“Wheel-to-wheel” means the cars are racing right next to each other. In F1, that usually signals intense, close competition where drivers are fighting for position.
An overtake is when one driver passes another driver during the race. It’s difficult in F1 because the cars are so close that handling and grip can change depending on where you are behind someone.
They’re about to talk about the biggest moment of the race—one event that really changed how the race played out. It’s usually the highlight that explains why the outcome turned out the way it did.
Kimmy Antonelli is the driver the hosts say won the Canadian Grand Prix. In F1, winning means you finish the race in first place after everyone completes the full distance.
George Russell is described as being near the front for a long stretch, then having to stop the race early. In Formula 1, if a car retires, it usually means something went wrong and the driver can’t finish.
In F1, the “power unit” is the car’s main engine system (including the hybrid parts). If there’s a power unit issue, the car may have to stop because it can’t keep running reliably.
“Extend away” describes a driver increasing the gap after passing—getting far enough in front that the trailing car can’t stay in clean attack range. In close races, that gap is often measured in seconds and depends on tire wear, traffic, and how well each car can exit corners.
This is the F1 track in Montreal. The hairpin there is a major corner because it’s a tough braking and turning spot that can make passing easier or harder.
Slipstream is when a car drives close behind another car and benefits from the air being pushed out of the way. It makes the trailing car faster so it can try to pass.
A missed corner is when the car doesn’t go through the corner the way it should. That usually means the driver is off the line and has to adjust, losing speed or position.
Running over the grass is when the tires go off the track onto the lawn. It’s usually much less grippy than pavement, so the car can lose control or slow down quickly.
When drivers say the cars are volatile, they mean small changes in inputs or grip can cause large changes in behavior. In F1, that often points to how sensitive the car is to tire temperature, aerodynamic balance, and throttle/brake application.
A regulation cycle is the time period where the sport’s rules are basically the same. Teams build and improve their cars within those rules, so the racing can change as teams catch up or fall behind.
A time penalty means the driver has to “pay” for breaking the rules. The race adds extra time to them (or makes them serve it with a stop), so they lose track position.
A stop-and-go penalty is when the driver must pit and stop for a short time. After that, they can rejoin the race, but they lose time and usually positions.
Tire management is about not destroying your tires too quickly. If the tires don’t degrade much, drivers can push more consistently instead of backing off to save grip.
A single-stop strategy means you only pit once. If the tires last well enough, you don’t need multiple changes, so the race tactics become less varied.
Intermediate tires are for “not-too-wet” weather—when the track is damp. They help you grip better than dry slick tires without being as extreme as full wet tires.
Slick tires are special racing tires with smooth rubber and no grooves. They work best when the track is dry, because they can grip the road more than treaded tires.
The pit lane is the area next to the race track where teams pull in to change tires and do other race-service work. Stopping there costs time, so timing matters a lot.
A sprint race is a shorter race held on some F1 weekends. It helps decide the grid for the main race and also gives points, so it can affect the championship standings.
Qualifying is when drivers try to set the fastest lap to decide where they start the race. Starting up front can be a big advantage because it’s harder to catch and pass later.
Runoff area is the extra space next to the track that drivers can hit if they go off-line. It’s there to help cars slow down safely, but it usually makes you lose time and positions.
Soft tires usually grip the road better, but they don’t last as long. The hosts are saying that as the soft tires got used up, the timing gap changed a bit.
Pit stops are when the car comes into the pits to change tires (and sometimes do other quick work). The hosts are saying Hamilton got faster after the pit stops because of how the tires/strategy played out.
Term
BSC
“BSC” here refers to a safety-car situation. When the safety car is out, teams often pit because the field is moving slower, which can change who ends up ahead after the stops.
The fastest lap is the quickest one lap time anyone achieves during the race. The hosts are pointing out Hamilton was running laps so fast it showed the car was in a great window.
Passing on the outside means you go around the other car’s outer edge through a corner. It’s tricky because you have to line up correctly and still have enough grip to finish the pass.
