This is the Grand Prix race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. Teams practice there a lot before the season, so they usually know the track really well by race day.
This means where on the track passing is most likely. Some turns are easier to attack because you can brake later or get a better run out of the corner.
Here “engine” means the car’s power unit and how strong it is on track. If an engine isn’t great, it can make it harder to go fast—especially when trying to pass.
“Ground effect” is when a race car uses the air under it to push down harder onto the track. That gives more grip, so the car can corner faster and feel more dramatic to drive.
A chicane is a section of track with a quick series of turns that forces the car to slow down. It can make racing more interesting by changing where drivers can pass.
“New regulations” means the sport is changing the rules for what the cars can be like. Those changes can affect how the cars handle and how fast they are.
Max Verstappen is one of the best-known F1 drivers. The discussion here is about whether he can start near the front and then challenge for the win at this race.
Compression ratio is how much the engine squeezes the air-fuel mixture before it’s ignited. If the ratio changes, the engine can make power differently and may feel stronger or smoother in certain conditions.
Antonelli is a young F1 driver the host thinks could do really well this weekend. They point to his recent results as the reason they expect him to be competitive.
A safety car comes out when the track isn’t safe, and it slows everyone down. It can also change the race strategy because cars are grouped together and pit timing becomes more important.
The undercut is when a driver pits earlier than another car. By getting back on track with less traffic, they can drive fast enough to gain position before the other car stops.
Mercedes-Benz is the brand behind the F1 team/engines being discussed here. The point is that their cars have sometimes had mechanical issues that hurt race outcomes.
In modern F1, “budget” usually refers to the team’s spending limits and resources available for development and upgrades. It matters because teams may be constrained in what they can change when performance gaps appear.
Term
wings turning a row
This is about the car’s aero (the wings and body shape) affecting speed. If the aero works better, the car can suddenly catch up to others.
“The data” means the detailed measurements teams collect from the car during practice and races. They use it to figure out what’s going wrong when results drop.
A double lock up is when the wheels stop turning while braking, not once but twice. That usually makes the car slower and harder to control.
Term
wrong mode in the restart
When the race restarts after a safety car, the driver has to get the car’s settings right immediately. If the car is in the wrong setting (“mode”), it may not launch or accelerate properly, so the driver loses time right away.
“Boost” here means the car getting a temporary extra push to go faster—usually to catch up or pass. It’s not just steady driving; it’s a short burst of extra speed.
The checkered flag is what you see at the end of the race. If someone closes a gap “by the checkered flag,” it means they improved their position right up to the finish.
The “pit wall” is where a team sits during the race to watch everything and talk to the driver. When the hosts say they’re trying to stop something, they mean the team is giving instructions to manage the race.
George Russell is another top F1 driver in this conversation. The hosts are comparing how fast Antonelli is relative to Russell and saying their roles have changed compared to last season.
“Ground-effect” is an F1 aerodynamic trick that helps the car stick to the road using airflow under the floor. The hosts are saying that in the parts of the track where this matters most, drivers can feel big changes in how easy or hard the car is to drive.
In F1, the “world title” refers to winning the Drivers’ Championship (the season-long points battle). The hosts are speculating that Antonelli’s growing gap over Russell could be enough to secure that championship.
Bench testing hours are time spent running the engine/power unit on test equipment rather than in a car. More bench time lets teams validate changes and improve reliability and performance within the rules.
Because these F1 cars are hybrids, they use a battery to store energy. “Battery capability” means how much energy the battery can effectively provide for the car to use.
ICE means the “gas engine” part that burns fuel. In this discussion, they’re saying the assessment is focusing only on that fuel-burning part, not the battery part.
Term
IC
IC here means the engine’s fuel-burning part. They’re comparing how close their fuel-burning power is to the best team, separate from the electric side.
Car
Mercedes
Mercedes here means the Mercedes F1 team. They’re comparing how well Mercedes is doing versus Ferrari and talking about what Mercedes learned from testing.
“On track” means the car is tested by driving it on the real race circuit. It’s different from testing done in other ways that don’t involve full-speed driving.
The chassis is the car’s main frame. In an F1 car, it matters a lot because it affects how the suspension and aero behave and how stable the car feels at speed.
In F1, the “power unit” is the whole engine system that makes the car go. It’s not just the engine—it also includes the hybrid parts that store and reuse energy.
Concept
starting from scratch
“Starting from scratch” means they wouldn’t just tweak what they have—they’d redesign the key parts from the ground up. In F1, that can be a big, expensive reset to chase performance.
Upgrades are improvements a racing team adds to the car—like new parts or software updates—to make it faster. Teams often bring upgrades throughout the season.
Term
lobby
To “lobby” means to try to influence decisions by arguing your case to the people who make the rules. In F1, teams lobby for changes that help them compete.
Topic
2026 formula one race in basalona
They’re talking about the next Formula 1 race at Barcelona-Catalunya. The discussion is about what might happen during the race and how it could affect results.
Person
antinelli
Antonelli is a Formula 1 driver. The hosts are joking/predicting that he and another driver could crash, causing them to stop racing.
“Turn 10” means a specific corner on the track. Drivers and commentators use turn numbers so everyone knows exactly which part of the circuit they’re talking about.
A hairpin is a very tight corner where you have to slow down a lot and turn sharply. It can make the car harder to handle, especially when you’re trying to accelerate out.
Term
aduo system
They mention a technical system on the car, but the transcript text looks garbled. If you can confirm the exact name, it would be possible to explain what it does and why it matters.
“Get off the line” means the car starts accelerating quickly when the race begins. A strong launch can help you reach the first corner in a better position.
“Turn one” is the first corner right after the start. It’s where a lot of early passing happens—and where crashes can also happen—because everyone is bunched up.
A braking zone is the part of the track where you slow down before a turn. If you brake in the right spot and with the right force, the car stays more stable and you can carry more speed through the corner.
Person
charles claire
Charles Leclerc is one of Ferrari’s race drivers. In this segment he’s talking about brake problems he had, which then leads to Brembo and Ferrari looking into what caused it.
In F1, brakes are a critical performance system because they determine how late and how consistently drivers can slow down for each corner. Brake issues can also cascade into other problems like instability and reduced confidence, which then hurts qualifying and race pace.
Place
Barcelona weekend
“Barcelona weekend” means the race event at the Barcelona track. Race cars are tuned for each track, so if something like braking feels off, it can show up differently there than at other circuits.
Lewis Hamilton is a famous Formula 1 driver. Here, the hosts are saying his past problems with braking are relevant to what they think is happening with the current car.
Brake discs are the parts that the brake pads squeeze to slow the car down. In racing, the type and condition of the discs can change how strong and consistent the braking feels.
They’re talking about carbon brakes—brake parts made with carbon material. Racing carbon brakes are designed to handle extreme heat, but they still have to be used and set up correctly to work the way the driver expects.
Brembo is a major performance-brake brand that supplies braking components to many racing and road-car applications. In this segment, they’re being discussed as the brake-system supplier and as a company that may need to respond to a perceived brake-related issue.
Person
charlotte claire
This sounds like Charles Leclerc (a Ferrari driver). The speakers are saying he was upset and that his comments were about brake problems.
Canada is the Canadian Grand Prix race. It’s a track where braking and car control matter a lot, so problems with the car can show up quickly.
LIVE
Thank you for listening to the late breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday
Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam sage and me Ben hocking
We have another preview for you folks this time
It's the Barcelona, Catalonia Grand Prix the race that we will almost definitely call the incorrect name
Multiple times over the course of the next hour or so. Yes, I might just call it Catalonia just to mitigate any problem
Um, but I've heard you whooping and hollering all the way from the lovely bark share when you're down there in Cornwall because
Turn one mate your favorite so one your very favorite color on the grid calendar
I am a notorious whooper and hollera, especially when it comes to turn one at Spain
Now, let me tell you folks why I love turn one at the circuit to Barcelona, Catalonia
It's great
Endpoint now I could actually go on for about an hour, but I'm not going to the reason I
Genuinely love this and I know it's become a bit of a running joke on the podcast over the last couple of years
Turn one. I love any corner
Anywhere that offers opportunities to overtake both inside and outside the corner
And there aren't actually too many of those when you go up and down the grid
So as an example turn one at Monza not a bad turn one by any means very exciting
You can get some really interesting late breaking maneuvers on the inside of the corner
It's kind of the only way you can overtake there
Spanish GP turn one. I love the way that you can either go around the outside of the corner
You have a better line through turn two and turn three
But you have the risk of potentially being forced off the track by the driver on the inside or you go up the inside
Maybe a better chance of getting the move done initially, but do you then have the momentum?
