Whether or not that's because he's a better driver, whether or not that's because obviously Stroll's still recovering from his injuries. I mean, Stroll looks happier this weekend, I'd say, in the car. He was a lot closer in all of the FP sessions and stuff to what Alonso was. We all know that Alonso's going to absolutely just get the bare minimum out of it. You know, Alonso is a much faster driver, let's be honest, and he's proven that. Look at how he pulled away from these Mercedes at the beginning. I had a feeling at one point when Alonso took the lead, I was quiet. I was sitting there, I was going, no, it can't be, could it? It couldn't be. It couldn't be. He's not going to do it, is there? He's not going to do it. But then we all know the pace that the Red Bull's got. It weren't going to stay there for very long. And especially with that DRS advantage. I mean, Chevrolet kind of wanted to be behind in a way, didn't they? Yeah. So, I mean, you know, extra 70 miles an hour behind the Aston Martin. You've got a new chance, haven't you? Yeah, a solid race by George. I think I said to you at the time, and obviously with the penalty that's come from Alonso, it puts him on the step. I had a comment roughly around about two minutes ago stating it as well. Why does it take the FIA so long to sort these things out? That's ridiculous. I mean, you've got a driver that is now not stood on the top step, which, okay, it's not the deal on Endor, is it? He's still got the trophy, he's still got the points, but, you know, you've worked after that. Well, you race for that, don't you? You know, the whole point of being at there is to take part in the celebrations, to share it, to be part of it, doesn't it? But it's the same, is it, when it's your qualifiers? Like yesterday, you've got Charles, obviously, in second place, doing all of the interviews, all of the media that comes with being second place, knowing Dan Whalley's going to be 12th. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. You know, if you know you shouldn't take the penalty, I mean, I was talking, if you've got a penalty, you should be banned from Q3, simple as that. And then that may not have any impact on it. I just think, you know, you've got, from the moment that it happened, you've got all that time in the race. You know, we've had all that time in the race, somebody could have been, somebody could have, somebody at the FIA could have gone, yeah, banter, oh, it's good, let's put it in place at the end of the race. You've then got the cool-down room, that's that, well, you've got, you know, the interviews, you've got them getting out of the car, you've got the interview, then you've got the cool-down room, there's more than enough time to sort that out. Yeah, but really, it's not over either, though. What do you mean? Aston Martin are literally looking at appealing right now, apparently. I don't know, how can they appeal? I mean, it's all over TV. That jackal was touching that car, and I know it as harsh as it sounds, and it is, it is harsh, isn't it? It is, but what you don't see is you don't see the time, do you? And is this a case of, should there be something independent doing the time work? Because you're asking teams, so that's twice in two weeks now that teams have fallen foul of this. Yeah. So the teams are to be responsible for it. It's not the driver's fault. Purely a pit crew issue, isn't it? But that's twice now in two weeks that this has happened, so surely, you know, you've got enough technology to put a timer on the lights or something and run it independently. Yeah, you'd like to think so, wouldn't you? Yeah, there's enough there. Look at the timing screens. You've got all the timing screens. You can't put something on there to say, and have it literally run by the stewards. So there's no, or even I think I saw somewhere earlier, someone put a line, like on the pit box, that the pit crew can't go closer than that line until the light. I mean, yes, the pit stops down, but ultimately, you've then got, at least you've got a gap knowing that none of this can happen, because it's the age old, did they work on the car? No. Was the jack touching the car? Yes. Now, is that working on the car? Again, that interpretation of an FIA rule. It didn't get lifted, and it didn't get, you know, yes, it's a penalty, but actually, if you look at the definition, were they working on the car? You could argue that either way. It'd be interesting to see what comes of it. Yeah. I can't say you're getting overturned, but it'd be interesting to see. No, I'm not too sure they will appeal it. Last I saw, they were obviously just talking about whether or not to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Jessica's put on mine, yeah, it saves time on the pit stop. Of course, it saves time on the pit stop. I mean, everyone's about getting the fastest pit stop, but ultimately, it doesn't save time if you occur a penalty, does it? Well, this is it. Yeah, but you can't just ignore 32 laps before, you know, that penalty happens. Because could Alonso have pulled the gap out? Of course, he could have. There was enough pace in Alonso's car. If someone said to him, you've got a 10 second penalty coming on about lap 40, he would have made sure he was ahead of George, easy. There was enough performance in that car, easy. Yeah, we've seen it time and time and time again with drivers. They'll get the penalty and then they'll pull the gap. Yeah, but if you look at it, he pulled the gap because they thought it was five seconds, didn't they? So he literally pulled the gap for George, deliberately, knowing that that's what the gap was. I must say, though. I thought he'd be caged on the five and five, did he? I must say, though, coming back to it, it was quite a solid performance by George overall. It looks like he's eating the performance out of the car, should we say, that they've got. And they have different tyre strategies. I know different tyre strategies. You know, they put Hamilton on the medium, didn't they? And it looked like he was closing the gap to Russell. And then it came over the radio. Russell said, well, no, hang on. You know, Alonso's got a five second penalty. You know, he's going to serve it at the end of the race. Do I need to push? Don't I need to push? And then the team were like, well, he's already served it. And then George just kind of pushed off. It's two things, isn't it? I mean, number one, that was a rubbish strategy for Lewis. I mean, I'm sorry, but putting him on the hard side of that, when no one else around him has even touched it, was just bonkers. He had more than enough tyre to do the same as everyone else. You were always going to be left hung out to dry, weren't you? Ultimately, on that strategy, for the first part of the race anyway. The second part, Lewis was a bit harsh in the sense that I think George potentially should have let him through because he's on the better tyre. The momentum was lost after a couple of laps anyway. So I get what you're saying about pulling away. But there was that point when he was right behind him where actually they maybe should have done the swap to see how he went on. But by the time they'd done the arguments with five seconds and everything else, it was too late to do it by then because George had put his foot down. Lewis had dropped off anyway. Lewis, he doesn't look himself, if I'm honest. I think we said from interviews that he's in that phase now where he's correct to say he's not pulling any punches. I wouldn't say he's not worried about what he's saying, but it's almost like you're asking the question and rather than being sensitive about the reply that comes back from it, it's straight to the point. So it's like it's not good enough. Whereas if you listen to George's interview, George is all, the team are trying this and we're trying that and we're pulling together. Lewis is like, it's not good enough. Different stages of their career, though, aren't they? I mean, George is used to wrestling with low-end performance cards like he did with the Williams. Lewis has been, I think I'll put on some of this TikTok earlier, he's been