The Stewards Conspiracy Corner #003

The conspiracy of the blue flags, winners and losers at McLaren, Lewis’s eighth championship at Imola? All this and much more in this week’s Stewards Conspiracy Corner.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, welcome back to another week, Dan.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Yeah, welcome back. How how's your weekend been?

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Uh it's been good. It was eventful in many ways. It's been extremely hot here in Minnesota. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Yeah, well, I haven't really had to deal with much of it. I've been in San Fran San Diego for the last week.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

That's right. You were at Comic Con. Comic-Con, yes. A lot of exciting announcements happening there, huh?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Yes, yes, lots of exciting stuff. I I I can't wait for Doomsday to come out. Excited for that. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Well, and Spider-Man brand new day is just around it's this week, I think. This Friday. Is it? Yeah, the 31st.

unknown 0:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

That's awesome. So that's really exciting. Something to watch during the Formula One summer break. That's right. Summer break just started. It's always a sad time, right? The summer break. It's great. You know, what I really like about it is that the teams have to take a mandatory two-week break. So no one's in the factory, no one's working on anything. They all get to go home to their families. I think that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Well, it's a good thing. I mean, they have such a rigorous schedule, traveling all around the world, you know, packing up, getting to places, unpacking, getting everything ready to go. They gotta have some time to take a break because they're working pretty much all day, every day. Oh yeah. Up until this point.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah, the Formula One world of if you're working in it, not I mean, even as a driver, it's insane because you know, during the weeks that they're off, they're doing simulator work, they're talking to the team about developments, you you name it, but the yacht photos and the pictures swimming in the crystal clue uh crystal blue water is not really the reality, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

No, and some of that's uh purposely staged too. I mean, they do they do that as uh um some publicity so that they can get the drivers out there and yeah visible to to the fans.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Charles Leclerc has a sponsorship with uh I think it's Riva R-I-V-A. Oh, the cars? No, the yachts.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Oh, the yachts.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

And so he's always taking pictures. Well, he just del he just got a yacht delivered to him recently, a big, a pretty big one. I don't know the size of it, but it was um delivered, I think, right after his wedding or right before. I can't remember. Anyway, but enough about the summer break. Let's talk about Hungary.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yes, Hungary. Now, this was a great race. I mean, how many lead changes were there? There had to have been like five or six lead changes.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

There had to be at least five or six. There's a beyond the pit stop lead changes.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Right, beyond the pit stop lead changes, but also, too. I mean, the general field there were their overtakes left and right and and uh positions being changed quite regularly. So it was a very good race in that aspect. Um now it's kind of disappointing. Cadillac had some troubles. Um McLaren had some troubles. Gearbox went out.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

So there's some teams that had some issues, uh, other teams fared well.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Uh even McLaren uh Lando. Lando did very well.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yes, he did. Uh and then yeah. Wearing the champions had not only the world champion, but the champion of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Right. First race, first race win. First race win. So I knew I know we weren't gonna talk about this early, but Dan, in the last episode, I mean, you didn't nail the first your first prediction spot on. You were off by by one or two places, but for the uh Hungarian Grand Prix, you nailed the winner.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I did. Well, you know, it it was one of those McLaren came in with a hot car.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

They did.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

And it was the Hungaro ring is set up for that kind of a car. So it was it was um expected that they would do well. I I thought that this was an opportunity for uh Lander to take his first win, and it came true.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah, once again, it shows that McLaren does well in open air.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Open air, oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Because we saw that not only well, the Hungar Rings are hard to pass on anyway, but they did not fare well even when they were behind each other. For example, when Oscar was leading the race, Lando was complaining the whole time that he's like, Let me pass, I can get 10 seconds on the field, which he actually ended up doing. He actually got more like 13, 14 seconds on the field. So he made good on that promise to his team saying, Hey, I'm I'm faster, let me go ahead. So we have something to talk about here, though. The pit strategy is often known as the way to let your teammate buy without letting your teammate buy.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Well, that's exactly what McLaren did.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

And that's exactly what McLaren did, and you know who was absolutely livid about it.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Of course, it was uh Oscar.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

It was Oscar, and he he went on the radio and he specifically said, you know, you can you pretty much I'm paraphrasing here, but you can say all the excuses that you want. That, you know, when signs hit me, that's when I lost my pace, yada yada yada. But you pitted me so that Lando could be ahead.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

And they've done this in the past where they've played the pit games to get one driver ahead that they wanted to be in the lead. Yep. Um so they've played that pit strategy before.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Yeah, I just think that for Oscar, he's looking for wins, especially on a rough on a hard season, right? And I think he probably could have had that win. He he would have had Max right behind him. I really think that. I think he would have he would have gotten caught up, but it's so hard to pass in Hungary. Well, unless you're Max, Max showed pretty easily how he could pass he continues to be impressive in those crazy where you don't think you can pass areas and he's passing, which is just insane.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah, he just passed uh passed Lewis like he was standing still in a corner that you would not expect to pass to happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

He caught Lewis off guard there. Oh big time. Big time because Lewis is like, no one's passing me here. Right. And then there's Max.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I was like, well, you know, it if you if you got the tires and you and you can break and you know break later, he he had the he had the uh momentum going in that corner.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

He did. So he did. He's just he's great with the late braking and he likes a lot of front end on his car, so he has a he has a lot of movement available to him. Yeah, he's a master with those with those passes, especially on a ring like this where you need that, you need to be bold, you need to take a lot of risk to pass. Because if you get that wrong and Lewis turns left or you know, wherever you're passing on the inside or the outside, you're done, right? You're you're gonna you're both gonna go off and into the gravel, and it's unruling there. The gravel's everywhere, so you get reached really, really easy. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

And and Lewis did say on on uh the channel that uh he didn't like the setup that he had when he was on the heart tires.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