It's maybe being squeezed to the inside through turns two and turns three
I just love the way that it works with the rest of that first sector
So what you're telling me is you will take it any way you can get it and you love a surprise
You know me on with the show
Round seven of the season with the teams facing a tight turnaround after the Monaco GP last weekend
It might be the first Barcelona, Catalonia, Grand Prix
But this track is no stranger to F1 having been on the F1 calendar since 1991 continuously as well
It's a popular spot for preseason testing too
So these teams know a lot about this track
But we won't see as much of this track going forward as this event is set to rotate with the Belgian GP over the next six seasons
The track is a fairly balanced one
I think it's fair to say with all cornering speeds featured the best overtaking opportunity as mentioned in to turn one
But also turn 10. That's another good opportunity
The forecast at the moment sunny and warm about 27 degrees Celsius. That's 80 Fahrenheit
We're running out of superlatives at this point for Kimmy Antonelli five straight wins
156 out of a possible
174 points so far this season and all of that with a terrible engine
Are we expecting more dominance here? Oh
That's a terrible engine topic. It's really quite spicy isn't it? That's some more on that later
We're getting on to that. This will be fascinating
Arguably
Catalonia was one of those racetracks that ten years ago if you could said to me get off the calendar
I go. Yeah, I agree get rid of it board of it too much testing
And yet we got to the ground effect era of Formula one and it came alive
We changed that last turn back to what it used to be
That stupid chicane that came in for a few years and it just became this ultra-competitive
Fung race track and I'm really excited to see actually what these new regulations with the slightly smaller more lairy cars
Can actually deliver and I don't think we're going to see the level of dominance that we saw in Monaco here in
Catalonia now this Spanish track is very much a
being of a secret power track I think the
Run that you get from the penultimate corner down to the turn one is essentially almost fully flat out
You have to do a slight lift going through that last corner as you especially what remove down maybe not in colleague
Well, yeah, yeah
Sure, you can make him in the Grand Prix a slight lift and then you are flat out all the way down to a very distant
Turn one here and as we've just discovered and we will get on to Red Bull have the most powerful I see
That's your internal combustion engine if you're new to the sport now that produces a lot of your oomph 50% of your room
So to speak and that's gonna do them wonders
So I wonder here if Max Verstappen is able to put him on the front row in Monaco
If they might be a bit more of a fight actually here in Catalonia now that also comes aside with the compression ratio change
We will see come fully into effect here in Catalonia that 18 to 1 compression ratio down to 16 to 1 and this effects
Of course the saying is probably but also Red Bull are affecting in this as well
So I think there might be a bit of balancing going on. I think Antigone will be riding high
We know now that he is very comfortable out front. He's achieved all different racetracks
He is written to every challenge posed at him and comfortably beating at beating it
Whether he can actually now sustain. That's why I'm interesting
I think you'll be up against a furious your drussel
I think Ferrari will be wanting to strike back wherever they can
If Max Verstappen can have a little bit of vengeance saying that we're all here for it
We're all here for it. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Antonelli might be quite good this weekend
I know crazy prediction in coming
If you don't believe momentum is a thing in sport
Let me direct you to what Kimmy Antonelli has done over the last five races because something clicked in
The Chinese GP weekend and since then he's been on an absolute tear and the biggest concern
I think for his opponents whether that's George Russell the Ferraris Max Verstappen
He's getting stronger
Which is it is not a good sign for any of his rivals
And I think you can go through the five wins that he's had so far and say well win one at China
What if Russell didn't have those issues in Q3? Oh, sorry Q2 that ultimately maybe didn't help him in Q3
That second win that he had in Japan
What if the safety car doesn't make an appearance maybe Russell or Piastri wins that race and then you go to Miami
But what if Lando Norris and McLaren did perform or did avoid the undercut and he went on to win that Grand Prix and
Then even at Canada what if George Russell's engine doesn't blow up does he go on to win that race?
Win number five at Monaco. There isn't a what if there isn't even a sniff of a what if he was just utterly brilliant
And that should be somewhat terrifying for his rivals right now credit to Antonelli
He keeps putting himself in winnable situations and his confidence is so high right now
The question is almost not can he win? You're almost thinking why can't he win at this stage?
Which is it again is credit to him
I think a point we've made maybe a couple of times is his youth might actually be helping him out here because
He doesn't seem phased by any of this at all. I loved his response at Monaco
for example when George Russell came out with comments to say
Antonelli it's his championship to lose and Antonelli kind of turn around and said I can't lose something that I haven't got
great response
really great response
The only thing he needs to be careful of of course momentum can work both ways and he discovered that around this time last year
So yeah, it's not dead sir, but he's in a good spot
He went through a tough spot this period last season now
Of course, it's a whole different season whole new set of regulations and there are some things that he just cannot control
We've seen that many Mercedes-Benz cars have been struck with some kind of reliability problem
And at this point you might count him on the lucky side that he hasn't been fully struck with either a DNF related
Aging failure or something that at least helps his progress quite drastically
We see it with both McLaren's multiple times the Alpine cars have had some problems the Williams guys have also had severe problems as well
Russell his title rival has also run into these problems
It looks like Antonelli stands alone when it comes to having a fully working engine that sits on his side
The rare thing about this of course is that in a new set of regulations reliability does tend to strike quite regularly
He's been so lucky to get away with it every single time. It's really fully functioning for him
I wonder if maybe an act of God steps in and this is where we see that momentum change
Who knows but I think you're right
What I love about Kimi Antonelli with his attitude that you raise in that interview is
He seems so respectful well-rounded and appreciative of those around him
The way he liaises both with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton
You'd argue about very much on different sides of the F1 spectrum with the way they handle themselves
The way they deal themselves in the media their career paths
He's equally warm to both of them
You see Max embrace Kimi Antonelli and kind of help guide him and yet we saw in Monaco in the call-down room
Lewis Hamilton sit down next to him and slap him on the thigh and go catching up to me now mate
I'm really proud of what you're able to do. It's great to see there's great things to come
It shows that he's a meekly building strong British is in Formula one and people seem quite happy with the fact that he's doing well
Which is odd in a sports, but he's cultivated great relationships up and down the grid
he has
what about his teammate though because
Not only is he now 68 points behind Kimi Antonelli
He's not even p2 in the championship Lewis Hamilton has taken on that mantle to the point where
in our in our patreon discussions where there was a comment from Jack earlier today and
This question is starting to be asked with Hamilton now p2 in the championship and Ferrari looking like the team that will clean up
When Mercedes has an off weekend at what point should Mercedes start prioritizing Kimi to essentially make sure they don't
Suffer something like a Verstappen 2025 title push
We're already at the point where people are not saying they should but people are starting to ask about this
Yeah, I think it's actually quite a fair question
I think a few races ago you might have laughed this one off
But with the way reliability is kicked in the way Russell hasn't been able to deliver and Kimi's been so
Flawless in his approach to the last five Grand Prix
It does look as though they need to have some kind of contingency in place because if we do see the aqo process click
kicking and
Mercedes aren't able to make any changes even with the budget that they've been given but Ferrari are for example
Let's say Red Bull are also able to maintain an advantage with the Ice
They might lose out long-term across this season
That has been a conversation over the last few Grand Prix and the Mercedes car is good right now
Can they sustain it are they able to continue developing it history would say yes
They are pretty good at what they do
But it's a what if they do need to make sure that if Ferrari suddenly find something
The improvement in that engine speed the chassis remaining very good or even if McLaren are able to take a step forward
There's a real risk actually that that lead which is strong right now. It's not a total, you know, misnomer
It's not in possibility. You can overcome this. We've seen bigger gaps brought down very rarely
But you know, we have seen gaps brought down before and there are enough Grand Prix
There are enough points that realistically
If Lewis Hamilton, it's not gonna happen wings turning a row that gap suddenly does become
Quite small and there are still races left to go
So I don't think we'll seem to say is make a drastic decision just yet
I don't think we'll start seeing team orders in place or anything like that
But I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the back of their minds that if we get a couple of Grand Prix later on down the line
I'm talking about past Austria past Silverstone and the gap that the sayings are able to pull is reduced or even lost
They might start to have those conversations
Interesting. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on Russell's comments
I think you made these after qualifying at Monaco rather than the race
But this is what he had to say the last three races have just been nowhere
Even Canada I was nowhere until the last lap of Q3 of both sessions
So I don't have an answer for this until I can make some adjustments. It's going to continue like this
There's clearly a difference in driving style between the two of us
See referring to Antonelli which has been there last year as well
But played into my hands very well last year and it clearly is playing into his hands perfectly well this year
It still doesn't answer why I was so good at the start of the year and so poor now
So we need to look at why that is it's clear in the data
Interesting. I just think he's absolutely scrambling for an answer
I don't buy it if I'm honest he won in Australia. He was very good in Australia
Even with the kind of side-by-side battles they had with Ferrari
Well, we've initially found out those far-starting Ferraris were gonna be a real challenge for them
He overcame that really well China was looking really good for him
You know apart from them at the issue that he had with the car in qualifying that looked really good
And towards the end of the Grand Prix. He was starting to catch up to Kimmy. He was starting to close that gap in
Yeah, the gap was big enough
It wasn't gonna make a massive dent even with the double lock up which whoa could have cost him
That was a close run thing. Okay. Yeah, well sure
but Russell was closing in and Russell's biggest weakness in a few of these Grand Prix is actually big safety car restarts
Well, he's been able to unable to get the car going and we've later learned that that's down to the programming the software in the Mercedes
That meant that he was in the wrong mode in the restart so something happened in Japan and whilst Antigone was beggar fishery to the safety car
He also managed to get through a couple of cars much faster than Russell did. I just think that I
Think he's losing confidence
I think he had a boosting confidence in Canada and there's a real chance
He would have gone to win Canada and that tells me that actually he has got the pace to fight Antigale
It just didn't go his way
He had a DNF at the wrong moment in where he needed a boost
It was a real kick in the T for him because he was really knocked when he needed up, but he got it down
Now I just didn't know went the wrong way for him. It's just he's a good Grand Prix
I might have a slightly contrarian view for this one. I
actually asked the question
Was it that much better at the beginning of the season because firstly it was a very small sample size
We're essentially talking about a race and a half really Australia and some of China
And I do wonder whether it was a case of was he actually quicker or did he feel quicker?
