A sprint race is a shorter race during an F1 weekend. It helps decide where cars start for the main race and gives teams a chance to gauge performance.
This part is about Leclerc winning the British Grand Prix. The hosts talk about how the race felt different once it got going.
Person
Bono
Bono is part of an F1 team that helps call strategy during the race. Here, the hosts are saying he and Antonelli are involved in lots of pit-stop back-and-forth.
Pit stops are when an F1 car pulls into the pits during the race. The team uses that time to change tires and make strategy decisions that can swing the race.
This refers to Kimi Antonelli, a Formula 1 driver linked with Mercedes. In the race story, he’s one of the cars Leclerc had to pass early to take the lead.
The grid is where cars line up before the race starts. If you’re “second on the grid,” you start in the second-best position, which can help you get ahead right at the beginning.
Silverstone is the well-known F1 track in the UK. The hosts are pointing out that the cars don’t have much distance to sort themselves out before Turn 1, so starts and early moves are crucial.
A sprint weekend is an F1 format where a shorter “sprint” race is held on Saturday, alongside qualifying and practice. It changes how teams set up the car and how drivers manage risk, because results can affect starting positions for the main race and there’s less time to correct setup mistakes.
In racing, “setup” means how the car is adjusted for that track. It can affect how the car grips and handles, and the host is saying sprint weekends leave less time to fix mistakes.
Term
Q1
Q1 is the first part of F1 qualifying. Drivers try to set a fast enough lap to make it to the next qualifying rounds.
Term
Q3
Q3 is the last part of F1 qualifying. The fastest drivers go out and set the laps that determine who starts at the front of the grid.
Term
Q2
Q2 is the second part of F1 qualifying. The cars that survive Q1 try again to be fast enough to reach the final qualifying session.
Tyre drop-off means the tires get worse as they wear out. When that happens, the car loses grip and you usually have to slow down or change tires sooner.
“Flat out” means the driver is pressing the accelerator all the way to go as fast as possible. In this context, it’s about holding top speed for a long stretch.
An overcut is a pit-stop timing move: you stay out longer than the car you’re trying to beat, then use the tires you get after pitting to run quicker laps and pass them on track.
Jumping the start means the car moves off too early, before the race start is officially allowed. F1 treats it as a rules violation and can add a penalty.
Suspension is what helps the tires stay planted and keeps the car stable over bumps. If it breaks or malfunctions, the car can feel unpredictable and hard to drive.
Term
inside wheel protector
A wheel protector is a small piece of bodywork around the wheel. The host is saying that this part ended up interfering with steering, so the driver couldn’t control the car properly.
A time penalty is a punishment that costs you race time. In F1, it can be added to your result or served during the race, so it drops you down the order.
Track extensions are when a driver goes onto extra space at the edge of the track. If it’s judged to help them gain an advantage, officials can penalize it.
An undercut is when a driver pits earlier than another car to get onto newer tires first. With better grip, they can set quick laps and come out ahead when the other car finally pits.
Tire life is how long the tires stay fast and grippy. As tires wear out, the car slows down and becomes harder to drive well—so teams time their pit stops around it.
Tire advantage means one car’s tires are in better shape than the other car’s. That usually lets the faster car brake later, corner harder, and pass more easily.
Term
wheel shield
A wheel shield is a cover/panel near the wheel that helps protect the car and can also affect airflow. If it comes off, it can mean the car is damaged and the driver may lose performance or face safety issues.
In racing, “reliability issues” means the car has mechanical problems. If that happens, the driver might not finish, or the car may not run at full speed—so it hurts race results.
A “podium” finish means finishing in the top three. The hosts are saying that top drivers often still end up on the podium even when things don’t go perfectly.
Max Verstappen is one of the leading drivers in Formula 1. In this race, he had an off-track moment at Stowe, which then affected how the rest of the race finished.
A one-lap shootout means the race ends with just one lap where drivers can fight for position. The host is disappointed because they didn’t get that last lap to race hard.
Race management in F1 refers to how officials run the race—decisions like when to deploy or withdraw the safety car and how to handle incidents. The host criticizes the communication and handling, implying those decisions affected the fairness and excitement of the finish.
A “systems error” means the computer/technical system sent the wrong information. Here, they’re saying it caused the safety car restart message to be incorrect.
They’re referencing a famous F1 race in Abu Dhabi where the way the safety car was handled led to major controversy. The point is that it made people wary about repeating similar mistakes.
Spa is a famous F1 track in Belgium. They’re using it as an example of how delays—especially from rain—can take so long that conditions change before the race even gets going.
A racing lap is a lap run under race conditions after a safety car period, where drivers can race rather than just follow at reduced speed. In F1, it’s often discussed in the context of whether the race will restart and how many laps remain.
Stowe is a well-known corner at Silverstone. Commentators mention it because it’s a key part of the lap where how you enter the corner affects your speed and position afterward.
“Medium tires” are one of the tire types teams can choose. They’re usually meant to last longer than the softest tires, even if they don’t grip quite as hard at the start.
A restart is when the race starts racing again after being slowed down or stopped. Teams plan around restarts because it changes who has fresh tires and who is in front.
A slow puncture is a tire failure where the tire loses pressure gradually rather than instantly going flat. In F1, that can make the car unstable and damage the tire further, so drivers often pit even if they’re mid-attack.
Lando Norris is a Formula 1 driver who often runs near the front and is a frequent contender for podiums. In this segment, he’s mentioned as part of the traffic Hamilton has to navigate while recovering after the pit stop.
“Go green” in F1 commentary usually refers to the race resuming under normal racing conditions after a safety-car or red-flag period. Strategy calls often depend on whether the race is expected to restart and how many laps remain.
“Straight line mode” refers to a specific vehicle setup or control strategy used when the car is traveling in a straight line, often related to traction, power delivery, or stability management. The hosts say Red Bull’s issue shows up in this mode, implying a recurring drivability problem.
Belgium is referenced as the next/near-future race location in the F1 calendar. The hosts connect the “straight line mode” issue to upcoming track demands, implying it may matter at Belgium’s circuit.
Qualifying is the session before the race that decides where each car starts on the grid. If you qualify poorly, it can be harder to fight for the front during the race.
In racing, “defending” means blocking the other driver from passing. In this case, Verstappen adjusts his speed so the driver behind can’t line up a good overtake into the next corner.
Person
Hajar
Hajar is a young Formula 1 driver the hosts are evaluating. They’re saying he’s improving, especially in qualifying/one-lap speed, but still has work to do over a full race.
One-lap pace means how fast the car is for just one quick lap. The hosts are saying Hajar looks good when it’s time to go all-out for a lap, but the speed doesn’t hold up as well for the whole race.
Race distance is how the car does over the whole race. A car can be fast for one lap, but tires, fuel load, and wear can make it harder to stay that fast for longer.
A “slow stop” means the pit stop took longer than it should have. In Formula 1, that can drop a driver behind others because you lose time and track position.
Race-ending damage means the car is hurt badly enough that it can’t keep racing. In this case, they’re saying the damage was serious even if it wasn’t described in technical detail.
Place
Silverton
Silverstone is the famous race track in the UK that hosts the British Grand Prix. The hosts are talking about where Norris fans showed up to support him.
McLaren is one of the famous F1 teams. Here they’re talking about how McLaren is doing right now—sometimes benefiting when other cars have problems, but not consistently challenging at the front.
The front wing is the big aerodynamic piece at the front of an F1 car. It helps the car stick to the track; if it breaks off, the car can become much harder and less safe to drive.
A Formula One car is the specialized race car used in F1. It’s built only for racing and uses technology like wings for downforce and very grippy tires to go fast around corners.
Term
picking up the pieces
“Picking up the pieces” means taking advantage of problems that happen to other cars. Instead of being fastest from the start, you move up because others run into trouble.
Red Bull is an F1 team that’s often near the front. The hosts are saying Red Bull has had standout races recently, while McLaren hasn’t been able to do that consistently.
Lawson is a Formula 1 driver mentioned in the race discussion. The hosts are talking about how well he’s been performing and how he affected the race around him.