You know, he wasn't he wasn't getting the steering that he wanted in and out of corners.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Which I was surprised that they put him on double hard. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

That on that last pit stop, I thought they would put him on mediums.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

That's what I thought too.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

And then that way he his setup would have been a little bit better and he would have been able to catch up a lot more.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

My mic was slowly dropping. Apologies for that if anybody couldn't hear me anymore. Um yeah, no, I was shocked that they put him on on double hards, especially since he wasn't he didn't. I mean, really, that race was unpredictable because they originally said it was gonna be a two-pit stop. Then Kimmy ambitiously tried to think it was gonna be a one-pit stop.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

He was gonna go long for the win, which I think if it wasn't as hot at hot as it was there, he probably could have done it.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Right, but that wandered him because when other people were pitting, getting on fresh tires, and he stayed out too long on the older tires, that really uh affected. You just get caught up. Yeah, it affected his placement after his second or his first pit there.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I just know I just remember last year and a couple years before, it's like McLaren did that, Ferrari does that often, and it's it just never works. It's the risk to reward ratio is so off. Like the reward is really high, right? Because you most likely could win the race if you have a 20-second lead. But if you don't have the pace on older tires and something's not working for you, and it's really windy at the Hungaro ring, so the wind's pushing you everywhere, so that's affecting your pace on on older tires as well. Yeah, it's just it's just not a good risk. And I I think about strategists, you know, and and and what they get told after the race like, don't ever do that strategy again, you know? Like that was terrible.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Well, Pirelli also chose the three softest tires, yeah. Which at that point, when you're using a medium on that course, which chews up tires, especially with how warm it was, medium tires not gonna last. No, not even close to being able to last long enough to do uh one-pit stuff.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Nope. Yep. All right, we want to come back to the Hungaro Grand Prix, but we have a few sponsors that we want to talk about, Dan.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yes, uh, our two main sponsors that we're continuing to have here. One of them is DH Toys, is where we host host the show. Uh, their toy store in Shakapee, Minnesota. Thank you, DNH Toys, for letting us um have the show here.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yep. So come visit DNH Toys. It's in Shakapee. One of the coolest things, the toys behind us are all part of this. Isn't a set, this is the store. So this is the conspiracy corner that we do the podcast out of every week. So you can come see it and uh yeah, buy some toys, buy some cards. You're getting in some really cool cards in the future here for Magic the Gathering. So come come buy some cards. Um, another sponsor of ours is Formula Coffee Coat. Uh, we have three different types of roast: the light roast, the medium roast, and the hard and the dark roast, which is the hard tire. Um, that's a coffee company I started. I love Formula One, I love racing in general, and I want to start a coffee company that uh people who buy the coffee also share that same passion. So uh you can find us at Formulacoffeeco.com.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

All right, back to Hungary.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Back to Hungary. Now we gotta talk a cup a couple of conspiracies that we have going on and at the the Hunger Hunger Ring.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Uh do we want to talk about which one do we want to talk about first?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I think we should start it off with a bang and talk about the blue flags.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Blue flags? Sure. What was going on with blue flags? I mean, there there were so many blue blue flag infringements that I'm shocked that nobody got a warning, yep, and nobody got a penalty for for imp impeding.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

That was the that was the craziest thing, is that nothing was handed out afterwards. And here's here's where the theory gets really crazy. When the FIA mess up, which it was clearly the governing body, it was the stewards or whoever's govern whoever manages the flags, which is the stewards ultimately, something wasn't working right. They had to go to manual, but they don't they I haven't seen anything where they've admitted that there was an issue or they talked about that there was an issue. So the FIA likes to stay clean in that sense of saying, hey, it wasn't our fault.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

But the fact that there is no penalties, there is no talks of people uh you know driving recklessly or dangerously makes it seem very strange that it is the FIA's problem. So there's this like there's a there's a a double entangre there.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Right, but I mean when they're going around the course, you could actually see the blinking blue lights. You could. And you know, the and you could go over the radio, the engineers could go over the radio, say blue flag, blue flag, move over.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

That's what I don't understand. I I don't know why, if they were having issues with the blue flag, why didn't the engineers just say, hey, you got leaders coming up on you? Right, and look in your mirrors, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

They talk about uh that all the time. Who's behind you, how far they are behind you, everything else. It's not hard to go on the radio, hey, Lewis right behind you, let him let him buy.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah, that didn't make sense to me. And um what I will say though is that Carlos Sanz not knowing that Oscar Piastri was behind him is actually crazy.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Well, then then how many people got backed up behind him? He actually scrunched up everybody. Lando, uh Lewis, uh, yeah, uh Max and Oscar were all scrunched up behind him.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

It's like there's a there's a blue flag. You see the blue flag. It doesn't matter if there's a problem, your engineer should be telling you, hey, you got leaders behind you, look in your mirrors, move over. But he didn't move over. That's also what made him hit Oscar, ultimately, right? Which was um definitely not it so I'm a little bit conflicted on that one, right? Because I feel like it was definitely Carlos Sainz's fault in the sense that he should be looking behind him and looking in his mirrors. But at the same time, if you're Oscar Piastri, you gotta be able to tell the body language of a car, right? You gotta be like, he for some reason doesn't know I'm here. I've been stuck behind him for a couple laps where he should have let me pass. He now thinks it can pass. So I guess it's not really Oscar's fault, but at the same time, you passed in a weird spot where he's turning.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

And at least I thought he was turning, and and and and you got and you got bumped. Thankfully, you got bumped very lightly, still kind of messed up your race a little bit, but ultimately it didn't matter because of a gearbox issue. Maybe that was because of the gearbox issue because he touched the back tire.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Well, they were saying the gearbox issue was from him going over the the rumble strips too hard.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Oh, that's right. So once again, the Mercedes engine is unreliable.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Well, is it yeah, because they told Lando don't hit any of the curves.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

