“Lifting off” means taking your foot off the gas for a moment. Drivers do it to help the car slow down or stay stable before a corner, and in F1 it can also tie into how the car uses energy.
The virtual safety car is like a “slow down” instruction for drivers, but without a real safety car driving onto the track. Everyone has to reduce speed, which can change when teams pit and how positions shuffle.
A championship margin is just how many points one driver is ahead of the others in the season standings. If it grows, the leader is pulling further away.
In F1, the battery stores extra energy the car can use later. Drivers choose when to spend that energy to go faster, and when to save it so they don’t run out.
Place
Eau Rouge and Radeon
Eau Rouge and Raidillon are two well-known corners at Spa. They’re tricky and fast, so drivers sometimes lift off the gas to keep the car stable and set up the next part of the lap.
Ferrari is a famous Formula 1 racing team. Here, they’re being discussed in the context of who’s ahead during the race and how their car performs when the race switches to a slower “VSC” mode.
VSC means “Virtual Safety Car.” Instead of a real safety car on track, race control makes everyone drive slower using speed limits, which can affect when teams pit and how they time their moves.
The power unit is the car’s engine system in modern F1, including the hybrid parts that store and deploy extra energy. If two teams have similar power, it can change how much advantage you get when trying to pass on straight sections.
A pit stop is when the car comes into the pit lane to change tires and follow the team’s race plan. When there’s VSC, pit timing can matter more because the whole race is moving slower for a while.
Racecraft is how a driver handles the race—like when to attack, when to defend, and how to make passes without getting in trouble. It’s about smart driving, not just going fast.
“Playing chicken” is when two drivers both act like they’re going to commit to the same space, and whoever blinks first loses. It’s risky because contact or a lock-up can happen if the timing is off.
Yo-yo racing means the driver keeps changing speed in a controlled way during a battle. The goal is to throw off the other driver’s timing so you can get an opening.
Campbell Strait is a named part of the Spa race track. The host is using it to explain where the battery/extra power situation changes during the race.
“Deployment” here means the driver is using the car’s stored hybrid power to go faster. The point is that the car behind had extra power available at the right time to make the pass.
Overtake zones are specific parts of the track where the rules make it easier to overtake. Here, they affected when the car behind could use extra power to get the move done.
A chicane is a tight, zig-zag section of track made of multiple turns. It’s often used to slow cars down and make passing harder, so it’s a notable place to watch for close racing.
Regeneration is how the car “recharges” its battery when you slow down. The host is saying Spa doesn’t make it easy to recharge enough, so the battery situation limits overtaking.
Mercedes is another F1 team. The host is comparing Mercedes and Ferrari to say Ferrari was still in the mix.
Person
Charlotte Clair
This sounds like a driver name the host is talking about. They’re basically saying it wasn’t a repeat win, but the team still stayed competitive.
Car
Ferrari
Ferrari is the Formula 1 team they’re talking about. They’re saying Ferrari still performed well, even though the track usually doesn’t play to their strengths.
The front wing setting is how the front of the car is adjusted for aerodynamic grip. If it’s set wrong, the car may not handle as well and can lose time.
“Downforce heavy” means the track is the kind that needs lots of grip from the air. Teams usually run more aggressive aero settings so the car sticks better in corners.
A 10-second time penalty is when race officials add 10 seconds to a driver’s time as punishment. The hosts think the incident was risky enough that the driver should have received that kind of penalty.
They’re arguing about how penalties are decided. The point is that officials might be judging based on what happened afterward, not just what the drivers did in the moment.
Lewis Hamilton is a famous Formula 1 driver. In this part, they’re saying the punishment he got may have depended on how things turned out, not just what happened.
George Russell is another Formula 1 driver. The hosts mention that his retirement after an incident influenced how they thought Hamilton’s penalty should be viewed.
The braking zone is the part of the track where drivers slow down before a turn. It’s dangerous because cars are braking at the same time and can get too close while they’re slowing down.
A steward is an official who watches race incidents and decides if someone broke the rules. They can hand out penalties or decide nothing should be done.
Sometimes race officials add time to a driver’s race result if they break the rules. A “five-second penalty” means the driver effectively loses five seconds in the final timing.
A “racing incident” is what officials call a crash or contact that happens during normal racing. It usually means they think it wasn’t clearly the fault of one driver, so they may not punish it.
A “lap one collision” means a crash or contact happens on the very first lap. Because everyone is bunched up right after the start, it’s common for drivers to make contact while trying to gain position.
Term
run-off zone
A “run-off zone” is the safer area next to the track. If a car goes off the track, it can roll into this area to slow down and sometimes get back going.
Term
penalty must be displayed
When the officials decide something broke the rules, they apply a penalty. That penalty has to be shown officially so everyone knows what was decided.
The front axle is where the front wheels sit on the car. In racing disputes, people use it as a reference point to judge whether one car was clearly ahead during an overtake.
A five-second time penalty means the driver gets an extra five seconds added to their race result. It can drop them down the order if other cars are close.
Term
marginal
“Marginal” means it’s a close call. A tiny detail—like exactly where the car was on the track—can change whether officials think it broke the rules.
Term
apex of the court
The “apex” is the inside point of a turn that drivers try to hit. If a car doesn’t stay near that inside point (or runs wide), it can change how much control the driver had and whether officials think it was a fair maneuver.
A curb is the raised edge at the edge of the track. Drivers use it to help them place the car through a corner, and race officials look at curb use when deciding if someone ran wide or caused a problem.
Term
washed out slightly
“Washed out” describes a loss of grip that makes the car drift wide instead of holding the intended line. In cornering, it usually means the tires are sliding or the car is overloaded, which can lead to contact or an impact if another car is nearby.
Red Bull is the F1 team behind the cars Max Verstappen drives. They’re saying Red Bull’s car is especially strong in one part of the track, but not as strong in other areas.
F1 tracks are split into a few timed sections called “sectors.” The “middle sector” is the middle part of the lap, and it’s where teams look to see where their car is strongest or weakest.
The “chassis” is basically the car’s main structure. In F1 talk, it often means how well the car is balanced and grips the road, which affects whether it can pull away or get stuck behind someone.
F1 timing is split into sectors. “Sectors 1 and 3” means the beginning and end parts of the lap, which helps explain where a car is fast or struggling.
A “ghost lap” is like a computer-drawn lap you can race against. It shows how fast you’d need to be to match a previous lap time, such as a qualifying run.
A safety car is when officials slow everyone down because something is unsafe on the track. Teams often choose to pit during that slowdown because it can cost less time than pitting when cars are racing normally.
Hard tires are the tougher, longer-lasting tire option in F1. They usually last longer, but they can be less grippy than softer tires, so teams manage them carefully.
F1 races require using two different types of tires. That means teams have to plan when to switch so they get enough grip without wearing the tires out too quickly.
Medium-hard is a tire option that sits between the hardest and softer tires. It’s a compromise: usually more grip than the hardest tire, but still meant to last.
F1 has rules about which tire types you have to use during the race. That “tire requirement” affects strategy because you can’t just run one tire the whole time.
Failed communication means the drivers (or the team) weren’t coordinating well. In this race moment, it led to confusing on-track moves between the two McLarens.
Team orders are when the team tells its drivers what to do—like who should let the other pass. The hosts think that’s what happened here to avoid making things worse after damage.
F1 tyres come in different “grip vs lifespan” types. Going from hard to medium usually means you’re trading longer-lasting grip for more grip later, and the timing of that switch can make or break your race.
Person
Martin Brunders
Martin Brunders is a motorsport voice/commentator. Here they’re quoting his opinion that the race felt a bit uneven or stop-and-go, likely because of strategy calls and race control.
The last lap is the final round of the track. Because it’s so close to the finish, even small delays—like getting held up behind another car—can decide who wins or loses positions.
Term
losing time
“Losing time” means you’re not going as fast as you could, so you fall behind. In a race, that can happen if you get stuck behind another car and can’t drive your best line.
“Pure pace” is basically how fast the car is on its own. Here, it means one driver could stay ahead because their car was faster, not because of luck or timing.
“Straight line” means the fast sections where the track is mostly going forward. If a car is lacking there, it’s usually not as quick to accelerate or not as fast at top speed compared to others.
Tracks are often split into sections for timing. The “final sector” is the last part of the lap, so this means Alpine was doing especially well near the end of the course.
Term
chemo straight
A “straight” is the part of the track where you go fast with minimal turning. They’re saying on that fast section, Alpine didn’t feel quite as strong as some rivals, but it still worked out overall.