Person
Limblood
Limbblood is another Formula 1 driver being discussed alongside Lawson. The hosts are wondering whether his position was affected by traffic or another car’s pace.
Audi is a car brand from Germany that competes in top-level racing. Here, they’re talking about how Audi cars did in the race and how their sound stands out compared with other teams.
Gabriel Bortoletto is a driver who finished P8 and scored points. The hosts praise how well he kept up and managed his race even when things weren’t perfect at the start.
Term
P8
P8 means the driver finished 8th place. In F1, finishing high enough can earn points toward the championship.
“Pecking order” here means which teams usually seem fastest. The hosts are saying they expected Audi to be lower than they ended up being because of how the race played out.
This is Franco Colapinto, an F1 driver. The hosts are describing a close early-lap battle that turned into a crash, with one of the cars going into the gravel.
Person
Ghazly
This is a driver involved in an early-lap crash. The host says Ghazly tried to make a move out of a corner and ended up hitting Colapinto, with one car going into the gravel.
Gravel is loose material in the run-off area. If a car hits it, it usually slows down a lot and can cause damage or end the race.
Person
Alex Alvin
The host is talking about Alex Albon (the transcript says “Alvin”). They’re describing a lap-one incident where he couldn’t get alongside Ollie Bearman and things went wrong.
This is Ollie Bearman, an F1 driver. The hosts say Bearman was able to keep his line during lap one, and Albon couldn’t make the move without causing trouble.
The formation lap is the lap right before the race where the cars get in position and warm up. If something goes wrong on that lap, it can put a driver behind before the actual start.
Alonso is a famous Formula 1 driver. Here, the hosts are saying he had a problem just before the race started and then got frustrated because the race went on without him.
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 Yead,
Sam Sage and me, Ben Hawking, reviewing of course today the British Grand Prix, a slightly
different review from us because we are fresh off of the track that we were at. We were
at Silverstone, I won't say fresh. I was sticky off the track. I was going with it,
all right? Don't tell me. Sorry, mate. Sorry. We are hot. We are sticky. The bus was like
inferno on wheels. It took forever to get back and now we're immediately doing a review.
I can't believe it doesn't seem right that this is the first time in our friendship and our
podcasting years that we have been to a British Grand Prix together. Yeah, it's quite bizarre,
but hey, we made it. We decided to go big for our first one together and went to Austin,
then did it for each other. Yes, and then finally went to the one that's down the road. Yeah.
Very happy to be bringing you this review today, of course. Before we start, a massive thank you
to everyone that we saw around the track. Thank you for coming up and saying hello and having
a chat with us. It's always an absolute pleasure and a privilege to talk to you when we can get
out to a track. The kind comments that you have about the show, why you listen, how you listen,
it's really great to hear. That feedback is massively appreciated by all of us. We just
love our egos being inflated. It is the most surreal thing in the world to actually meet
someone that listens to you regularly and they go, yeah, you make me laugh. I'm like, no, don't be
silly. That's not true. Favourite one from today and I've already found the name of the other,
the kind man that came up to us, but him and his son said that, well, he said that his son liked
the show from a few years ago because Sam said once the Perez was a poo. And then we got him hooked.
Your ring. The other thing I wanted to bring up is, and this will lead us, of course,
nicely into our lead topic today, is that we seem to be something of a good charm
for Ferrari and indeed, Charles Leclerc. Unless I'm wrong here, the last time before today that
Charles Leclerc won, we were there for him in Austin two years ago. We're here today to witness
Charles Leclerc beating George Russell into the win. Third place went to Leclerc's teammate,
of course, Lewis Hamilton. So, second on the grid to first in the race. Pretty impressive
stuff from a man who needed it. Leclerc, more than anyone, I think, in that top four or five,
needed a proper result. He was downing out against his teammate, fiving a row he had lost to Lewis
Hamilton the first time since Sebastian Vettel in 2019. That happened to him and it didn't look
good at the start of the weekend either. Spring qualifying went the way of Hamilton. The sprint
race come through the way of Hamilton and then he started to turn around. He's bangering the main
qualifying comfortably as well across all three sessions and then when the race gets underway,
it looks as though Hamilton can't really ever muster up a proper challenge to go against Charles
Leclerc and that's what he needs. He's stated so many times that he hasn't got the feel of the car,
he's uncomfortable, he's not sure what's going on, it's confusing. He bounces back and gets his
first ever British Grand Prix win. It felt like something was missing and maybe he found it today.
Yeah, I agree. You were saying this as we left the track earlier that at the start of that race,
when Leclerc started to pull away from Hamilton, they were like, oh, there's actually something
here. This isn't just a good start and then he falls back. And whilst there was a bit of
good luck along the way for Charles Leclerc, he had some great pace this afternoon.
He, we spoke about this a lot in the qualifying review, didn't get involved in any early scraps.
He went off and just led and that really did help him, but it wasn't quite the same way as
maybe it's like in Austria with Russell, but he led from the front for the whole race, basically.
The only time we did it was when Antonelli decided to stay out until the next decade.
But I will get on to Bono and Antonelli and their hate love of pit stops.
Back and forth going. There you are playing a battle for with his strategy.
No, I want a box. No, no.
Totos is like heads in hands. What are you doing, man?
Just win the race.
I love how we've already got a few minutes in and we've already got the first
Toto impression. It feels good to be getting in early.
I just want to hit praise on Charles Leclerc because heaven knows that don't have the
opportunity to do it often these days. As mentioned, he'd been searching for a win for
over 18 months at this point, nearly two years. And the way in which he dictated that Grand Prix
was really impressive. He needed a good start from second place on the grid, not only to get ahead
of Kimmy Antonelli, but also to hold off Lewis Hamilton, who also had a very good start. And
we know it's not a massively long run down to turn one at Silverstone, but he still made the
most of it, managed to get that lead. And as you've already referenced what I said, when we left
the track, it was the way in which he not only grabbed that lead, but then was able to extend
in a very calm and collected way that we haven't seen from from really Leclerc or indeed Ferrari
earlier on in the year as well. And I know the Ferrari is a much improved car than what we saw
certainly in the first six races or so. But we've seen Leclerc lead Grand Prix this year,
but it always felt like a, okay, when's it going to happen? When are they going to say he's going
to catch up? When is Leclerc going to lose this lead? It didn't feel like that, at least anywhere
near as much today. And he must have been very thankful for the Antonelli and Hamilton squabble
that was going on behind that would allow him to extend that advantage out a little bit. So,
credit to Charles Leclerc for finding something that he hasn't really been able to find all year
long. And then the other reason I want to heap praise on him is what you mentioned about this
being a sprint weekend. And so often we see, despite the fact that you can change your setup
between the sprint race on Saturday and then qualifying later in the day,
there isn't a lot of opportunity to get it right when you don't have it right to begin with.
And we saw throughout first practice and then throughout sprint qualifying and then throughout
the sprint, he had a deficit to Lewis Hamilton that we've seen routinely over the last five races or
so. And it is very difficult to recover that when you don't have additional practice time.
And yet we get to qualifying. He nails all three Q1, Q2 and Q3. We get to the race. He displays
race pace that he wasn't able to show in the sprint. So, two main reasons there, why Leclerc.
Who knows what would have happened with Antonelli and we'll discuss that in a moment. He deserves
respect nonetheless. How should we speak about Antonelli given he started on pole
at not the first time this season, not the best start?
Yeah. And he, I now think it's at that point, but he is too to blame for the poor starts.
You know, we've seen the Mercedes regularly get away comfortably as well as a Ferrari,
hold onto leads, overtake people off the start. Now, it's not like we're going through Australia
on repeat where we see Antonelli and Russell both drop five or six positions and have to make it up
throughout the Grand Prix. This was poor from Antonelli and it did make his life much, much
harder. It took him a bigger time to get past Hamilton. And as you were rightfully talking
about, it looked like the gap between him and Leclerc, sorry, was taking an age to come down.