No, when Oscar, when Oscar, when Oscar, you know, was out of the race, they're like, stay off the rumble strip. No, do not go on the rumble. Mayday, mayday. We and we don't want anything to get loose.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

You can clearly see when they're showing uh uh uh Lando going through the last lap, he was he was clearly well within the limits of the track with both tires.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

So he was being very cautious. Now, that leaves me to believe if they can do that on that last lap, why isn't it that they just enforce that all the time?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, I don't I don't know that I because I think you gain you gain you you can take off time.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Oh yeah, you definitely can. Speed and time are are are the reason why they try to go go over the corners as much as possible. And the rules are, you know, both tires have to or all four tires have to go off the white past the white line to be considered off track.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

So hey, Lando still eked out 13 seconds on the whole field. So he did. He did. Which was cool. So we have a few things to talk about. Williams, another disaster this week for for them.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And um the the the problem there is the car just doesn't seem to be anywhere near what it needs to be to be competitive. Nope. Um now uh Aston Martin came in with some upgrades, stark improvement from what they've been in the past races. Um Audi stark improvement what they've been in last races. Williams is going backwards. They're getting they're they're getting overtaken by these teams that come up with better upgrades, and now they're just above Cadillac and not doing well.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

No, and I I think that the Williams team, I don't want to say any better particular person, has not delivered on the promises that they gave Carlos Sainz when I when he signed with the team, and I think that's making him really frustrated. I think I would be frustrated if I get my car pulled in and I'm just like this thing is just it's heavy, it's not working well, and then on the radio, my team principal goes, Hey yeah, sorry we didn't deliver you the right car, like it's our fault, like all this stuff. I would be a little frustrated because you're a team that was on the up and up, you had money, you have money now, or you know, at least in the championship point, what the you know, the money that you get for your development of the next year, you know, you're you haven't been plum last and you just didn't get it right again, like it just doesn't make uh for whatever reason I feel like that's a conspiracy in itself. It just doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Well, where are they where are they getting these engineers then? Right? Yeah, for sure. It's it's uh the other teams are able to get the quality engineers to you know bring in a a good car and then good upgrades over the season.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

And they're just they're just not there. They're having major, major weight. Like the weight is one of those things where shouldn't that be ground zero where you're starting at? Like we have to be under a certain weight or it's not gonna be competitive. Because, you know, I was watching on YouTube video, I don't remember which one, but they were it was I think Lewis Hamilton talking about how even two kilos on his own body weight can be a couple tenths off of his time. So you know, when you're saying that your car is 12 kilos, 10 kilos overweight, you're talking, I mean, they were they were off by almost a second in Hungary. So it adds up that the weight, you know, you you can talk about the aerodynamics, and I feel like that's such a smaller factor compared to how heavy the car is.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Right, and and with the engineers, they they know the regulated weight that the car has to be. So they should they should know how close they could get to that with fuel consumption, tire degradation, uh driver weight, and everything else, what the what the weight of the car needs to be to pass the the final ex uh the the final inspection.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, and I'm curious why that's not uh penalized. Shouldn't a heavier car, if your car's too heavy, be penalized? Maybe not. That's the penalty in itself. That's the penalty in itself. I mean, Aston Martin was really heavy, and that brings us to another topic that we can talk about is Aston Martin brought their new upgrades.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yes, and did fairly well. I mean um Alonso got into Q2.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Which if I was Adrian Nui, I would be picture this, Dan. Adrian Nui is on a seat, right? And the seat has electricity to it, but it hasn't been turned on yet, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

And he's designing the new car, and Lawrence Stroll is there holding the button to see how they do in the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Alonso made it into Q2 and he put down the remote to shock the chair.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

I mean, really, let's be honest. Lawrence Stroll has put so much money into that team that he expects nothing but good, good results.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Right, and how much pressure has been put on Adrian Nui to produce an a winning car this season.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Right. And that's where I'm starting to struggle a little bit. Well, so before I get to that point, I was I heard that this was the true iteration of what Adrian Nui could do, since the other one only had hints of his design. So it was a it was a hybrid design, and now this is his soul design? Right, because they were in development when he couldn't be on the team yet. So this one is now like a lot of implementation from Adrian Newey, which it makes sense. Like you're like one of the things that has never worked, which I'm shocked that they didn't realize this, was the wider nose cone. You know, because Esteban, Aukon, and Haas, they had a wider nose cone for a while because his only his oh no no, I'm sorry, it's Alpine. Um they only have they needed a wider nose cone so he would fit. But it that showed to bring down time or or or or have uh you know not as fast track laps because of the nose cone being a little wider. And so when I saw the first iteration of the Asamaro car, I was like, man, that nose is wide. Like every other car has this like slender, it looks way more slim of a nose. Um and when I saw them bring it out this week for their new iteration, it had a slimmer nose. I was like, all right, I think they're on the right track now because the wide nose cone doesn't fare well. It adds tense. It does. And it it's these small little things on the car that really, really affect it. And when you're talking, you're not, you know, a second seems like nothing in our world, but a second in Formula One is an eternity. Eternity. It's an eternity. So when you're fighting for tense, when you're fighting for little moments, it's really key to make sure that you know you're developing the car, you're making you're looking at past things and what hasn't worked and what has worked, and the nose cone is one of those things where it's you gotta make it slender somehow. I know your drivers are tall, I know your drivers are you know, you name it, but as long as you can kind of keep to what everyone else is doing or even at least the ones who are who are fast drivers or are fast cars on the track. If you can kind of keep it to what they look like, you'll be I think you'll be okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Right. Well George is really tall and he's got uh you know a slender nose on the front of the Mercedes.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Yep. So and sometimes it might just risk you know drivers being a little bit more uncomfortable for you to get good results, right? But I mean I don't know how many of them are thinking about their knees when they're going 200 miles an hour. Did you see Carlos Science hit like 222 miles an hour in Hungary? He had the fastest speed.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

On that short straightway?