Now I get a lot of things and a lot of things wrong on this podcast and anyone who tunes into bold predictions will know that
But one thing I think I was maybe right about is that I can't remember if we discussed this at China or Japan
But we were saying how I was kind of making the point that
Whilst Russell has been the better driver so far this year. I don't think he's been the quicker driver
I think even early on Australian GP Russell wins that one very comfortably after dealing with the Ferraris
At one point he is eight seconds clear or so of Antonelli and
Antonelli who had to eat a poor start had to work his way back through some traffic
Managed to get that under three seconds by the checkered flag and you think well, okay
He's
Managed. Yeah, sure
It's not really in their nature to do that these F1 drivers
We've seen that this last weekend who was still pumping in fastest laps when they were ten seconds clear and had no reason to
Antonelli and I know all of the pit walls trying desperately for him not to do that
We've seen it with the Stappen before as well
That's how they're geared up is to go as fast as they possibly can even if it doesn't make 100% sense
So maybe the idea that Antonelli wasn't on the pace of Russell at Australia
And the only reason he got close was because of management. Maybe it's just not true. Maybe Antonelli was
Actually there in terms of the pace quite early on he just didn't have it all put together until the last few races
Do you think it is a matter of driving style?
We saw in the ground-effect area the likes of Hamilton really saw a slump in his overall ability and actually you'd argue
There's been somewhat of a resurgence got to the same level as before the ground-effect era
But he's taking a step back towards the positive sign of his driving or as the Clare who is usually so dominant has
Well, I would say stepped off the boil. He's still very much a fantastic racing driver
But he's not as dumb against the team mates. We've once seen the same
Maybe could be said for George Russell where these cars are a bit more shaky bound
See a bit more Larry and maybe some of these drivers
Just prefer a bit of a beast that they could get their house into a control rather than a super slick on rails car that they can guide
I don't know. I
Think it's really weird in that
If this season keeps going the way that it's going and Antonelli keeps on building that gap over George Russell
Let's say he wins the world title
It's really weird
And I don't think we've ever seen anything like this in F1 before when it comes to a driver who was
Utterly, I know it's his rookie season
He was utterly dominated by George Russell last year and now that has almost completely reversed
Now it makes complete sense that Antonelli would be better in year two than he was in year one
But equally we've also seen with these potentially generational drivers
Lewis Hamilton was very good in his first year and very nearly won the title
He then won the title in the second year, but it wasn't that much different from what we saw in year one with Antonelli
It is such an improvement that it doesn't look anything like last year
And I cannot think of another example in F1 history where this has happened again
It's the same with Oscar Piasco, for example, right three years ago
He comes into the sport and he is dominated by Norris Norris comfortably better the second year
It's a small step forward the gap is a bit smaller then they get a title chance
But he still hasn't developed enough that actually he's able to clean up
But you're right in saying it's totally opposite almost for Antonelli
You add one season the middle part of that season was woeful is scored
What less than 20 points across seven Grand Prix
Most of those coming at one Grand Prix where he picked up the podium at Canada and then he ends up now
Leading the championship and winning five Grand Prix in a row. It is an almost unprecedented
turn-around in ability
Very strange indeed
We'll see how that battle goes throughout the weekend. We're going to talk Ferrari a little bit later on in the show
We'll take a quick break now on the other side. We're going to get into the
Aduo announcement that was made at the weekend
Welcome back everyone a duo
Something that has been mentioned more times on this podcast and this year than you ever have before because Red Bull
I know right, but good news if you're not Red Bull
Red Bull has been judged by the FIA to have the strongest 2026 formula one engine
Meaning it will not receive any development concessions under the sports additional development and upgrade opportunity system
Also known as a duo
Manufacturers were informed of the FIA's initial engine performance assessment at Monaco
Mercedes has been classified as over 2% adrift of Red Bull and will be permitted one engine upgrade during
2026 and one in 2027
Ferrari Honda and Audi have been deemed more than 4% behind allowing them to upgrades in both 2026 and 2027
Because two is the maximum that can be offered right now
The adduo ruling does not imply that Ferrari Honda and Audi are necessarily at the same level
Just that both for some all of them are somewhere over 4% off Red Bull under the rules used
Adduo also provides extra development resources
So Mercedes will receive an additional 3000000 dollars under the cost cap and 70 extra bench testing hours
manufacturers further behind will receive progressively larger allowances
Depending on what percentage they are behind the leaders who are judged to be Red Bull
Before we get into what this means maybe for each of the individual teams Sam
What was your reaction to the ruling this came through when we were recording the the Monaco review?
Yeah, my first thought was thank the F1 gods that Mercedes are getting the help that they need
Finally someone helps the little guy
Honestly
It's actually huge
It's actually
Huge guy and they don't need any of the help and they're brilliant for what they do
So then let's talk this through first because there's definitely some conversation because I was shocked when it came out the red
Number one on the stage were number two, but let's try to talk this through so people listening can understand as well
They're not judging the battery capability here and the battery currently as we know makes up between 45 and 50 percent of the overall
Engine ability of the current engines that we have in these cars
This is only judging the ICE that is your standard petrol based car that we get in your road cars for example
Combustion engine the combustion engine that is the other 50 percent now
That means that Red Bull and four together have created a really efficient and high-powered
Combustion engine and it looks like the same user getting a lot of their outright power from the battery side of things
And that's where they're making up the difference because to be 2% off
Red Bull in that in that 50% but to clearly be faster in the other side. It's the difference is being outweighed there now I
Think with Red Bull
Firstly what I want to do is I want to commend them because they went through a really tricky time with their engine providers, right?
They left Honda they had to take it in-house for a little bit with a bit of Honda
Leftovers bits going on there and then they made the deal with Red Bull
Now Red Bull have come in and they've developed an ICE and I'm not surprised that Red Bull can develop a great engine
That doesn't shock me. What does shock me is that they've outdone a Mercedes a Ferrari even a Honda that have stepped back in more recently
An energy drinks company has beaten those teams in regards to an ICU
Yeah, and that is incredible and I applaud everyone who has worked on that engine because that is a phenomenal achievement
I am gutted that you've done such a good job though, but the team who is dominating the championship actually gets a handout for it
Absolutely ridiculous in this rule set
So yeah, fully shocked the other thing that I want to see transparency for which I'm it's difficult
It comes to F1 because we always get kind of half
Transparency it's like if you own Photoshop, you turn your opacity down to 50% that's formula one
I want to see through it here
I want to know how far behind Hondura and Audi and then Ferrari I want to understand that steering
specifically our Honda actually
8% back and Ferrari are
4.1% back I want to know that difference
I think it's fair to us as viewers to know that difference and I'm very interested to see the timescales in which these teams will
Bring these engine upgrades. Are we expecting them within the summer break?
