Forza Lewis!

This week, we talk about the thrilling Barcelona GP, Lewis Hamilton's stunning victory, and so much more!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the seventh episode of the Into the Chicane podcast. As usual, we're your hosts. I'm Tasha. I'm Alicia. And we are so back, baby. My God. We just have a huge weekend for Tasha. I oh my gosh. Yes. So it was the Barcelona Grand Prix this weekend. It's been 24 hours and I'm still processing everything that happened, but the Ferrari has been brought up to the top shelf. And I don't know if it'll stay there, but I'm hoping it stays there. What a weekend. Oh man, much to discuss. I think we should just jump right into it and not deprive anyone any further of unpacking the amazing things that happened. So let's start with a quick podium recap. In first place, taking home the top spot, Lewis Hamilton, with his first win in over a year. Huge, huge race for him. Second place, George Russell. Great to see him back up on that podium, finally. And in third place, we have Lando Norris, which makes this podium our first all-British podium since 1968.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Unreal. Yeah. So I it's been a year since Hamilton was at the top of the podium, but for like a sprint, right? Like it wasn't for a GP. So I think his last GP win was Silverstone in 2024. Yeah. I think that's right. So almost two years. So it's been it's been a long time coming. It's been a really, really tough, tough couple years being a Lewis fan. And and you know, just everything that happened with him moving to Ferrari last year was so brutal to watch. And I truly was sobbing. I like I couldn't, I could not watch the race. I had to re-watch it afterwards. But while it was happening, I was like hiding behind a corner in a wall and just like peeking one eye over because I just I I I didn't I didn't know what to do. And I was too scared that I was gonna jinx something or like breathe the wrong way or something would happen. And then uh yeah, just started sobbing like lap 65 and didn't stop crying until after the podium was done. And honestly, so valid. It was it was it was insane and to see how emotional he got, like you just you could see how much he wanted this for for him and the team just increased. Yes. I just loved seeing like the the stress just melt off of his shoulders, you know, like it was so nice to see him be able to celebrate something and reap the benefits of all his hard work. And I do hope, you know, obviously everyone has their drivers that they enjoy watching and they have their favorites and whatnot, but I do hope that this made it very clear to everyone that he is not in F1 as a money grab. He's not here for the publicity, he's not messing around. He really, really cares about the sport. He cares about his performance. And I mean, everyone could see how much this meant to him. And I think without having hit probably the rock bottom of his career last year, I don't know that it would have felt as joyous and euphoric. And I think maybe that's a lesson for all the drivers is you're gonna have some really, really tough times, but that doesn't mean you're not capable of the most amazing moments in your career. So I think it was inspiring for not only the fans, but I know so many of the drivers in their post-race comments, they all started off by saying, I just want to say congrats to Lewis because you can just see how much his presence on the grid means to him. They've all watched him, you know, growing up in racing. They've seen how hard he's worked to get back to the top. And like, there's no better inspiration than having like one of the best drivers of all time go through a really low point and then come back fighting to achieve another podium. Like, so happy for him for his win. And it was it felt so euphoric. It was amazing. 100%. And it was just, you know, kind of all weekend you you were watching Lewis being like something felt a little different with him this weekend. And I I don't think anybody could quite pinpoint what was going on, but definitely at at the start of the race, right? Like him in like he in quality was fantastic. His pace was like right there.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

F1 put out a graphic where they almost they were showing him in in in his in his hot lap there and sh kind of had superimposed the fur uh the uh the Mercedes, and you saw just how close he was, and it was just it like I don't know, that fire in him was there that we haven't seen in a while. So going into the race, it just I don't know. I just woke up in the morning and I was like, I feel like something's gonna happen. And the first little bit of the race, like he came on on the softs, and I was like, okay, like interesting strategy, let's see what happens here. Wasn't able to do much because the the tire deck was crazy in Barcelona this weekend. But it was it was incredible, and I have to say, Ferrari did strategy well. That's not something I've said for a really long time. Yeah. But they they they cooked with that strategy. It was unbelievable. Coming in with saying we're gonna do the three-stop through the entire grid off. Mercedes were like scrambling to try and figure out, you know, how do we how do we adjust now to this because that wasn't their plan. And yeah, I've the strategy, Lewis is just his driving. It it was just a great weekend for them. Yeah, I don't think I would have ever put together that sentence to say that Ferrari had really good strategy. But like I have to give credit where credit is due because what a complete race that was. I feel like everyone was just operating to their fullest extent. Lewis was driving his absolute best. We had the strategic team, like they were really committed to the strategy, they had a plan, they executed it really well. The pit stops, I mean, of course, we had that amazing moment of that beautifully timed pit stop and Hamilton coming out in front of Russell. That's when I like started to believe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