almost blessed, hasn't he, with messages that draw you like a dream, let's be honest about that. And I don't think it's a case of a different, I mean, they're trying different things. But ultimately, Lewis looks a lot more not comfortable, does look happy, doesn't look like he's in his top best. But also, is that a difference in their expectations? So Lewis expects to win, he expects to be a world champion. George, I think at the moment, would be happy to see progression to get a podium to see that movement onwards. I think there are different stages of their career. I think George would see the positives and go, right, we're fifth and we're now fourth and our third, et cetera, et cetera. Lewis is like, we're either winning or we're not at all. Yeah, and I think we also touched on it last night a little bit in terms of contracts as well between the two. You know, and I think that will play a part in it as well. You know, Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time world champion. You know, we know what he can do on a track. We know how much Mercedes want to keep him. You know, and we know George is a hot prospect. He's a really, really good driver. But if you sat Mercedes down and said, you've got a decision to make, you can only keep one of them. We all know who that's going to be, ultimately, don't we? Do we, though? I think we do. Even though, even if you said Lewis has only got a year or two years left in his contracts, I think they'd still go with Lewis. I mean, he's never going to get down to that decision, but you see the point I'm trying to make. I see it. I mean, yeah, I think someone's just put on mind about George, he's the new golden boy of Mercedes. And, you know, Toto thinks a lot of George, let's be honest about that. He knows he's the future. And that's what I mean. So at what point do you, you know, they let Rothsberg go off into the sunset to do what he wanted to do? Or pushed? Well, yeah, both really. But my point is, I mean, the Mercedes contract with Lewis is really complicated. And I've tried to explain this a few times, and it kind of, people do get it and some people don't get it. Ultimately, he's got a lot of tie-ups with Mercedes off-field, as well as on-field and such. So we know that he does a lot of business, obviously a lot of his commercial stuff is through Mercedes. So it's Tommy Deal, everything else, police sunglasses. Now, don't get me wrong, they would obviously go with him to wherever he went to drive, whether that be a Ferrari, whatever. However, there's also a lot of the stuff that he's doing with his foundation, with his diversity project, the fact that they're looking at an absolutely monster contract for an ambassador role, because he's just been driving Mercedes for his whole career. You've then got the tie-up with Ineos, you know, so Jim Radcliffe, he's in business with him off-track as well, with the Broncos, and looking at football clubs and all this other stuff. So there's a lot of off-track stuff that's entwined with Lewis as well, which I still think is what keeps him there, if that makes sense, rather than just driving. Commercially, it's more beneficial for him to retire, ironically, than to try and drive elsewhere. But is he motivated by anything? I just, no, I don't think he is, but just at the sound of the token, I just don't see him going anywhere like that. But where do you go? I mean, yeah, we can come on to Ferrari now. I can't wait until we're going down, because, you know, I mean, I think, to some extent, Mercedes, they look better. I mean, they were, yeah, they were a better car. I don't think, I think the Aston Martins do look better than them, to be honest. We know there's changes. All the talk is there's changes coming on from the factory. We know there's a lot of talk around new designs. There's a lot of potential, I saw Toto saying yesterday as well, with the new strategies they're going forward. They've learned a lot from Bahrain already. So, yeah, we heard a lot last season as well. So, yeah, I think the push will need to put in. I think they're the third best team at the moment, I'd say. And again, I touched on this last night, and for those that weren't on last night, is, you know, Toto came out, didn't he, and said five, six, maybe seven races, you'll see a totally different car. And I'll say it exactly the same as I said last night. I'm sorry, but it's not just five, six, or seven races too late. You get the whole of last year as well. You know, this development has kind of gone down the drain. It's too late in the season. But I think they've missed that. I think Brazil gave them, Brazil was the worst thing to happen to them last year. False hope. Yeah, and they've all admitted that. They've said that actually, they went down that road after Brazil to think, actually, we're back in it, we're back competitive, whatever the concept works. I mean, it's not all just about a side project. I mean, this is the thing that's really sort of, people are just saying, just whack some Red Bull style side pods on it and you'll get a faster car. It's all to do with the floor and the ride height. Yeah, ultimately, the Red Bull is still riding their ride height lower than what the other teams are. That's where their speed's coming from, because they can do it. Yes, it's obviously a bit risky, as we find out with their drive shafts and some curves and things like that. But ultimately, that's where their advantage is coming, is they're running it lower, they're changing the complete curve there by doing so. And that's allowing all this stuff with the DRS, all of it's playing into it. And until they can do that, as in, you know, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes, until they can find a way to drop that ride height, they ain't going to catch a Red Bull. Swiftly as well, just quickly, I've just noticed a certain person that's joined us, F1 Dunn. F1 Dunn says he likes the top that you've got on, Terry. For those that are listening that can't see, Terry's wearing a Ferrari top. So, that segues straight on to Ferrari. Yeah, I thought I'd go neutral, you know, no chance of causing any disruption. Don't lie, about 30 minutes ago, you had a green Aston Martin top on. Until they took Alonso's podium away, made it a Wednesday. Absolutely, as soon as they were hitting delete on the admin, then you were like, I'm taking the top off the same time. Yeah. But yeah, moving on to Ferrari. How do you sum up that Ferrari? Because it's not negative as much as it's positive. It's a bit meh for Ferrari. I mean, I've got a few comments on mine, which are quite right. Charles looks like he's lost his mojo, definitely. He looks completely depleted. Well, just quickly on Leclerc, they've come over the radio, didn't they? And they kind of said to him, I can't remember exactly what they said to him now, but he threw his dummy out and he spat it back at him, didn't he? Yeah. And he was like, well, why are you telling me this now? If you'd have told me that, you know, at the start of the race, there's no point telling me now. Yeah, in the safety car, was it, that Lewis had pitted or something behind him? Yeah, and I think we haven't really seen that side of Leclerc before. Not that much over the radio, I don't think. No, I mean, I mean, stressfully again, I mean, what on earth did they pit science when they did? What was it? I mean, someone needs to buy him a copy of F1 Manager or something, do you know what I mean? Because this is ridiculous. I mean, if you don't bring in Charles, he's on the soft tire, right? And then you don't turn around then and go, oh, by the way, let's bring in science straight afterwards on the medium tire. Common sense says that your medium is going to last longer than your soft, doesn't it? I actually, at one point, thought Ferrari were doing business in terms of strategy because they managed to fool Lance Stroll and they managed to fool Aston Martin. Yeah, they did, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, oh, what are Ferrari doing here? It probably wasn't, I mean, they probably were ready. Yeah. You know, they'd find science themselves because