SPEAKER_01 22:40

On that short straightaway. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I didn't see that I'm like that's like indie car speed uh on the straights of uh the indie 500 like that's fast that's really quick right well the Williams we don't want to we don't want to get on the indie car but no no no no no not today not today that's what's the next step where I pick on that the on in the indie 500 is it takes them three laps to get up to that speed. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Yes and then they're just they're flying you know uh I love that format um but yeah no I think that Aston Martin's definitely on the right track they're not gonna be anywhere near you know they might eke out points here and there but I think that they're gonna be pretty much you know 15th 12th right 11th probably the rest of the season but that's good development compared to not finishing races exactly injuring damaging drivers' nerves you know you name it right well it also you know steps up to the next car where it sounds like it's gonna be a a full Adrian Newy car by 2027. Yes and that'll be exciting to see because he's got a great track record and I get excited to hear when Adrian Newey can I just hope they let his um they don't constrict his creativity. You know I think there can be a lot of pressure in a team like Aston Martin um a team who's invested a lot of money into their facilities into their car into uh their their drivers and not and that's a lot of pressure for one person to develop a car on the other hand if you offer a little bit of freedom and a little bit of creativity to Adrian Nui I think he'll thrive and create you something that's amazing. Yeah um so you know I think I think it's it's really up to the team boss I mean the owner of the team at this point how are you going to treat Adrian Newey? You're gonna be the boss who's like give me a great car or are you gonna be somebody who's like I want you to feel relaxed here want you to feel home here's some tea you know he's bringing him cookies while he's drawing this beautiful car and letting him do his thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I think there's a balance of both yeah there is so one other team that has really done well in Hungary was Audi.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yes Audi really stepped up and you know we're right there um bordolet no Hulkenberg got points bordoletto was uh just out of the points just out of the points so they're they're really starting to step up I think they're their right reliability is getting better they've had the speed yeah and now they're just being able to perform no I I like the thought of Audi doing well you know they're a works team so they're they're gonna have um you know the backing of like a of Audi behind them or the the VW group and that's just it's exciting to see that they're doing well now and I honestly think that Bordoletto is right up there in you know in capabilities to win a world championship someday. And I think if they can keep and I you know who knows how long Hulkenbird's gonna race for still a little bit older but in Formula you can race for till you're uh Alonso's age so you know it could be a while. But you know I think if they keep this driver line up if they keep enticing them with uh good um improvements each week good development um a healthy team nature I think you're gonna keep Borletto I think you're gonna keep Holkenberg I think you're gonna be in the top five teams in a couple years I I really absolutely I think Audi has a strong chance to be a contender in the top teams here's my take what if they knock out Red Bull in their spot in the top five well that could be that could be I mean you know just uh a few years ago was it three four years ago McLaren wasn't even on much of a challenge for the top five and now they won uh the constructor cup last year and two years in a row two years in a row and and they're putting up decent points this year.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Yeah I mean it's the third place fourth place fourth place right yeah fourth place at the moment I believe so um but I didn't I didn't check the standings after the Lando win.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Yeah I should we should look at that but they had one car that didn't make it through so that's man the reliability I mean if Oscar Oscar I think could have easily had a podium uh during that race I mean maybe not with the way that they pitted him and different strategies but um Lewis Hamilton. Yes we have some conspiracies to talk about with him.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yes yes um two penalties he had the uh qualifying penalty for impeding or he got a uh a grid penalty and then a five second penalty for speeding in in the uh in the pit lane again it's the second time he's gotten one this year well I don't really everybody in Monaco pretty much got a speeding because uh of the the timing the timing error in the sensor so that's right yeah where they were 0.01 miles an hour over the speed limit reinstated Pierre Gasly to P3.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Right but that was the only one that got reinstated everybody else just said eh I'm not gonna they don't care because they're out of the points anyway but you know for Alpine what a P3 means everything right and um I I just I feel bad for the people who get these things reinstated or you know uh things change because they don't get to enjoy the fun of going up on the podium getting the trophy you know the celebration the team photos you name it um I I always struggle with that I feel bad for them because you know they don't get to have the fun and I wonder if there's a way that these these penalties that somehow there's a borderline where you still let them go do it because there's a chance that they'll probably fight it and get it. I don't think there's a way to do that but it would be cool if there was because he was clearly P3 for at the end of the race had the pit lane penalty five second penalty then he got put to P4 and then someone else took his place it was Hadjar that took his place and yeah so anyway Lewis Hamilton getting multiple penalties the conspiracy here is that the Stewards and the uh the the dark shadows of the paddock do not want Lewis Hamilton to win his eighth championship. You think they're throwing everything at him to try and prevent him to get points right yep and yet we will still rise as Lewis Hamilton likes to say no but I mean seriously it's it's unfortunate to see how Lewis Hamilton is on just like a new has new life in him seeing him in a Ferrari that's doing well a Ferrari that both of the both of him and his teammate Charles Leclerc are competing both have won races or did Lewis win yet? Yeah he won yeah he won one um Charles won in um in Silverston I just want to see him compete without having these freaking penalties like it's so annoying I was on my couch and I was watching the race and I was taking notes for the podcast obviously and just writing stuff down and it was like Lewis Hamilton speeding in the pit lane most likely going to get a penalty for that and I was like I just I almost wanted to turn it off and not watch anything. Right well they think they came across and said Stuart's investigating and I'm like why are you investigating you know you're going to give him a five second penalty because it's almost a guarantee that if he gets notified noticed for speeding the pit lane it's it's gonna get called why is that an investigation that's the most slam dunk penalty to give somebody right yeah so so what about this one too you know Lewis Lewis was uh almost five seconds ahead of Charles and then Charles well I don't know if Lewis was slowing down or Charles was speeding up but um he got uh uh he got close enough that Charles bumped ahead of Lewis yep yeah I that's also where I don't I struggle with understanding and it's all team secrets and what how they're pushing and if they're conserving fuel you know there's so many factors to it but I struggle with Lewis showing so much pace at the beginning of the race to where I'm like man he's gonna be he's gonna pass Oscar or no he's gonna get he's gonna catch up to Lando he's gonna pass Lando and he's gonna catch up to Oscar and I'm just like there is no way there's no way that he's gonna lose this pace but then for whatever reason it must be tired degradation or you have to conserve fuel or you just lose energy whatever it may be but you he he just started to fall backwards and part of me is it is it the motivation aspect is it the feeling of I've driven X amount of races I've won over a hundred races do does he just know that there's no chance for him to win so he just kind of stops trying well I don't think so I think you know that it you know if you're following behind somebody in the Formula One cars yeah um there's a chance something's gonna start heating up and you have to back off um give yourself some fresh air to cool stuff down.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Yeah and then once you do once you do that then you start getting out of out of the the one second boost range and then and then it's it's you know then you're done.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Then it's just it whatever your car has with speed right straight up and we know the Ferraris don't have the best when they're not fighting close. I mean they do have they have good speed but nothing like Mercedes and how they can catch people on the straights because they're just so fast. They're so quick and I mean I think that's another thing we need to talk about is Mercedes were kind of nowhere this weekend. Right I don't think that they had the proper setup for the course um they just didn't have the the speed they didn't have the speed I mean Kimmy had they were trying to win in on strategy having Kimmy only do one pit stop uh initially as the thought but then that course was just that track m had to be piping hot because everyone had to do multiple pit stops well whether it was because of uh safety car or or virtual safety cars but I yeah the Mercedes was not quick I wonder if they don't do as well in heat in the hot I don't know but they weren't really they got a podium I mean that's you know granted right for but Mercedes for for the whole year have been just dominating.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Right you know well I mean this is one of those courses where I was figuring that the the the cars that are better off and turning and and um energy harvesting in their battery and everything else would have a much more much greater advantage than the Mercedes yeah yeah and just the the consistency of I just yeah every time I watch the McLaren's the Ferraris I'm you know the Ferrari engine granted has been proven to be pretty rock solid we haven't seen too many issues with the the McLaren I mean the Ferrari engine no this season. Not at all.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