I still cooking.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, I still couldn't quite do it at that point. I was like, I don't, I don't know. I don't know, something could happen. And I just, yeah, everything I could possibly do to not jinx him. I like wasn't voting on like driver of the day until I also literally the very end through the tears. That's when I voted for him for driver of the day because I was like, I like I'm gonna hit this button and he's gonna like end up in a wall or something. Like, I can't do it. Yeah. But that was, yeah, just beautifully timed. I also like, you know, I think he's really struggled with Adami, like his previous race engineer. And this race engineer, I think, is fantastic, exactly what Lewis needs. The communication between them was absolutely stellar. And I think that's a difference for sure. Night and day compared to some of the radio bits we've heard from last season. I'm really happy for Lewis. I think he learned a lot in his first year of Ferrari, and he really took all of that. And I would say the team took that as well as a huge learning opportunity. And instead of getting dejected and saying, like, well, let's just ride it out and see what happens, they did a lot of hard work. Um, and it's it's very clear that you know a lot of work was put in by everyone to get to this point. So yeah, insanely happy for him. And I do actually want to make another comment on, I'm sure you saw his Instagram post that he made celebrating the race. And I love what he captioned it. Um, I'm sure everyone has seen, but the caption was for who you are. And if we have one of the best drivers of all time doubting themselves like that and able to overcome it and get back to the top, like what an amazing lesson for everyone that like you can go through hard shit and you can come out on the other side and be better than you were. Yeah. And so I just loved it. Yeah, it was a fan who said that to him last year in April while he was really going through it, right? With Ferrari. And uh yeah, it was a fan who I'm not sure exactly where it was. I think it was at one of the races or something, but it was a fan, like people were getting autographs and stuff, and this this guy was like yelling to Lewis, like, remember who you are, like you can do it. Like, don't forget you're Lewis Hamilton. And uh, and I think he had tweeted a little bit about that afterwards, or he said something on social media about that. But he he did talk a lot about that after the race of like my fans, you know, have kept reminding me and and not allowed me to like forget who I am. And it's just yeah, just incredible, right? He said that on the radio message, like thanking his fans for that, like right, you know, as he crossed the the checkered flag and stuff. So just it was like I I don't I wasn't expecting him truly to win in Barcelona going into this weekend. It's it's a track where traditionally the top team does the best. So I was very much expecting Mercedes to to win this one, and it was yeah, one of the best surprises to wake up to on a Sunday morning. Yeah. What oh, just no notes, no notes from that race for him. Just that those will be some highlights I go back to over and over for sure. Really special race. 100%. I mean, I could go on talking about Lewis for like the next hour, but we probably shouldn't do that. But speaking of Mercedes, it was it was an interesting weekend at Mercedes. You know, in quality, you had Lewis splitting up the two Mercedes, which was surprising to see, you know, the Ferrari having the pace it did. They did come in with, I think, like eight upgrades this weekend or something like that. So they clearly got those upgrades right. Like it, it worked.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

But we just at least I expected Mercedes to be coming out on top this weekend. And at the start of the race, I think everybody had good pace. George had good pace, Kimmy had good pace, Ferrari came in with their strategy, shocked everybody a little bit. But it was really interesting watching George and Kimmy because yeah, it didn't end well for Kimmy. You know, we were seeing reliability issues here with the Mercedes and their engine, and it's seeming to be week after week, along with a lot of the teams that they're supplying parts to, like McLaren and stuff, like there seems to be something happening with with the Mercedes reliability here that they really need to figure that piece out. But prior to Kimi's end stopping, he overtook Russell. So if I'm George Russell, who qualified P1, and had Kimmy's engine not stopped working and had continued going the way it was, he would have been in P3. I don't yeah, yeah. I don't really know where that leaves George, honestly. I think obviously, you know, really important weekend for him to score points. He did just that. He performed really, really well. P2, very amazing accomplishment for him. But yeah, I think we saw Kimmy overtake George, I think a lap before his car just died. And it was like a it was like a proper overtake, you know? It was not Kimmy like squeezing it out at the last second, it was a pretty clear overtake. And you know, they're in the same car, right? They're in the same car. And so if I'm George and we haven't really seen the two of them go head to head in recent races up until this race, but if I'm George, I'm concerned about that because he's finally gotten the opportunity, you know, outside of either bad luck or, you know, car reliability problems to show us again what he's made of. And it's not measuring up as well to Kimmy as he would have liked. And I think that's pretty clear now that we've seen them go head to head again. Yeah. I, you know, I will kind of defend George in a slight way where like Kimmy had slightly newer tires than George did when he did pass him, but also George is a much more seasoned driver and understands the deg of these tires and stuff like that a lot. Yeah. Or at least should. And I j I just don't think that's an excuse, right? Yeah. We can say all the things about the Ferrari strategy and stuff, and like had the the VSC not come out, I don't I don't think Lewis would have been 20 like almost 20 seconds ahead of them. I think it would have come a lot closer, but still, right? Like Lewis's tires, like in that middle stint there, like that man was flying and was managing his tires really well and stuff like that, right? So I I I don't I don't know, right? Like I'm I think it's a win for George that he got points, he finished the race, you know, the because that hasn't happened in the last two. So it's it's good. He really needed those points, but I I think there's a big question mark in my head of is he really outperforming? Because he didn't outperform the Ferrari and he wouldn't have outperformed his teammate. So I don't know. Yeah, I think we have seen maybe enough examples now that it's fair, I think, to say that George is getting outperformed, even when race conditions are equal. We're seeing that he's not able to keep the pace consistently with Kimmy. And obviously he had um a solid qualifying, you know, he had that pole position, and so he's showing that he's capable of doing well, but in those head-to-heads with Kimmy, he's not coming out on top during the race, and that is concerning because he already has quite a deficit to make up, and so he needs to be able to overtake with relative ease. You know, Kimmy is in a second year of F1. George has had like what 10 years of experience by now. So this should be his bread and butter, and so I'm sure that's concerning to him. Yeah, absolutely. And I think as a team Mercedes, I you know, I still think George is is driver one for now, and we'll see kind of what happens here. But Mercedes really needs to fix this right reliability issue because they're gonna lose the championship, they're gonna lose constructors if they don't, if they don't figure this out. Yeah, like it's I I I watched, you know, it was it was really sweet. I'm I'm like quite convinced Lewis is still like Toto's like firstborn, and uh Toto was just like insanely happy for Lewis, and like like thrilled that Lewis like he was really happy for Lewis. But he was talking about how like now like like he's he's he's scared, right? He knows what Lewis is capable of. Lewis can can taste it, right? Like he's so close now to he can actually put up a real fight.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

So yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

It'll be interesting because I I think Mercedes really needs to figure out that reliability issue because it's been week after week, right? I think up until this past weekend, every driver who has the Mercedes engine has had a reliability issue, except for Kimmy. Well, yeah now so and it was his turn, right? So they they need to fix that or else they're gonna it's gonna that's you know, truly I feel like that's Lewis's window of opportunity is banking on on Mercedes having a reliability issue. Yeah, I think the driver's championship is certainly a concern for Mercedes, but even constructors. I mean, we've seen that unless you have both cars consistently in the points and in the top few positions week after week, that leaves you vulnerable. We saw it happen with Red Bull a couple years ago, where they had a car that wasn't consistently in the points. Um, and nobody would have necessarily expected that at the beginning of the season, even around the midway point of the season. Uh, but it has some serious impacts. And I think Mercedes has been lucky that uh unfortunately LeClaire has um had problems two races in a row now where he hasn't been able to finish. Um because otherwise Ferrari would really be gaining on them. And I think Mercedes has been kind of getting away with that a little bit because of the problems of others, but they really need to have both cars consistently in the points to build out enough of a buffer because we're also seeing that other teams are catching up with them, right? Ferrari is hot on their heels. We have news from last week that shows that Red Bull's engine is actually the best. Who knows what they could pull out on any given day? We know that basically every other team is constantly working on upgrades, and so they're starting to look less invincible, certainly, than we thought they would be coming into the beginning of the season. Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of our Red Bull there, Isaac was in the points again. So yeah, he's he's been performing really well week over week. Like he has he's had, you know, his struggles and stuff like that. But I do want to give him a shout-out because, like you said, you need it you can't rely on one driver to win the constructors, right? Or even to, you know, I think there are four right now in the constructors, but they're really close to to passing McLaren here. Yeah. And if you can consistently have both drivers placing in the points, which they are doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

They're they again, we we talked about this before, right? Don't count out Max. You give Max a good car that he he he can he can drive and rely on, and that guy can come out of nowhere, right? So yeah, yeah, Mercedes really need to figure this out and figure it out fast. Yeah. Um, a double DNF at this point would be really dangerous for them. Like, I think that's all it takes, honestly, is a double DNF from Mercedes, which could easily happen with all of the reliability issues. And if we don't both refer Ferraris, like one, two, yeah, that's that's also something that could happen. Right. Like, I mean, if you look at if you if you just look at the battles between George and Kimmy, they're like they are so close. Like, I like like I'm like holding my breath every time because I'm like, these two are gonna crash into each other, and it just it like it's a centimeter here or there, right? Like they're they're driving so close to each other. So yeah, right, like you that happens, a reliability issue. Like there there has to be a lot of conversations that have to be happening right now at Mercedes. Toto did also, I did hear him talk a little bit about how he felt that they played the team game a little too much and that cost them the win yesterday. Interesting. So I I'm really curious to see what like what what's gonna change now? Because now, now they're really under threat. You know, like we've seen the Ferrari keep up with them every once in a while, we've seen McLaren keep up with them every once in a while, but now the Ferrari beat them. So, what is gonna shift at at the Mercedes Garage? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Those are really interesting comments from Toe, actually. I had missed those, but in my interpretation of them, which is pure speculation, disclaimer, playing the team game when you have George Russell as the driver out ahead, and you're concerned about maybe we played the team game too much. I don't know if that's good news for George. I don't know. That's just a little bit of speculation on my part, but that's also some very interesting comments. Yeah, I've also found it very interesting. The the Mercedes like social media team put out like a video of like Toto reacting like right after the race. And yes, he's just was like upset that like you know Kimmy DNF'd, but then he's like, But I'm really happy for Lewis, he worked so hard for this, and there was no mention of George, and I was like, Yeah, what's going on? Like, like it truly feels like you know, like your firstborn and your like youngest child, and like George is just yeah, in the middle child. Zach is the middle child, and I feel I like I I I felt really bad in that moment. I was like, it total, there's still George, like after two races of not finishing, right? Like it's yeah, hmm. To be a fly on the wall for Team Mercedes. Yeah, I have many questions. Yeah, and like you know, George has stuck it out for so long with them, right? Like he was at Williams when Williams was full back. Horrible. So bad, right? And he lived those years out at Williams waiting for the opportunity to come to Mercedes. I know there was a lot of discussions happening when you know Mercedes was ready to bring him on and like Williams wouldn't release him because I don't think Mercedes were paying enough. And like there were there was a whole thing there. And so I just I feel really bad for him. But he's gotta figure it out because he's currently being outperformed by his 19-year-old teammate. Yeah. Yeah. If I'm George Russell, I don't want a 19-year-old. Is Kimmy 19 or is he 20? I don't know. A very, very young driver. Either way, you can't let that put you out of uh your top spot.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