He was chipping away at it. You know, really slowly, grafting away. I'll get there. I'll get
there. I'll get there. And then the pit strategy happens and Leclerc goes early. He goes onto the
the hard tyre. He stopped to do the kind of the longest thing later, you know, in the second
part of the race, whereas... Which is more conventional. Very normal, very normal. Antonelli
and Bongo, which we'll get onto properly in some detailing a minute, decided to do the complete
opposite and run the very opposite, very odd strategy it felt like with the way the tyres were
working. They ran well into the 30s, almost into the 40s of laps to swap onto again the hard tyre,
because the conversation was going on that he might go to the soft.
I just wanted to ask you on that. Do you think that Antonelli's strategy was kind of a bit
preplanned if that situation was to come about? Or was it a case of Hamilton and Verstappen,
we know, and others were sort of dueling further back, kind of maybe slowing each other down a
little bit, and therefore Antonelli could still sort of go back into that gap? Is that why that
situation unfolded? It's definitely a contender for a reason why. I'm sure that it plays a part
into their race strategy, in their race programme, that they will have similar things that simulate
it as long as I'm looking for. But equally, I think a safety car plays a lot into it. We'll
regularly see safety cars appear in Silverstone, so that makes a key element. Also, the tyre drop
off. We saw with several cars, even in the sprint race, that the tyres do drop off here,
and I was wondering if they were trying to give Antonelli a 10 to 12 lap offset, but with an
8 to 10 second gap, that he was then able to flat out for 18 to 20 laps, lap after lap after lap,
close that gap down. But he also knows he only has one car to overtake, he doesn't have one.
Exactly, because he did the job in the first skint, and that opening skint, once he negated
the poor start, really came good for him. It was able to kind of overcut the likes of Hamilton,
Russell, Verstappen, Norris. All who are having their own problems with their own, Russell's got the
slow puncture. Verstappen seemed when he can't find the pace that he had, and he sat there with his
teammate for a long time. Hamilton gets a five-second time penalty for jumping the start.
Someone is struggling elsewhere, Antonelli's there to take advantage of it. I do believe
that he would have won the Grand Prix, having finished it. I tend to agree with you on that.
I found like the Antonelli overtake on Lewis Hamilton was quite reminiscent of what happened
in the sprint race, in that it was sort of coming and coming, and then finally it happens.
Of course, it was on the same tyre that what we had in the sprint as well,
that medium compound, maybe a similar sort of stint length as well. It was looking like, of course,
Antonelli didn't exactly follow through with that. Then as soon as he'd got past Hamilton,
I thought then, okay, now the gap's really going to come down to Leclerc.
And it did, but you're right. It was slow progress at first. I think it was maybe
four and a half seconds or so by the time that he got by, and it kind of stabilised for a number
of laps. It wasn't until the very end of that stint when maybe Ferrari's slightly worse tyre
wear was starting to play into it, because that gap did come down to two seconds, 2.5 seconds.
And at that point, that's where Ferrari pulled the plug and decided, okay, let's get Leclerc
in for his pit stop. I thought it was a very interesting decision from Mercedes to let Antonelli
go as long as he did. I think it was a very brave call, but a very good call.
I think it was working. Yeah. It was risky. It was different. They were playing a very
interesting strategy. I do think it was the right strategy. I think it was going to work out for
them. We had about 10 laps from the end Antonelli starts to come under these problems at 10 to
8 laps. At that point, the gap had come down from about 10 seconds to about, I think it was about
four seconds. Folks will have to forgive the exact numbers. We were trying to get to them.
We were trying our best. There was a screen about 400 meters away that we're trying to see
these intervals. So apologies if we're slightly out, but the gap was coming down massively. We could
see that physically on the racetrack, but Leclerc had a couple of corners and then a few laps later,
Leclerc only has one corner and then a couple of laps later, they're on the same bigger straight
together and you can physically see that gap coming down. He was closing in and then the
luck swings the way of the likes of George Russell and Antonelli is once again struck with a reliability
problem. It looks as though initially it might have been a suspension issue and then it was the
inside wheel protector on the front left of his car, I believe, which meant that he was unable to
steer. We saw him go off multiple times, handing a five second time penalty, the amount of track
extensions even though, come on, let's face it, he's not gaining any time. He's trying. He's trying
to gain a damaged car, a wounded car around the racetrack and there's a real difference between
cutting the corner to gaining advantage and just keeping it alive. Do you see that Lance
Stroll picked up 21 track extensions today? I mean, he's got to try something, right?
He's got to go faster somehow. He's going to pick up a penalty is the reason why I bring that up,
because I think it was very aware from the FIA and the stewards that he wasn't gaining advantage.
He was just struggling to maintain the car. That was Antonelli. I'm surprised that a penalty was
a mingested, but it was and it just got much, much worse for him for the rest of the Grand Prix,
but the clerk takes advantage of this. He did the hard work at the start of the Grand Prix,
which meant that when Antonelli does have a problem, he's already done the hard yards.
He hasn't got to worry about fighting with a teammate, trying to scrap past someone else,
having to do an undercut again. He's clear. The gap ends up being about 21 seconds to Lewis
Hamilton at that point. It's plain sailing. People are going to get sick of me saying this,
but I'm going to keep saying it because I believe it to be true. It doesn't sound right,
because this gap at the top of the championship keeps coming down as a result.
25 points right now. Right. It keeps coming down. Yet, my confidence that Antonelli is
winning this championship goes up and up and up. Mathematically, that doesn't make any sense,
but just the way in which this race unfolded, I really believe he would have won this. I don't
think it would have been that close. Even if everything else took place in exactly the same
way, but Antonelli doesn't retire, so he overtakes the clerk, let's say. Let's say he overtakes the
clerk. The clerk is second Antonelli's first, but Stafford still crashes. We still have a safety
car. Everyone pits the same way. Russell still hangs up in P3, take a P2, and it's only a 10-point
gain rather than an 18-point loss for Antonelli. The way that he drove this Grand Prix, even with
Russell having the slow punch and having to make that pit stop, even before then, the pace difference
was stark. It was so clear that Antonelli had the upper hand on George Russell this weekend.
Yes. Was Antonelli winning that one?
Yeah, I think so. The pace he had towards the end of that race, and I'm not sure.
I don't know. We saw how early on it was tough for him to get past Hamilton,
but he still did, and that was on the same amount of tire life. He had such a tire advantage
approaching the back of Charlotte Clare that I think probably he was going to get that done
relatively easily. But you never know. It's, well, at least it used to be tricky to overtake an F1,
but still, it still can be tricky. You can't say for certain it was, but it was looking pretty good
before the wheel shield fell off. Not the wheel shield. The worst. I was
saying that I just think that even though that championship points gap is coming down,
Antonelli just keeps being really quick. He's getting a lot of the bad reliability at the moment,
and to be fair, it was kind of roles reversed earlier in the season. I don't know. To me,
at the moment, it feels like the number one reason why Antonelli won't win this title is
reliability. Yeah, it's going to start to become a bit of a worry. Obviously, you said Russell
had it too, but it's now 2-1 on reliability issues to cause either retirement or bad results.
It's going to play in the back of his mind for the remainder of the year, because we're at the
start of the year. Parts get older and more used as we go along, maybe not wheel shields, but
that's a bit of a rogue one. But even so, it's going to play in his mind. I think with Antonelli
at the moment, when there's a driver who was on top level super form, I'm thinking like Verstappen
in the 22, 23, 24 season, Hamilton in the late teens, there's just an inevitability about them.
Any race you've watched, you'd go, well, he's probably going to get him anyway,
isn't he? And that's what Antonelli feels like at the moment. I think you're right,
and that's a really good point. And the bit that always stands out to me about those two
examples about Hamilton, about Verstappen, is if they are having a bad day, they will end up being
second place, third place. The consistency is so key there for them that if a bad day is a bad day,
they're still on the podium. When Russell had his poor form or reliability problems or something
was going wrong with the car, Antonelli was winning the Grand Prix. That was his answer.