“Clinical overtaking” is when a driver passes another car in a really clean, well-timed way. It usually means they pick the right moment and don’t cause problems for either car.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history. Here, they’re talking about how well he’s been able to pass other cars lately, and how he made an important move early in the race.
Max Verstappen is one of the fastest and most competitive Formula 1 drivers. In this segment, they’re describing Hamilton catching him and then finally passing him.
“Canada” refers to the Canadian Grand Prix, raced at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. The circuit is known for heavy braking zones and overtaking chances, so timing and patience around turn one and key passing spots matter a lot.
In F1, an “overtaking attempt” is when a driver tries to pass another car. The point here is that some drivers tried too soon, before they had a real chance to finish the pass.
A “stint” is how long a car stays on one set of tires. Tires can feel better at the start and worse later, so the hosts are comparing how Hamilton managed his tires over time.
Ferrari is one of the biggest Formula 1 teams. Here, they’re talking about how Hamilton’s performance in a Ferrari looked at this race and what they expect at Monaco.
“Power sensitive” means the track rewards how the car uses its engine power. If the car can’t put that power down well, you lose time quickly on that kind of circuit.
“Power hungry” means the track asks for a lot of engine power again and again. Cars that accelerate strongly and keep traction tend to do better there.
“Monaco” is the Monaco Grand Prix, raced on a narrow street track. Because it’s so hard to pass there, small differences in how the car drives can decide a lot.
In F1, a “spin” means the car rotates out of control—usually from losing traction or balance—so the driver has to correct and often loses significant time and track position. Spins can also damage tires and disrupt the rest of the race strategy.
On some F1 weekends, there’s a shorter race before Sunday. That sprint can change where cars start on Sunday, so if things go wrong on Saturday, it can be hard to recover.
If a driver breaks a rule, they get a penalty. They have to take it during the race, and it usually makes them lose positions because they’re slowed down.
The “right window” is the sweet spot where the tires work best. Outside of it, the tires either don’t grip enough or feel inconsistent, so the driver can’t get the car’s full performance.
They’re talking about how the car behaves in different parts of the track. One car can be quicker on the straights, but another can be better in corners where grip matters more.
These are the track sections where the tires can grip the best. That’s where differences between cars show up most, because you need strong traction to turn quickly and stay stable.
Person
Isaac Hacha
Isaac Hacha is a Formula 1 driver mentioned as Verstappen’s teammate. They’re saying he finished fifth and earned points, which is a strong result for his team.
In F1, a black-and-white flag is basically a warning from the officials. It means “we noticed what you did,” and if it happens again, you can get a bigger penalty.
Stewards are the race officials who judge what happened on track. If they think a driver broke the rules or acted dangerously, they can hand out penalties.
“Miami” is shorthand for the F1 race weekend in Miami. Track conditions there can change how well a car works, so it can be a turning point for a driver.
Term
P5
“P5” means the driver finished 5th. In F1, finishing position matters because it affects how many points you get.
“Driver of the Day” is an F1 award for the driver who stood out the most in that race. The hosts are debating whether Lewis Hamilton should win it even though there was a mistake involved.
The pit exit is where the car comes out of the pit lane back onto the track. It can be tricky because you have to merge safely while cars are moving fast nearby.
Carlos Sainz is an F1 driver who often finishes strongly and scores points. They say he made a tough start on the wrong-for-the-moment tires, but he still managed to recover and earn points.
Fernando Alonso is one of the most successful F1 drivers ever. Here they’re saying he started really well, got passed, and then had to retire because something was wrong with his seat.
The seat in an F1 car isn’t just for comfort—it’s part of the safety setup. If it’s not right, the driver may not be able to continue safely, so they have to stop.
A yellow flag means there’s danger ahead and you have to slow down and drive carefully. If you don’t, you can get a penalty for not respecting the caution.