I don't know. Don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Kimmy also received, I think it was after the race he got the penalty. Yeah. But he did get a penalty this weekend for track limits. I don't know exactly what was going on there, but I do know that the McLaren team was telling Lando, like Lando's engineer was telling him, hey, Kimmy has um, I think he's on he was on his third strike or whatever, so to keep an eye out for it. And the stewards actually didn't catch it, and it was Lando who reported it to them. And then after the after the race, he got the five-second penalty, which like he DNF'd anyways. Like it's not like it's gonna make a difference, but but I just found that funny of Lando kind of being the the tattletale on that one. That is actually really hilarious, and it brings me back to I think was it Abu Dhabi last year where Lewis was reporting everyone for track limits just out of pure frustration. I love a tattletale. Expose everyone. But yeah, I I thought that was funny. So, you know, I I think a lot of learning from Mercedes out of this weekend. I think, again, also for Kimmy, right? Like, he's young. He's has to like we talked a bit about, you know, in the past podcasts of him and his starts, right? And him having to like practice his starts and get better at them and stuff, which I think he's done now. But things like track limits, like, we we gotta be careful of that because do you really want that five second penalty for that? Like it's not, it's not worth it. So having to making sure you're taking the right lines and stuff is really important and something that he needs to work on. Yeah, agreed. And I think lack of experience or just, you know, a little bit of immaturity in his approach that day resulted in that penalty because we've seen him be amazing and and really stellar. So good learning opportunity for him and um something that I'm sure he can improve on in future races. Yeah, absolutely. We once again, and week after week, we keep having so many DNFs. And I think every week we have more. Like I think last week we had six, six, eight, six, right? That sounds right. Yeah. And I think this week we had eight, I want to say. Yeah, we had oh, we had seven. We had seven. Like, what is happening? I can't what like I it's crazy. At this point, I'm like, I just want one race where we all all the drivers finished. Yeah. I mean, we did talk a little bit about the Mercedes reliability issues, so I guess we can chalk up Antonelli's to that. I mean, outside of that, it seems like either a long string of bad luck and a lot of turmoil, or maybe there's a pattern here. Like, is there something maybe that's going on that's causing all of these DNFs? Are teams getting really experimental, maybe trying to throw a bunch of things at the wall to see what upgrades are sticking, what approaches are sticking.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

But I I don't recall the last time we saw this many DNFs all in a string. And like you said, we just keep adding more and more every race. Pretty soon we're gonna have half the grid DNF, and we're only gonna have a top 11. Yeah, right. Like it's it's it's quite crazy to watch. And part of me can understand, like, particularly with Cadillac, right? You're a new team, you're figuring it out. Like, I I think with them, I can kind of excuse them having DNF'd a bit more often. Aston Martin's Aston Martin, we've talked about the death and just how absolutely awful they are this year. So I guess it's it's kind of a given that at least one, if not both, the Aston Martins are gonna DNF. But some of it's just been like luck almost, right? So this week we had, and it was truly heartbreaking, but we had Nico Hulkenberg who DNF'd. He was running in the points, and he was, I think he was in P9, and Liam Lawson was in front of him, kind of, I guess, took a took a turn a little bit too wide or something like that, kicked up some gravel behind uh gravel behind him, and one of the pebbles landed on his car in the exact spot where they have this like kill switch, like a safety kill switch that just shuts the car off. Doesn't matter what, like you you can't get the like you can't, the engine's just gone off. And I just can't, I truly can't understand that luck. Like, how does that how does that even happen? Yeah, genuinely, what are the odds of that? Like, that has to be even less likely than one in a million, like of all of the ways to DNF, just absolutely bizarre. And poor Liam, I I did see that after the race, was it a reporter or someone else that informed him um of Hulkenberg's DNF and that he like inadvertently had caused it and he felt pretty bad. So obviously, you know, kind of a fluke, but what a strange fluke to happen. Like, never would I have expected something like this to cause a driver to not be able to finish it. Yeah, never. And it's funny, I think at the beginning of the season in our like first episode, we talked a little bit about how the drivers have compared, you know, this year to to like a Mario Kart race or something like that. And it was like like truly like Liam like threw out like one of the green shells and was just just ended. Halt's race right there is what it felt like. Because I saw, and like, you know, it's an out, it's it's the Audi. So I when he did, you know, go into the I think he was able to get the cart to the pits, and I saw DNF, I was like, oh yeah, like it's an Audi. Like it happens, yeah. But then I heard what actually happened and how it happened, and I just I felt terrible for him. Yeah. Um poor Hulkenberg, he's really gone through a lot in his career, he's put up with so much.