The other way round here is when Antonelli has struggled with it in Barcelona and now here
in Britain, Russell is nowhere to be seen. And I've got a little bit lucky with the way it's
happened because both times Antonelli has been in front of George Russell and this has happened,
boosting him up. That late safety car in Silverstone with his decision to stay out,
boosts him up to second place. It's been a little bit fortunate for him, but he's not
being in contention for a victory. And I think that tells you the difference in where they are
in overall pace in comparison to the team. Well, let's take a quick break. On the other side,
we'll get into how this race ended. A bit of a controversial safety car decision.
Welcome back, everyone. As we know, this race ended under safety car as a result of Max Verstappen
going off at Stowe. And then ultimately, despite the fact that we thought we were going to get
one racing lap, we didn't quite, meaning that Charles Leclerc was able to go across the line
at a relatively low speed with no danger of being overtaken in a one lap shootout at the end.
It was, I mean, we were at the track a little bit confused as to what was going on.
And then maybe we learned that, no, it was kind of just confusing for everyone.
This is an absolute disgrace of the end of a Grand Prix. This is so badly communicated,
so badly managed. And I don't really care what way you want to look at it, whether you want to
look at it in what they followed safety protocols. Great. But it was communicated so terribly that
it was a disgrace or they screwed up the protocols and therefore the race management was a disgrace.
Either way, the service to the fans and the sport was appalling. It took away what came up
in a really fascinating and fun end. If it was there for pure safety reasons, which it wasn't,
then genuinely, I feel like they need to make that ultra clear to those watching the fact that we
will understand a bit the racetrack a little confused because if you've got been to an F1 race
and a racetrack, communication can be a little tough to come by. You know, you're listening to a
tango, a commentary. It's a bit tough. The screen's quite far away. It's hard to know what's going
on specifically, which I get why it might be confusing for those people. But on the TV, if
you're also struggling to understand, you've got full commentary team, graphics, multi-cam that
you can choose from, and you still can't work out why this has happened. That's not good enough.
This has not been good enough from the skewers, from the management. And I believe it's because
they essentially had a lapped car problem that meant that they had to go round again.
But it's confusing and it's difficult to follow. And it means that we got a really,
really disappointing end to a Grand Prix. So really gutted. I'm really gutted that we didn't get to
have a one-lap shootout. I think it was really disappointing. What did you take on how it ended?
Slight sign there. And I'm in no way blaming this person for the potential confusion about
lapped cars. Carlos Sainz had lapped himself. Man wasn't a lap down. My man's second to lead.
That's how you win. I see what you're doing, Carlos. Carlos is a winner. They've given him
a penalty of one lap. Has there ever been a one-lap penalty? I think it might be a new one. Yeah,
you get a lap. Wow. I really respect that because it could have fooled me. Yeah, we didn't know.
Yeah. This is once again Formula One over complicating and mismanaging their own rulebook
or their own rulebook being far too over-complicated because by the left of the law, yeah, they did.
They actually did this right. And as Total Wolf has already said, we should do that in 2021.
Let's get into that though. No. But, yeah, so, theoretically, they actually did follow this
right. The safety car ending message, it turns out, that was an error, like a systems error.
But why is that not a manual thing anyway? It's a pretty bad error. It feels like that should be
a human being crossing the button. But the reason being that they don't just let the
lap cars through and they're supposed to have one lap before then you go racing.
Fine. But you've let the lap cars through. Like manual override this. You can get going.
Two words. Common sense. Yeah. And they're just this none. It's just like,
but I think they're a bit scarred from things like Abu Dhabi to not to keep going back to that.
But things like that, they're like, now we've got to do it by the book. Otherwise,
we're going to be massacred. But Abu Dhabi wasn't, I mean, it was because he didn't do it by the
book. But again, more common wrong, but common sense again, but there was no common sense there.
So it's they've shot themselves in the foot by their own complicated rules.
And it was, it was a real anticlimax of a race. And what was, you know, it wasn't a classic,
but there was some good bits and it was really building up towards the end.
And that last lap shootout, it may well have just stayed the same result anyway,
but at least we would have got to see it. It's just a shame. The fans, we were in the stands,
obviously. A lot of people weren't happy. Apparently you can hear the booze on the broadcast.
Oh, interesting. How should it have been played? Like, how, how would that have been played out
differently? Mr. Harry Yied was in charge and not going round on a Lego car like the actual
person in charges. We'll get on to that. The whole, the whole, again, the whole thing's so
slow. They're the great marshals at Silverstone because we could see the Stappens car being
taken off. It wasn't in the barrage just in the gravel. So they just picked it up.
God, and I think, so the incident was lap 48. I think by the end of lap 49, going to 50, the
Stappen was cleared out. We've got three laps in total, 50, 50, 152. Fine. At that point,
go, lapped cars can go. If everything's safe, but it was, we could see with our own eyes,
it was safe. So you get the lap cars done then and you've still got at least two laps to sort
everything out. It's just things are so slow. And I remember it was a couple of years ago with
Spa, was it last year in Spa? We had that rain delay at the start of the race.
Oh, yes, we did.
It took forever to get the race going so long that it basically dried out before the race
started. It's all of this same stuff. It just takes everything so by the book and slow. It needs
common sense, might say.
I don't think there was any reason why we couldn't get one racing lap in at the end.
Even if you say that two was ambitious, one should have been in place.
And yeah, it's just confusing how we're in this spot again, talking about
rule makers not being agile enough when it comes to making these decisions. I don't know about you,
but when Verstappen went off, and we'll talk about the Verstappen side of that in a moment,
when he went off, I don't think anyone thought, that's the race over.
We all turn to each other. We say, I reckon there's a couple laps in it.
I didn't think at that point we're not going to get going again. He wasn't in the barrier.
He'd gone off, obviously, quite deep into the gravel. We haven't gone into the barrier.
I thought, okay, it's going to be a full-course safety car. It's not going to be a VSC in this
instance, as was the case earlier on with Nico Holkenberg. But even though it will be a full-course
safety car, I don't think there was really much doubt in my mind there was going to be a racing
lap at least. Hang on that. I want to applaud the stewards, because they got that car cleaned up
and moved out so quickly. They got that digger out there, it picked it up quick, and we could see
it. If we turn to a right from Vale, we could see up the hill to Stowe, and we could see the car
being taken behind the barrier. And it was definitely a couple of laps. They definitely
could have let the lap cars through a lap earlier than they did, and they definitely
could have just had common sense and let the lap cars go half a lap in front and just get on with
it. Because if we're being really honest, they're lap cars, they're not fighting for points. I don't
care if they're half a lap or if they've caught up at the back, or if there are any four corners
in front. I've not bothered. Just focus on the points scorers at that point. It's a real shame.
Maybe a team that didn't think or at least thought there was a chance we wouldn't get underway was
Mercedes, decided to leave George Russell out there on some rather old-worn medium tires,
potentially frets from those behind who would have been on new softs who did decide to take
the pit stop. Ultimately, it worked out very well for Mercedes. Do you understand why they went with
the cool? Yeah, I'm totally worth a gamble for Mercedes, because what were they going to lose
there realistically if the race did restart? He falls back down. In his one or two laps,
he falls back to where he was anyway. He might maybe does go one further. But I think at that
point, it was worth the risk given the amount of time he had left in the race. It worked out
perfectly for him. I applaud it for Mercedes on that one. Yeah, and it very much helps George
Russell when it comes to the championship. What did you make of Russell's race as a whole, but
then also the way in which Mercedes handled that? Yeah, Russell's pace, not amazing. Not bad,
but amazing. He is again caught up in the melee of the fight behind the leading battle,
that 4th through to 7th brigade, rather than realistically the 1st through to 3rd brigade,
which he would want to be much closer to. He manages to scamper free a little bit. He's
trying to chase down Lewis Hamilton, and then he gets that message, of course, slow puncture.
It's funny at that moment, he ends up going faster, right? He ends up pushing the car.
Yeah, he was looking pretty threatening. He was, and you think, oh, he's just started to get into
the Grand Prix, really was, he was at his best moment, the moment the slow puncture was called.