F2 is a lower racing series than F1. When they say someone “drops back into the F2 field,” they mean the driver fell behind and was stuck fighting with the cars that are usually slower.
“Pulled off your line” describes how, during wheel-to-wheel racing, a defending driver forces the attacker to change their ideal racing path. That deviation can reduce speed and momentum because the car is no longer set up for the corner/exit as planned.
Racers measure time in very small chunks. “Tenths of a second” means fractions of a second, and losing that amount every lap can quickly become a big gap.
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 Harry Ede, Sam Sage and me Ben Hawking.
Reviewing today the Belgian Grand Prix won by Kimmy Antonelli, returning to the top step after a short absence, Sam, but everything is back to normal now.
Hi guys. Yeah, we had a race and it's only happened.
It was, yeah, it did us some good points, but do you know what I miss? It's just on boards, man. Like any on board would be good.
I think it's worse that they'll go on board and then go, that's enough of that.
We have done the lap that is OK to show, but by now, yeah, shame.
Yeah, I will confess that after Antonelli's pole lap yesterday, I went back and watched Lando Norris' pole lap from last year. Bad decision from me.
My man's lifting off through a route.
Yeah, but as you say, there were plenty of bright moments in this Grand Prix as well.
Coming up on today's episode, moments of the race, of course, will be giving out our driver of the day, worst driver of the day and our big brain strategy.
Talks on the midfield, how Bortoletto and Limblad managed to win out in that fight.
Max Verstappen, third place, not quite enough to challenge for the race win, but another podium for him.
But let's start with Kimmy Antonelli and the way in which he was able to claim victory ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.
Maybe not quite as simple as it is. It could have been the virtual safety car helping Ferrari and helping Charles Leclerc to ensure that Antonelli at least needed to get an overtake done on track in order to claim this win.
Did so with about 10 laps to go, Sam, and whilst Leclerc maybe held on, Antonelli wasn't really under too much pressure from there on out.
How impressed were you with what Antonelli was able to do, extending his championship margin again?
Yeah, up to 50 points now to George Russell, who will get onto later on in the show.
This looked so comfy for Kimmy Antonelli, which I think is one of the biggest compliments I could give someone of his experience level so far in Formula One.
Even when the start, maybe it did go to plan, maybe it was always in his plan to let someone get in front of him, use their battery going down the hill after the source,
to then use his battery, of course, going up through the Campbell Strait.
It was an interesting tactic. We saw Max Verstappen get in front early on, and I think in a different time where battery wasn't as important and being flat out was normal in racing sport,
you may be thought, oh, I can hold on to this, or I can play a different game where I might do a little cheeky lift off at the top of Eau Rouge and Radeon and then allow the other car to run out of momentum.
We've seen it before with the likes of Hamilton and Vettel only a few years ago.
But Kimmy Antonelli uses his battery perfectly, sails past Max Verstappen.
But to the point where Verstappen's got so little battery that the Ferrari, who is also further back, is also challenging.
And at that point, it looks so comfortable for Antonelli, just sticking her head a couple of seconds in front to the point where Bongo comes over and says,
your tires are good. If you want to actually go faster, you can.
You could step on it if you want, mate.
If you fancy it, he's going, oh, oh, too many fastest laps normally.
Should I go for five now or go faster? And he did go faster.
He comes out in front and then we've got the VSC, of course, that kind of ticks off and Leclerc manages to execute that with Ferrari fantastically well.
But even when that occurred, Antonelli's pace is so strong and the Ferrari just doesn't seem to be a match around the track like this.
It always felt inevitable that Antonelli was going to retake the lead, even with the gap when he had Norris in the way,
where the matching power unit between Mercedes and McLaren maybe meant that overtaking a straight line was slightly more difficult.
Once he got past the McLaren, it felt like it was just a matter of time of when it will happen, not if it will happen, but when it will happen.
And it did. And it felt quite matter of fact when he got past. It wasn't much of a challenge.
Not that it impacted the end result. I was interested when Antonelli came into the pit on what I think was lap 18, a couple of laps before the virtual safety car.
But there was a virtual safety car on that lap as well, but it ended before he came into the pits.
I was wondering whether they were planning to pit because the VSC made an appearance and then they would just abandon that.
But they kept going with it anyway, maybe thinking that that was the right lap regardless of whether there was a VSC or not.
But again, didn't affect the end result here.
Harry, what did you make of Mr. Antonelli's performance?
Just on that. Were they not trying to cover off a stop at any way on that pit?
They might have been.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I agree with what Sam says. And I think I said this on, was it after Silverstone?
There's just like an inevitability about Antonelli at the moment.
Even when Ferrari and Leclerc came out in front of him later on the race, you just thought, I just thought for the last very long, is it?
I mean, Leclerc held on for a while, which is credit to him.
But yeah, he is unflappable at the moment, is Kimmy Antonelli.
And Martin Brundle made this point in commentary.
There was no sort of hysterics over the radio or anything about losing the place after the under the VSC just went on and got it back again.
So yeah, his pace is is mightily impressive.
And I thought his lap one racecraft was superb.
Was he playing chicken?
A little bit of chicken or yo-yo racing, as McLaren are calling it now.
Oh, so that's stupid.
Yeah.
But I think he is driving these cars as well as all better than everyone else.
I think he's driving to what these cars are capable of just better than anyone.
And he knew that if he lost the leader.
That's all F1 post.
They made a big thing about the staff and taking the lead at the bottom of a Rouge, which, yeah, finally, you know, it's pretty impressive thing to do.
But it's just, I was like, he's done that on purpose, man.
I don't know. He's let him go.
He knows he can get back past some of the other straight.
So yeah, he's just driving very, very cannily, very cleverly.
And that combined with the raw speed that he's got at the moment is a pretty lethal combo.
And it's coming from a driver that's in his second year in the sport.
If we'd said preseason, as I'm sure we probably did, that these regulations are going to take a slightly different driving style and it might be more of a thinking man's year possibly.
And you wouldn't have immediately put Antonelli to the front of that queue as someone who will take advantage of that.
And yet here he is seemingly week on week doing this sort of thing where I had the same read on that first lap as you did where the staff and shore he got ahead going into into radio.
And that's exactly what happened.
Very impressive pace.
I don't think it was Antonelli's best win of the year.
That's not really an insult towards Antonelli in any way, given he has some very impressive results to this point in the year.
But his level of dominance maybe wasn't the same as what we saw at, say, Monaco, but he did look very much in control.
I think the only slight disappointment in Antonelli's performance, again, didn't really cost him, is how long it took him comparative to Charles Leclerc to get by Lando Norris when Norris hadn't stopped.
He was stuck for a fair few laps behind Lando Norris, whereas it felt like Charles Leclerc was actually the one who kind of did what Antonelli's done all year, which is just rock up and get the move done almost straight away.
But that's very much nitpicking what was otherwise an almost flawless performance.
And I almost give Antonelli credit for the move that he got done to win this race.
When there are 10 laps to go and you get a move done for the win and there's, respectfully, there's barely any reaction to it.
I think that actually says a lot about, firstly, this track, these battery management rules.
But it also says quite a bit about Antonelli and how it did feel inevitable.
Like, ordinarily, if there's an overtake for the lead, 10 laps to go, it's like edge of you see almost, oh my God, I can't believe that's happened.
Antonelli just rocks up, gets it done, job done.
There wasn't a lot of, yeah.
It emulated what we saw a lot with previous generations when it came to DRS passes, didn't it?
The way that we saw going down the Campbell Strait, the battery starts to deplete for the car in front.
The car can't quite keep up.
The car behind's got beggin' deployment due to the overtake zones.
He rocks straight past him, right?
He's there before the braking zone.
We saw no fight into the braking zone, no tussle through that chicane where we might have had a bit of wheel-to-wheel,
which is actually an area I would praise of these regulations that so often we see a car next to another car,
or we see a car come straight back past another car.
And unfortunately, with the way that Spa is, with the way that regeneration works and how difficult it is to keep the battery charged,
it was done and dusted within one corner, which is a real shame.
Harry, it's not two wins in a row for Charlotte Clair, but it was Ferrari remaining relatively competitive with Mercedes here.
LeClaire, again, even though he couldn't get back by Antonelli, was staying within a second or two.
Any surprise at all that on a track like this, Ferrari was still able to compete as much as they did?
A little bit surprised.
I think it's well known that the power tracks are not their friends, and obviously that did show up a bit in qualifying,
but race-based-wise, they were very solid and obviously get onto Hamilton,
but had he not had a bit of damage and the wrong front wing setting, who knows where he would have got to, too.