Are we expecting them both for them at the end of the season?
I'd love to know the plans here and how they need to be implemented. So shocked slightly confused and very entertained
The idea that Honda might actually be ahead of Ferrari is really funny
They could be they hatched I really don't think they are but we haven't been given anything that says otherwise yet
There were rumors earlier in the year that Red Bull might actually have the best I see ye
But actually seeing it in writing and hearing about it is just another thing entirely
It's it just doesn't look and sound right and yet it is
this is as a process an absolute fast and
I want to be clear that the test itself I
Have full confidence that it has been completed as it should be done
I know there are some suggesting there's politics at play here
Toto Wolf Scott got his hand involved at any of these trying to trying to sway the decision
I don't believe that as well. They're really huge huge
I get involved not much room for anything else
But I am gonna be maybe naive and I am actually going to assume that none of that has happened here
The issue is the test itself and now the test has remained private and
Understandably so because if you were to release what the test is to these teams and the public
The teams would do everything they can to make sure they were as bad as possible at the test
That's formula one these teams would do that straight away
But it is
Ridiculous as you've just outlaid there how we are
Focusing solely on the ICE because it is only representative of about 55% of what the current engine is
You are missing out nearly 50% of what makes an engine good in formula one nowadays
The worst thing about this I can't even blame the FIA for this which I love to do as you know
This is the teams fault the FIA went to the teams and said look the test we've got is rather simplistic
We have the opportunity to do something more sophisticated here the manufacturers said no we don't want that and as a result of that decision
We've got this which is a team like Mercedes who are in such a dominant position being helped as a result of that
It's utterly ridiculous. Look at Red Bull where they are right now
Clearly the ICE is fine because it's been judged as the best
Clearly the chassis isn't that bad either because Verstappen went and put it on the front row in Monaco
But yet they're not winning races despite the fact that those two things and the very least are absolutely fine
That must mean by process of elimination
They are seriously struggling in terms of the battery which isn't being reviewed at all and that's why I think it's a complete fuss of
The of the teams making are you telling me that the energy drink company doesn't have enough energy?
Weirdly that's the only thing they don't have right now surprising. Yeah, it's a real layman's terms
It's like testing the grip of a car, but only doing it using the back two wheels and you're like well the front two wheels also matter
They're very important into this. So yeah, you know, it's like picking up 50% of anything that you go
Okay, but the other half matters. It is hilarious. It is bizarre
It also means that in theory if you knew how to produce this
Again stress. This is in theory. You could produce a mega battery
mega battery mega battery and
Your engine just a mini battery
Puggy little engine mega battery and you could get all of the money upgrades it goes
All right, because actually whilst technically it makes up 50% it's so efficient on what it does it more than powers this car
Very difficult to do but Mercedes are clearly doing that to some extent where the battery is over compensating for the ICE if it's able to
Outdo the ICE capabilities of what Redwell are providing and still have a smaller less powerful ICE
So it needs to be addressed
I'm glad that we have a system in place to try and help the teams and balance
Competitiveness and they've been given the opportunity remember they don't free upgrade some ways because handing them upgrades to put on a car
They have to develop them. They might get it wrong. I'm glad we have that system in place
But this surely should be looked at a better way. Oh
I've just got the double a battery. Yeah, I mean quote rebel. No quote Williams
If you know it's the Jura cell on the top. Oh, you're funny. What mate? I have no is that yeah, they should have done that sooner
That's a great idea. Um
Two concerns for rebel right now number one
We're not just talking about upgrades for this year
We're also talking about upgrades for next year and this will be continually reviewed at least a few more times throughout the year
But it's a long-lasting impact if you think I don't know for example
Mercedes are thinking about bringing an upgrade
And they're gonna do that at some point soon
Red Bull are always gonna be one upgrade behind even if they do end up getting some of these benefits in the future
They are in a two-year span depending on what happens with the engine next year. Maybe they're just gonna be
Desperately trying to catch up and maybe not able to do so
The other thing as well is if this test is changed to include everything that will definitely help Red Bull
That will definitely help racing balls. We don't know how much support that's gonna get up and down the grid as you've already mentioned
With the likes of Ferrari Audi and Honda
We don't know how far back they are if any of those teams are
Let's say 8% back or 10% back Honda might well qualify for that
Are they gonna want to jeopardize the quite strong political position? They're in right now
I don't know if they will so whilst there is a lot of talk that maybe this test will be changed for it to be fairer
There's no guarantee it will no equally the test of the battery also means that while Red Bull are sat there going
Oh, well clearly we do have something that's weaker in the car
We can't upgrade it where you can but you have to do it in your currently existing cost cap to try and get the most out of it
Ferrari let's take them for example might go. Yeah, we know that our IC is 4% away from the top level
But our battery is actually 10% ahead and so you give us a 4% increase on the IC e and suddenly we have
Mega car, you know, why would they want that investigated?
Why would they want batteries looks at if they know actually we've got a really good battery here
They just released that electric Ferrari didn't they that's out there in the world now that exists race that
Maybe maybe it's really quick don't know but at least they know what electric cars are so surely they've got some battery capability
you would think so
Back to Mercedes
Oliver twist bends just desperately asking for more power some more
actually already rich
The extra cost cap allowance extra upgrade that they'll get as a result of this
It feels to me sound that this week
Mercedes had two massive tests
And one of them was on track and one of them was off track the on track one was
We finally come to a circuit where chassis is the most important thing. Maybe the only important thing
Have we actually got a chassis to be able to compete with Ferrari who are deemed to be the favorites in that regard?
tick
Absolutely, they stepped up to the plate Antonelli was brilliant. He was half a second clear of of the Ferraris
the second test
was
a duo
And maybe how far ahead they would be or maybe not ahead at all
Again, it's a really good week to be a Mercedes in both those regards
It is and it's frustrating to be a viewer a formula one
Yes, because we wrote them off a monaco. Um, I guess at our own peril at that point
And we invested our interest here in Ferrari thinking they might be out out don't do them for once
They failed at that
Then you hear this news as well and it is really really tough
But if you're a Mercedes then well, hey, good for you. You're absolutely plain sailing. I've just
I'm a little bit disappointed because I I put a lot of faith into the security process with the compression ratio changing
With this process coming into place. I was really excited to see these results
Actually, you can see the reel on our instagram or our tiktok if you're interested
The genuine live reaction of when we spoke about this. We were all a call together
um
I had to laugh at it. It was just
Hilarious, it was almost shockingly hilarious that like our ridiculous result came out in but let's see if Mercedes can make anything of it
Let's see if they're a second clear come the end of the season. Who knows can I outline an even scarier proposition?
No, I don't want you to I don't go to bed tonight. I don't want nightmares. Sorry rhetorical question. I'm gonna do it anyway. Um
Do Mercedes right now
Need an ICE upgrade
No, no, they don't they are very comfortably clear
If you're Mercedes and you have the power to upgrade your your engine
Keep it in the back. Don't don't bring it until after the next review
You're still going to be behind you're still going to be entitled to another upgrade again
And you're probably not going to have lost out all that much because you're that far clear at the moment
Surely got to be a process. Surely that's allowed
Why have they not done anything in the contract for this scoping system?
Oh god, who's writing the contracts over there?
Honestly, like how is that not a time limit of you must fit one upgrade by x time to be available for an x review
Or be available for potential upgrade assistance. How is that not a thing?