Now, I understand that when you've got a slow puncture, even though he's decided to attack
that lap, you have to come in because you don't know if a stone, a bigger curb will tear that tire,
and then you'll have to do the whole lap almost at walking speed, and everything just goes down
the toilet. It becomes a waste of time for you. So, pulls off into the pits. He's playing a recovery
game. Now, at that point, he's stuck behind the likes of Verstappen, who he's fighting with.
He's got Norris in the picture as well. It's Hajar is obviously there and thereabouts.
It's tricky for him to start working his way back through, but it looks all right. It
I do think that things in the championship, kind of the blocks of those pieces have started to fall
his way a little bit, and I think he does get quite lucky that one, Antonelli goes out, and then two,
if they have sat there in their strategy garage, he must say, as I said, we're not going to go green
again. And they've told George and not come in for that intentional reason. Blinder. Absolute
blinder. If they've done it on a whim and hoped fair enough because you prayed to the right racing
gods today. Somewhere in the middle, maybe. Most likely. Yeah. What about Max Verstappen
chasing down Lewis Hamilton, trying to get a podium out of this race, pushing a little bit too hard,
maybe going into the gravel. He's had a couple of incidents. We know that he seems to have,
or that Red Bull seems to have an issue when it comes to straight line mode, which then I
feel is quite important, to be honest. Yeah. It's a weird one. Again, I think they're suggesting
it's the same issue. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's the same end result, but a different problem.
Oh, that's even better. They came up with a solution for the Austria one, which Max commented
on. He said it's fine. Then this has happened, but the result of it is the same issue.
Unfortunately, you don't need straight line mode at Belgium that we're going to.
Famously not. Yeah. Yeah. For Max, it was, I think, a frustrating race. He wasn't happy
after qualifying yesterday. Why don't you start from the pits because I thought that would be
better than the way I qualified. He just wanted someone to do, didn't he? They didn't do that,
obviously. I thought he was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Some good moments during the GP.
I think it was that mid was, I know he stopped early, but I thought it was maybe he was actually
going to stop anyway. I don't think he was going to catch Hamilton at the end. He wasn't catching
him at enough of a rate. He was going though. Oh, he was going. I agree. I don't think he would
have got there. I don't think he would have got there. But also, I don't think the car was faster
than the Ferrari anyway. So it was giving it a proper effort. Well, the fact that he's doing it
like that was even the possibility. Yeah. It's ridiculous. So yeah, don't blame it for the
crash. Max Verstappen doesn't tend to do that. Not two weekends in a row. It's not his fault.
It's a car issue. And I also want to shout out the group of Verstappen fans sat in front of us
that took it like absolute chance as well. Man, they were lovely. They took it very well. They
were really lovely. They just turned and said, well, he's going into the Lando stand now. Yeah,
he's got a t-shirt. I have a good time. And they were surrounded by Hamilton fans and Norris fans,
and they kind of struck it off and moved on. Fair play to you guys because it can be a tough one.
I wanted to give Verstappen some credit as well, because he overturned the qualifying
loss that he had to had very early on in this race and then kind of went about his business after
that. Being able to see it up close. And we've seen this in Austin as well when it comes to Verstappen.
And I know sometimes the way in which he goes racing, particularly defensively, can be flirting
with the borderline of what is acceptable. My man knows the rulebook. His car placement is
exceptional. We saw that today with some of the defensive work, again, because he stopped quite
early. He was having to defend. Yeah, Russell Hamilton behind him, right? Yeah. And the way in
which, and again, folks that I don't remember, we were at Vale, and as soon as they come out of
Stowe, the obvious thing that drivers will do, and we saw this from many others, is if you are
defending, just go as fast as you possibly can, make them go around the outside and let's see
what happens. Max Verstappen knows when to slow down. He was being absolutely perfect about
intentionally going slightly slower through those last couple of corners to ensure that whoever was
behind him didn't then have the run to then potentially have a move into turn one. He is
excellent at that. It's great to watch it in person. You do see a certain dynamic you don't get on
the telly when you're watching that full set of corners from the same angle, because obviously the
TV crew might cut to a different replay, different camera, different perspective might be on board.
Be able to watch two drivers, two world-class drivers in Hamilton, Verstappen and Russell,
of course, go through this series of corners, cops all the way through to the start, finish
straight of Silverstone. It is wonderful watching him defend from these guys. He was brilliant.
On the other side of the garage, Hajar, he seems to be making some real ground in terms of that
one lap pace, but maybe across a race distance, it's not quite there yet.
It's not there quite for Hajar in the race, is it? But been mightily impressive over one lap this
weekend and had the measure of Verstappen for most of it. Verstappen then turns up in the race,
but that's experience over his very young teammate. Even though it wasn't the greatest
race for Hajar, I think he can go in from this weekend. I'm pretty happy with his performance,
yeah, and it's easy to forget as well. Not only is Hajar only six months or whatever
into his red bull stint, he's only in his second year in the sport, and it's not as if he entered
F1 as one of the older rookies. I know I've made this point before. We often talk about how young
Anton Eli is, and of course, Anton Eli and Hajar came up very similar times. It means that we forget
just how young Hajar is as well, not quite as young, but equally what he's doing his age. It's
still very impressive, and sure, it's not there with Max Verstappen on a race day yet.
Pretty lofty expectations at this point, so a pretty solid grand prix I thought was suffered
from another slow stop, I believe as well. But yeah, pretty solid I thought throughout.
Well, shall we, before we go to our next break, just review our bold predictions.
Now, Harry, you weren't able to be on the preview episode for this one. What would
your bold prediction have been? Well, we discussed this in the stands for the race today. I was
going to go for, I did go for, but you didn't hear it, I was going to go for that Verstappen
and Hamilton were going to repeat 2021. Which was spicy. We'd have a little collision,
one of them would come off. You were there waiting. It's getting there. Verstappen just fell off
both sides. He went off. Are you going to claim that with Hamilton? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the mental
power of Lewis Hamilton. Had him off from seven seconds in front. What was your bold prediction,
Sam? That in either spring or main grand prix, two people fighting for the league of the race
will end up colliding, and one of those would have race ending damage. And again, you were
probably hoping that Antonelli catching Leclerc. I did think that was going to be the moment.
And of course, technically he did essentially have race ending damage, but I'm assuming
Leclerc did it from about four seconds in front. Yeah. My bold prediction didn't start
particularly well and then just got progressively worse. What was it? So I said that both Mercedes,
I was expecting Mercedes dominance, both Mercedes would be everyone else by at least 10 seconds.
Now, firstly, Russell didn't really hold up his end of the bargain. Antonelli, I feel like
based on his pole position, if he'd got clear at the start, I think he could have done it,
but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. And then he goes in as car problems and it's a very, very
wrong bold prediction. It's also really funny that Leclerc was 21 seconds clear at one point.
Yeah. Wrong team, wrong driver. My life in it really. Yeah. Well, let's go to our next break
with that then, shall we? That's great. So being existential break. Yes. On the other side,
we've still got driver of the day, worst driver of the day to go through as well as some other teams
including McLaren. Let's go to McLaren next. Firstly, again, we can give a bit of an on the
ground report on this. A lot of Lando Norris fans, a lot of McLaren fans. There's a few of them,
weren't there? Yeah. Yeah. The Lando stand was mightily impressive. The Lando stand, though.
Yeah. A lot of support for Lando Norris at Silverton this weekend. And look,
Lewis Hamilton still the number one. Obviously, George Russell was there.
The reaction that Lewis gets when he comes onto that. Yeah, he's still the number,
the Lando Norris. Lando got a lot of love. Popular boy. And like saying McLaren as a whole,
but stinky. Yeah. I kind of felt like Norris made the most of it. Yeah. I think he again,
fortunate, but was there. He didn't really, couldn't really do much else. I didn't think
this race and then was picked up the pieces when things fell apart for those in front of him. So
can't fault him for that. Have we worked that way? Piastri's front wing fell off? No. No.
Have you heard Norris's comments about the car? Stinky? It's not good. Yeah. Stinky and not good.
Rolling to this. He has said it's the hardest Formula One car he's ever had to drive.