Yeah, so a bit surprising, but encouraging for them that that's the case, to be honest,
and they should take comfort in the fact that they went to an hour after Hungary, which is the complete opposite,
and it's downforce heavy, so they should be feeling pretty good about that.
I thought, I know he was lucky or fortunate with the VSC, but that's why they left them out there,
but I thought LeClaire's pace overall today was very good.
Or as good as it was in Silverstone, and we praised him a lot in Silverstone, so I think he was very good.
Agreed.
The result might well have been the same at Silverstone if the end of the race had panned out slightly differently.
It might have been exactly the same thing.
Do you view this as a more positive or a more negative day for Ferrari, some?
I think they got a little bit lucky.
Again, the VSC is a strategy, but we don't often get two VSCs basically a lap and a half after one another.
That is very rare. Usually, when you try to leave someone out for a VSC or a safety car, you tend to get one shot at it,
and I think they were a bit lucky that a second one emerged.
And no one could benefit from the first one.
Right. No one got in the first one.
We spoke about this. They were all halfway around the racetrack. No one was coming in.
So the fact there was a second one so soon after, I do count that as luck,
because the strategy might have accounted for one.
I don't think it does for two.
And they take full advantage of it, and I think that benefits Hamilton as well, who had to serve his penalty.
He obviously managed to mitigate a bit of the time lost due to that stuff as well.
I also think that the way that Russell gets removed from the Grand Prix will get on to that as an instant later on in the show.
But I do think that again helps the likes of Leclerc.
He's only got to fight one mistake at that time as well.
Again, there's the elimination of Norris with the penalty.
That helps Hajar, who I think had a really good Grand Prix.
He's starting at the back of the Grand Prix as well.
Piastri picks up damage early on.
There's a lot of things that are only small minute things,
but they're all little things that go Ferrari's way.
And Leclerc, who got away with one, I think, which again will get on to against Piastri,
ends up being second place. His pace was great.
But I also think there's a series of events here that have gone in Ferrari's direction.
Yeah, I think they were pretty solid at a racetrack where I wasn't fully confident they would be.
I think they maybe matched my expectations roughly or so from the midweek preview.
I know Sam, you were maybe less confident about them coming into this weekend versus last weekend.
So I think that's pretty encouraging for them that they've done quite well here.
Maybe slightly frustrating that on a day where Mercedes suffer a retirement,
they've only gained, I think, five points in the constructors' championship over their rivals.
And that might not stay at five.
We don't yet know what's going to happen with Lewis Hamilton and the unsafe release,
whether that will just be a fine or whether that will be a penalty against Hamilton or not.
But yeah, I think Ferrari can be relatively content with this one.
Sam's saying, you mentioned the one that maybe he got away with, the defense on Oscar Piastri.
Do you think that this deserved a penalty?
Skewered's calls today were woeful, absolutely woeful.
Disagree of both decisions made when it comes to both Ferrari drivers.
I thought the Clare deserved a harsher penalty than what Hamilton picked up.
I thought the Clare should have picked up a 10-second time penalty moving in the braking zone.
We've seen how dangerous that can be.
And I think they're again judging based on outcome rather than on incident or incident,
if you're a young Charlotte Clare of course.
And I think that's what's happened with Lewis Hamilton.
He's been judged upon the retirement of George Russell.
And I actually think his penalty was softened because it was a lap one incident in their eyes.
Whereas I think here, because it's only been a slight bit of contact and Piastri's wise to it.
And so the damage has been limited.
I think they've gone, both cars have come away pretty much all right.
And they both go around the racetrack.
So we'll move on.
I really think this should have been a 10-second time penalty.
I think it was quite dangerous.
And I'm surprised that he's gotten away completely free of charge.
Random one, Harry.
It reminded me a bit of 2019 Monza when the Clare was going up against Lewis Hamilton.
And there was another incident there.
It was a bit more noteworthy, perhaps where Hamilton is forced wide from the Clare defending.
Did you think that was worthy of a penalty like Sam does?
I think the 2019 one was.
Yeah, I don't care about the 2026 one.
We've gone back to where we started.
Yeah, I agree.
I think it should have been a penalty for Charlotte.
I wouldn't have gone for a 10.
I would have gone for a five, but it wasn't deserving of nothing.
Because those, yeah, those sorts of things, you know,
moving in the braking zone can be super dangerous,
especially at a place like Spa, even with slightly lower speeds these days.
As Piazzari said, that could have been a massive, massive shunt.
So, yeah, I don't know why.
Well, I'm inclined to agree with what Sam said,
but I don't really know why they're deeming that as, you know, nothing doing for that one.
And I presume, as Sam said, it's because they didn't have an actual crash, which is done.
That's a dumb way to steward.
I'm glad you're back, mate.
Thank you.
That's the analysis I won.
Thank you.
I thought it was incredibly marginal.
I was, I can see it being a penalty.
I can see it being nothing given there.
I think maybe where we've seen incidents of moving in the braking zone,
it's been a lot more, I don't want to say deliberate,
but a lot more obvious than what happened there.
Whereas it seemed almost like Leclerc was shading towards the outside of the corner there.
I personally would have given a penalty as well.
But like Harry, I was leaning more five seconds.
What about the other incident?
Lap one, of course, George Russell versus Lewis Hamilton sees George Russell out of the Grand Prix
and once again facing quite a large deficit in the championship,
now 50 points behind his teammate.
Lewis Hamilton gets a five-second penalty.
Sam, you mentioned that you disagreed with both stewards' calls today.
So I'm assuming here you thought like, like Martin Brunel did in Sky Sports commentary,
it was a racing incident.
I agree.
I think this was a racing incident.
And I grew with George Russell, who's verdict when he gave his big race interview was racing incident.
And I stand by you, George Russell.
Man will always be a Lewis Hamilton fan.
It doesn't matter.
We've seen collisions like this before where the car being collided with, for example,
or the one on the outside hasn't ended up out of the Grand Prix.
They might have run off onto a run-off zone.
It was a tie-to-tie big of contact.
And we've seen so many times that both cars actually have a bit of a tussle and get away with it
and there's no problem.
And so often on a lap one collision, we get away with racing incident.
It happens.
The cars are also close together.
We move on.
Again, I feel they have judged the outcome of the incident and not the incident itself.
And so a retirement is involved and therefore a penalty must be displayed.
And I don't think that's fair.
I don't think that is consistent in their ruling here.
So you look at the way the incident happened.
So we're going around the outside of a car.
You need to be very far ahead realistically.
I think your rear tyre has to be along the front axle,
essentially, to be garnered room in the move, I think.
And in that case, I know it goes from right very quickly to left.
Hamilton's got a car in front of him.
He's washing across.
Whilst I do think the incident is more wrong, Lewis Hamilton,
I actually think it should be more than racing incident.
I'm going to give Harry the deciding vote here because I think the stewards got it correct.
I also would have gone for a five second time penalty.
It was close.
And if you view this as a racing incident, I think that's completely fair.
I think it's the last minute snap that Lewis Hamilton gets.
I think without that, I do think they avoid contact and they both get away with it.
But because of that, I would give it a five second penalty for Lewis Hamilton.
Although I do agree with the point where we've seen similar incidents in the past
not penalized because there hasn't been an incident.
I don't think that's right either.
But I do think if we're looking at this in isolation that it was worthy of a penalty,
which means I'm going against Mr. George Russell on this one.
Harry.
What are you going for?
Oh, sorry.
I'm agreeing with the stewards on this one.
It's very marginal.
And like you said, Ben, the only thing that really just nudges it to a penalty for me is
Hamilton's not still on the apex of the court.
It's not still on the curb.
He's washed out slightly.
And that's what's caused the impact.
But it's very marginal.
I think, like we've said already, the most frustrating thing is that both of these
incidents should have been a penalty.
I believe there should have been a penalty and it's not consistent across the board
because one car was in the gravel and the other one carried on.
So yeah, a marginal one.
Side note, and someone pointed this out on Twitter.
I'm not blaming Hamilton for all of these.
But Hamilton's had like five accidents.
I was just about to say, if I had a penny for every time he's acting angst in Lake Hume,
I got five pennies.
And a lot of pennies for something to happen in Formula One.
Absolutely not all this fault.
But random because for a man, it doesn't crash very often.
The Alonzo one comes to that was that was on Hamilton from memory.
But that's one with Rosberg, right?
Yeah, probably the Alonzo Hamilton one is why I think this is a penalty because
there that it was the opposite way around and Hamilton's on the outside.