Who knows um
Ferrari
How are they going to be about because they have got an additional upgrade on Mercedes
But they were probably thinking it would be we'll call it plus one given Ferrari have got two Mercedes are going to have one
Sure, they were probably thinking it was going to be plus two
I imagine they've got a good advantage over red bull in that regard right now
But I don't think they can be completely happy about this either
Yeah, Ferrari are clearly a bit of the middle ground everywhere that we go
And that feels very Ferrari to be a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of young
Uh, but I guess a jack-of-all-trades is is better than a master of one
Uh, because at least you've got a fully rounded product there
They have a chassis that maybe isn't actually as good as red bull despite us thinking it was better because max was stopping
I should be both their drivers in the front row mongico and they have an engine that maybe
Isn't as good as red bulls as we've just seen with the adduo process
And yet they're able to consistently achieve better results. They're both red bull drivers
And yet they'll look at this and go well red bull weren't the team we were trying to beat
We're already beating red bull. Look at the points. We're well ahead of red bull
We want to beat the stupid silver one over there
That's got the teenager driving the car and yet they're only one step in front of us
It's in the software process
Ferrari need to do something that Ferrari haven't done for a very long time
And make clinical and efficient upgrades that genuinely work at the first time of asking
And go that's hard
But please deliver something actually usable Ferrari
How do you think this shifts the conversation for next year's potential changes to the regulations because it's understood that
Ferrari are one of the teams that have been kind of holding out on this because they have been
Very much focused on adduo thinking that's going to be our opportunity to get closer
We don't want that to disappear
And now it's apparent that whilst they still have more upgrades coming their way versus Mercedes
It's maybe not as much as they would have liked. Yeah, does this may be considered
Do you think they may be consider a change in their view here in going towards
Something of a brand new power unit for next year and almost starting from scratch possibly
I do think it goes one of two ways and i'm i'm can't really provide an answer here
So i'm going to do my very very best harried and i'm going to start my thanks
Well, I think they either go one way and they say
No, don't change anything keep the regulations as they are. We'd like a change in 2029, please
Give us a bit of time. For example, we'd like those upgrades and we're going to take those upgrades and that money
We'll do something with them
I think you know at least we've got to jump on most teams and the teams that we're in the same category as
Who cares they're nowhere. They're not scoring points regularly. We don't care about them
So they have got a leg up on every competitor genuinely around them, right?
McLaren, they're in front of in theory Mercedes
Alpine who are the teams skiffing at the back of this top four?
They're beating them as well in this test red bull as well
They're beating them handily in this test in terms of the amount of resource that can be given
They'll like that the other side of the fence here. I think is they go
Yeah, whole new set of regulations
But we still get more money and more upgrades to put on the car
I don't think they're going to relinquish this. So if we do see a change in regulations
They will still lobby for we'll build new engines
We want that increased cash on top of what we're doing now straight away, which every other team is going to go
No
Every Mercedes team will go don't think so. Why do you suddenly get more? It's new regulations. We start from scratch
So because of that, I don't think things are going to change
Hmm, it'll be interesting. I think we're going to get some more political fallout. Let's call it
At this weekend's grand prix. Shall we shift attention back to this weekend's grand prix by doing some bold predictions
We are the og for jingles and f1 the f1 world, I think
Yeah
Yeah, we really we really put the f1 in jingle everyone who thinks about late breaking thinks wow
Trailblazers particularly in the jingles category if I was trying to spell jingle it with f1 in it by the way
It's silent. Oh, okay. It comes after the Yang and before the G
Understood. Thank you for that
Bold predictions now. You've got a couple right this year, but yeah, you're your streak of
Two I was put to an end
Last weekend at monaco. It was how are you bouncing back?
I'm going to go for eight changes of the lead across the spanish grand prix. Oh, but catalonia grand prix. Yeah invalid
No points
You just made your bold prediction for like five months time
It better got me
Oh god, that's no that's November. We're in june now. We're in march, aren't we?
Oh, there he goes. Anyway, I I'm not saying it's got to be new leaders. I'm just saying eight
New race leaguers where they swap the position so that could be adding only a russell back and forth
It could be a ferrari whatever but eight
different times
so just to clarify this one because f1 does treat a
lead change as
A change for the lead that sticks until the end of the lap like you have to have
Cross the line to be considered to have led a lap, but you're just saying
As long as it happens on track
Passes for the lead passes eight times. Okay
I guess mine's not too far away from where you're thinking here
I've gone quite bold with this one. Here we go. He doesn't need to focus his behind but here we go
A 2026 formula one race in basalona
I love anniversaries me. Oh, yeah. What's what one have you got in mind?
I've got a 10 year anniversary in mind
Of what?
When we go back to the 2016 Spanish GP and it was the Spanish GP at that point
When two Mercedes had contacts with both being out
I think history repeats itself. I think this is brewing
I've got antinelli and russell making contact at some point in the grand parade
I'm not necessarily just saying the first lap and both of them will retire as a result of that contact
I can see it happening. You know what? Actually, I whilst it is bold
It's not impossible at all. We nearly sort of have to hang in there, right? Yes. That's what I'm thinking
They've rubbed tires a little bit there and I'm glad you stipulated DNF for both because you know if we got down the road
You may bang tires. I'll go
They are both going to retire as a result of this. Okay, let's say one of them like retires 10 laps later with damage
I'm still going to count that but
It's going to be a DNF as a result of the contact for both of them
External question to the race. How is it affecting your fantasy team?
Well, I always get bold predictions wrong so it's not going to affect it at all
Fully in the team. I will just have Mercedes
And leave the other spots blank. You've done it to curse yourself essentially. Yeah
So yeah, I'm going to go with that. I feel like last year with McLaren
We were waiting for a moment and it was kind of brewing then at Canada it happened
Yeah, I feel like maybe we're heading to the same sort of spot here
It would make things very interesting and it would open up a race for the lead
I don't think Antonelli's going to relent. I think George Russell's not in a great mood at the moment
I think those are good elements for for this coming together. I like the idea that because Russell's just not in a very good mood
It will happen. Yeah. Yeah, just really annoyed
Oh, they didn't have my cereal at the hotel today. That's very annoying to be fair. That's so George Russell
What about pole 123 for you pole 123 pole position. I've got George Russell
Winging the Grand Prix. I've got Antonelli second place. I've got George Russell in third place. I've got Landon Norris
Needless to say mine looks a bit different. Um pole position. I've got Kimmy Antonelli
The win I've got Oscar Piastri second place. I've got Max Verstappen third place. I've got Charles Leclerc
Oh a little spice from every team a little bit of spice for every team
Um, yeah, so if you want to know what isn't going to happen this weekend, just follow along to what I just said
Shall we take our second break on this episode on the other side? We're going to get into break gate
Oh another gate. Formula one
Welcome back everyone. Um should we talk Ferrari? Um before we get into the much awaited break gate
Shall we start by asking the question with some potential upgrades set to hit this weekend?
Any hope they can actually get in the mix?
I think so
I'm being cautious here because the racetrack I thought they were going to be in the mix for of course was Monaco
and
I'm not sure if these upgrades are really going to deliver in the areas they actually need whilst the track does rely on some
downforce and you mentioned at the start of the show that
Most corgans here will cover some aspect of every speed ratio that we have, you know
Turn 10 is quite a sharp hairpin. You've got the fast flowing corgans of the opening sector
The last corg is a top speed really exhilarating roller coaster type turn
So the car really does get put to the test here and that is why we go testing
It's one of those key tracks because it ticks off all the boxes
I just don't know if upgrades to the chassis are going to be enough to deliver
Race changing pace where they can actually take it to Mercedes. I think it's power that they need
And as we've just seen with the aduo system
The system would in theory agree. So unfortunately whilst it might help them
I don't know if we're going to see the fight for the league be that much closer
Yeah, um, oh to give you a bit of an insight to my own answer this question
Any hope Ferrari can get in the mix with their starts here and I've just put no
Um, I wouldn't be surprised if they do and it would be good for your bold prediction
If they do get off the line very well and potentially get into the lead going into turn one
We know it is a very long run down to turn one. Maybe apart from Mexico the longest on it could be the longest possibly
Um, but it's right up there nonetheless
But that doesn't mean a great deal given Ferrari have already done that so far this year at Australia at China at Miami
And they haven't been able to hold any of these leads for very long at all
And I don't think there's any reason to think they will here unless those upgrades work very effectively
Um, it's easy enough to to make passes here at Catalonia nowadays. I mean we saw
George Russell two years ago go from fourth to first
In his Mercedes
He held that for two laps until Verstappen came by
The same thing could very well happen with Ferrari here. So which year was it?
We're from annual alongside had that absolutely mega start 2014 2013 earlier than 14. Maybe it was 13
And he was seventh at the start and he was first in turn one. He he met up a lot of positions. Yeah, that was an epic start
And I it's like you can't do that in Spain
There's a as you mentioned the track is wide the first corner allows multiple lines
There's a real chance you can maximize that turn one because can you hold on to it?