I'm going to go in behind that, you know. Science is on the radio. Sorry, hang off it again. What button do I push? There you go. Someone's put, um... Question. Ferrari's strategy is to build a pizza maker called Francesco. There's been a lot of people called Francesco, if I'm being honest. I mean, Ferrari's strategy has just been in the dark, isn't it? Did you see they left them with no new tyres as well? What was that? I mean, okay. It's calamitous, isn't it? It's beyond a joke though, Matt, come on. I think they both said, I'm hoping it'll get a little bit better this year. We've yet to see anything. Yet to see anything. Well, don't change it, sir. I think that's the difference. Fred's come in. He looks like he needs to do a toto with his headphones or something. I think Jessica's just put on one, you know. He looks too happy with himself. He does. He needs to understand that if Ferrari don't win, ultimately, he's going to be sacked. Because that's what they demand. How many times have we said this before? Ferrari's a cutthroat world. I mean, I was literally talking about this to F1 Dan and saying you've got the whole way to Tofosia, and that's not just the drivers. That's everyone. That's the country, isn't it? Yeah. And I admire the passion of the team. I admire the passion of the country to get behind the team. I really do. I absolutely love that about Ferrari. But at the same time, it's almost like wearing a shackle. Someone's just described Ferrari as a shitshow in a dumpster fire fluting away. With all the lyrics on it. James has put Ferrari needs somebody like Toto straight to the point. I'll be honest with you. I don't even think anybody like Toto. You couldn't even put anybody in like Karen Horner in there. I've said it, Karen Horner. Shake your head, I've said it. It's too loud, I've said it. I'd like someone to put Benotto as the Ferrari strategist. To be fair, I think Benotto should come back. Bring him back. He's ungodly. Yeah, he didn't have been the odd to get his table ready for Gunther to pop round for the next series of DTSs. You know, it's honestly, I mean, I mean, they just look off the pace, don't they? Ultimately, they're just a team which they don't look like challenging for anything. They're like third, fourth, fastest easily. They're nowhere near the top. They either turn the engines down or they've got problems with the engine. They definitely didn't look anywhere near on the pace. I mean, we know that Mercedes is nowhere near the fastest car on the grid. Yeah, I should be pulling away from Ferraris like that, do you know what I mean? No. Yeah, they weren't closing the gap on Mercedes at all. They weren't even... They didn't challenge him then. Yeah, there was no challenge there. You would have thought towards the end with Lewis's tyres potentially dropping off that someone would have got at least closer to him. While we're close to them two teams, Giggs has just put, who is in the worst position at the moment? Ferrari or Mercedes? See, I'd say Ferrari. And that's the thing. If your Mercedes sat where you are... It's mechanically sound, touch wood. Always has been, hasn't it? It's been like this. Reliability has not been a big factor with Mercedes cars, let's be honest about it. And Strollers, it looks like, to be fair, was something due to the brakes at the front rather than the actual engine gearbox. Anything supplied by Mercedes, I should say, looked like it was more of an Aston Martin issue, I should say. But Ferrari, where do they go with this? I mean, their big challenge was Aston, wasn't it? Ultimately, which they completely messed. Everyone's caught up with them now. Like Sebastian, they've obviously bridged the gap. And you've got Mercedes talk about this bad position they're in, but Ferrari are in this position where they are now with no direction for development because they've clearly got a concept. Where do they go with it? Unless they pull some kind of rabbit out of the hat. But then, when you're two races into a season and you're already turning the engine down for reliability concerns, and you've got to build on top of those reliability concerns as well. But interestingly, if you look at what Gunter was saying, they're not turning theirs down. So what is going on? Because the customers should be turning theirs down as well. You'd love that. But are they? But are they? Because hatches don't look as punchy as what they did. And the Alfa Romeo's, we'll come on to them later, they certainly don't look punchy, which makes me think they have turned them down. But anyway, Ferrari aside, we've done Ferrari. I think Ferrari have done with Ferrari, to be fair. Yeah. So I mean, just so we should... I meant to read Ferrari's new strategies. I'll give them a go on the pit bull. Yeah, I'll even talk to Sky if they're lucky as well. I think anybody would give their left arm to have a better shot. To be honest, after listening to Bernie Collins this week, I think Ferrari could do worse than walking down the pit lane having a chat with her. Yeah, I think she'd be great here. I think she's been sensational. That's what I mean. I said it exactly the same last night. Bernie Collins has come in and she's a breath of fresh air. Absolutely. So knowledgeable. And how much has it been, right? It's been so nice. Rather than going... and I'm not putting down any of the pundits in any way, shape or form by saying it, but how nice is it to go across to somebody that knows, that's been in the position of strategy? But non-biased. Anyway, Bernie Collins aside, let's move on to... Well, let's do Esti Vesta. Esti Vesta. Esti Vesta, you've got the Alpines. Well, both Alpines, they stuck up, didn't they? Yeah, I think Pierre Gasly didn't move... Am I correct in saying he didn't move a position the whole race? Well, he started ninth and finished ninth, didn't he? So yeah, I mean, he obviously went up and down in pit stops. But yeah, he just... But both Alpines, he stuck up there, didn't they? Yeah, I mean, I had... I'll get it out of the way now, because you'll only remind me of it anyway. I had high hopes for Alpine this season. Oh, definitely. But I think they did as well, if you look at the talk before testing. Yeah. Yeah, they talked a lot about, didn't they, how they were underweight, how they sorted reliability problems out. I mean, touch wood, their cars don't look reliability. I mean, their stopwatches might have reliable problems as Esteban had catered for. But in terms of the actual car, it looks reliable. Solid performance. Absolutely solid performance, Roman. Yeah, I mean, there's not much else you can say to that other than solid performance. I don't think any of the drivers put a foot wrong. Esteban's definitely learnt his lesson from Bahrain. Yeah. I mean, he wasn't having bingo pit stops this time around. Monopoly. Yeah. Don't pass the pit straight. Don't collect another 10-second penalty or that. You can imagine him coming into the pit limiter. Oh, dear. Oh, good one. But yeah, what can you say about them? They were consistent, they weren't spectacular, but then likewise, they weren't bad. They were kind of there in the race, didn't really provide any challenge anywhere. But then I suppose they'd be happy after Bahrain with two cars in the points again. But I'll be totally honest now, the way you've just summed up Alpine there now is going to be the rest of the grid. There's not much you can say about the rest of the grid, is there? No, but their big challenge is going to be the fact that they've lost so much ground to Aston Martin, isn't it? Obviously, last year, Aston was seventh, Alpine were fourth, and there's a big chunk of gap in performance between those two. Yeah, and I think that's going to be their big concern now. I mean, they might get close to Friary if they keep playing the way they're going. What? Alpine? You're done with Alpine? Yeah, I don't know if there's a lot we can say about Alpine. I don't know if anyone... I haven't had many comments on Alpine, to be honest. I'm just scrolling back through. Apologies, guys, if I've missed any comments. Yeah, I shouldn't say. Apologies if I've missed any