But he squeezed Alonzo, right?
And Alonzo didn't wash out.
So that's why I'd say this one is Hamilton's penalty.
But yeah, marginal.
Yeah, if you actually look up the original Latin for Lake Hume,
it translates to Hamilton crash.
I think it's a marginal.
Marginal Coom.
Marginal Coom.
Just a little bit of Coom.
Marginal Coom.
Mini Coom.
Mini Coom.
For you've got a small amount of hair to brush.
Mini Coom.
Mini Coom.
Well, that seems an appropriate place to go to a break.
On the other side, we're getting into Red Bull and McLaren.
Sam, as you know, I have a big birthday coming up very soon.
The good news is I'm dealing with it really, really well and not having an existential
crisis in any way, shape or form.
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Welcome back, everyone.
Thanks for stopping third place.
Very, very temporarily in the lead of the Grand Prix on the first lap,
but it became quite evident thereafter that he didn't quite have the pace to compete with,
not only Kimi Antonelli, but also Charlotte Clair after the virtual safety car,
but nonetheless, 15 points for third place.
Harry, was this just a case of Red Bull not quite having enough today?
Yeah, I think so.
I think Max got the most out of that car today.
To be honest, I think if Hamilton hadn't had his incident strewn race,
I think he probably wouldn't have been on the podium at all.
Made the best of what he had.
I think qualifying where he did flattered him with the had-jato
because I don't think necessarily he'd have qualified that high up,
but they did it, it worked and all credit to them.
So yeah, that made the most of it.
I just don't think he had the pace today and did well to hold off any McLaren attacks.
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you.
I don't think they were quite there.
You mentioned that maybe Verstappen wouldn't have finished on the podium
if not for Lewis Hamilton's penalty.
I am not convinced he would have finished ahead of Lando Norris
if Norris started higher up.
I think McLaren and Norris maybe had the advantage.
So in which case P3 is actually a very good result for him.
Sam, what did you make of Verstappen's pace
and maybe Red Bull not quite being there in the same way that they have been
at, say, Austria earlier in the year?
I thought Max Verstappen was pretty fantastic today.
I thought he drove a race above his station for the car that he had at his disposal.
It's clear that Red Bull are still lacking, especially in the battery department
because they're so good in that middle sector.
You saw it when he was attacking the likes of Lando Norris.
The way he would close right up or pull away if he was also being attacked
and it was immense the way that they could use the chassis to really get away from them.
But in Sectors 1 and 3, just got nothing left to give.
And I imagine that Ian Biel is the lead engineer at Red Bull.
By the way, sorry, I was just going to ask.
Could you imagine explaining to someone who's maybe newer to F1,
that Red Bull, the one that's really quick through the corners in the middle part,
that's the one with the best engine?
I know, right? And that's how a duo works, folks.
And that is fairness.
That's amazing.
It's like the ghost lap that they had with Verstappen behind Antelei and Qualifying yesterday
and Antelei just pulling away on the straights.
He's like, what are we doing?
Best engine right there, folks. That's how it works.
Mercedes is a struggling man.
Oh, man. On the struggle bus, man.
Cut to George Russell crying in the end.
Anyway, the only thing I do think about Max is I do think he's absolutely sold a bag of chips on that first lap.
I think he deployed all that battery way too soon
and it felt like a bit like school play.
But Antigone was at the child of this environment and he absolutely sold him one.
Really well judged, really smart driving from Antelei.
And that's actually what I expected from Max.
Because when the start happened, I thought Max intentionally didn't go for it until a source.
He did not go for it to turn one with the intention of following all the way through Eruzion Radeon to attack up Lake On.
And then doesn't, goes too early, gets sold one.
And Antelei's like, yeah, cheers. Easy.
I'll have your back thing.
And there's just no back through all the way to the end.
The same is Russell, who I think it was one to third for Max.
So it was three to six for Russell.
And that's just, you were absolutely mugged off, absolutely mugged.
And I just think that's really bad management. I didn't expect that from Max.
I do wonder whether it was just a case of I'm going to go for it.
See what happens.
If I can keep it so beer, if I can't, doesn't matter all that much.
I think even if he had managed to hold the lead or hold second place through that first lap,
I think the result probably would have looked rather similar.
Again, Red Bull, not too far off, but maybe similar to what we saw at Silverstone,
just a little bit back from that leading group of two.
And they'll be hoping that when we get to, maybe when we get to Hungary,
that's where Red Bull can shine again.
And maybe we start to see something like Spielberg where the Stappen was able to not claim the win,
but very, very much compete for it.
And maybe he's hoping that that will be, even if we go into like the second half of the season,
I'm not sure, apart from Monza, that we will get a circuit where battery management will be as prevalent as it was today at Spa.
I think there's quite a few circuits coming up that will be a little bit friendlier,
in which case maybe that's where Red Bull can start to claim some,
maybe not even claim some wins, but compete for them.
When, you know, we've been having a laugh with the Cedric Diggory, my boy.
I don't know what you're talking about. I wouldn't laugh at that. That was painful.
Good. Like we're all aware.
That is the noise that's going to go through my head when we watch Monza be absolutely massacred by this battery.
That's going to be you through Eskari.
Through Eskari?
Yeah.
The flat curbs on it as well now.
My Eskari!
That's it. Eskari is my boy.
Yeah, that's fair.
Despite being several years younger.
What about Isaac Hadjar's recovery Grand Prix?
So we knew going into the weekend that he was going to be starting from the back row of the grid,
manages to make it all the way up to sixth place and holds off Lando Norris to finish in sixth.
What did you make of it, Harry?
That was a really good, really good drive from Hadjar.
Obviously, he pitted under that first safety car, which was, you know, wise and why not get your tire stops done
and then just sit on your hard tires for the rest of the race.
Can I just say as well, and we are on this show, big fans of Bernie Collins, as previously mentioned,
the Sky commentary team being like, I can't believe Norris is still out on those hard tires for 37 laps.
And then Bernie Collins being like, yeah, but Hadjar's been on them for even longer, mate.
For like 40 laps.
Yeah, so yeah, it can happen.
And they also, they started the broadcast with, and we've got the hard tire,
which we've been told could do the entire race distance, but you do have to run two different compounds.
So what were you expecting?
Hadjar did get off those hard tires though, didn't he?
He used two different...
Obviously, he went hard, medium hard.
Yeah, but then he went on a different hard tire again.
He pitted under that.
I don't remember him pitting again.
He pitted under the virtual safety car, but that was...
Sorry, he pitted twice under the...
Safety car.
Yes, to get onto new hard tires.
But then he pitted again under the virtual safety car lap 20 to get...
I assume he went back onto the same tires he started the Grand Prix on.
Bruh.
Okay, mind blown.
Same.
I'm convinced he's used two different sets of hard tires today.
But I will believe you.
I'm sure Bernie Collins has pointed that out.
Anyway, either way, he did quite well today.
Didn't he?
He had Isaac Hadjar.
I thought it was a really good recovery.
And obviously it wasn't really his fault to be going to the back of the grid in the first place,
helped other team in Corleys to sacrifice them better grid spot,
and then drove well through the field, made that whatever strategy he did, made it work.
Eight stop, 12 stop, all hard tires.
Anyway, that made 44 laps, 44 stops, just did them all.
All hard tires every time.
Another one.
I think he did three stops, but did one lap on the medium tire.
They're carving new hard tires out of rubber they found from other individuals.
He's going to show up next week still using these ones.
Except, no, no, the tires are completely separate week to week.
Isaac, you can't use these.
It doesn't care.
I thought it was pretty impressive from him in that we don't give too much credit
when it comes to a top driver, a top team, a driver and a top team
sort of coming back through the field as he did.
I still felt he was fairly clinical.
He didn't get stuck behind any driver for very long, got clear of that midfield.
And then the strategy kind of worked in his favor, but they did play into that.
And it was very clever of Red Bull to essentially fulfill the tire requirement
in the first couple of laps to make sure he was on the medium tire for one lap
and then could just use hard tires the rest of the way.
So it did work out in his favor, but I thought it was pretty good.
And as soon as he'd made that last stop, his pace versus Verstappen,
his pace versus the front two, not much, innit?
It was very close.
And of course, he was able to hold off Lana Norris.
So job well done, I think, for Isaac.
I know everyone's on the edge of their seats, but you are right, Ben.
Lap 20.
Woo! I got someone with track attention.
My reputation was almost in tatters.
I was too busy going to the disco because apparently I can see into the future.
My stream is apparently so far ahead of everyone else's.