Also, battery is going to be interesting here. You've got a cup of heavy braking zones
I've got a middle of the park park. Yeah. Yeah, but interesting to see what team can prosper in this in this environment
Yeah, I agree with either nothing about Ferrari right now unless the upgrades work very well
Is good enough to be very blunt about it. Their chassis clearly isn't good enough
Otherwise, they would have been first and second in uh, monaco. They weren't
They're not good enough in terms of the Ice
We've literally just shown that on sunday with the adduo review
And you're right with what you said earlier in this episode. This is an uh, a bit of a sneaky power track
You don't think of it as one but given the changes that have been made to the final sector
It is more than it used to be
Should we get into break gate, which um, I'm sure people are actually wondering like what are you talking about here?
If you've been uh, online for out the week, maybe you've seen this but I'll just outline what's happening here. Um, so
Charlotte Clare had some comments after the monaco GP
Um to briefly go through those he said I don't know how much I can get into the details
But it's just not acceptable the issues I faced with my brakes have been
It's not that it's difficult. It's that in this particular moment
It's just impossible out with the four brakes. I had three brakes not working
Now brembo who are ferrari's long-term brake supplier has responded to la clare's comments
Quite a strong statement after the race
They said brembo group is really surprised by the statements made by charles claire after f1's monaco grand prix
At present the company does not know the causes of the issues explained by charles claire
And therefore considers it premature to draw definitive technical conclusions before the available data has been analyzed
So biting back a bit um thoughts on la clare's comments and the response
I think we often talk about how drivers in the heat of the moment. We allow them to kind of
Yeah, you can kind of say what you want to obviously to a degree
And I never mind a driver speaking from the heart when they've come out of a really flustered and intense situation
And that might be blaming another driver for an incident or it might be I didn't do anything wrong
This was really quite specific
And technical from charles claire and he was clearly very heated you could see how upset and frustrated he was
It's his home grand prix. He loves that grand prix with all of his heart and we know he wants to win here
I think he now has a 50 ratio of not finishing the grand prix as well. Um, which is not great
I
I was really surprised
That he came for the brakes so publicly the way he did without
looking at it first
I would have preferred to have seen this come out
even in the
Pressing drones to the start of the Barcelona weekend of I've looked to the analytics
I had a hunch it was the brakes the fill of the car at monaco felt wrong
And i'm right the brakes are wrong and if he could back himself up with that data
Go ham go not not lewis hamilton go hard as a
Well, he might be going ham this weekend if his comments to be believed
Exactly and he is apparently re-adjusting the car to go down the route that lewis hamilton has
Like apparently when hamilton struggled with the brakes when he joined Ferrari
He apparently all took his brake discs to end up being coming from I think it's carbon industry. Yes something like that, right?
who um, just to be clear as as essentially supplied
Mercedes Mercedes brakes in the past as well. So he's he's got a very long running relationship with carbon industries
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah
And hamilton has come out and said so far this season that he feels much better on the brakes
We're seeing him make late braking
He has been physically better on the race track comes your braking now
I I don't blame charlotte for what he's saying. This is the book i'm making
But I do wish that he maybe just delayed that point until later on in the week when they had all seen the data
He might very well be right. I trust charlotte. I've got a lot of faith in what he's saying
I think he's a very good driver. I think his analysis of a situation is very strong
I usually believe what he says
But I would rather with this one is quite large. Can you understand? It's a big relationship for arie
I would rather they just have held him back a little bit and
Analyze things before coming out with this
I'm I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle. I I think charlotte claire is and I've mentioned this before
I think he's one of the first drivers who will kind of hold his hands up and say if he's made a mistake
That's on me my bad. So when he doesn't do that do sort of instinctively believe him
No one has a better feel and this seems obvious to say no one has a better feel for the car than the person who's driving it
So if charlotte claire is behind the wheel of that car for 78 laps at monaco finished it
Or 60 60 laps or however long it was
And he's suffering with these issues
Again, I just tend to believe him if he says this doesn't feel right
It's probably not right
And I just think brembo's comments as a result of this are a little bit
ridiculous
To say that la claire is prematurely drawing technical conclusions
I think is a bit over the top the guy is basically just said after the race
Bro, the brakes don't work. He's not out here like with clipboard in hand looking like einstein
So this this clearly wasn't functioning with this and starting to put out formulas like he he's just like
They didn't work
And I think it's a case of maybe brembo
Being a little bit embarrassed by this and just
Going straight for that um saving face response rather than
Maybe just wait it would have surfed la claire well to do the same thing but just waiting a little bit and
Hang on. Let's just let charlotte claire cool down before we actually just put out a statement like this
um like I I get what you're saying as well in that la claire
his frustration it would have been far better if he had just sort of
Not gone into any detail at all. I I feel like this might be a culmination in that that
The dnf was almost a breaking point ironically
Because he's been suffering with the brakes
Not just at this race, but yeah, we are actually like this is a one-off. He's clearly got some problems
I also would have liked to have seen a difference in response from brembo
Um, you know, they are better into forming the one they've been around a long time
They're with a longer different personalities. I would have liked them to have taken quite a
Senior approach to this an understanding approach to this and
Maybe something on the lines of we can see that charlotte claire is visibly disappointed with what happens in monaco
And that his comments have been directed towards the brake system which brembo supplies
We endeavor to look at the analytics behind this to work out if we are part of the problem
And if not, we endeavor to assist ferrari in resolving any problem
You know, I think that might have just done a little bit more for a relationship builder
I think they might just be worried that
Lewis hamilton has gone a different direction with this and the claire is looking across the garage going
I kind of want that and ferrari and brembo have like a 50 year relationship
So I don't know if they're just panicking at this point going to lose me contract
I mean it could and they go on to state that they supply products for every single formula one carpet down there
Ferrari's their big buyer ferrari is their big time partner and obviously it's ferrari
You know, if if late braking were the the podcast partner of ferrari
That's a hint there for you. Then um, you know, we'd be a little bit upset too. If somebody knows a problem
Uh, goodness me. We've got a lot to talk about on today's episode. We're just getting to the midfield now
Um racing bulls versus alpine seems to have become the midfield duel
There's just two points now separating alpine and racing bulls after
The p5 and p6 the limblad and lawson got uh in monaco
Do you think that will be the midfield battle here in spain? No
I don't sorry. I don't I think that result was so flattering for racing bulls
I thought both drivers were excellent, especially lawson. I thought he was fantastic in what he produced
If p.a. galsy doesn't pick up two penalties
He finishes in third place and he walks home with 15 points instead of the seventh place where he picks up
What six points?
Um, that immediately gives them another nine points difference collar pin to have a bad day
I think it was a proper bad day. I think any other race is able to get
Man was daniel poulter out there. Yeah
What a reference a daniel poulter reference. You are long saved this year of 2026
Oh, good lord. What a song that was banger man. Absolutely banger
Take your one down and you're passing along. I like how we've gone from man
This episode's running long too. Let's have a quick shout about daniel poulter. Honestly great song one hit one
Loved it. It was on my
Kid mix when I used to make cd's that had like playlist like it 100. I loved it. You've completely thrown my point
But you know what for the best
We'll allow it. I'm gonna daniel poulter loop. Um, you think I'll be to be clear. I think helping will be clear
I think the overall capabilities of that car that the engine as we've shown with the battery and they are taking the same
These products is better. Um, I think the chassis is better
I think that racing bulls are still having to deal with the fact that they've lost senior staff to red bull over that
No gardening leave period that they lost there
I just think it was a one off
I think it was a bit of a fluke where but we're still early on in the season and migfield points
It's still hard to come by that a really good double points result which racing bulls got and full credit to them
We'll set them apart for a race give it another two or three races. I think that gap opens up again
I uh, I tend to agree. I think alpine will be clear
Maybe similar to what we had in say miami versus what we had in monaco
The racing bulls seems to be a pretty good qualifying car
Lawson in particular. I think has done a pretty good job this year of maximizing those those qualifying sessions
He had eighth in the australian gp. Obviously had tenth in monaco last time out
Um, and he's had some unlucky ones in between as well and statistically speaking
I think only gasly
And then he's about level with holkenberg when it comes to midfield qualifiers so far this year
But I don't think the race pace is quite on that same level
So I can imagine alpine maybe being a little bit clear and then racing bulls being in this scrap for a point or two with
Williams with haas and who knows maybe with audi if they can actually do something right
Just don't go backwards at the start and that doesn't mean start last either. It's not a massive request
It's quite normal actually in sport that you would tend to try to progress rather than regress
Every time you do something that's the issue. They just don't know that
Audi like backwards is good. Yes. I only say
Under pressure sam who or what is under pressure this weekend?