When you’re defending, you’re allowed to block in a controlled way, but you can’t keep weaving. “Moving twice” here means the driver changed direction more than the rules allow.
Braking is slowing down before a turn. “Missed his braking” here means the driver didn’t slow down at the right time, which caused the move to go wrong.
McLaren is an F1 racing team. Here, they’re being discussed because their race strategy—especially the timing of tire choices—didn’t work out as well as it could.
In F1, "box" means the car comes into the pit lane for a planned stop. Usually that’s for changing tires, and when you do it matters a lot for race position.
"Soft tires" are the stickier (grippier) F1 tires, but they wear out quicker. Teams pick them when they need maximum grip for a certain stretch of the race.
F1 tires come in different “types” (compounds). Softer tires usually grip the road better but wear out sooner, while medium tires last longer but may not feel as fast at the limit.
Intermediates are special tires for rainy conditions. They’re meant for when the track is wet but not pouring, so the car can still grip without using the full “wets” tires.
Wets are the tires teams use for heavy rain. They have deep grooves to push water out of the way, but if the track isn’t that wet, they can end up being the wrong choice.
The formation lap is a lap right before the race where the cars line up and get warmed up. It’s also a time when teams have to follow rules about what they can tell the driver.
A slick tyre is made for dry weather and has a smooth surface to grip the road. If the track is wet or damp, it can lose grip because there’s no tread to channel water.
Tyre wear refers to how quickly an F1 tire degrades during a stint, driven by factors like temperature, load, and driving style. Teams track it closely because it affects grip, lap times, and when a pit stop is needed.
An intermediate tyre is for mixed or damp conditions. It has tread to help push water away, so the car grips better than a smooth slick tyre when the track isn’t fully dry.
The constructors championship is the team standings in Formula 1. It’s based on how well both drivers on each team do, and race strategy can change who’s ahead.
A “midfield fight” is the race battle between teams that aren’t fighting for the win. It’s usually about gaining or holding positions to score points.
Person
Franca Colopinto
Franca Colopinto is the driver the hosts are talking about. They credit him with a strong midfield result and explain that tire conditions and race decisions affected how the race played out.
Liam Lawson is another driver in the midfield fight. The hosts say Colopinto was close, but couldn’t get past him, which shows how hard it was to overtake.
“Hard tyres” are the tougher tires in F1. They usually last longer, but if they’re not warm enough, they can grip less and make the car harder to control.
F1 tires come in different types for different weather. The intermediate tire is for when the track is wet, but not pouring rain—so it has better grip than dry tires.
“Lap one” in F1 is the first lap of the race, often the most chaotic because cars are jostling for position right after the start. Small differences in tyre choice, launch, and traffic management can have outsized effects on where a driver ends up for the rest of the race.
Q3 is the last part of F1 qualifying, where the top cars fight for the best starting spots. If someone is doing well “in Q3,” it means they’re consistently fast enough to reach the final qualifying round.
A safety car is when F1 slows everything down because something unsafe is happening on the track. Everyone drives slower behind an official car, and it can completely change race strategy.
Mercedes is one of the big F1 brands, including the engine side of the sport. Here they’re wondering if the problem came from the Mercedes engine system.
They’re talking about a tyre catching fire unexpectedly. In racing, that’s dangerous because it can spread quickly and forces the driver to react fast, usually by pitting.
Person
Sebastian Buemini
This sounds like a misspelling of Sébastien Buemi, a Formula 1 driver. The hosts are recalling an earlier tyre incident involving him.
They mention 200 mph to show how incredibly fast the car is. At that speed, if something goes wrong, it can become dangerous very quickly.
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Hello, and a very warm welcome to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage
and me, Ben Hawking, here today to review the Canadian Grand Prix. One very familiar
tale at the moment by Kimmy Antonelli. That in itself, though, definitely not telling
the whole story. George Russell retiring from the Grand Prix, meaning a massive 25-point
swing in the championship. Sam, it is 10 minutes past 11 at night here, which means for the
next hour or so we are going to be the biggest enemies of our respective neighbours.