comments, and hello to anyone who's joined us. I have to be happy with some points on the ball, don't I? Yeah, ultimately. It may only be, what, one point, but... You're going to stop me there, Terry, because a very rude person has just joined my comment section just to tell me that my Mercedes top is dead. Is that some sort of lingo or something there? Yeah, for those listening that can't see, I have got a new, very bright, day-glow green Mercedes top. I mean, I've not even heard of this person before. It's Boxbox. He missed his question between the two, because I think he tried to get me to go on his podcast more, actually. I think he switched it between the two, didn't he? And Ashley's just said it's a bit green. It's lovely! How can you not like it? It's beautiful. If you want to go jogging, I suppose, you know, or directing traffic, or... Yeah, it's mint. So we'd win. I can wear my Mercedes top in the day, and then I can go and direct airplanes in the night time. I mean, when you put the bins out, everyone will stop and put theirs out at the same time, thinking you're collecting them, wouldn't they? But, you know. Anyway, swiftly moving on. Swiftly moving on. So yeah, Hath will be happy with 10 within 12, won't he? They'll be happy with a point. So if you get a point every race, you get 23 points, as Will Buxton would say, you know. Cheers, Will. Thanks, Will. Cheers, Will. Where is he? Same time next week. Yeah, same time next week. And if you finish first, you'll win the race, and all that. But yeah, I mean, Yuki, I'm just going to go on to the next race. I think I'm going to just go on to Yuki's team radio for the whole race, because I reckon it's like pure gold sometimes. Well, you can actually get the F1 app as well. There's a section on there where you can listen to all the team radios as it's happened. So yeah. I think Yuki's the one I want to listen to, because I can imagine... Why do you want the swearing and the expletives in your ear the whole time? Yeah, look, Kevin Magnusson, you've got Yuki, Hulkenberg, Zhou Guangyu. There you go. I said it this time, right? Zhou Guangyu. Zhou. I'll just call him Zhou. Just, yeah, we'll just call him Zhou. Nick De Vries, they're all in there. I mean, Nick De Vries, I don't remember him being mentioned once. I forgot he was there. Zhou was mentioned, Hulkenberg was mentioned, Sir Edward was definitely mentioned. I don't recall too much on Magnusson, to be honest. But Nick, I don't remember him being mentioned once. No, I think he was just there and thereabouts, wasn't he? Keeping ahead of those back-runners. AlphaTauri are in trouble. They need some upgrades. They need them fast. I don't know if you saw, but one of the comments I saw from Yuki, was he did the interview, and he went, we've got upgrades coming, but I don't want to tell you when. But I know when. It's like, what? Jessica, everyone, it's just Nick De Vries sharing what we Dutch have been saying all along. Overrated. I've had a bit of a hard time with this. It's controversial, but it's your opinion, Jessica. It's your opinion. Except for the car. I mean, we've seen briefly what he did in the Williams, didn't we? Yeah, you can't judge him on these two races without AlphaTauri. Yeah, what's amazing is, how have you got Red Bull getting it so right, and AlphaTauri, the sister team, getting it so wrong? Well, it'd be interesting to see what sort of conversations are going on behind the scenes with that one, wouldn't it? I know we've said this in quite a few teams recently, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, did you see Toss come out and criticise the engineers, didn't he, at the press conference? That's a low view, that was. A little bit below the balcony, I'm being totally honest. Yeah, I don't believe what they're saying. It sort of, to me, spells that there's a little bit of mutiny in the camp. Yeah. Someone's just come in my comments section and said, Joe, he's the greatest driver of all time. I mean, we go from one extreme to another. I think it's strong, what you have to say about that. But Nick de Vries aside, there's not much you can say, but moving swiftly on to Oscar Piastri. I like the way you looked down then, to check. For members of the audience, I just witnessed Terry look down to check I've got that one correct. I did. And I did. I did. I didn't trust you after you said it, Magnusson. Oh, Jessica, Jessica's just said, I don't want to talk about McLaren. Again, Jessica, you've walked in right at the perfect opportunity for that one, because we are moving on to Oscar Piastri. Terry, over to you. That's the C-Class 3B Lando. He was definitely a lefty with that. You know, I'm sorry, I said it before the season started. I stand by it. He didn't even hold his punches then. He has been so looked over in terms of, you know, what he's done. Oscar, I've said it before, he's a born winner. And he's a damn good driver. That's why everyone was fighting over him. And Lando is in trouble. Because if Oscar keeps performing the way he is, Lando, I'm going to say it, could become Danny. If he hadn't have had that contact, he would have. He was well ahead of Lando all weekend in terms of qualifying and race pace. Jessica's just said, no, Terry. There was the radio, wasn't there, where Piastri was sort of on the radio saying, look, I'm faster than Lando. You know, what are we going to do about it? And then they came on the radio to Lando, didn't they? I get it, because Lando was the number one driver of the team. But at the same time, they came over the radio and they said, OK, Lando, let's try not to make it so hard on Oscar. I mean, what are you even trying to say with that message? What is that trying to portray? To the world, not just to the driver. The world gets to hear that message. Ultimately, he definitely had the upper hand on Lando all weekend. If he didn't have that broken wing on the first lap, who knows what would have happened? I probably would have fancied him for the points, if I'm honest. But still, you've got to look at Lando. I mean, what, clipped the wall yesterday under no pressure in qualifying? Talk all this speculation of him moving on? You know, I mean, that's Rapture. That's coming from somewhere. Whether that's coming from Lando himself or his representatives, or there's a lot of noise about Lando moving. There's a hell of a lot of noise that's started since Bahrain. Let's be honest about it. Again, it pulls us to the old age conversation of where did he go? I don't see Lewis going in the next few years. George ain't going nowhere. He's not going to Mercedes. Where did he go? Terry, where did he go? I don't know. Comment section, tell me where he goes. I mean, Jeff's just put Red Bull. Unless he has a mental... I mean, you know, we're assuming. We've always said we shouldn't assume. But let's assume that he doesn't know how to go to Red Bull. He's had that conversation with Red Bull, and it's something to do with the fact that he can't go as a number one driver. Where does he go? Unless his mentality changes as a driver. And again, we're assuming. Lando, if you do happen to stumble across this, I apologize. We're assuming. But where did he go? Someone's put Ferrari to replace Leclerc. Somebody's just put Audi. It's a long time to wait, though, isn't it? Exactly. I mean, I know he's got a long-term contract. Technically, he could wait. Was it 2025 if I'm right there on Lando's? Someone else here's put, actually, Trucker has put Aston Martin when Fernando retires. Somebody's just put in my comment section, Aston Martin instead of Lance Stroll. I don't think that'll happen, will it? I don't know why. BoxBox, Red Bull. We've got Infor Structure. Aston Martin's replaced Alonso. Gosh, he's put Bottas in his seat. We've got Audi. Yeah, there is a combination. Someone else has just put about, Oscar Picasso, does he regret not staying with Alpine? Interesting comment. Yeah, I mean, I think we all had high... Like I said earlier, we all had high hopes for Alpine, but are Alpine in that much of a better situation than McLaren? Depends on the upgrades, doesn't it? Yeah, we've got a long season to