Wow. Okay. That's a lie. I think he's probably decided to speak with his heart there and not
take a moment. That's, it gives you an idea of what he's going through. He scored like 50 points
in his sole first season, didn't he? Which is fine as a rookie year, by the way, but also
competitive wise, it was quite a way off. Regardless, the car is not easy to drive,
clearly. And yeah, I'd like to know what happened to Piastri. If you know folks,
because you might know more than us on this one, tag us in a little replay or something,
it'd be good to see. I like how with Piastri, the only coverage like we really had of him
the whole race, because he was so far behind was what lap is he going to overtake the Aston Martins?
And it just like that gap reduced at such a rate to the point where he was kind of
directly behind both of them going into going into Val and we were like, ah,
the next time he comes around, he'll probably be ahead of not one of them, probably both of them.
And he was. Yeah, we keep using the phrase picking up the pieces when it comes
to McLaren, but it is a scarily accurate representation of where that team is at right
now. They just don't seemingly have the pace to be able to contend with definitely Mercedes,
but Ferrari when they have a good day like here or in Barcelona or Red Bull when they have a very
good day, Austria last time out. We haven't really seen that from McLaren in quite a while.
The closest we got was actually earlier in the year when Norris won the sprint race in Miami.
Piastri was second in Japan, but I was a while ago at this point and it feels like maybe where
Ferrari and Red Bull have made a few steps. McLaren, they haven't fallen back, but they're
just a bit stayed still. Yeah, it's just not like they had some upgrades that
propelled them towards the front. Miami being the biggest one and everything since hasn't,
I don't think it's been work like it's not been the worst years ever. Not everyone else.
Ferrari Mercedes have just made bigger jumps or were there upgrades and McLaren have, yeah,
stayed still. I think that's pretty fair summary. I guess with Norris yesterday in the sprint,
he took advantage of what was a brilliant start to get up to third and then was able to hold it
partly due to some impressive work from him, partly due to a few cars fighting behind.
I guess today was almost that, except the fighting wasn't really there behind him.
I've got to give Norris a lot of praise for this weekend. I do think he's driving a tricky car.
It is slower, I think, well, at the last two tracks than Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. He's
been better than his teammate at Geng here. I know something has happened to Piastri, but
throughout the weekend anyway, he was better, I think, and he's managed to walk away with a podium
in the spring race and a fourth place in the main Grand Prix. Now, I know that's a little bit
results have gone his way. Again, with Antonelli, Amber Stappen, of course, but sometimes that
happens and he was the next car to pick up the pieces that easily could have been
Hadjar sitting there. That could have been Piastri sitting there. It could have been
Liam Lawson sitting there for all we know. It's not. It's Landon and Norris again.
McLaren, as a unit, as a car as a team, they need to do the hard graft.
The drivers are ready to take it forward when the car is ready to do so.
Yeah, and even with the slow stop for Hadjar, Norris had to work to get that position.
He succeeded very well there. Slightly further back, the racing bulls as is common place now,
double points finish. Lawson and Limblad basically stuck together on track.
I don't think this was a new race for them. I think this was the same race that they've
done the last two Grand Prix. They just copied and pasted it and no one recognized.
Solid as heck. That is a good little car for the racing bulls in the moment,
and they've got two good peddlers behind the wheel. So, yeah, they continue like this.
They're going to be laughing in the constructors, which I didn't see coming, to be honest.
Whilst Alpine have scored today, it's only 9th and 10th, which is, of course, only good for
three points, whereas racing bulls have taken home quite a lot more than that.
One point in it now.
One point, is it? Yeah. 59 for racing bulls, 60 for Alpine.
The way the form book's going, at least, might not stay that way for much longer.
There was a conversation about the fact that Alpine were not going to score again at Silverstone.
Obviously, the fact they had two retirements in front of them allows them to base
the drop into the points very kindly. So, yeah, they are really strong.
And Lawson is on such a brilliant vanguard form when it's great to see him succeed.
Equally, so impressed that Limblood has been there pretty much every race right by him as well.
Lawson's been very impressive recently.
Was he holding up Limblood today, as other Limblood did suggest?
They were very close. Over the radio, we did hear a bit of a polite,
can you get a move on, please?
But, at the end of the day, I don't know if it would have changed the result for them.
I think they would have just finished him the same place as the other way around anyway.
They're just like, yeah, do what you want. Yeah.
I just finished like that.
Every time they were bothered was when Hajja had to come back through off his slow pit stop.
That's pretty much the only time that they were disturbed.
I think Limblood just needs to be in a position where he's actually ahead
of Lawson after these lap one situations, whereas it seems to be commonplace that he ends up just
behind him. He's able to keep with him, but we also saw an Austria when the reverse was true,
when we discussed this incident, of course, earlier in the week.
But Lawson had to try and stay with Limblood, and he could do that.
It feels like they're so evenly matched, which is a weird one in that it's positive for both of
them. Lawson seems to have improved a great deal recently, and Limblood is still not even 10 races
into his career. Give Gennies a rookie. Yeah.
The biggest caught, but you can pay a rookie. Did you forget they're a rookie?
Yeah. Very impressive. Audi score points.
Not with both of them, but Audi score points.
Yeah. Nick Holkeberg, unfortunately, retiring by the side of the track,
but Gabriel Bortoletto was just behind the two racing balls. Good enough for P8.
P8. And I think the thing we all noted individually and turned to each other and said,
that Audi sounds so unique. I don't understand. It's a spaceship.
It's such a different sound and car to all the others. I actually love it, but it's awesome.
It's so loud in comparison to the others as well. I was surprised that this is where
they picked up points. Now, I know, again, they benefited from mistakes in front,
but I did think that of all the tracks, they'd actually be further down the pecking order
anyway. So the fact that Bortoletto and Holkeberg, who was running well,
but Bortoletto specifically has got that far into the points. Brilliant race for him.
It was. And it was a similar situation to Austria in that Bortoletto, because Audi
don't have these great starts or more accurately, Ocon has these great starts and can't do anything
else at the moment. Bortoletto had to make that move on Ocon quite early on and then try and
catch up to and keep pace with the racing balls, which I think was a moderate success.
Whenever we saw that the racing balls come by, Bortoletto wasn't challenging either of them,
but he was there. They're thereabouts. This has kind of been the thing for Audi. They're not
quite with racing balls, but they're thereabouts. And then they just haven't had the, I guess,
luck with retirements in front today. They did, or at least with Bortoletto, they did. So it's
paid off for them. And I think Holkenberg was getting back into that fight. He was quite far
down after the first really bad start. I've seen a clip. He also had to avoid
Ghazly and Colopinto having a ding-dong and that one. What are they doing?
Ghazly shot at the exit of, what's the long right hander, forward cut,
Brooklyn's, whatever that is, Lafield. Yes. Ghazly runs in Colopinto into the gravel.
Good.
Thanks. That goes that way. And Holkenberg was like, oh, and has to avoid as well.
Excellent. Great stuff.
He did qualify in front of one of those. So maybe just having a normal start.
He won't have to deal with it anyway. No, not possible.
No, can't do that, mate. Good.
No, not in my, not in my facilities, big man.
Can we talk about Alex Alvin versus Ollie Bairman?
It was on.
Quote, quote, Alex Alvin.
Lap one incident. Alex, mate.
He can't go to the side of Ollie Bairman.
What are you doing?
Yeah, Bairman still beats Ocon.
Not Albon's finest hour, that one.
No. Still, he wasn't the Williams that didn't realise they weren't a lap down and just got
a one lap penalty.
You may have to lap yourself.
Okay, cool.
I don't need to be asked twice.
Yeah, this was a bit sloppy, wasn't it?
This wasn't his finest work.
No.
He's defending here.
He's just not left the room on the outside.
Bairman looking like he's got all my to run around the outside of him.
It looks like he's really on and that one is on, Alex.
He just tags in.
Very quite similar, actually, almost in reverse to the Perez Alonso from The Spring.
Yeah, fairly similar, I'd say, yeah.