unknown 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

And I I honestly see him as kind of like the people's prince. Everyone was just waiting on that podium for so long. It finally happened. It really united everyone in one, I feel like. And so to see him be on the receiving side of bad luck like this just makes me feel bad. Hopefully, he can bounce back for the next phrase.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

And also Charlotte.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

No boy.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

And you know, like that watching him and Antonelli, and I think it was also Bearman. I think all of them were in lap 61. Yeah. Yeah, they were all in lap 61.

unknown 29:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

That's something happened to all three of them. But it was just, it was crazy because Antonelli just like passes George. Everyone's like, oh my gosh, and his car just like halts. I was like, wait, what just happened? And then all of a sudden, Char Leclerc just like halts. And Char, I think, lost his power steering or something like that. Which, like, I I don't I don't know what's happening. Yeah, Leclerc, I think we do need to unpack this a little bit because this is now the second race in a row where he's been running a decent race, putting together a good result or what seems like it's going to be a good result. And then in the last few laps, something happens that just takes him out of it completely. And, you know, fool me once, shame on me, right? Fool me twice, what's going on? I think at a certain point there has to be some sort of driver impact that is causing these things. I'm not saying, you know, this is fully his fault, but we have to look at the patterns that we're seeing and you know, whether it's like a focus issue, whether it's some other issue going on, like there's more at play here besides just the car. And we saw his teammate put together a stellar race. So what is going on with Leclerc? Yeah, I I feel very similarly. I'm like very shocked. I was like, I was thinking about talking about this today, and I was like, oh my god, Alicia is going to kill me. She's gonna walk out of this podcast and be like, no, I'm done with you. But I yeah, I'm like, what is going on with Leclerc? And there's only so much you can blame the car, right? Like in in quality, he crashed in P3 right into the wall. And it it was driver error, right? There there was no excuse for that one. It was truly whatever. He like he overcorrected and ended up in the wall. A very similar sort of looking crash to what happened in in Monaco. And you know, in Monaco, he can blame the bricks, he can blame the the tarmac coming apart and stuff, right? But at some point, you have to look at his impact in Ferrari over the last eight years. And I know he's signed an extension and he's he's gonna continue to be there. And if I'm Ferrari, like, you know, it's seven races in, we still have another 15 to go. We're about a third in, right? Like, there's still a lot of racing to go this season, but if this continues to go the way it's going, if I'm Ferrari, am I starting to look at Char's contract? And, you know, there there a lot of the times are like performance clauses and stuff, right? Yes, yeah, that's true. Am I looking to bring in Bearman or someone, right? To to come in and and fill that seat instead if Char doesn't start performing in that. Like we saw what the car can do. That the car has pace, the car has potential. Char's a good driver. I I will stand by that. Char's a very good driver, but as each year goes by, it's becoming more, he's becoming more of a what if kind of thing. You know, there's more of a question mark. Yes. And I, you know, I talked a little bit about, you know, that that fire. You saw the fire in Lewis this week. I feel like that is missing with Char, where like he's a good driver, but he doesn't have the fire in the the that almost I like. I don't know. I just something is missing there. And we've seen him be aggressive, we've seen all these things, but he just can't seem to be consistent with his performance. And at some point, there's there's at I don't know if I'm Ferrari at some point I'm gonna have to make a tough decision there. Yeah, I do struggle with this because I do love Sharp. I love watching him, but I think that's what makes it so frustrating is when you can see the talent that he has, and I think he's a great driver. He could he has the potential to be an exceptional driver, I think. And we've seen shades of amazing racing from him over the years. I think even though last year was a tough year for Ferrari, he had a few really strong moments where you just saw him putting like a great race together, or he made really late gains all of a sudden. So we know that he's capable. It almost feels like this year there's no fire at all. And that makes me wonder like, okay, so you're here with Ferrari, you've decided to stay longer, you're gonna be here for at least the next few years. And that's a decision that he made himself. But he doesn't to me seem like he's all that excited or happy to continue to work with this team. We talked about how Lewis, you know, hit basically rock bottom in his career and was able to rebuild to win another GP in a year. We're not really seeing that desire from Char to like do anything. It almost feels like the analogy of if you put a frog in a pot of water and you slowly heat it up, the frog will just stay there and die, right? In the heat. Whereas Lewis is the frog in boiling water right now, right? Like jumping around trying to do something. And I don't know that Ferrari will necessarily replace LeClaire. I think they like having him, but if that's a question or a thought in the back of their minds, that is concerning. Um, because LeClaire is a huge talent, and the thought of replacing him with a more inexperienced driver after all of these years together um is insane, right? Like that would be insane, but it's not completely out of the question now. And so I don't know what's going on with him, and I don't really know what we're going to see with the rest of this time that he has with Ferrari, and it might not be that remarkable. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting because like last year, last year we can pretty much blame the car, right? We know the car was garbage. Both Char and Lewis had moments where they were good, but the car was trash. There's only so much you can do with it. Previous to Lewis coming onto the team, you you had Carlos there for a bit, right? And you had Char and Carlos driving together. And and Carlos is a great driver, it's very good, but you went from being compared to Carlos Sainz, who's a good driver, but you're also a good driver, to now this year, and and last year, but especially this year in a car that's good. You're you're being compared to Lewis Hamilton. Right. And it's it's not gonna be easy to keep up with that, right? Lewis is an excellent driver. He's probably he's in my mind, he's the greatest driver we've had, but Lewis is up there, right, with the Schumacher's, the Senna's. Like Lewis is is legendary. And I think we're starting to see some of the shortcomings from Shar because he's driving against somebody who's legendary. So I it like it's it's not necessarily fair, but I think as as you know, just as viewers, you're starting to see those shortcomings more and more because of that. Versus I think in the in the past may have been masked a little bit because you had two drivers who were a bit more comparable, at least in my mind. And I I don't I don't I don't I don't know what's going on with Shark because on top of that, there's just no consistency. Right? Like, of course, you have, you know, we talk I was talking a bit about Isaac being in in the second seat with Max, and like Max is pretty much consistently outperforming him, which is fine, but Isaac is still consistently performing and doing well, and Isaac's a baby, right? It's his second year in in F1 and stuff. Shar's been around for a long time, and he's just hasn't been able to find the consistency. Yeah. I think it's going to be a bit of a tumultuous season for him. I I agree with you. We haven't really seen any consistency, and it feels like every race he finds another way to tee it up. And I don't want to see that from him. I would love to see him have a standout race this year and have a standout moment and you know gain some momentum and see like a desire to improve and see him get excited. And we're just not seeing that. And even I want to say it was two races ago, I don't even remember what race this was. Maybe Canada, where he finished decently, maybe not Canada, but he finished like in the top six or seven, and he was on the radio saying this was the worst race ever. Like I just had a terrible day. Yeah, it was Canada. It was Canada. And so comments like that too are puzzling to me because um we even talked about it on that pot. Like that would have been an amazing race for them last year. That's improvement, but it wasn't notable to him at all, and it was almost an irritating thing to him. So just things are not quite adding up there, and I don't know if we're gonna see any resolution to that anytime soon, but I really hope we do. I would love to see him put together the race that he's capable of and just like get back to being a little bit more of his old self. Yeah, I I agree. Like I'd love for nothing more than, you know, him to find that second gear and for him to just start performing a little bit more consistently, maybe him to have some more input into the car, because right now it sounds like Lewis is having a lot of input. And I understand that, you know, it you can't build two completely different cars. But like I I don't know. I don't know what that looks like, but I just would like for both Ferrari drivers to be a lot more consistent. And if they're both being consistent, and again, you have this reliability issue with the Mercedes, you have a really, really good shot right now of winning constructors. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm sure that that's something both drivers want. Even LeClaire, I'm sure that's something that would uh be like a huge moment after all of these years with Ferrari. So we'll see what happens. I hope we can see things turn around, but we're heading down kind of a sad path. Yeah. And I I don't know, I think it's still too soon to see who's gonna be given more priority at Ferrari. You know, we'd we've talked a bit about it with with George and and Kimmy, and do they shift gear to go all in on Kimmy? And not quite yet, but I can see a world in which that happens. I can also see a world in which that happens with Lewis at Ferrari's. Yes. If if Char doesn't start to to to perform and to step up, I think Char's last win was also in 2024, if I'm not mistaken. And so I know he's probably itching to be at the top of that podium, but if Ferrari starts to, you know, if we get later in the season and we're all in on Lewis at Ferrari, what happens to Char? Right? Like, yeah, he gets team orders to let Lewis through. Does he do it? Or does he say, sorry, radio's not working, can't hear you, right? Like what um I I don't know. I don't know what happens. So if I'm Charles Leclerc, I'm have to really, really step up my game here. So I'm not put in a situation like that. Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to talk about Alpine.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Yes.