go, granted, but commercially, out of the two, I know I'd rather be at McLaren. I know Jessica's going to slight me for saying that now, because McLaren is, at the moment, not doing anything, should we say. But commercially, you'd rather be at McLaren at the moment, wouldn't you? As a youngster, as a youngster, but he is. I mean, you'd be saying it'd be different if it was somebody like Danny Rick, or it was somebody like Max, Leclerc, Hamilton. He's got Toyota, which is what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I don't think he's regretting it. Somebody's just wrote about Zap Brown needing to go. We covered that last race, didn't we, to be honest? Great commercial manager. He needs to let the F1 team be an F1 team, and he needs someone in. Interestingly, when you look at the Aston Martin setup, and you see who they brought in, with Martin Whitmarsh, ex-McLaren, overseeing all of it all, do you know what I mean? Yeah, again, commercially, Zap Brown saved McLaren. We've said this before. Yeah, I ain't going to dwell too much on this, but they need someone to run the Formula 1 team now. Yeah, they need to push on now, don't they? They need a change, and they need to push on. They should go get Benotto. There's so much talk about Benotto at the Mercedes, being some sort of engineering guy, after he's gone and he'll leave. It's unbelievable. Yeah, but the guy's got 27 years. Yeah. I know we're digressing, but he's got 27 years engineering experience. Yeah, he's worked with... Anything. Anything we should be not to take him. I mean... I think we can go overground on that. I mean, Audi is still my hunch for Benotto, if I'm honest, as a long-term bet. Not as a team president. Do you think? Yeah, certainly something to do with engines. If you need someone to build an engine, you'd be banging that door down over in Italy by now, if they haven't already. Everyone's gone to Italy. Do you mean literally building them? Sticking him in the garage and literally building them. Probably doing some Tony Stark Ironman thing, where he's in his vineyard building engines. Probably got better reliability. I mean, coming on to McLaren, they're talking about the upgrades. They've said they made a mistake. I don't know if Dynamics saw about it, but they said that they've got the 15 millimetre floor height completely sent them down a wrong turn in terms of development. Yeah. And it's caused them massive problems that they didn't foresee coming. And from what I can gather, they'd switched the development into the new car already, which is quite interesting now. It doesn't surprise me, that. Yeah, but this way you start learning what teams are up to with the cost cap. Because from what I can gather and read it all, McLaren switched development early to their new car and then got caught out by the rule change, which is obviously real, but no one envisaged the floor height change because of the 4%. You can't pursue that, can you? No, no. But that's clearly what's happened. I mean, Baku's the upgrade, isn't it? Yeah, everyone's talking about early upgrades are coming to Baku. And that's because it's the nearest track to get them to. I mean, a lot of this stuff has been shipped already. It's been shipped a couple of weeks ago for testing. It's a lot harder to get parts, a lot more costly to get parts though, isn't it? Yeah. I think my message is just during the chat, because you said, Alpine are fifth, McLaren are tenth, with the eyes emoji. There you go, see. I mean, if you're Oscar, I mean, you know, it's difficult. I mean, I stand by myself. I think Oscar's got loads of talent. I think he's definitely going to give Lando room for his money. He's shown he's no pushover. I think Lando, if he wants this big move, he's going to have to start performing. You know, he's got to now make that step up. He's got to actually be the team leader as such. And the past couple of races, I mean, I'm not sure what did happen to him today. Because they didn't look like anything mechanical-wise. I mean, I don't know if anyone in the comments can enlighten me on that. But I know he did take a couple of pit stops though, didn't he? He took another early pit stop again, didn't he? From what I could see. Yeah. Was that nose cone? They changed the nose cone on that. I mean... Didn't they do both? I'm pretty sure they did both nose cones on both cars, didn't they? Yeah. Which makes you think there's something to do with the weakness. Because if you look at the contact from Piatri on lap one, that nose cone shouldn't have broken. There's no way. Jessica's put, we have done two races, and both races, they did horrible strategies. Can't really fault Lando. Well, you can't fault him for that race, because it was reliability, wouldn't it? I mean, they've put more air in his car. Yeah, granted. That was... Yeah, re-gassing it every... Re-gassing it, you know, like... Two milliseconds. Like it was some sort of balloon going down, wasn't it? Yeah. But ultimately, the car doesn't even look competitive. I mean, take away the actual... Take away the strategy part of it. The car doesn't even look like challenging for anything. No. I mean... And if you look at where it actually is, where it's finishing races, it's... There's no words to describe it. I do feel for McLaren fans. I really, really do. Because, you know... Yeah. They're a brilliant team, and they don't deserve to be where they are. But they're lost, aren't they? I mean, let's be honest. I mean, McLaren at the moment... I said before, they've got no direction. They don't know which way they're going. The team principal is, you know... He's pretty much mute, isn't he? I mean, when was the last time we saw him wheeled out? Yeah, Stella. Yeah, we keep getting Zac Brown. Get Zac Brown on the pit wall. Get Zac Brown in a press conference. And this is what I find annoying, because he's not the team principal. No. You know, take a step back. Let somebody run the team. Yeah. I mean, Syd was obviously a bigger loss than what they talked about. I mean, at the time, they said it was a natural progression, you know, towards Stella, and it was nice and, you know, nice and easy changeover. But actually, was it? Or did they just go for the easy option? Which was Zac Brown running the show with someone who he can control. Just silence. Yeah, just a face in there. You know? Just silence. I've got talk of the Gunter and Benotto vineyard TV show. I'm all for that. Them two and that little theatre 500 was like pure TV golf, you know? Jessica's just put, she still can't remember the name of Stella. But that's what I mean. When was the last time we actually saw him talk to the press? Exactly. He did one, didn't he? And that was it, tested. Yeah. I don't think he did anything about it. I only remember up and stopping here. Anyway. They've got no direction. Hopefully they're... I mean, all the talks about the new wind tunnel coming online, but, you know, you've got to have a decent recipe to put in the oven, aren't you? No matter what you're doing. Yeah. Jessica, we'll leave you alone now. Yeah, we'll leave you alone now. We're done with McLaren. Yeah, we're really sorry. You know, McLaren fans, it's, you know... I think while we're touching upon McLaren and touching upon Piastri, we'll move swiftly on to Williams. From one rookie to another. I think you did all right. I've been quite impressed with him, actually. I mean, I admitted when he came onto the scene, I didn't know a lot about him. I don't follow too much F2, F3 and that side of it. I don't get enough time to delve into some of those. And I didn't know enough about him when he came on. I obviously heard the commercial value of having an American for Williams, let's be honest about it. Yeah. Whichever way you look at it, Williams are American-owned. With the company that's in charge of them now, no matter where they're based, they're American-owned. And I think we both agree that, you know, James coming in is a brilliant step in direction for the team. Yeah. But I think we both agree at the same time as well, this is also... This season is, to a degree, nothing to do with James. It's not his car. It's