And can we also talk about Cadillac?
Because we didn't really see much of them in Austria.
I think it was a grand total between the two drivers of seven laps, maybe.
But we saw a great deal of them today.
Firstly, good to see no reliability issues, but also...
Pretty good pace.
Keeping pace.
That's pretty good pace.
Perez beat Anto and Ali today.
That's a very good point.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, but I know there were a few that had incidents and were sort of fighting back
through like Bairman, for example, but...
They were sticking.
They were sticking with them.
They weren't like...
They were in all parts of the racing track.
They were not like the Aston Martins being overtaken and left.
We'll go...
I mean, Piaz, you're going back through the pack and one lap,
he was behind both of them when he came past us and you were like,
don't think that's going to be the same when they come past the next lap.
It wasn't.
He got back both in one lap.
The on-board of those cars, it's like they're dancing on ice, quite literally.
Trying this.
Dun, dun, dun.
One of them has called Torval, one of them is called Dean.
And they are all over the shop.
Harry Hill is back again.
So, you know, Alonso had the issue at the formation lap and he went to the pits.
He was then really annoyed on the radio about how quickly they started the race,
like without him.
Wait, guys, wait for me.
Wait.
It's all right, because he's actually won something out, of course.
Well, come on to that.
This is going to be a real test for me now.
Because I need to play the driver of the day button.
Upside down.
But it's upside down and definitely not already where it needs to be.
The soundboard is in Australia.
Bang is in the UK.
What was a lot of lights going on there?
Look at the light show.
That definitely played.
This is where it's completely the wrong jingle.
F1.
Back out.
Or it's just like one of your submissions for like a bold prediction for two years ago.
Hello, everyone.
Harry here.
Who was your driver of the day, Sam?
Who was my driver of the day?
That's a great question.
And thanks.
You haven't asked it before.
No, that's a new one.
I think after the disaster class of Austria,
I think we're going to flip your baby in reverse.
Yeah, go on.
Charles Leclerc.
Go on.
Come on, Charlie.
I'm going to do the same.
I'm happy to do it.
Very happy.
Worst driver of the day, Austria.
But I would have gone for it if even if Antonelli got him at the end towards the end of the
round.
I think I still have gone Leclerc.
Yeah.
I think he was superb today.
I had Leclerc in the mix.
I've got Antonelli in the mix.
I know Norris as well.
I don't think he could have done much more.
Liam Lawson, very good again in the midfield.
I'm going to go with Antonelli.
I think he would have got him.
I can't after that start.
That's fair.
I'll be honest.
When it comes to our power rankings, there isn't going to be a 10 out of 10.
But I think I'm just about going to go Antonelli on this one.
Okay, fascinating.
What about worst driver of the day?
Get in the bin, bin.
Worst driver of the day.
Get in the bin, bin.
Worst driver of the day.
You suck at driving.
You suck at driving.
There it is.
Sports fans.
Who did suck at driving?
There's a few contenders here.
And we have just spoken about him.
But I think Alex had one.
Yeah, sorry, Alex.
That was quite pants.
Yeah.
You drive into the side of someone and then you are really slow.
Wasn't even trying an overtake.
I think after the incident, it was just, they were using it as a test session.
I think they've come out and said that.
Yeah, the fact that they had to do that in the first place
was down to the incident, which wasn't great.
I am going to shout out the closed teammate though.
Oh, really?
Oh, wow.
I thought it was a not great day for Lewis Hamilton.
Tyler Ware was off the charts for him in comparison to his teammate.
He jumped the start and he put his hand up and said he did.
That's not ideal.
He then loses pace very quickly to the club.
It gets beaten by Anthony Fast.
Nice little move on max though.
It was.
I won't say it.
Yeah.
That's why I haven't given him worse driver's day
because I do think there were some positives there.
You know, I just don't think it was a good day for Hamilton.
What about big brain strap?
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,
where your teammate pass you?
What?
He crashed out.
He's not even in the race.
Man, you forget how much longer that one is.
That one is long.
It's a long time.
It's a great one.
He's listening to.
Lobo sense.
Big brain strap.
Box.
Box.
Go again.
Go again.
Box.
Box is out.
I'm going to stay out.
I'm going to stay out.
Okay.
Okay.
Stay out.
One more.
One more.
Box is out.
Box is out.
Stay out again.
Stay out.
Yeah.
It's going on and on and on.
Because what are you doing?
Pick a lap.
Come on.
I can't disagree.
That's mine too.
Just superb.
The contrast versus when he was extending his first in
and Kimmy's like, I want to come in.
And Bonner's like, one more.
Do another one.
Just go again.
Do another one.
And the difference between that and the moment of
VSC comes out, that red ball is straight down the pit lane.
Yeah, that was good stuff.
Immediately down the pit lane.
It's so decisive.
And Mercedes again, just one of the facts,
it did turn out to be a good strategy.
They're so wishy-washy with it.
It's like a wet flannel.
Make a choice.
It was the same thing when then he had the issue and
Bonner was like, okay, retire.
He's like, no.
And then he's like, this is, but then he keeps coming back
and be like, this is so terrible.
He's like, okay, we'll retire then.
No.
I can go and do it.
We made that comparison of like, okay, come down for Dinger.
No.
Okay.
Can you come down for your Dinger?
No.
My Dinger's cold.
I told you, come down for your Dinger.
I told you, man.
Contender for me is Haas managing to stop
Esteban Ocon under a VSC and somehow
Berman who didn't still be, I don't get it.
I don't understand.
So Ocon got the better strategy.
That Berman was backwards.
Am I missing something?
Slow con.
I also don't exactly at this point know why Alpine decided to
pit Franco Collopinto first because Ghazly was beating Collopinto
and then Collopinto gets an undercut on him.
Yeah.
Which punishment for Ghazly for running off the road at the first lap.
You know what?
I wouldn't actually surprise me.
Flavio's like, no, no.
Yeah.
You don't do that.
You'll get your telling off and that's how it works.
Still better for Collopinto given this time last year,
they were just like, yeah, don't bother starting the race.
I'm actually going to go with Russell Mercedes decided not to stop.
That's a great shout.
Yeah.
That's a great shout.
Let's take our final break on the other side.
We're doing moment of the race.
Welcome back, everyone.
Moment of the race time.
What have you got, Harry?
Fernando Alonso winning the kart race.
That's like it has to happen.
Honestly, one of the funniest things I've ever seen is him casting that final
car.
No, he's hitting other drivers brakes as he's next to them to slow them down.
Nothing was going to stop that man winning that race.
I don't like to repeat ones, but I cannot give it to anything else.
There are four drivers in contention for the win of this LEGO race as they come through
towards the last couple of corners.
And Alonso is fourth of those four, I think.
And of course, this is a driver's parade.
The idea is that you're having a bit of fun, but you're also going offline to be able to
wave everyone.
And of course, the other three in front of him are all going off to the left of Club Corner
to make sure that they're waving to everyone.
And then you just get Alonso deciding, if I take this grass line here, I can win.
This guy is in his mid-40s.
I love it.
The picture of him leaning his head over the front of the car to make sure he's definitely
in front is iconic.
Officially, Max Verstappen is the only world champion on the grid to not win anything so
far this season.
So step up, Max.
I've got a bone to pick about this LEGO race.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And I know when you present something like Formula One, it's probably good to keep the
brand on side and to make sure that they're happy and whatnot.
I am sick to death of Ben Sillier being involved.
Sticking his beaking and being involved.
Why is he in like an evil...
Steve Sunday was in his car, actually.
Was he?
Well, I did not notice him.
I think I might have broken down before we got to her.
Good.
Wow.
Saved grace.
Why are they involved?
The thing is, I can't remember which of you have said this to.
It's like when LEGO, whoever pitches the idea, the initial conversations, no one at LEGO is
going, can we please make sure that Mohammed Ben Sillier is there?
It's what they wanted.
Yeah, they...
He wasn't really in a LEGO car.
He was just in a car.
No, just like going from a weird blue and white car.
So it was like some evil unlock car in a game.