unknown 41:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

So we talked a lot about our top performers and our top contenders in the championship. Uh, but we have another race that happens throughout the season, and that's the best of the rest. And to my surprise, we're really seeing that Alpine right now is that best of the rest team. They're consistently outperforming the rest of the midfield, which is amazing for them considering where they were last year. But I don't think that that's necessarily what we would have thought headed into this season. And what's surprising to me is it doesn't really feel like there's any other teams that are close right now or even really in the conversation. No, you're right. And at the beginning of the season, uh it was Haas, right? We were all shocked at how well Haas was doing. Haas has brought in certain upgrades and stuff like that. Clearly, everything's not working for them. And whatever Alpine is doing is working. And it's very hard for me to admit that because I I like Gasly. I think he's a, you know, I I don't really have any strong feelings about him. Like I think he's he's good and and he has potential and stuff, but I think he's a good driver. I like Cola Pinto. I think he's he's kind of one of these young kids that I'm excited to see where he goes because I think he has an interesting future ahead of him in in F1. But with every fiber of my being, I hate Flavio Brigatori. And the fact that this is his team and it's doing well just kills me every week on the inside because I just want bad things for that man. But Alpine is is doing really well. They were both in the points again, like they're being consistent. And uh, I mean, I'm happy for Gasly and and Cola Pinto, but I just want bad things for that man. So it it's hard. It's hard. It's a very, it's a very, very bittersweet acceptance for me. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I really despise Flavio. I think he might be my number one F1 enemy and just a sinister, evil vibes, man. And so it doesn't feel good to see him do well, but I do agree with you. I'm very happy to see Colapinto and Gasly in a much better position than they were in last year, especially Kolopinto. Just, you know, he he deserves this. I'm sure that, you know, there was a lot of difficult moments coming out of the 2025 season, and it's nice to see him, you know, start putting together the races he was capable of. But such a shame that it all has to happen under that evil man. Yeah, a hundred percent. But it there is no other team that's yeah, could be with them right now. So again, I mean it is early in the season. We did see a shift, right, between Haas and Alpine. We'll see, is there gonna be another shift? I don't know. There's 15 more races, so potentially somebody could bring something in. I'd love to see Williams do well. I'd love to see them be able to do something at this point to try and get their drivers doing better, doing better, that car doing better. Like, I just I don't know what's going on there. We've seen glimpses of like of hope with them, but then it just goes away, right? It's it's not consistent. So I'm I'm hoping they can do something and make some changes, but as of right now, Alpine's running with it and nobody's coming. Yeah. I mean, even if we look at the rest of the grid, obviously we can't expect anything out of Aston Martin Cadillac. It's their first year, can't expect much. Audi not expecting a lot. So that leaves us with Williams, who is underperforming from what the expectations were, and Haas, which granted, we did have two DNFs now in a row for Ollie. So if maybe things had worked out differently, maybe he would have picked up some points. But still, like it's I think it it comes down to again having both drivers consistently in the points. And Alpine is is doing that job for the most part, and certainly better than any of the other teams we just mentioned. And so if that's not happening for Haas or for Williams, and clearly that's not happening right now, it's like Alpine will continue to run away with it unless those teams can figure something out. Yeah, and I mean the one team we haven't really talked about that I actually think can give them a bit of a fighting chance is is Racing Bowls. Racing Bowls, yeah. Like I think they have the potential to to do it. They are, I think, in the constructors, I think they're below Alpine right now. But you did have both Arvid and Liam finishing in the points again this race. So if they can keep up the consistency, you know, you have a youngin' with Arvid this, it's his first year racing and stuff. Like it it is gonna be tough, but I can see them potentially giving them a little bit of a tougher time for that uh that fifth spot on with constructors. But Alpine's doing a great job. Yeah, for sure. That was my battle Swan Racing Bowls. Forgot about them. They are doing really well this year. I think um just uh looking at the standings right now, Alpine has 57 points, uh Racing Bowls is at 41. So they're definitely like still within striking distance. But yeah, we'll see if they can put something together here because after that we don't have anyone uh close. Haas is the next team up with 21 points, so just a fraction of the the points of Alpine right now. Yeah. So we'll see. Hopefully, hopefully somebody passes them, but they're they're they're doing a really good job, and everything they're learning and implementing about their car is is working really well for them. Do we want to move on to news? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, so in F1 News, we actually have quite an interesting situation to discuss. And so uh for anyone who tuned in last week, you may remember that uh Gasly had received two different penalties for speeding in the pit lane, neither of which he served. And so when he crossed the finish line or the checkered flag, he had 10 points worth of a penalty that was applied retroactively. And ultimately, um, it turns out that after an appeal of this penalty from Alpine, who requested a right of review, those penalties have now been overturned. And so instead of Hajar in P3 for Monaco, we actually have Gasly in third place. Tosh, I know you've been following the sport longer than me, so please correct me. But in recent memory, I can't recall anything like this happening where a penalty has been reversed like this. I haven't seen this happen before. I was shocked when, like I wasn't surprised that Alpine did their right to review, but I was shocked that they overturned that and upheld that. That was wild. Because what do you do about everybody else? And I like today, earlier today, today's Monday, the the 15th, and earlier this morning, Mercedes submitted their right to review for George. But how do you like how do you implement this now? Because are you just like it he's already served his penalty? Are you gonna add the 10 seconds on to his time? But then everybody else, there was like 10 penalties, like went out, right? Like, are you gonna go do that for everybody and it's gonna completely mess up the whole board? Like, I don't, I don't know. I don't know what they're gonna do and how they're gonna do this. Because also, if you only do it for Ghastly, you're essentially rewarding him for not serving his penalty. Yeah. Which is very messy. So I don't I don't know. Yeah, I think this is completely the blame of the stewards. And what's so funny about this is they've essentially admitted their wrongdoing by saying, hey, we don't think that our system of measuring the distance worked properly here. And so we are going to correct that mistake. But in doing so, they've now created an absolute mess for the rest of the grid because those speeding in the pit lane penalties were being handed out like candy. And we had every other team serve their penalty except for Gasly. And if you think about it, Gasly is in that P3 spot partially because there are many other drivers behind him that had to serve that same penalty, and so it's really, really messy. And I don't blame Alpine at all for asking for that to be reviewed. It's within their right to do so. But I am also shocked by that decision because of the mess it creates and the strange kind of precedent it could potentially set if we see something like this in the future. Yeah, I I don't know how they're gonna handle George's now. I think once we see what they do with with George's review, and if they overturn that, which is gonna be insane, because then he would be in P3, I think, if I'm not mistaken. Or I mean she wouldn't probably be in P3, maybe not though for sure. Um because Yeah, he wouldn't be in the points, I think, with his uh drive-thru penalty. But then it would would they then add 15 seconds onto his time? Because like he if he didn't have that first penalty, he didn't serve, then he wouldn't have the drive-thru penalty. So you know what I mean? Like it's it it's so messy. And so depending on what happens there, I think you're gonna have it's gonna be a domino effect of all of the teams being like, well, hold on, wait a second.