not his direction. Yeah, yeah. Development-wise will be his direction. But then you can only develop a car so much that isn't your thought process, if that makes sense. Yeah, and the other problem is when you switch that development. So, you know, James Vowles isn't developing this car. And ultimately, if you switch it too early, you're going to lose that competitiveness that they've clearly got. But likewise, if you're too late, or maybe that's not the James Vowles direction, we don't know. And he's got a lot of work to do at Williams. But I mean, in terms of the two drivers, Alex Alvin impressed me before. Obviously, you know, he had no brakes, which was, you know, a bit of a hairy moment for him. Well, I'll touch upon that, because it's quite a strange one, isn't it? You know, he'd come across the radio and he was saying, brake failure, brake failure. And the team were like, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, brake failure. But then he passed the pit straight. He passed the pit entry, didn't he? And I thought, you've got no brake. What are you doing? I think sometimes, though, because you get... One, you get the delay on the radio, don't you, for a start, when it actually comes on. And two, you don't always get the reply back. And a lot of things they can try and change remotely, can't they? So they might well have just been trying to go through some options with him. You know, some driver settings and steering wheel settings to try and get it back, depending on what the problem is. I thought for a minute he was going to park it in the middle of the track, if I'm honest. I was like, as he was changing around, I was like, please don't break down, because... When he went past again, I thought, this is going to be another safety car and it's going to pack it all up again. And yeah, I'm not going to mention it, but we all know the direction I'm going with this. Someone's put my comments, that James is really good with young inexperienced drivers. That's good for Logan. Absolutely. You know, honestly, their driver partnership is pretty spot on, isn't it? Alex Halban, Logan Sargent. I think they've got a really good mix there. They've got a rookie who wants to learn, who's clearly got some potential and can drive a car. Alex Halban was, you know, massively unlucky with his time at Red Bull, you know, to lose out to Checo, like he did. He had a lot of misfortune there before. Obviously, they went down the route of getting Checo in place there. You say misfortune, and we're not going to turn this into another whole subject. But part of the blame is on the team as well at the same time. Yeah, I mean, they shouldn't have promoted him. He did have misfortune, you're right. But I think at the same time, he deserved more time at Red Bull. Definitely. But also, I think they also promoted too early. You know, mid-season change is difficult for anybody, you know, whatever team you're in, to change mid-season. So from that point of view, it was always going to be hard work, wasn't it, for Alex Alban to actually, you know, make the impression he needed to at Red Bull. And I'm glad he's found a way in, you know, back with Williams, you know. He is a good driver. I think, you know, a bit like when Pierre went back to AlphaTauri, wasn't it? You know, Alban's done something very similar by going back to Williams, in terms of going back towards the lower end in a team that can nurture him, a team that can actually put their arm around him when they need to, without the pressure of being up against someone like Mats, let's be honest about it. Yeah. And he's throwing good in that. You bring me on to the subject. I don't fully believe in what I'm about to say, right. And it's a spare of the moment thing, so do bear with. But hypothetically speaking, and it's going to Williams, what if it all, right, I'm spitballing, so bear with me. What if it all gets a bit too much at Mercedes, though, Lewis? What if a dream, he did it with Mercedes. Yeah. Could he go to Williams? Do it all again? No reason why not, is there? Said it. Put it out there. Everyone's talking about Ferrari, everyone's, you know, this, that and the other. Williams, let's go with Williams this round. There you go. So, yeah, two Williams. Disappointing for Alban, you know, with the break failure. I think Logan Sajdan did quite well. I think he had a few comments saying that, you know, the team are all right, you know, that they're in a midfield pack, which, you know, is probably where they're expected to be. They're competing for points on it, on what I'd say a more red-footed basis, isn't they? Yeah, they've got development that's coming around the corner as well, so. That's what I mean. I mean, they're a lot closer this year, and, you know, second only to Aston Martin in terms of games. So even though it's not a James Vowles car, he's kind of inherited a team that was clearly developing on the up. You know, I think from the point of view of Williams, they're making progression, they're moving up at the bridge to where they need to be. They're starting to challenge for points, which is what they wanted to be. And then hopefully they can then start making the next step up, isn't it? Yeah, first thing, you want to get from the back to the middle, haven't you? Then you try and make the step up to that fifth, sixth place, isn't it? You know, to be honest. Jessica, unpopular opinion, Mercedes need a new leader. But in where? Toto knows how to run a winning team. Toto don't design the colours, is it? I mean, yeah, if you want to talk about strategy, yeah, McLaren's the same, isn't it? Yeah. Zac Brown, is it Zac Brown who should move out the way or should whoever's doing the strategy, design, technical side of it move aside? And it's a good point. Who says Zac Brown don't move out the way, but not don't go to McLaren? Yeah, but then ultimately, if you haven't got the strategy, I think the thing we're not hearing enough about what's going on at the moment is you've got so many people moving between teams at the moment because of the cost cap. So much more movement than what you've ever had before. You know, a lot of teams aren't invoking gardening leave. They're not doing, they're not doing, they're not putting people out to pasture like they were before. And I think we're seeing the effects of that now with people moving in between that cluster of teams in the middle. But actually, yeah, what do you, you know, that's the effect we're not seeing. Williams, Williams aside then, let's move on to who have we got left? We've got Alfa Romeo. Alfa Romeo. Alfa Romeo. Again, right, I'm going to spit the ball out. I remember saying at the start of the season, again, I had high hopes for Alfa Romeo this season. I think they've got a really good driver lineup. You know, Bottas being the experienced driver out of the two of them. I think Zhou Guangyu, said it again, getting better at this. Or Joe, as you like to call him. He's a very good rookie. He's a very, very good driver. It just seems that both don't have the car then. But he's outperforming Bottas, isn't he? He is. He is. I mean, Bottas was doing the old classic, I think there's something wrong with my car, but I don't know what it is. To which everyone was going, you don't know what it is either. I think there's something wrong with the car, I don't know what it is. We do, it's you, Valtteri. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure it might be you, mate. You stop using your braking foot so much and use the right one, Valtteri. Right foot, Valtteri. On a serious note, he's definitely lagging behind Zhou this season. Zhou's come off to a good start. I mean, he's the one who's out of contracts at the end of the year. He's the one who's got most to lose this year, let's be honest about that. Valtteri's got that long-term contract for at least another one or two years in it. And he's clearly driving for his place, isn't he? Which he's showing. And I think Valtteri is cruising. And we saw Valtteri talk about a much more relaxed Valtteri. Well, actually, maybe someone at Alfa Romeo needs to get to shave his mullet off and his tassel off again. Nah, I'm here for that. I want a mullet myself. I'm definitely going in for the mullet. Actually, if you put Zhou... What can I just never say? Just say Zhou, Zhou, Zhou. Zhou, it's Zhou. Zhou is out next year, believe me. Not if he beats Valtteri, that'd be a tough call. I like Valtteri, though. Can we have... Can we take Valtteri to Williams? What, back to Williams? Nostalgia. Be nice there, wouldn't it? What, Valtteri to James? Valtteri, this is James. Please move over to yourself. Please move over for Logan. Maybe that's what's happening. Maybe that's what's happening. Maybe James has been in Alfa Romeo 3. Could you imagine Lewis and Valtteri both at Williams? I don't know. I know it's outlandish, but no need to laugh at me. Both who may not be too far away. Yeah, yeah. I think, um... I just did a comment there. Terry is ignoring me. Please give your Merc... Merc race review. Oh, who's that? Alex. Alex. Who's your Merc? Are you the French? Yeah, Alex, you missed it. Oh, Alex, you joined the French. You missed it, mate. You missed it. You've got to be here pronto, on time. What was our Merc review? They're in a better position, what they should be in. Let's be honest about it. They got Merc ready to come back. Alex, just for you, Terry will now give you his race review of Mercedes yet again. George should have let Lewis through earlier. That's it. End of. Yeah, end of there. Done. I think... I think... We said that earlier. I think Mercedes will be... I think they'll be quietly happy with where they are. As in terms of the championship. Yeah. They didn't expect to be where they are with the car they've got. They've got some clear lines of development. A lot of team development. Let's be honest. When we hit Baku, there's going to be a lot of different cars on the grid. I can guarantee it. There's a lot of upgrades coming. The three most major upgrades are hitting in Baku. So we've got, what, Australia left, haven't we? In a couple of weeks' time. And then that's it then. So... Do you think we'll see them side pods in Baku? Or is it too soon? Too much of a stretch? It's a long time away, though. I think we might do. I think we're going to see something different by the way they're talking about it. They're making a lot of noise about the upgrades coming. And they're making a lot of... My only concern with that, right, is... And again, you touched upon it earlier with Mercedes in terms of it's not just the side pods. And I agree with you. I do. I'm fully with you. The downside to that is now you've developed a car without side pods. Or should we call it now a 10% side pod? Because there's a little baby bulge there, isn't there, on the W14. But I think you've now developed a floor and a floor concept to fit with the outer front you've built. Yeah. So essentially, by now adding side pods to a car, you've got to redo it all again. You know, and I think this is what people are not understanding. It's not just a case of bolting bits of fiberglass to the side of the car. Yeah. Or carbon fiber, should we say. Yeah. It's working from front to back again then. That's a lot of work. And that's a lot of money that's going to be pumped into that, if that's the case. Yeah. And also, I think their issue is the wind tunnel told them that this car would work. And you've rather entrusted that data again, haven't you? So if you change the concept again, but the wind tunnel says you've got this brilliant concept. Well, they had that anyway. Because ultimately, this concept they've got now was backed up with the numbers in the wind tunnel for whatever reason. And they've even omitted that. So you're then changing that again by saying, this new concept works. But how do you know that? Because you're potentially going down the same route again, aren't you? The other problem you've got as well is when you copy a team, because that's ultimately what you're going to be doing, it's a lot harder to develop a concept you've copied rather than when you've actually originated from the start. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's just that, but somebody mentioned to me yesterday, you know, can you imagine the conversation of Toto going to Aston and saying, can we borrow your designs? I know obviously you're not allowed to, but could you imagine that conversation? Aston would be like, not a chance. But they do though, don't they? Because that's what the photographers they import it for. Yeah. Yeah. So we, yeah, let's just cut to the chase. We all know that every team employs photographers to take pictures of all the other cars so they can understand what that design looks like. They all do it. Yeah. They all admit that they do it. It's an open thing. It comes in the marketing, so there's a cost cap involved completely. And when they're taking pictures of their own car, they just keep it going with all the other cars. And then they have a look at it there that way. So they all know what the other teams are doing. And yeah, we saw with Aston Martin last year in the Red Bull style side pods that conveniently come out when they did at the time, didn't they? Yeah. That was a blatant copy. The pink patent for Mercedes. Yeah. Yeah. But ultimately, I think I said on my podcast earlier this week, you're always going to copy your winning concept, right? Yeah. We'll be a new regulation. Someone gets it right and every team will then be able to carry on copying that concept. So whether that be the Ferrari sort of style, the likes of Haas have obviously gone to, or the Red Bull style that the rest of the grid have gone to. Yeah. Right. We're going to summarize now. We're going to do something slightly different. We're going to do something slightly differently. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start a match. Accept the match. I show accept the match. Now, you've got a timer at the top of the screen. I'm not bothered about the gifts. I'm just using the timer. So the timer now is a little countdown timer to summarize the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. Just to complete the summary, what do you think from start to finish? Disappointing. Slow? Yeah. It's a bit more action. Yeah, ultimately, I wanted to see more. And safety car kind of spoils it in terms of what could have been a good race. I think the cars, they're not ready yet. They feel like they're a few weeks behind in terms of development and bringing the pack together. So I think the penalty ruined it for Alonso. But on the switch side of that, I'm happy for George. You know, disappointed with the fact that it takes so long for him to apply the penalty. He didn't deserve it, did he? I mean, I'm happy for George, but he didn't deserve it. You know, of course, I'm happy for him as a Mercedes fan. But in terms of, you also get it that Alonso's not got 100 podiums, when actually, he deserved that. Again, it's a team penalty that robbed him of a podium, isn't it? And I completely agree with you. I can summarize that. When are we going to start going down the rabbit hole of actually penalizing the teams? But then how do you do that? There's monetary value. Monetary value means nothing to them. Well, yes, points. Constructive points, I was just about to say. So should Alonso keep his place and his championship points? But the team doesn't have the championship points, they keep them in the pocket. Or you do the penalty and apply the penalty and get reduced points. I don't know. You know, I just think it's unfair that the driver gets penalized for it. I think there's somewhere... I think it might have been actually, like, ages ago in the comments, talked about the starting grids. There's something going on with the grids, isn't there? So that's happened two races in now with somebody getting their start box wrong. That feels like, you know... Does that seem to do with the new mirrors, though? Could be new mirrors. Could be a bit tighter. I don't know. Yeah, in terms of... I haven't... I don't know how sort of regulated they are in terms of... It could be just they're clamping down on it a lot more. It could be they've always felt like that. But actually, they're clamping