It was like, I want a birthday party, but I haven't got any friends.
So pay them to come to my birthday.
And they don't really want to celebrate with you.
No.
Was that your moment of the race?
No.
It was my worst moment of the race.
Oh, what was your moment of the race?
I don't really thought about it.
I was serious.
Sounds like a real problem.
My moment of the race was after the racing ended.
Great stuff.
Watching this man try and carry the overtake zone,
sighing away from the racetrack.
Right.
So between us, we've picked all moments of the race and none of them in the race.
Good work.
Hamilton overtake, I thought, was very good.
Yeah, it was very good.
If we're going to get in the race.
Yeah, dreamed.
Well done, Lewis Hamilton.
Segment redeemed.
Right, here we go.
Well, no, I can tell you we've got first Ben.
It's Carlos, not Sines.
Hello, late breaking team.
I'm at the circuit and the moment of the race is
André Alonso winning the LEGO race today.
It's probably his last winning of one.
Carlos, not Sines here and looking forward to meeting you guys today.
He manifested it to be fair, right?
He did.
Yeah.
He was lovely.
He was, yes.
And sadly, that probably was Fernando Alonso's last go with.
You got everything right in that entire sentence.
He won.
It might be his last thing and you met us.
Great day for you.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
Next up is Chalocomo.
Trackside and the Lando stand.
My moment of the race was the TV direction
because they put me on the TV yesterday and today.
This is Chloe from California reporting from the Lando stand.
That ending was stupid.
Stupid.
That ending was.
Check and firm.
Stupid.
I know we've spoken about the Lando stand and the rest,
but the sight of it was something to behold.
My man knows how to brand.
Yes.
He has branded.
The color is sensational.
It stood out brilliantly.
Also, because everyone's in the same top, they're just everywhere.
They're everywhere.
Yeah.
So, Chalocomo, sensational because it stood out, actually.
And your way of saying.
Chalocomo.
I think you have a problem with that.
Chalocomo.
Chalocomo.
Also, your way of saying stupid is going with a new verbal tick for me.
Hazard is next.
Oh, excellent.
England going to go.
All right, boys.
My moment of the race was ending the race
for the safety car because that's what we love to see.
Well, good.
Really, really good.
Proper loved it.
Excellent.
Cheers, boys.
Not a hint of sarcasm.
I have a theory.
Not a hint of sarcasm.
Pretty good.
I absolutely loved it.
I have a theory.
Go on then.
He didn't mean that.
Hazard, not genuine.
I reckon he didn't like that.
Well, good.
Pretty good.
Pretty loved that.
That'll be his reaction at 3 a.m. when we lose to Mexico.
Or it's rain delayed.
Woody is next.
Woody's round up.
What's up, fellas?
It's your boy Woody from the Homo Haas here in North Carolina, USA.
Happy America's 250th to all the fellow American listeners out there.
My personal moments of the race all happened in the last about 12 or 14 laps
when little Kimi Antinelli basically announced his independence from Mercedes
and just kept kidding.
Hey, let's box the car.
Let's box the car.
Nah, mate.
I'm going to go for the points.
Ends up finishing in ninth.
Gets the two.
Good for him.
Force to Kimi.
Update for sports fans.
He did not get the two.
No.
I've just realized Ferrari have a wing for every year that America has been independent.
That's good going given they didn't get many of them through the early years, you know?
They're really caught up and they're like the stages.
They had a shootback for a lot to do.
Poor first 190 years.
It is.
But that was 250 all.
Ferrari versus America.
The state that it continues.
Kimi, thanks for the little take.
Do you remember the podcast episode from George Washington
where he was like, a Ferrari ever going to win?
You have them dead and buried at that point.
They really come back strong in the last 30.
Great.
God damn it.
Dubs is next.
He was a first time submitter, I believe.
Hey, guys.
Fred Drum from Ohio here.
First time submission.
Tied between Antonelli pleading on the radio for why am I getting a penalty?
And all of a sudden the stewards give him a five second penalty for trying to save his car.
And it's either that or Hamilton getting absolutely robbed at the end.
Good chance of P2 for Hamilton at the end of all seriousness.
He was quite angry on the podium.
I think he thought he was going to lose the podium as well.
Well, he's getting an interview.
He has said, I've been put on the yellow flag.
This is before it came out that he'd been cleared.
I've been put on the yellow investigation.
That's a slam dunk.
So I'm probably going to lose that too.
He was really quite missed with all guys.
Yeah.
You know, that's his response a minute ago.
Yeah, like that.
That's what he said.
Yeah.
Fortunately for himself, he was wrong.
He's got the yellow.
Yeah.
DJ spin to win.
What's popping everybody?
My moment of the race was going to be the blue ball from the FIA.
However, although there was many passes,
got to give some love to the triple Red Bull finish
with Hadjar Lawson and Lindblad without a Max Verstappen.
Big love to the Ford family.
Anyways, keep breaking late.
It's always great to see someone go trailer park style.
Isn't it just?
Well, nothing to add to that.
Oh, okay.
I really enjoy your musical interlude and submission.
By the way, next up is a Robo who was also a first time submitter.
First time, long time.
My moment of the race is when Mohammed Ben Silyam
was the one driving the safety car and wanted to finish the race first.
Did you see the way when he hits the gravel and he's there like,
me and my friends.
Oh, no.
And no one interacts with him.
Go away, Ben.
And then he goes and gets in the safety car to go and win it.
Move, Bert.
Impressive.
It's mine.
Yeah.
Like I said, if we're at risk of aiding Hadjar Lawson's opportunities,
to be honest, then fine.
Which we wouldn't do.
Don't go together.
I am so bored of it.
So it's such a sad little act.
Good.
Coolhand Luca is our final submitter for the day.
This is Coolhand Luca calling in from an alternate dimension
for my moment of the race.
In this dimension, we have a functioning FIA
and we got a last-life shootout.
That was one for the ages.
So good job FIA in this dimension where the FIA is somehow good.
He's absolutely gotten there.
Yeah.
He's got FIA.
No kneecaps left.
Thinking of the dimension.
They're amazing.
I can't believe we're ending this review on the FIA not having kneecaps.
Well, what are we liking the other dimension?
That's a good question.
And that will be question of the week.
What are we liking?
Coolhand Luca's other dimension.
Good.
Okay.
I think we're done and dusted for this British GP review, Sam.
I think so.
Sorry if we missed anything.
Again, tough to follow.
Hard to pick some bits up.
Thank you to everyone that came out and saw us at the Grand Prix.
Genuinely, maybe the best bit of doing this whole show
is when we actually get a chance to say hello to any of you.
So thank you again.
We're doing power rankings.
So if you do want to hear our opinions on every single driver properly,
where we give a ranking between zero and 10,
and you can get involved, Patreon is the place to be.
Join the city.
You've got some lovely members that came to see us today.
It's a great place to be.
Discord, of course.
If you're going to be in those submissions
that you've just heard a moment in the race,
and that's where you need to be,
Discord, the link's in the description.
And join our fantasy, the links in the description.
Password, everything you need to get in is there.
Maybe you can beat the four of us.
It really isn't that difficult.
We'll see you in the next week.
In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sange.
I've been Ben Hawking.
And I've been Harry Eat.
And remember, keep breaking late.
About this episode
Silverstone delivered a sprint-weekend British GP where Charles Leclerc finally turned Ferrari’s momentum into a dominant win, beating George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. The hosts focus on Leclerc’s calm, front-running control after a strong start from second on the grid, especially impressive given his earlier struggles to find race pace. Behind him, Andrea Antonelli’s long, unconventional strategy and late-race tyre timing created a tense battle with Hamilton—plus a few key incidents and penalties that shaped the gaps. The duo also debates whether Antonelli’s plan was pre-scripted or safety-car/traffic dependent.
For the first time since October 2024, Charles Leclerc is a Formula 1 race winner! The LB boys discuss Ferrari’s return to the top step, how Antonelli’s pole position joy quickly turned into a point-less weekend, and why the decision not to restart the race after Verstappen’s trip through the gravel proved so controversial...