Can I give the obvious one and go george russell because it is george russell, isn't it?
There's one guy who realistically can take the fight back to anting alley
We know with the way the car works. We know the dominance of that Mercedes
if we can have a title fight russell has to step up here and
If this again goes the way of anting alley and russell isn't even second
And there's a real chance he might not be second in this country with what we see recently
The gap might at that point just be too large
I'm going to go with a team
I'm going to go with red bull and it does somewhat link back to the juo conversation because they really need to knuckle down
Now and get some good results because that things are going to become tougher the further we get into this year with this ruling
And it has been looking better of late in that had jar got obviously the podium at monaco for snap and got the podium at canada
But they are still suffering with a lot of reliability issues
It's very rare that both drivers seem to be going through a race without at least one of them having an issue
I think spain again should be maybe mid table for recovery. So I think red bull
Could be pretty reasonable here. I think they'll be all right
but yeah, they could just do with
building up a bit of
A bit of a buffer in terms of these good results until maybe ferrari
Properly overtake them and maybe McLaren go a little bit clear as well. Um, so yeah important for them to get a result
I think there is a real risk that they just sit seventh and eighth in grand prix like this
Maybe so maybe so um, but qualifying has looked a little bit better for them as of late
Yeah, high cars done well when he's actually able to get the lapsing and the cars felt all right
We saw with monaco. He was strong in Australia as well really strong. So he knows
Let's take our final break on this episode on the other side. We've got back and forth
Welcome back everyone before we get into back and forth a little bit of time for an f1 fantasy update
Good week for lb
Very good week for lb before we get there. Let's just go through the top three
Um in the championship right now, which unfortunately doesn't feature any of us
Never lewis faith is still top. I don't think there's been any change in the top three actually never lewis faith is first
Feisty pancake is there in second
And Lumley speed syndicate is in third
Congratulations to back over the pack
Who was the winner for the monaco gp?
Very specifically tough weekend because a lot of people would have played their limitless chip this weekend
Which worked very well last year
But with the retirements of the claire russell not being in the points for stappen retiring as well
Didn't work out very well. So um again back of the pack the the winner here
Actually didn't use limitless used a three times chip on antinelli that worked out pretty well
Yeah, and I saw that they had a two times chip thing on hadja
And I think at that point they must have been feeling a little bit nervous with the problems coming out of that red
Well, but it paid off. So fair play to you a risk well taken
Now the good news is sam you're so good at this game now that um the f1 fantasy website
Actually lets you go all the way down to
500 the top 500 in your league
So fortunately, I don't even need to ask you for where you have to scroll through that many seems to find me
Control f is is your friend my man. Oh, I only do it on my phone. Oh, okay. Yes
Yeah, I'm not I yeah, I could say but you're scrolling for a while. I commend the commitment. No, it's not that impressive
You're 326 up 160 spots. I'm very pleased with this because you're going to have a la claire dnf in there as well
It all went quite well that long ago. So yeah, I'm all right
um
But you're not followed directly by me anymore. Oh, no, you haven't lost second place. Have you? I've lost second place
Kirstie producer Kirstie is 390 second
A valid response up 383 positions from last race bear in mind two races ago
Kirstie was 1000th. How are you only 70 places behind me? I was like, it's fine. You'll be like 600
Kirstie was also
In a tie for 24th for the monocoat gps. Did she play any chips?
No chips
Just quack
I was really happy with how I was doing. I've gone up 158 spots. I'm 421st
But I've somehow gone down to third. It means the three of us at the moment
Separated by under 100 positions. So yeah, I really enjoyed it when we weren't separated by under 100 positions
I was quite comfy there. I was quite smug as well. I looked up and I was so oh over 100 places up
Whoo. Yeah, I've somehow gained 158 and on the worst
How's that work?
All right got to do bearing Barcelona. Yep decisions to be made this week ahead of the Barcelona GP
Um, it's time now though for back and forth
F1
Back and forth. It's f1
Back and forth. It goes backwards
Then goes forth. It's f1
Back and forth
F1
It's good to hear it all play out
Yes, the full clip and you're probably wondering. Well, how is it the full clip given there's only two of us here today?
Producer Kirstie is prepared a back and forth for us to play against each other and I've got to say some
Usually, you know, I'm setting the questions here and I quite like that position
I don't I don't like not knowing what's coming. Why do I do this to you?
I think you probably played one game a back and forth six its existence where I think I ran one for fun
Just for fun. And that was enough fun. And that's why I never did it again
Okay, so, um, I mean Kirstie's gonna reveal to us what the back and forth is and I will relay this information to you
Okay, our back and forth topics, Sam
The circuit to Barcelona in the Catalonia ranks among the lowest in f1 for the number of dns
Generally placing in the bottom tier alongside tracks like the hungar ring
As such, please name the last 20 or 22
Individual drivers who have suffered a dnf at this track dnf only not dns. Um, so
Let's do 20
I'm gonna say
How confident do you feel about this, Sam?
No, I'm confident. I feel really
Unconfident about this
Do you see my pain now?
Oh, yes, I do. How many strikes should we give ourselves there? Shall we go two? Sure
I a lot of this is just going to be
Name a random driver and hope they retired at the Barcelona GP. Yeah
Yeah, we can give it a go. We can give it a go
Do you want to start?
No, no
That that sucks for you because neither do I well, I play this all the time you get to go first. All right. Um
I'm gonna hope we go back this far
Whether we do or not. I'm not sure
Let's let's go with Lewis Hamilton given I mentioned it earlier today
Lewis Hamilton is a correct answer and I might just retire at this point
I think that's actually very fair because that was the only answer I actually had
Oh, you know what I'll join him then
Rosberg
Rosberg is a correct answer as well and that's helpful. We know that
We can go back at least 10
A maximum of 10 years. Yeah, theory. We've got a decade to play with here
Who's retired at this race before? Oh, I I feel like this guy retired last year
Alex Albin
Alex Albin is correct
I'm glad you said that because I had a hunch for last year and I remember reading up on
Catalonia coming up, of course
And someone said that Anthony did really badly here last year. I couldn't remember why so I looked it up
Did Anthony DNF from Catalonia last year?
Yeah
Suck it Ben. Yeah down. That's annoying
Yeah, I did enjoy how Albin's reason for the retirement was gave up after everything went wrong
But you're right with Antonelli. That also didn't go very well
You're right, Kirsty. There aren't many retirements that happen at this race
It must be like one year if this guy has not retired at some point from his home Grand Prix
I'll be shocked. Fernando Alonso
Thank goodness for that Alonso is a correct answer and we are one quarter of the way there
Well, I thought you were going to steal my answer which isn't actually a guaranteed answer
It's just if this guy hasn't retired here, then that would shock me
This is going to be really funny if this was the other person I was thinking of but
Not strong
Okay, it wasn't quite
Surely
Yeah, just pick people susceptible to failure
Great, Roman Grosjean
Two thumbs up. I get two points for that. Great. Thank you
Roman Grosjean a correct answer so that leaves us with seven right
We somehow haven't used strikes yet. I don't know how
I'm just currently picking names that I think are quite
Yeah, I'm not confident about any of these
No, and because of that, I'm going for Ocon
Ocon is a correct answer. Well played
It's really funny. The only one I'm very confident has retired from the Spanish GP
Because it happened on the last lap was Mika Hakkinen
The problem is that was 25 years ago
So I'm not going to go with that
Instead, it just seems safer to go for
Drivers that have done quite a lot of races here
I'm going to go with Mika Holkenberg
It's a great show
Holkenberg is a correct answer. I feel like our luck is going to run out at some point
We're nearly halfway there, Sam
I'm going to start using some of the same logic there
And I'll go for the other side of our team rivalry
We'd like to play on this show
I'll go Gasly
Oh, Pierre Gasly is a correct answer
Okay
I'm still going to keep with drivers that have just been around for a while
Sergio Perez
No!
Perez
So he has retired from the Spanish GP as Perez
But not in the time frame that we're looking at
So that is one strike to me
Uh-uh
Good luck
It's all right because I'm going to carry on down this old man's racer path
I'm going to go Bottas
But Bottas never retires
That's insane
His retirement rate at Mercedes is ridiculously low
It must have been for Salba
It must have been for Salba
Surely it's a Risa one
He retired at Mercedes
That must have been his only retirement at Mercedes, man
Oh, that's insane
Oh
Spanish GP, why aren't you more recognisable?