You have always had this.
Mate, I've just seen the world champion get ground.
Who was it?
I can't tell you, it ruined it.
Can you just tell me if it was Estabelle Ockel or not?
It was.
Cover!
Oh, sorry, I meant F2 World Champion.
Oh, I don't even know if we win that at the moment.
What about McLaren, Oscar Piatri P5, Lana Norris P7?
Seems like a fairly similar story from what we've seen so far this year, Sam.
Yeah, really odd one.
Norris on it, but also struggled at one point to get past the likes of Limblud,
who of course has the upgraded racing bulls in comparison to Lawson's non-upgrading racing bull.
Then they had, the bit I want to bring up about McLaren is, again,
the failed communication between what's going on between both drivers.
Are you racing for a position or are you working as a team
and allowing a driver with a different strategy to come through?
Because Piatri's in front and Norris is like,
oh, sorry, sorry, you're in the supermarket, you're trying to get round somewhere.
You both go left, both go right, both, that's what it felt like with McLaren.
Like, sorry, and then after the third time, it's a bit embarrassing
and you're trying to pick them up and move them past you.
That's what it felt like with McLaren, where it's like, do I overtake you?
Can I overtake you? Are we going to crash?
Don't know, it felt horrible.
And then immediately after, we kind of decided that, oh, right,
they must have had team orders there, Piatri's like Norris through, all good,
because of the damage, that makes total sense.
Piatri then re-overtakes Norris, Norris took proper fight for it as well,
darting to the inside.
And then later on in the race, I don't want a yo-yo race,
I'll explain later, ominous, ominous messages from McLaren again.
Why do they overcomplicate everything?
It's just Norris is faster than Piatri at that point in the Grand Prix.
Get out the way, just say that, you don't need to go into this...
Well, we'll discuss this later and we've got this weird strategy,
but we're not going to tell you about it now,
we're going to reveal it later on when we're doing our deep...
No, just say, Norris is faster, get out the way,
you're not fighting for a world title anymore.
We're not in 2025.
Neither drive was going to win that Grand Prix.
So who the hell was it? Maximise your points.
And they're all in the same thing in reverse, it's like,
Piatri just needs to get by Lando Norris,
tell him to get out the way if you're not going to box him.
Neither of us are winning, we're all separate strategies,
move out the way at your easiest convenience,
thank you very much, move on.
And this is what annoys me about McLaren,
and you want to be a fan of them, you want to cheer them on,
and they do silly buggers like this over the radio,
you just think, what game are you playing?
It was just odd.
So, yeah, they finished fifth and seventh,
it might be fourth, fourth and sixth,
if Hamilton gets a penalty for running someone over,
we don't know.
But it was a great, was it? It was very fine.
Put Norris up a good fight against some of the other drivers
on harder tyres.
What did you make out of Norris' strategy in this one?
Of course, went much longer than everyone else,
they didn't take advantage of the early virtual safety cars
or safety car,
and ultimately going from hard to medium tyres
for the end of the race.
I think it was worth the shot, given where he was,
but yeah, I think the,
and for the most part, his pace was pretty good.
Obviously he was left out on those tyres for quite some time,
as mentioned.
But it was, I think it was worth rolling the dice for
because I don't think they're going to achieve much more
from where they were, where he was starting.
But you're right, the ridiculous back and forth
between the drivers and the team
and what they should be doing
really enjoyed Martin Brunders describing it as a bit lumpy.
That's exactly how I'd...
Absolutely lumpy mashed potatoes, wasn't it?
I was talking to my dad, actually, before the race began,
we were watching the grid walk.
I don't know, after Brundle is such a good presenter.
I think a lot of people forget he was an F1 driver
because he's so good at describing what goes on
and the way he phrases it.
It might be very British-centric, I don't know,
but it just works.
Like lumpy is such a great adjective.
Oh, that's a bit lumpy.
Thank you, Martin.
I got exactly what you mean.
I couldn't explain it back to you,
but I know what you mean, son.
Yeah, perfect.
So yeah, I think overall they couldn't do much more,
and even with weird yo-yo racing,
I'm not sure it made that much of a difference in the end.
Do we think the slow stop cost them just one place?
Just the had-jar spot?
Probably.
Yeah.
Martin Augustine had-jar was doing quite a great job,
but he'd have been closer, wouldn't he?
So let's go with...
I think you were going.
It was about five seconds they lost, right?
I actually think he probably might have beaten his teammate.
Well, that's why I was thinking, is it just had-jar?
It probably depends how quickly you could overtake him
if you could overtake him at all.
I really enjoyed Lewis Hamilton,
because Simon took us dropped like five seconds
on the last lap as well,
because he went from being about three.
In front of a pedestrian to like one.
And you just think, Lewis, mate,
you might have a penalty coming in,
and these cars are all going quite quickly behind you.
Do you want to keep going?
Nah, it's cool.
I thought that was a bit of a theme,
in that Hamilton was maybe a bit quicker
in the earlier part since today than the latter part.
Same happened with Leclerc, right?
Right at the start after the instinct.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, you know, I'm losing time behind.
I'm losing time in Hermano,
and Leclerc's just like, you know what?
I'm just going to keep going.
No one answered it, baby.
No one answered it.
Leclerc is definitely saving tyres at this point,
and then kicks on quite comfortably.
But yeah, Hamilton not his best.
Maybe not.
Anything further on McLaren?
Hungry?
A circuit they've gone very well at in the past,
so maybe a transformation in fortune there?
Watching at these straws I have somewhere up here.
No.
Hard to know in McLaren, honestly.
Their form doesn't correlate to anything else.
They're just a third place team.
That's what they are now at the moment.
Sorry, this season, that's what they are.
Very literally, that is what they are.
That is what they are, and they will have races
where they're closer to first and second,
and they'll have races where they're further away
and closer to fourth,
and this race felt like very much
a proper third place team performance.
The gap from McLaren to Ferrari
is bigger than the gap from Ferrari to Mercedes at the moment.
Which I'm not surprised about.
Shall we review some bold predictions?
Now, the good news is, Harry, because you weren't here,
you can basically just make up what it would have been,
and we're just going to have to accept it and go,
well done.
And I get a point.
Yeah, yeah.
So your bold prediction was that Hamilton and Russell
would have crashed on that one, right?
Yeah, I would have said that if I was here,
so thank you at one point for me.
Mystic, Harry, fair play, man.
Wow.
Yeah, you're welcome.
I might start missing race previews.
We're just kidding, you don't get any points, sorry.
Sam, what was your bold prediction?
I'm not going to laugh anymore.
I am stopping the laughing.
Crying now.
I said that there will be a podium for someone outside
of the usual four teams that we see on the podium repeatedly,
i.e. Gasly and Monaco.
It did not happen.
Needed rain slash carnage.
I thought for a minute with the way the crash happened on that one,
we might have seen someone do a classic,
oh, I've had to go on the run-off and suddenly having third,
and oh, but no, never.
Never mind.
I would like someone to make that noise.
Oh, I've been third.
I've been third.
Only 40 laps.
That's very different.
The ooh is different from the ooh.
You've got two different noises there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they mean very different things.
They do.
My bold prediction was that Max Verstappen
would get pole position well done
on your second place, Max Verstappen.
Never mind.
At least it wasn't close though.
It was still three temps or so,
but there was at least a part of me earlier
in the qualifying session.
I was like, I actually,
I was for a minute thought he's got this.
I mean, I've never got this.
No, you've never got this.
Have you scored a point in the last season?
I think I got one last year.
All right.
So I reckon I'm on about one in the last 18 months.
Good.
It was like Ferrari wings.
Ben, I went away for two months
and you still scored the same as you have.
Yeah.
Correct.
Yeah.
The score is still 2-0-0.
Honestly, it's going to be 0-0
at the end of the year, isn't it?
We've had a collective maybe 25
bold predictions so far this season.
Two of them are right.
Well, well done, mate.
We'll be back with some more
on Wednesday's episode
as we preview the Hungarian GP.
Let's take our next break on the other side.
We're going to get into the midfield.
Welcome back, everyone.
Good days for both Gabriel Bortoletto
and Arvid Lindblad in the Audi
and the racing bulls, respectively.
Bortoletto and Audi taking advantage
of that virtual safety car on lap 20
and ultimately Bortoletto,
despite some pressure from Lindblad
able to hold that position
until the end of the season.
What did you make of that?
Before we get into that,
was there an issue with the timing screen
where they randomly swapped places
and Croft had actually went off on one leg?