SPEAKER_01 51:18

Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

If you're overturning that one, then you can overturn mine as well. So I don't I don't know. Yeah, I completely agree. I think this has the potential to get very messy. We might be hearing about that Monaco podium for weeks and weeks. And I don't know that there's any way at this point to make it right, but I do think that if we continue to open this can of worms, it could become very, very difficult to resolve. It's super unfortunate that this happened in the first place. But even Russell, like, once the penalty is served, it's impossible to say what could have happened in racing conditions, right? We have no idea what could have happened. Could he have, you know, had an amazing race after that and made it back up to the podium? We don't know. Could he have DNF'd? We don't know. Like it's it's almost an odd way to like influence the outcome of a race without letting the racing part of it play out fully. And yeah, I I don't really think this leaves us in a good spot. And you know, like I'll I'll say it again, it's so unfortunate that this happened because we're seeing now that it's affecting even the drivers, potentially, the drivers who, you know, did what they were supposed to do and who are now being maybe unfairly penalized for it. Yeah, a hundred percent. And like, and you're right, right? Like, we don't know what would have happened with the race had those penalties not happened or whatever, right? Which I guess is why Gasly gets P3, because we do know what happens with his race, right? So we we do know that he crossed the line at P3 and he got the he had the five second penalty. So without that five-second penalty, he still would have been P3 because he didn't serve it anyways. But again, you're rewarding a team for not serving out their penalty, and that I feel like is very messy. And yeah, moving forward as a team, like I would really question should I actually serve out this penalty or not? Because it might actually be better for me to not serve the penalty. So I don't I don't know. Yeah, this was a weird one. This was a very, very odd situation. Yeah, really weird one. I'm interested to see how this plays out with Mercedes, and I hope we never see this type of incident happen again because you know it could just have such disastrous effects for everyone. Right. Anything else we want to um chat about?

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Other than the next race?

SPEAKER_00 53:57

I think we got everything. All right. So we're taking a quick break from racing this upcoming weekend, but in two weeks, we have the Austrian GP, which should be an exciting one. That's the Red Bull home race. So it should be a fun one, and that'll be June 26th to 28th. And we're really getting into the season now. I think we've really settled in. We're gonna have to stop saying it's early in the season because we're we're really getting on our way here. Yeah. Yeah, we're getting it's we're we're we're getting into the depths of it. And I feel like these uh these European races tend to be some of my favorites. Like they they're just they're always the all the all the tracks are a little bit different. Monaco's usually the most boring, and that one was exciting. Barcelona was super exciting. So I think it's setting some precedence here for the next few, but usually the this European stint is one that I really like. So I'm excited to see how things play out in a couple weeks here, especially with it being Red Bull's home race. Is Red Bull going to be more competitive than we've seen them? It's Max's, yeah, you know, Max dominates that ring a lot. So what happens with Max? How's Ezek gonna perform? I think I think it'll be interesting to watch. Yeah, we'll have to see. They have two weeks to put something together. Um, so it should be a fun one. And I agree, the next few races, too. I'm I'm looking forward to. We have Silverstone coming up in uh not too too much time now, and that's one of my favorites as well. It's it's always a very exciting one. So much to look forward to in the coming weeks. Yes. Um, okay, I'm gonna close it out. Okay, uh, so that brings us to the end of another episode. Thank you all for tuning in, and we will see you in a couple weeks after Austria with a recap and a bit of a refresher of everything that happened on that day. And in the meantime, please don't forget to rate and review us on the podcast listening platform of your choice, and we will catch you soon with another episode. Bye. Bye.