And I think that's a really good stepping stone for them because then they don't have to they can focus on the car right they can focus on the aerodynamics um changing things doing upgrades but they don't have to worry about the engine too much you know when why I get nervous and and and coming up to Zambor right in a couple weeks here after the summer break. That's another one that's good for twisty turney yeah energy harvesting so it's gonna be another another course that's good for McLaren yep Mercedes and or sorry not Mercedes McLaren Ferrari and Red Bull yes right so those those three are going to be dominating on that course I love that course that course is so fun and you know you know Max is going to want to get a win there. Right he's gonna hope that they they can even though with the two week break hopefully he they can do something with the car because it's a it's almost a four week end of August end of August so three weeks yeah three weeks um which you know they have a week to kind of maybe do some development tweak some things for Zamvo you know that's exciting that's exciting because if Max gets a win there is that going to rejuvenate him to say hey maybe this Red Bull car is going in the right direction well I mean is he's he he should be looking at that right now right because that Red Bull over the last three or four races has been up there in the points.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Has and it's been on the podium now also too we've had this discussion a few times where Max is uh rumored to be interested in going to McLaren now it's a strong strong case you know before it was why would you move to from Red Bull to McLaren?

SPEAKER_01 36:28

McLaren's not doing much more uh than what Red Bull is right you know going from one team to another team this is one of the comments that came in why would why would a rip Max want to go from one team that's underperforming to another team that's just as underperforming yep true and so with that we want to thank our thank the people who have commented for the the small follower amount that we have hey we love you commenting on the reels or the full video podcast on all the platforms or on um YouTube. So put your comments in there we want to say that we will read them we do read them we do read them and we want to pick some out and respond to them on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Right and and I want to call out there's a couple of couple of comments that were made against uh a statement that I made and I want I want to clear that up um so one one of the things I said was you know giving uh or replacing Oscar or uh Lando on McLaren what I was getting at on that one is if Max is available and he says I want to come drive for your team that's like yes Max automatically come drive for our team right but then you have a and then you have a dilemma because you're gonna have max coming in but you already have two drivers so what are you gonna do? Which driver are you going to keep which driver are you going to let go? So that's where I was kind of coming from when you look at where Lando is and where Oscar is they're pretty even uh last last year they were um very close in points I think it was what 10 points off yeah it wasn't much yeah it wasn't much and and before this last race they're about 10 points away so they're pretty even drivers the reason why I was saying I would go with Oscar is because Oscar has uh more more upside in the length of time that he has left behind the the steering wheel so him and and Max together I think would be a great pair and I think that Oscar would learn a lot from Max and be able to up his driving capability much more.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

So that's why I was that's you would advocate for Lando leaving the team or getting booted off the team and having Max replace Lando.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

That's what I was advocating. Yes now there's a lot of politics that go on with that I don't know anybody's contracts I don't know um where that would land or anything sponsors sponsor Lando or want Lando there. So I mean that that would just be if I were uh the principal for McLaren and I had that dilemma that would be a problem well that would be my choice yeah and that's how I would go about it. Um and and it's not saying that Lando's a bad driver Lando's an excellent driver like I said both Lando and Oscar top notch drivers they would be um welcomed in any other team they would perform well in any other team it's just if Max was available and Max said I want to drive for you then you're gonna boot somebody you boot somebody because you're picking up Max yeah and I think Oscar's temperament granted has been a little childish right a little childish and and that's okay we we all get there sometimes well I mean let's look at Max and how Max right kind of comments at some things I feel like he's done a little better.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