Come on, who else hasn't got very good?
The problem is those that weren't very good didn't stay around for long enough
That's true
So I've got a few names that didn't do very well in F1
But they might have only had one race here
So I'm not very confident with those sorts of names
Yeah, that's fair
Um
Ah, did
I don't remember if you were to...
He had a really bad race here last year
And he had a lot of contact
Oh
Bearman
Oh no
He definitely had contact into turn one
With someone who I didn't say
Are you dissing the facts over here?
No, no, I'm not saying he retired. I'm just saying he had contact
So he must have kept going
The fact controller has spoken
The fact controller
You are fact man or stat man
She is the facts controller
Well, you've really lost in that one
Sorry
Okay, I'm in trouble here
Sam, back to you
I'm gonna go with a guy who is prolific now but has
Who of a dodgy pass at the time when it came to incidents?
I'm going with Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen, a correct answer
Um, given this logic kind of let me down in what I just said
This feels a bit silly to go back to it
I feel like Lawson and Bearman had contact at turn one last year
So I'm gonna go with Lawson
Yeah
No Lawson either
I like that either they had contact and they both continued
Or I've completely made up they had contact
I never felt that you've made it up
I like that you've come up with it
I feel like that's just as likely
Yeah
Well, I mean you've won so congratulations to you
I mean we could be here just naming random F1 drivers at this point
But given we don't actually know any of them
I've got no certities at all, I am just potluck guessing
Did Mazepin retire?
Sirotkin, no good, okay they're both incorrect
Van Dorn
Van Dorn, there we go
Okay, so I think the other ones that were valid answers here
We've got Joe Guan Yu retired in 2022
Leclerc retired a couple of times 2020 and 2022
I think he had a horrible race here in 22 if I remember correctly
Yeah
Which obviously I didn't remember correctly
Oh, Sonoda
Sonoda 2021
I'm okay with at least like most of these have only retired once
So it's not like we've got we have missed someone who's retired multiple times
At least more than twice
Yeah, Norris 2019, Van Dorn as you said
Kimmy Reichenan in 2017 and in 2018
Maldenado, I don't think we'd quite go that far back
Yeah, I wonder if the Hamilton Rosberg were the crossover
But wow, yeah, it goes back even further then
2015 and we could have even gone back to 2014
When Kobayashi or Jean-Marie Verne would have been correct dancers
In fairness, I don't think I'd have ever gone all the way back to Jean-Marie Verne
That was, yeah, I don't think I'd have got that one
No, we've had some further insight here
That's at the Spanish GP, the most recent non-McHangle DMFs come at turn one
On that one most of the time then
So maybe that's why you love a thrilling turn one
People just like close their eyes to the facts when it comes to turn one at Spain
It's a great corner, get with it
You know the meme of the security guard passing people down
Yeah
The guy holding his arms up are the facts of Catalonia
And this is us just patting down
Yeah, yeah
It's ignoring that they're even there
Not even bothering
Shall we move on when I really, really want to move on from that
Because honestly, I might not come back at the weekend, folks
That was massively embarrassing
But I will at least stick around for this segment
Which is the greatest segment in all of podcasting
And it's time for the
LB question of the week
Week
This one's a caption competition, folks
So if you haven't seen what we've posted on Instagram
Maybe check that one out
But you might have seen a photo of George Russell at the weekend
During the red flag sequence where he is
Should we put it marching his way up to the steward's office
To inquire about the penalty that he received
It's led to a great photo
So we've asked the question
What's he actually heading towards?
What's he doing?
I've got to shout out Daniel who said a yamadabapoo
It's simple, but it's great work
Effective, really effective
Um, we promised we're not just going to Dan, Daniels and Danny's
But from Danny, he's just pootlin' about
Which is a
Pootl
That's a George Russell quote from some point
He likes to come up with the most far-fetched of words in the English language
Isn't he, George Russell?
Yeah, he's bamboozled at the weekend
Here he is, pootlin' about
Liam came out and said
He's got to get to the theatres in time for his part in Toy Story 5
Um, an answer from Barry
Which is he was going to see the Muffin Man
The Muffin Man
The Muffin Man
The Muffin Man
Do you know where he lives?
Where does he live?
Don't you, Elaine?
Of course he does
Do you know the Muffin Man?
I'm not reading that out, that's too long
Have a day off
Good, whilst you're not reading them out
I will go with Noah who says
To zap Kimmy with his laser eyes
Which I assume means you are comparing him to Homelander
Which is brutal, but also quite funny
Have you ever watched it?
No
It's not my thing
But you know who I'm referring to
He's the one that looks like Superman
But he's not Superman
Very much so, yes
Yes
This one came from Clay
He's going to ask Foundry Bottas about that
Thanks to Scandinavian luggage he and Alpina have been using
If it's going off of Alpina Bottas
I think it might be good enough for him
We like doing the podcast folks
We want to make it sustainable
I make no apologies
So we're trying to do it
One from Ryan
Prison Russell is escaping jail
The return of Prison Russell
The lesser seen character on the show
Come on, I really want to make Prison Russell a thing
Prison Russell
I like this one from Jordan who said
It's on his way to register for the Bunta Eve classic dog race
You're going to wear a child boots from there
Every time, man
Subolba's back again
Bunta Eve is so funny, it's a phrase
It's not even just like Bunta Eve and Subolba now
Because on X we had Johnny saying
Making sure he didn't miss the tickets going on sale
For Star Wars and New Hope
Man's 50 years too late
I think that's it for me
Although I'll go, I've just spotted one more that I really liked
This is from Hillary who said
He's sawing underclassmen roaming around without a hall pass
Can't be having that
That's so Jordan Russell
I bet it was a prefect at school
Oh, head boy
Yeah, definitely
Are you allowed out of class?
I'll go to the toilet
Back to your class
No!
Jordan Russell would definitely do overtime as head boy
I'll stay and do the marking for you
He's there with the cleaners at 6pm
But he wouldn't be cleaning
He can have a shot at like a board with a pen
Like floor's done
Yep, you missed the spot there
Good work Sandra, well done
Thanks George
Oh, last one for me is from Arresta
On his way to be adopted by Toto
So that he will never have to leave the Mercedes family
I'm not sure that's how that works
That is exactly how it works in F1 task
Okay, take me away
Thank you very much for all of your responses
Across Instagram and X
Very much appreciated
And we'll be back with another one very soon
Sam, this has been a long old preview
But we had a lot to get into
Hopefully the folks have enjoyed us
Getting into all of those topics
If you wouldn't mind getting us out of here
We've got a qualifying review to do on Saturday
And then importantly a race review to do on Sunday
We do
So make sure you come back and join us
Because hopefully it's going to be an absolute corker
And if you fancy a little sprinkle
More of F1 content in your life then
Head down to Patreon
Because we've got power rankings which come out every Monday
After a race weekend
Where we go through every single driver
And you get a say
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Which is joined by the rest of your Patreon followers as well
And then you might get a chance to really defend that rating
And give us an explanation why you chose that
That we love hearing from you
And Patreon is the place to do that as well
If you want to chat to us and everyone else
Discord is also available
Over 4,000 people in there
Especially on race weekends
Chatting through what goes on
All the action over the weekend
There's also other series chats
Where there's an Indy car race
Or a gas car going on
We can get in there
We've got Lego
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It's really great place to have community
So if you're loving being a part of a wider F1 community
Then love all sorts of things
Get in there
You might obviously see pictures of my cat Ian
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For us on social media
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And we appreciate all the support
We hit 10k
We finally got there
And it means the world that we did
So thanks very much
We'll see you on Saturday
In the meantime
I've been Samuel Sage
And I've been Ben Hawking
And remember
Keep breaking late
About this episode
Barcelona-Catalunya gets a corner-by-corner preview, with Turn 1 highlighted for late-braking overtakes into Turns 2 and 3, plus Turn 10 as another key passing spot. The hosts frame the weekend around Kimi Antonelli’s momentum and reliability, while debating how rivals could have swung outcomes with safety cars, qualifying, and strategy like the undercut. They also dig into FIA engine-development rules (ICE vs battery) and what it could mean for Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull—then finish with predictions and a few Barcelona trivia games.
F1 heads to Spain for the first of two visits this season, and Ben and Sam ask the big question: can anyone disrupt Antonelli's dominant run? Plus, they break down the FIA's bombshell ADUO verdict and explore what it could mean for the competitive landscape this season and beyond.