There was, yeah, late on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was like two and a half seconds.
Some of them swapped to swap back again.
It was two and a half seconds again.
I'm like, that definitely wasn't an overtake at all.
Okay.
Anyway, I thought Bortoletto,
whilst he was aided by the VSC,
was sublime.
I don't think that Audi should have been beating
the cars that it did.
It is not quick like a straight line.
Watching Holkenberg try and go up against the Alps.
Please.
Please.
Slow down.
I can't take it.
Please wait.
It's great in the corners
and that middle sector is really good.
And when you're ahead
and you're outside of kind of the overtake zone,
sure, solid.
And the VSC did come to help Bortoletto.
But the way he holds off
and upgraded racing balls for Lindblad
was really fantastic.
Secures eighth place for Audi,
which is another great point.
So it should desperately need
because they were so far down the point.
So this is another great, what is it?
Four points they picked up here.
It starts to build up.
It starts to accumulate.
If they could do that again in Hungary,
which should be very good for them.
I could feel a bold prediction brewing.
Brewing.
The long-term brew.
I thought he was fantastic.
And I really think he ran quite a quiet race,
but a really well-managed, well-delivered Grand Prix,
executing nicely on the strategy.
It was really impressed by him.
What did you make out of the way in which Bortoletto
was able to hold off that racing balls
that has been the king of the midfield
for the last few rounds?
Yeah, I think super impressive by Bortoletto.
He's been having a good year.
And I know Holkenberg has been, like,
the unluckiest man ever,
but he's looked maybe not ever,
but it's like a slight exaggeration.
All right, I'll take it back.
You know what?
Go away for two months, actually.
You're banned.
Yeah, get out.
But I think Bortoletto has been super impressive this year,
and this result is sort of worthy
of the way he's been driving.
Like you mentioned, Sam,
it's not quick and a straight line.
It makes a ridiculous noise,
but not very quick and a straight line.
So to hold off that,
the racing ball, I think, was a good effort.
And, you know, impressive to end the streak.
As you said, racing balls have been dominating
that, you know, the back end of the top 10,
but the start of that midfield for several races now
is a great effort all around by Bortoletto.
Yeah, I agree.
And sure, they needed the strategy to get this done.
I'm fairly convinced without it
he would have been behind Limblad
and maybe somewhat comfortably so.
But that's not how it panned out.
And Bortoletto needed to...
He needed to manage those tyres to the end.
I know he had slightly fresher tyres than Limblad,
but it was only four laps or so.
So by the time we were getting to lap 40,
there wouldn't have been any difference, really,
in the tyres.
So it was just on pure pace
that he was able to hold him off.
Yeah, like you've both said, really,
that Audi is good,
but really lacking still in a straight line.
We saw that Alpine, particularly in the final sector,
were able to catch up and pass Audi's
at least once in this Grand Prix.
And even sort of going down the chemo straight,
it felt like they were missing something
versus their rivals,
but they managed it well enough in the middle sector
that it didn't come back to hurt them too much.
So, yeah, a lot of respect for what Bortoletto did.
Didn't have a great start,
as is always the case with Audi,
but still was able to minimise the damage.
I think he only dropped one spot,
maybe one or two spots,
when we've seen it be far worse for them so far this year.
Yeah, a drop back into the F2 field for a couple of laps.
They have to work their way back out again.
Classic Audi.
Yeah, Audi.
It was interesting to see some such a gap
between both Bortoletto and Lindblad
and their respective teammates.
Was it just a case of the other two
managed to get stuck behind this Alpine trade,
and that maybe exaggerated the gap,
or was this just a case of those two drivers
were more on it versus their teammates?
I think it's two separate reasons.
We see we're fighting on the racetrack.
How much time that can lose you.
It happens in every Grand Prix.
If you're going side by side,
you're trying to get pulled off your line
because you're defending from a driver so often,
you will drop a few tenths of a second every single lap.
Now, if that battle is happening for 10 laps,
you might have dropped six or seven seconds at that point,
which isn't ideal.
If that's the case,
and then you're comparing that to the fact
that Lawson maybe has a not as upgraded car as Lindblad
and he's stuck in the battling,
and he's with the Alpines and Holkenberg,
that gap continues to widen over time.
It's one of those compounding factors
that stack from top of each other really doesn't help.
The same can be said for Bortoletto.
I think his timing on his strategy
just works out really well.
There's a really un-executed moment for him.
Holkenberg didn't get that same luxury,
ends up in that pack,
ends up being slower because of that situation.
And that just means that, again,
the race time is compounded.
I do think that Bortoletto and Lindblad were better
than their teammates,
but I don't think that the timing between them
is actually representative of how much
of a difference there was between those.
If that makes sense, see how I'm saying it.
Do you agree with that, Harry?
Do you think that's the way that it worked out
rather than just being a golfing class
between teammates, sir?
Yeah, I think so.
I think, you know, Holkenberg wasn't...
We're talking about Holkenberg and Bortoletto, right?
Yeah, I think Holkenberg was obviously unlucky
with Kuala Lumpur yesterday,
but the racers didn't really go his way,
and obviously that's a ridiculous claim
that he's the unluckiest man ever.
But he has been unlucky this year.
So I think, like I said, Bortoletto
has been driving well this year.
I think Holkenberg has been too.
He's just not had the fortune.
Yeah, and we're now starting to see,
regardless of which driver,
is Audi are starting to score points
when they've been in scoring positions
before and not taking advantage of it.
We've now had a couple of races in a row
where Bortoletto has been able to do so.
And you'd imagine just based on how close
Bortoletto and Holkenberg usually are at some point.
It's going to flip.
Just wanted to ask a bit more generically
about the Grand Prix.
There have been some interesting comments
from drivers throughout the course of the weekend,
and some of them we might well choose
to properly get into outside of a race review.
But just off the top of my head,
we've had Carlos Sein say,
whoever was running these sims a few years ago,
how on earth have we let this happen?
We've had Max Verstappen compare the power
of these cars to an F3 car.
So not necessarily glowing praise
from a couple of the drivers.
Do you think the comments are fair, Harry?
I think they are.
We've spoken a lot about these rules.
And whilst we are getting some different
and some type of exciting battles,
it's still...
Especially at Spa,
here drivers down changing at the top of the hill
or even before a Rouge or through Blanche, etc.
F1 doesn't need to be...
I think the problem is there are two camps of thought.
People that like the new version of F1
or they hate it and they think that F1
should be like it was in 2021.
Neither is correct, in my view.
It should be somewhere in between that.
I think we've gone too far in the other way.
2021, they were mighty cars like the era of Formula One,
but they had their problems
and that's why we've ended up where we are.
So F1 cars don't need to be the fastest things
they've ever been to be exciting.
And they just need to be a bit faster than they are now
because it's painful to watch them be quite so slow.
A track like Spa, I mean Monza.
Goodness me.
I'm not sure what we're going to do.
No one pods all weekend.
My boy!
Drone cam will be the only camera we get.
Bloody drone cam.
Probably the fastest thing on the racetrack.
Slow down, guys.
Whoa!
What do you think, Sam?
A lot of people are using the criticism of lap time
for these regulations.
I think that is incorrect.
I don't mind that we might be 34 seconds slower
than previous regulations.
That doesn't bother me.
We're still by far the fastest form of car sport
that there is in the world, right?
You stick GT3 cars going around here.
You see a hypercar going around here.
We're still faster by many seconds.
And you only have to look at a hypercar.
It's like their qualifying pace is slower
than the fastest lap time that happens in the race.
It's fine. That's fine.
Being quick is one thing.
It's the fact that these cars are being quick
but driven so managed, so half-asked,
so slow in the way that the battery has to be driven.
I don't want that.
They could be 10 seconds of lap slower for all I care.
I just want to see the drivers,
the 22 best drivers on the planet thrashing these cars.
I want to see them being thrown around a racetrack
side by side.
And whilst we have pockets, moments of that happening
where, you know, for the first five laps,
you might see these battles occur.
It's really exciting.
We then settle into these real lulls in the midfield of a race
where, from about lap, maybe 10,
through maybe to the last 10 laps,
it becomes quite boring, quite managed,
quite obvious and expected.
And that's not what we're here for.
I was actually picked up throughout the Grand Prix
and the lack of TV direction doesn't help either
the fact that we're missing amazing moments
when we're just watching two cars driving around
two seconds apart from each other.
But I do think changes can be made.
I do think we've gone too far in one direction,
and that's unfortunately hurting the sport.
But there are some things I also wouldn't put back.
I do think there are some changes that have been positive.