He's been a little bit more mature this year and I think a lot I think the the interesting thing is he's usually talking about the car. He's complaining about the car and the development and the brakes aren't working it's not really about his teammate anymore.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

No but which is good which is good but you know the instances where Max is pretty much driving somebody off the road and saying they pushed me off or something of that nature yeah yep those types of things where you know over the last few years he's done quite a bit of that. No he hasn't done as much this year.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Not this year but but but you know it's this whole it's the whole culture behind McLaren that's always rubbed me the wrong way where it's like oh because your brother got it you get it too like oh because y your brother got a turn so it's now so it's your turn now.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

And that's what I don't really like. It's not really Formula One. I get that you want to keep both your drivers happy but at the end of the day you're gonna end up in a situation which they did that you're gonna have to pick somebody and they picked Lando that's just clean and simple. And it and this weekend dare I say it it continued to show it that Lando's world champion Oscar you're number two and you're just gonna have to accept that right now. The only way that you're gonna approve that is actually showing it and beating Lando consistently.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Yeah well what was it uh not last year but the year before when they came over the radio and told Lando to give Oscar back the position and Lando's response was well have him drive faster.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Yeah I mean it's a good response right and it's and and ultimately it's what it's what we want to see. We want to see a true a true Lando Oscar no team interference battle and here's what I'm saying though Oscar's there. That's not I'm not saying that Oscar's not right there able to compete with Lando. He is right I just don't complain about it.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

Don't don't be like ah yeah cheeky team thanks for pitting me and letting like like cut it out just keep your head down and and drive the car you're you're clearly not as fast you you were having some type of issue regardless because your pace loss right your gearbox went whatever but because I that you know shows earlier than than you know just it immediately stopping like you you're you feel a car being a little bit weirder and I just I just I don't I don't want the I I just want you guys to both kind of be quiet right like you're both not saying hey you know let me let me pass let me pass which granted Lando did that too he's like I'm faster it's like okay well then pass him well yeah but we've already been through how difficult it is to pass uh at hungry and then also other teams the principal or or the engineers and the principal make the decision which cars moving faster and says yeah I mean Ferrari does it all the time hey Lewis like look uh Charles through he's he's faster or yeah Charles let land or let Lewis through he's faster and they they they they to a point follow those orders uh they do but they but they don't ah here's the thing they don't have anything to like they do have something to prove but they don't I feel like Oscars like I have something to prove right like he it it's it's just a different demeanor because you see it in the Ferrari team right it's like they're like oh yeah well I don't really want to do that right like but then eventually they're like okay I need to play the bigger team game I need to be the more mature one and I'll let him pass

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Right, like I I see you see that in Charles, you see that in Lewis, the the few times that they've they've actually done a swap. But with McLaren, it's like call dad because he's not letting me. You know, like it's this, it's a different attitude of and and and that's fun, right? It's we like the drama, we love the we love the commodity, we wouldn't have a podcast if we didn't talk about the the crazy comments that these drivers would make, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Right. Well then and who's to say that Oscar on a private channel wasn't saying, you know, I'm not giving it up if Oscar or if if uh Lando wants it, he's gotta pass me.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Yeah, no, great point, right? And then they said boxbox.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Box box, Oscar. Box box.

unknown 44:43

He's a dodge.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

You know he was like like fuming and and with and at that point with with the pace that Lando had, I mean he was gone.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

He undercut, yeah, easily. I mean, yeah, that that not undercut, he overcut. Overcut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, we have some uh kind of world development happening, some global things happening, right, that are affecting Formula One.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

One of those being the Baring Grand Prix is now officially replaced. I don't think they're using the word replaced, it's being hosted in Malaysia.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

That's right. Um for a triple header for a for a triple header. Now that means are there any um Middle Eastern races this year then?

SPEAKER_01 45:40

So that's what they said next. So they have to decide about Qatar and Abu Dhabi. So those are the two finales, and I think that they want to wait. I love a lot of people don't like the Qatar Grand Prix. I love the Qatar Grand Prix. I loved the Qatar Grand Prix when they had a uh a lap limit on the tires. Oh yes, that was so much fun. That threw a wrench into everyone's plan. Imagine that this year with these cars, you you could have a total shakeup if if they had to do a three three pit stop.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Well, I mean, come on, all they have to do is put the the the the softer tires like they did at at Hungary out there at at that course, and it'll chew up tires and they'll have to pit.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

So so that's unless they resurfaced.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

That's true. I did they? I don't think they might have, they might have because I think because of that. Yeah, but um, yeah, I remember looking at those pictures because there was a close-up of the tire when when they did have the and man, it looked like razor blades had gone through the tire. I was like, whoa, that's pretty intense. I mean, you have the tires aren't designed to do this, but if you have a blowout of a tire when you're going 200 miles an hour, there's that could be some serious damage, especially if you're near people um on the track. But so anyway, yeah, so they haven't announced what those were. There's the there's the chance that it could be Turkey. They were talking where they were throwing Turkey around there to potentially replace Qatar or Abu Dhabi. There's also the chance of the final race. Did you hear about this?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

No, I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

The final race being in Imola.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Really?

SPEAKER_01 47:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

They they canceled it, they got rid of it this year.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

They got rid of it this year.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

The course is available.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

I mean, the course is there, and imagine this. And this is what they were saying. So this isn't from me, this is Formula One. They crown the victor, Kimmy Antonelli, in Italy.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Oh, that would be that would be fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

What is that? Oh my gosh. The tickets to that would be like the tickets to that would be insane.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

Or they crown Louis in the Ferrari in the Ferrari at MLM. I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

That would even be crazier.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

I think I what do you think the Tefosi would want more, Dan?

SPEAKER_00 48:10

Oh, they they definitely would want to have the Ferrari win.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Ferrari, right? You got to, you gotta have the team win, right?