down on it a bit more as an FIA. They tend to do this, you know, with the track walks, isn't it? Where you can't have a bike. You know, you see little things where they decide to clamp down on every so often. Actually, it's just got grid prices for the next race. It shouldn't be up to the podium. It's unfair. Yeah, completely agree. So, Pan Am, FIA, then Red Bull. Slightly different planet. Red Bull. Red Bull, you know... Ultimately, Red Bull is just in the castle room. And in maps, they've got a driver who's driving supremely. He's got a car that he's comfortable. He's got a car that's dominating. It's a winning combination. I can see the relationship with Checo getting a bit touchy at some point. I think there's definitely tension in the air there. Yeah, I think we can all agree with that. Yeah, I think it's between them two, isn't it? Unless something major happens in Baku. Unless the team have locked something massive. But then, Red Bull's certainly going to get faster and better, isn't it? Yeah, I mean... Like I said yesterday, Red Bull are now... They've got to the point now where they want both drivers out there. Both winning. Both getting maximum points so that when it does come later on in the season... Well, you've got to cap yourself. When it does come later on in the season... I'm hoping that they're that far ahead and they've got that many points that it's not really going to affect them. Yeah. We'll see. That's what they're saying, isn't it? But, I mean, every team would bet. I think there's a lot of team with some work to do. And I think McLaren need to do a lot of work. To summarise the whole Jetta race, then, I just find... Brilliant for Red Bull. Take the hat off to them. I think we both agree. How about the safety car, though? Safety probably right into that. Max was. Perez wasn't. Max was. But, yeah, I think... The Player of the Blind, they've got last year's car and they've just retweeted it a bit. So this year it's just even more of a rocket ship. It's brilliant that you've got the Aftons up there. I think Mercedes did brilliant in terms of this race. You know, pending SO and moving up to third and stuff like that from where the car started. It weren't too bad. Priories, bit of a disappointment, as we've said. Yee-haw! This is true. Yee-haw! Do it again, Dan. Do it again. Yee-haw! Yeah, so Priory's a bit of a disappointment. But the midfield pack just seems really, really tight and congested. Which is good for racing. Yee-haw! Good for racing. It's good for racing. But, I don't know. What do you feel about the midfield pack? It's just too... There isn't racing in there, though, is there? It's too stagnant. It's too actual. They're all clumped together. There's not a lot of overtaking. There's not a lot of drama in there. There's a bit of a DRS train going on. DRS isn't looking at it as a general whole thing because they're not creating it. I'm supposed to be crying now because I lost. It's a good job we're not looking at it for that, isn't it? But, yeah. I mean, ultimately... Because Viton's going to run out as well. Oh, God, we're a victory lap or something. But, yeah. Ultimately, the midfield pack is too congested. There's not enough in there to separate. There's not enough racing in there. Yes, they can follow closely, but they can't overtake. So, in there, it's... Yeah, right. When you see maps, break it until you can get the DRS. They're doing tactical stuff like that. Yeah, it's not right. Somebody needs to look at it. Right. We've got two minutes and 25 seconds. We'll have a victory lap and we'll have spitfire questions from people in the comments. We'll pick one each. See, this is where I miss the joint live, though, because you can see everyone's comments. I can see my comments and you can see your comments. That's what I mean. I'll go. And then, right. Have you got questions? Because nobody's put a question in mind. Yeah, check a question very quickly, somebody. And none of your team's a good deal with it. Oh, ouch. Mrakar and Badgie, what races are you going to? I'm going to Silverstone this year. Me too. I'll be at Silverstone as well. Boom. Will Landu leave if his contract allows him? Yes. Daddy Cool, F1. Should there be a reverse grid to make it interesting? No. No. People just need to get better. Do you think Mark will be at the front any time soon? No. I don't think he'll be at the front. No. No. I don't know. I thought you were going to elaborate on that. No. Do I think Yuki will be in Formula One next season? No. Grace has thought, why did Max look so annoyed? He started 2.15 and came home second. Because he wants to win. Winning mentality. Yeah, because they'll always just leave you at the petrol station on the way home. They are. Someone's put this split like he's going to go back to the old way. I agree with you, JPM. Definitely. Is Mercedes now the best of the rest? No. No, I think Ferrari are. Yeah, Ferrari are. Sorry, Dan. If you're still here, Dan, I apologise. Ethan has thought, what do you think of Audi joining F1? A breath of fresh air. Yeah, I want to see Andres as well. I can't understand why they're not in Formula One at all. They've got the money. They've got the facilities. They've got the people. Will Lewis get his A title? No. Kevin, if Lewis joins Ferrari, will Max still support Mercedes? If who joins Ferrari? Lewis. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I will. At the same time, though, I'd still follow Lewis, because I am... Lewis is, you know, my number one driver. But yeah, I follow George. I follow a lot of drivers, just because I wear the Mercedes merch. Oh my gosh, I don't know if we're going to have time for this one. What will we do to make Ferrari no longer suck? Nothing. I would recruit more outside people into Maranello, because I think that's what they need. My missus has just thought, do you agree F1 is missing Danny Rick? Media-wise, yes. Yes. Personality-wise, yes. I'd say, yeah. If you guys didn't support Merck, and Lewis was gone, who would you be supporting? Ooh, George, interesting. It's easy, George. Yeah, but what if Merck was going as well, so what team? Oh, we'll come back to you on that one. Has the cross-cap era really made the competition better, or does it restrict teams to catch up? I... it's a tricky one, isn't it? I think it restricts teams to catch up. And the reason I say that is because you've had Red Bull, Mercedes, you know, Ferraris, the big teams, shall we say, have had years previous where they've been able to pump X, Y, and Z into a business. Yeah. Before the cross-cap, so it's a little bit on... I get why it's there, it just doesn't balance the books. Yeah, in some ways, yeah, it protects the smaller teams, and it does a good job from that point of view, but I think it stifles innovation a bit, it stifles development. And that's the downside of it, isn't it? But it does protect the smaller teams going out of business. Ooh, who's your favourite team principal? It's Toto. It's got to be Toto. And look, I say that, and I say this, yeah, and look, you're going to hate me for saying it, but I think he's brilliant, he doesn't hold any punches. I'm uncertain. Yeah, it's a tough one, isn't it? I mean, Toto has created a winning team, and he's a fantastic team principal, but I don't think you could also look past Christian and what he's done at Red Bull either. You can't, look... You know, he's done such a job there, and actually, if you look at it, then objectively, as a whole, he's practically recreated a winning team. I know Adrian, you've been on the table on that, and it's a whole lot, but that's it. Jessica has just said, thank you, Terry. Right, so, I think that's pretty much us done now. We've had a wrap. In terms of the death, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. Thank you for your questions. Thanks for your time. That is us done. Really appreciate anyone who's liked, gifted, whatever you've all done on there. I know it's been a bit of a challenge with a split one. Not sure I like a split one, Matt, so I'll just say perfect. Right, and thank you all anyway. Enjoy the rest of your week. Everyone wave to Terry.