So whilst I disagree with the overall direction
of the regulations, I do think changes have to be made.
I don't think it's 100% incorrect.
I think this, again, is a track that properly exposes
the weaknesses that the regulations still have
and might continue to have over the next couple of years.
I'm not too sure on that.
I'm fairly confident when we get to hungry in a week's time
and again in some other races still to come
in the autumn and going into the winter.
It will be better than what we saw today.
But there are still some quite glaring weaknesses
and I'm of the same opinion as you, Sam,
that I can deal with the pole at being five seconds slower
than last year.
That isn't even specific to these regulations.
That will always happen with new regulations
where they are trying to strip down force away
to ensure that these cars don't become impossible to follow
and we get essentially no overtaking.
These slowing the cars down is important every five years or so.
But it's definitely the way in which they're going racing,
particularly when there's downshifting
through Blancherman is probably the one for me
where it's a struggle to watch and to listen to at the moment.
And I hope that that is rectified in the not too distant future.
But yeah, like I say,
I'm pretty sure we'll see a better showing
of what F1 is when we get to hungry next week.
I'm also pretty sure one of the reasons
why we're slowing the cars down each year
because if they get to a certain point,
I don't think the drivers are capable of driving them
if we get too quick.
Because the level of G-force and the physical requirement
it just becomes a bit scientifically impossible.
So you've got to slow them down just to make them manageable.
Well, let's head straight into Driver of the Day.
The verdict is in.
You're the driver of the page.
You're the driver of the page.
You're good at driving.
What's that move you got?
Ah, I get to start.
Two names of contention for me.
I'll only mention one for now
and I'll bring it up at the end if I've got mention,
but I'll go for the race winner.
Anthony, I think, had a flawless Grand Prix.
He was set back, of course,
by the fact that the VSC didn't come into his favour,
but the overtake back for the lead on Leclerc
was effortless.
And it looked like,
whilst it wasn't the most dominant of victories for him,
it looked like it was never going in a different direction.
Have you got Harry?
I've gone for Anthony.
Yeah, you can't fault anything he did today.
The only reason he lost the lead at Sam's Edibles
because of that virtual safety cow falling at the wrong time for him.
So hard to argue.
I'm going to go with Bortoletto.
That was my other one.
Yeah, I think it was close between himself and Antonelli.
As mentioned earlier on in the show,
I think Antonelli could have got by Lando Norris
a little bit quicker.
Bortoletto could have had a better start.
So both of them,
I don't think I've had a completely flawless Grand Prix,
but I've just about gone for Bortoletto
in winning that midfield battle
where I'm not completely convinced the Audi was deserving of that.
On to Worst Driver of the Day.
And this time, Harry,
you have the honours.
Archon?
I mean...
Can we change the end of the song to guess what it's going to be?
It's going to be an Archon.
It was Marginal, I guess,
but with him and Behrman,
but not ideal race was it,
and never really recovered.
He had a safety car as well.
It wasn't like he fell off the back.
They had a safety car to come back around and...
It's so slow.
The house isn't great,
because I mean,
Behrman was only a few places above,
but still, not great.
Yeah, I had Archon as well.
Three for three!
I was keeping an eye on the sort of gaps between...
It really became a battle between the two Williams drivers
and the two hash drivers,
and the gap from himself to Behrman just grew and grew and grew,
and I was like,
you've got to get on it at some point,
and then he got overtaken by signs.
So it was in a day where Behrman was able to get the better of Albin
and signs.
Archon wasn't able to beat either of them.
And no one had an outright...
No one had a stinker today, I don't think.
There was no one who was outright awful
and will probably get a one or a two out of ten
on power rankings tomorrow,
which means it's Archon on this occasion for me.
Fully agree.
Three for three.
Archon had some messy moments
at the start of the Grand Prix,
but then even when it got rectified
under VSC slash safety cars,
he was unable to make do with what he had,
and Ben was just faster.
Oh, dear.
What about Big Brain Strat?
Bob, we're going to need you to box for Wetz.
What?
It's not even raining out.
What are you talking about?
Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance,
wait until he may pass you.
What?
He crashed out.
He's not even in the race.
What's your Big Brain Strat, Sam?
Getting run over by your driver when the light goes green.
Ah, yeah.
Not great.
Can I just say, did you notice what that man was holding?
That's why it's my Big Brain Strat.
Justice for the blue thing.
Right, blue thingy rocks up.
Get out of here.
Get out of here.
He's not in flying anymore.
He's no more for you, blue thing.
Do you want...
At least I think we now know that the blue thing has a function.
It just turned up for a long time, didn't it?
Very glad he's done it.
It was like a wand that he just waved.
I think it was just the front wing.
I think so.
It didn't happen.
But, yeah.
Not great, Ferrari.
Flipping the green to go,
and they decided to stand in front of the front wheel.
They just don't like him.
God, let go.
Run me over.
Got him.
Lewis is like...
Again, to clarify.
We're glad he's okay.
Very happy.
I'm so happy he's okay.
I heard the blue thing got destroyed in the process,
but I'm so happy he is okay.
Yeah, don't flick it to green.
You drive again when you're done working on the car.
What was your big brain start, Harry?
I'm going to guess it's not the same thing.
Mine is not the same thing,
but it is also Ferrari related.
It's Hamilton annoyed about being left out
for whatever strategy that they had him on,
and then a few laps later, they're like,
yeah, we did this because he got a five-second penalty,
and then him turning into DJ Khaled and saying,
another one.
Another one.
But I'm like, why not tell him?
Tell him.
Why not tell him four?
We didn't get his on-board,
but he did actually go another one.
And then put his finger up to the air.
Smoked up the camera on the tin can.
Nearly runs off the road.
Sorry.
Sorry, DJ Khaled.
My big brain strat is,
and I promise this will feel like deja vu,
but it is a brand new incident.
But it's just my favorite thing that happens,
seemingly every race now,
which is racing balls are together.
Second racing balls gets to pit first.
Therefore, they come out at the same time,
and they nearly kill each other.
That's just every race now for racing balls.
Got the rad bags out, didn't they?
Yeah, yeah.
We only saw it again on the smaller part of the screen
in the smaller box,
but at least one of them had to go straight off the road
when Gasly was directly behind.
But it's just the same thing happened at Silverstone
and at Austria.
Yeah.
Fuck no.
Yeah, sure.
They follow a show.
They always do, to be fair.
Can I nominate and run her up for me as well?
Oh, go on then.
Cardo Sainz turning into the worst like office manager
and being like,
I didn't approve this front wing change.
Rejected.
But they did it anyway, so I didn't approve this.
I didn't sign it up.
Oh, dear.
Right, let's take our final break on the other side.
Moment of the race.
Welcome back, everyone.
Very shortly, we'll have some discord submissions,
but before we do that,
Sam, what was your moment of the race?
I have two.
The first one is a very serious one,
and it was the battle with Collapinto, Gasly and Lawson,
and that move that Collapinto plants on both of them
when those two are fighting.
So you just think,
go around the outside.
Where's he come from?
He's just there.
There he is. Franco's coming through.
I loved it.
Absolutely loved it.
Three wide, down they come.
We saw it in,
basically, I've got a screen recording me.
It was about the size of that screen,
minutely small,
and it was very annoying to watch with such a small screen,
but it was a great battle.
I had to watch it back on Twitter.
Amazing move.
Really brilliant.
Loved it.
That's what I live for,
and we barely got to see it.
To play devil's advocate here,
this might have been the one instance
where the small box was a good thing,
because we had no idea Collapinto was there
until he was literally ahead.
It's like, surprise.
We wouldn't have got that on the main screen.
That's true.
But I fully agree with you.
My moment of the race is admittedly
a bit of an obscure one,
but it came late on when
Peter Bonnington over Team Radio
was reminding Kimmy Antonelli
of Track Limits,
because that happens every week.
And Kimmy's like,
well, how many do I have?
And you could just imagine Bono at that moment going,
it doesn't matter.
Just don't do anymore.
You have the lead.
Just don't do anymore.
And he's just there.
Can I get away with one more maybe?
Stop collecting them, Kimmy.
Come on.
They should just always say like lap one.
Three.
You've already got three.
You've got three.
Warning.
You have a warning.
They really should.
But I've got the black and white flag yet, right?
I've got one more in me.
What was your moment of the race, Harry?
Simon, you didn't say your second one, did you?
Oh, sorry.
Yes, you did.
I didn't.
The silly one is for Gandhi,
I'm not so going to get a ring of that car.
I haven't seen what he does over the line.