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Oh my gosh, great point. So it could be either or, right? And then if George wins, it's just like, man. That's looking unlikely. But either way, it's a great, it would be great, there's great reason for it to be in Italy for the last for the last race.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

It would, especially if there's uh really close points between Kimmy and Lewis. Then yeah, or it came down to the last race, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

Lewis again in that situation of potentially winning in the last race, and then he gets jibbed.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Yeah, watch, there'll be another uh safety car with one lap left.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

The podcast of the conspiracies would be insane. We would there would definitely be something out for Lewis Hamilton at that point.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

I would just say end it under safety car, let him win. He's gone through enough. He'll leave the sport if you don't save Lewis.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

Oh my gosh. Can you imagine Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari winning in Emila as the last race? I think I would cry. That would be the greatest danger.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

So would the entire so would the entire grandstand.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

Dare I say, Dan, we have to go to that race if that's the scenario.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

Seriously.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

We just buy general admission seats. But if it's if there is so that's the that's the hard thing to say, right? If there is a chance that Lewis could be top five and win, and Kimmy could be top five and win, gotta go to that race.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

We'll have to talk about it. We'll have to talk about it and see. That's one of those. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, if it's the last race of the year, that means it will be uh in December. In December, in Emala.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

In Emala.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Um bring bring your jacket.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

It's gonna be wet. It's gonna be cold. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

No, I I'm just I'm just putting it out there, not not really having to do it. But it that would be some it would be like as Minnesotans, the Vikings making it to the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

But they have made it to four.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

Oh, I know, but they haven't won. They haven't won. So you're not a football podcast, but it would be it would be like, you know, you're you're the diehard.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Vikings it would be like the Vikings winning the Super Bowl in Minnesota.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

No, it'd be away from Minnesota. So you'd want to go. Oh, oh, you're talking about in yes, you're right, you're right. You're in the sense of that. It would be us living somewhere else. It'd be us living in Brazil. We're Minnesota fans, wanting to go to Minnesota for the Super Bowl, obviously, because the Vikings are playing there. Right. And they have a chance to win.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Yes. That's where I was going.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

That you and you were right. I was I was off thinking something else. But yeah, so I mean, that would be that would be that would be wild. So yeah, so that could potentially replace the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which I think would be, you know, unfortunately, I love the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, unfortunately, what's going on in the world. Um, it would be kind of a nice refresh of of kind of the season end, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:35

Yeah, when's when's the last time Malaysia was on the the Oh my gosh?

SPEAKER_01 51:39

Uh 2018. Really? I think a while ago.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

I thought it was I thought it was earlier, but it's a hard race.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

It is it because you know, for Singapore, they they train, and I'm glad that's the double header, right? Singapore and then Malaysia, so they don't have to re-acclimate. But those drivers are like doing you know, bike workouts and saunas, and you know, they have to really make sure that their bodies acclimated to that weather. Right.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Because you know, they come out of those cars, and they're just humidity is just insane in that area.

SPEAKER_01 52:11

Insane. It was and um, I mean, even Qatar's insanely hot. I mean, a couple years ago, they were drivers were almost passing out getting out of the car. I mean, that was a good thing now they've developed the technology a little bit. They have those vests that they can wear, the cooling vest, and and the FIA will mandatory uh make those mandatory on the really hot races, which is good. Because can you imagine being in the cockpit with that huge helmet on, you know, behind sitting behind a blazing hot engine? That cockpit gets really warm.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Are they gonna do Malaysia at night?

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Oh Singapore's at night. I don't think Malaysia's at night.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

You don't think so? Because that's gonna that's gonna be a big factor. It's gonna be hotter and more humid during the day. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

You're right. Yeah, I don't think they have the lights for it. Then it's that's gonna be uh because Singapore's like in the city and they have those uh the floodlights.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

Kind of like what they do for Vegas. For Vegas. Um but yeah, if they if if they're not gonna have it set up for night, then the the weather could be the heat could be a big factor in the race.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

The rain could be a big factor. Yeah. Malaysia, that time I believe, I don't know if that's rainy season, but you know, I mean it's getting close to it's tropical weather, so you can you can get to rainy season at any point. But yeah, so there's a lot of exciting developments. I mean, the other ones, the Qatar and Abu Dhabi haven't been talked about yet. Malaysia's definitely been added. It's good that they're adding it though, because ultimately they they nixed two uh two races, right? They Saudi Arabia and um Bahrain.

SPEAKER_00 53:52

No, no, um why am I blanking on that? Qatar?

SPEAKER_01 53:57

Was it yeah, Qatar and Jeddah?

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Yeah, yeah. And I miss Jeddah.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

That's one of my favorites. That course is awesome. That and it's so n it's so like windy and long.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

It would have been real interesting to see how these new generation cars would fare in Jeddah, especially like the third or fourth, no, the fifth race of the season or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

It wasn't it early on.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

Because you know, it that is not one that's made for for battery harvesting.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

No, so yeah, it's uh it's almost as bad as spa, right? Where just there's nowhere to charge because you're just driving in long, long straights the whole time. I think the well, they have that top part where they where they could maybe, I mean, but that's also not super slow.

SPEAKER_00 54:46

But they got the the S turns. Oh yeah, the S turns. But then you go around the the hairpin and then it's just a long straightaway.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

It's a long straightaway. Yeah, no. I hope this all the stuff in the world is over and they can bring those back next year. Because I I do love those races. I I love them, you know. Uh contrary to probably popular belief, a lot of people don't like the races happening in in the Middle East. I love them. I think they're a lot of fun. And I I think the the tracks are cool. I think the the amount of you know um expense and material and everything they're able to put into those tracks makes it a really cool thing. And if for Formula One fans, they're one of the cheaper races to go to. And a lot of people will just buy the ticket to go to Qatar or go to Abu Dhabi or go to Jeddah and watch the race and you know get a grand uh general admission ticket, you know. So that's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 55:39

So what is kind of question for you? Yeah. Um the second half of the season, what is the race that you're looking for forward to?

SPEAKER_01 55:49

Oh well, I think Malaysia's gonna be really cool now that that's being added on to the calendar. Um, I'm I think you know, this year with how well Ferrari's doing, I think the Temple of Speed.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_01 56:04

I think I'm really looking forward to the race in Italy. Um that's that's always one. And and and not only the Temple of Speed, not only Ferrari's land, but you know, people are gonna be wearing a Ferrari hat and a Mercedes shirt. Or I should actually probably flop that around. They probably have more loyalty to Ferrari, so Ferrari shirt, Mercedes hat because Kimi Antonelli, your own hometown hero, you're you're the Italian. So that's gonna be really cool to watch, and and I'm excited for for because I think that one is one or two races after Zanvoort. I haven't checked the schedule. Yeah, I need to look at the schedule too, but um I that's probably the the one I'm looking forward to. Manza. Manza. Yeah. What about you, Dan?

SPEAKER_00 56:53

So the race that I'm looking forward to is one of my favorites is Azerbaijan.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Oh, like that castle part, it's iconic.

SPEAKER_00 57:02

Around the castle. It's so cool. With how tight they get around there and you know, the um close to the wall, and then the epic straightaway. Oh, you know, that's gonna be one of those watching the cars come down the straightaway with the with the new uh power systems and everything else. Yeah, how are they gonna are they gonna blank blank them out so they can't see the power drop off and the speed drop off by the time they get around?

SPEAKER_01 57:27

Right. Oh man, yeah, you're right. How are they because if you're gonna try to pass there, you're gonna have to pick the right point to deploy your energy. Yeah. Because when you come up to the to the to the bank that goes towards the s into the city again, you're not gonna have any power. Someone's gonna just pass you. Because there's that also that it's not as long, but there's that straightaway after the turn. Yep, after turn two. I okay, hot take. I hate that course on F the F1 video game. Whenever Azerbaijan can, it's so hard to play it on the video game because those corners are so tight. And when you're a sitting duck if someone's behind you, you're like, what am I but I can't do anything because they'll straight so long, they just have so much time to zoo get into the slipstream and then they're past you.

SPEAKER_00 58:17

But that's why I kind of like it, is because it's it's so technical that you know it shows your driver's skill. And these are such great drivers that they can show that great skill to manage those tight turns, tight corners, right, especially around the castle, to uh, you know, not die. Not not I mean, you know, you watch it in practice and they'll go in the runoff and and you know they'll they'll tap the wall.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

But when it comes race time, they're focused and they'll make sure that they get through there without getting any problems.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

And how much is it the the difference of driving a real car versus a video game, you know? Like I've always thought that too. I was like, it's a hard, it's hard to drive, guaranteed, right? But the the real feeling of tires touching real ground and the movement and you get the feel of it, you know, you're you're probably way more spatially aware than in a video game. So one question for you, Dan. Uh going into the second part of the season, before the end, who do you think is gonna be uh the winners and the losers? Like kind of in a in a grand concept.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

Grand concept. Okay, so I think that uh if things keep going with the Mercedes the way they are, they could be headed for an epic crash of magnitude and proportion that's it's unseen that's a big take in a long time. Yeah, other teams have caught them and now are surpassing you know are are starting to surpass them. And you know, s Mercedes has got to do something, otherwise they're going to just get left behind. So there's one one potential loser, one potential loser.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 59:59

Now, on the flip side, I think that uh McLaren, if McLaren can keep going with the momentum that they got over the last few races, they could be a huge winner. And also, if uh Audi can really keep that car where it is, they could be number five on number five, my number five or number six on the on the grid.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

And um yeah, no, I agree. Add on to that. Alpine, I think it can be up there too in the in the six-five range. I think they could be competing with with Audi. My loser is gonna continue to be Williams. I don't see that car improving at all. And I think that they're gonna be plum last with with Cadillac, unfortunately. And um my prediction is they're gonna lose both their drivers. I think both their drivers are looking for other opportunities at the moment. And then it's who's gonna take the Williams seat. That's the big question. I think a lot of people are interested to take Science, whoever that may be. And I think Signs continues to have the the the market for him to kind of not to the Max's standard of picking and choosing, but maybe pick and choose some teams that he wants to go to. I've heard there's potential talks of him going to Aston Martin.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:23

Really? Potentially. Now he's always wanted to have that long-term contract, and that's his thing, and that's why he got kind of shoved off to the side the last time the crazy season went on. Yep. So we'll have to see if he's gonna be a stickler about that or if he's gonna take what he can get to get to a team that is, you know, looking to get a good driver.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:44

And my winner, I agree with you. I think it's McLaren. I think McLaren's gonna keep fighting the fight that they've been doing for the last couple years right here. Even though I'm not a diehard McLaren fan, I'm a Ferrari fan, but I wore this because they won. Congratulations, Lando Norris. Awesome win. Um but I think that they're gonna continue to fight like they've always done because they're just about grit and they want to develop their team to be better, at least on the car side. They need to work on the strategy side and the driver management side. But um, other than that, I think that uh yeah, they're the winners. So Dan, I think that that wraps up week three for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:25

I think what we are, you know, since it's uh going to be the the summer break, um there's a great opportunity to see what kind of craziness is gonna be coming up. So I think in the next few episodes we're gonna get into where we think the crazy season's gonna go and who who's who's our predictions on going where we might have to get a whiteboard to show where where we think people are gonna go and some some crazy conspiracies potentially.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

This the spaghetti, the spaghetti board, and see and see uh uh which ones we get right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:00

Yeah. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:01

All right, sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:02

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:03

Thanks, everybody. Uh have a great rest of your week, and we'll be talking to you next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

Yep, bye, everybody.