That's mine.
You go for it.
You go for it.
I caught it just on the end of the broadcast,
but I've seen it again on Twitter.
After he crosses the line, he does like three burnouts.
Just like, see you later, car.
Go for it, car!
The guy is like dragging that car in the line
with the steering wheel like this.
It's so good.
Just for no reason.
I'm surprised he didn't just park it in the forest
and then we just walk back.
Leave it there.
That's the lead.
I think Lance did that to me first.
So he was out.
And the other, I was going to say the other one,
and this was more for Sam, actually.
Did you see the shot of Lewis Hamilton walking slow,
so slowly down the pit late at the end of the race,
but perfectly with the banner of Kimmy Antonelli
as a winner above him.
So great.
Yeah, I was like, oh, I'm so sad.
I'm so sad.
That was my car.
I love that transition.
So it's so good.
Do you think Lance Stroll is your, like,
won't shave till I get points situation?
Because he's got a...
If there's anything like that, I'm mad United fan.
United strategy guy.
He's got like Gandalf the Grey.
Oh, Lord.
Yeah, honestly, he might be doing that.
One more for me.
I've just been reminding off.
This is sky-centric.
So I'm very sorry if you don't watch the Sky broadcast.
When Crofty was talking about how the last time
we had a race on World Cup final day,
and Mark Webber won at Silverstone,
and he started to walk pedestrian,
and then he was like,
well, yeah, actually be quite pregnant over time, mate.
It's like, Crofty, why are you doing this?
The worst Australian accent I've ever heard.
Stop it.
It also wasn't the first time he'd said that in the weekend.
He also said it, I think, in FP1,
and Karun Chandok was just like,
that's pretty tenuous even for you, mate.
What's that effect?
Just a quick final one with Ferrari.
Hamilton asking, did he have the frog wing adjustment?
And they were like, yeah, we didn't manage it.
Well, we have adjusted the frog wing.
There's a person in it.
You're carrying around the frog jack, man.
Oh dear.
OK, now let's hear from our Discord.
Thank you very much to all of you
that submitted your moments of the race.
It's very much appreciated.
Let's start with,
and I'm sure we've had this person before,
and I'm sure I've probably got it wrong last time,
it's either a random CAD or random CAD.
I'm going to go random CAD today.
Hello, late-breaking lot.
This is random CAD.
My moment of the race has got to be
Hamilton's radio message there at the end.
That just had me laughing about his front wing.
Yeah.
Do you want to adjust it, guys?
No.
Why?
You rang him over.
No, just we didn't manage.
We didn't rang him.
Right.
We started to try to manage when we set it to green.
Why did you forget how green?
You're full control.
Oh dear.
Let's go to Absolute Gem.
Hello, late-breakers.
I am at Absolute Gem,
and my moment of the race is realising
we're probably going to hear George Russell's tears
during a moment of the race again.
Also, Crofty getting confused between Fernando Alonso
and Lando Norris.
Now, I know they sound similar,
but one of them is in the midfield
and the other one's in Bruges.
Do better days.
I thought I misheard that.
I'm glad I've actually got clarity
that I did hear that correctly.
Yeah.
And then, I love that Brandy was like,
whatever, sort of got the correct thing.
Same thing, Alonso's overtaken Liam Lawson for seventh.
The lesser-spotted Bruges mention
on a late-breaking podcast as well.
Bigger Bruges.
Weirdly, planning to go to Bruges.
Bob.
Bigger Bruges.
We can visit Fernando.
They're still going round.
I'm sure.
Orlando Norris.
I'm not sure which is which anymore.
Thank you very much, Absolute Gem.
Absolute Gem, as I think you called yourself there.
Let's go to Butterbeef.
Hello.
Hope you're well.
Update.
I saw Pitbull a couple of weeks ago.
And ate a bowl of butter.
Anyway, moment of the race
was Oscar Piestri's move.
No, it's quality overtake that.
OK, bye.
I actually have a pet peeve about that overtake.
The length and breadth that Crofty went to
to try and sell it,
like it happened through Oroos,
really annoyed me.
I know what you mean.
Yeah.
It was done before Oroos started.
Yeah.
She ate a bowl of butter.
Obviously, at this point, I've decided to just move on.
I can't be good for you, mate.
That answers the question that I was going to have.
Why are you called Butterbeef now?
I'm regularly in the Discord.
I went away to have some food
when I was watching the Grand Prix.
I thought I'll come back to it.
Obviously, a bowl of butter.
I came back to it after finishing my lunch.
Everyone was just talking about butter.
It was very confused.
I also want to know whether the Pitbull concert
and the eating the butter were separate or combined.
I think it's part of the ticket you get.
Is it?
Wow.
Here's your ticket and here's your bowl of butter.
Now enjoy the concert.
Pitbull requested you in there once.
He's not coming out to you with that bowl of butter.
A bowl of butter.
A dollar pack.
It's just beef.
Oh, man.
Thank you very much, Butterbeef.
Let's go to Nitro Nick next.
Nitro Nick here.
Moment of the race for me is Lewis is on board
when he makes contact with George.
And all you see is his wheel turned directly into George.
Oh, spicy take.
The voice of an angel, by the way.
I absolutely love that Nitro Nick.
It was gravelly.
Now this has been manifested into existence.
Up next, George Russell's tears.
Oh, no.
Hey, guys.
It's me, the tears of George Russell.
And here we are again.
Moment of the races with Lewis.
Me, he had Lewis.
He took me out.
And everybody saw it, right?
He took me out purposely.
Now I got to worry about absolute gem.
Yeah, but whatever.
Whoa.
Whoa.
How are you guys going, Charlotte?
Getting meta here.
Oh, wild.
How do you guys know each other?
All part of the same discord.
Don't break the fourth wall, man.
Don't break the fourth wall.
Look, it doesn't help when we hear George Russell
was obviously frustrating about the scenario
and nothing's mentioned.
And then about a lap later, they go,
we confirmed George Russell is almost in tears
giving this interview.
You say, oh, come on.
You're not helping the guy.
Poor man.
Indeed.
Last up today, Bugatti, Bugatti, Bugatti.
Bugatti, Bugatti, Bugatti.
Let's go racing late breakers.
My moment of the race.
Absolutely saucy pass by Franco Colopinto
over in Lawson and Gasly at the same time
on the world's smallest split screen for some reason.
Why do they do that?
Figure it out.
That's a spot on shout from both yourself, Sam,
and Bugatti, Bugatti, Bugatti.
Well, I think that's going to do it
for this Belgian GP race review.
But it's not quite the end of content
from the Belgian GP weekend, Sam.
We've got power rankings up tomorrow.
Indeed.
Why can't I ever see power rankings?
Where is it?
Oh, it's because you're not part of the city.
Patreon city and to join the links in the description.
It does cost a small fee every month,
but that goes to really helping the show make it.
This amazing place that it genuinely is
helps us pick up equipment that makes the show better.
We could do things like go to Zanvo,
which we're doing next month,
which is incredibly exciting.
And thank you to all the support that comes from Patreon.
And if you want to support the show in the best way you can,
that's the way to go do it.
You unlock things like power rankings,
which will come out tomorrow
where we talk through every single driver ranking.
And you get a say as well.
The sheet is live, I believe, now already,
where you can get involved in the form,
do your rankings for the driver,
and you get involved there as well.
Join the Discord, of course,
if you want to hear your moment of the race played on the show,
which will be next Sunday for the Hungarian Grand Prix,
and there's lots of shit-shack going on there as well,
including YB8 Subbata.
Follow us for social media, late-breaking F1,
and we will see you, of course, midweek
for the preview of the Hungarian GP.
In the meantime, I've been Sam Sage.
I've been Ben Hocking.
And I've been Harry Eat.
And remember, keep breaking late.
About this episode
Antonelli’s Belgian GP win gets unpacked through Spa’s hybrid energy chess: battery depletion down Campbell Strait, deployment enabled by overtake zones, and how VSC timing shaped the order. The hosts praise Antonelli’s calm recovery under the VSC and call the key pass “done and dusted within one corner.” Ferrari’s competitiveness is partly chalked up to unusual VSC timing, while Hamilton’s penalty and stewards’ braking-zone logic spark debate. The discussion also ranges into tire-compound strategy, McLaren radio confusion, and broader F1 regulation gripes.
A day of highs and lows for Mercedes at Spa as Antonelli stormed back to the top step while Russell's race ended in the gravel. The LB boys run through all the action, from Ferrari's penalties to Hadjar's impressive recovery drive and points for Audi.