Yeah, they love us when it comes to any time past about 9pm because we get very excited
and shout about F1's pure enthusiasm. Sorry out there, the windows are open because it's very hot
in the UK, but that isn't going to stop my excitement for what was an absolute, I think,
a belter of a Grand Prix. It felt like we had some proper F1 back, proper wheel-to-wheel.
It felt like there was drama and many different occasions, there were collisions, there was
risk, there was overtakes, threats of overtakes the whole way through, got a lot to talk about,
but I've just clocked as well. For those of you watching on YouTube, you're watching where
you're asking, T-shirt. I've got my Canadian GP T-shirt. We're in respective racetrack tops today.
We'll meet somewhere in the middle in Nebraska or something, shall we?
Obviously, I would love that. That would be delightful.
Why not? Thank you, Canada, for giving us plenty to talk about on today's episode.
Moment of the race coming up later on, as we always do on these race reviews, we're going to be
reviewing our bold predictions. Let's see if either of us are able to either extend our lead or
finally get one right. We've got McLaren, their very difficult day. Max Verstappen and Lewis
Hamilton and their great battle over second place. But let's start with Kimmy Antonelli,
who took this race victory, a very comfortable second two-thirds of this race, but only after
George Russell, who was ahead, then second, and ahead again, then second, then ahead again,
then retired due to a power unit issue. We were treated, Sam, to about 25 laps of
back and forth action. It is everything I've ever wanted in a lead battle in Formula One,
where cars not only stick so close to each other that the threat of an overtake is truly a promise,
but the actual overtake happens multiple times. You have mistakes under pressure moments. You
had contact between the leaders and they got away with it as well. It was truly as if you see
racing stuff, and I thought both of them pushed it right to the limit, right to that very limit,
and I was happy with it. I was happy to let it run at that point. I actually didn't want to get
involved at all. I have sat and watched that for another 25 laps happily, gutted, and I am
serious, gutted that George Russell retired from this Grand Prix because it genuinely caused us to
lose what was one of the most thrilling fights for the lead that we've had in a Grand Prix for a
very long time. I absolutely loved it. It's one of those where, I think, based on this track and
the way the regulations are at the moment, it could have just kept going because it was very
difficult for a driver to actually, like you said, it was easy enough to get the overtake done.
It was far more difficult once you'd got that overtake done to then fully extend away from
the driver behind. We saw both Antonelli and Russell essentially have turns in the lead and see if
they could extend beyond that one second or not, and neither really could, and that's not the only
battle we saw that with as well up and down the field. I really think that could have gone on for
the near 70 laps that we had out there. I didn't see an end to this unless something like a crash
happened, which who knows, maybe that's how it would have ended instead, or a power unit issue,
as was the case today. I think one of the most telling factors for me, and we haven't discussed
the style, it was such a mixed battle, it's nice to jump into it, was when Antonelli made the mistake
locked up in the final chicane, and Russell ended up picking up maybe a two and a half, three second
advantage over Antonelli. It was amazing, the thing, three or four laps. Antonelli had closed
that gap up again to one second. There was a gang straight back in his wake, so to speak.
I thought that at that point, that would have been the moment that Russell was able to kick on
and lead that Grand Prix because you think, right, the overtake advantage is gone,
you're not getting inside that one second window to get the battery advantage anymore,
now's your moment to run off. He couldn't, and yet he still had the pace to hold Antonelli off,
fight with Antonelli comfortably, and re-attack Antonelli on the odd times that he got through.
So I was really surprised that after the mistake, Antonelli was back in the fight so quickly.
Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to, if you were to put together some sort of ranking of the
most important corners at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, number one would be the hairpin,
which George Russell in particular, both Mercedes to an extent, but George Russell in particular
really struggled at. And the reason why that's such an important corner, because
whilst there aren't that many overtakes that happen into it, it does lead to a lot of overtakes
either into the final chicane or then turn one, if you get a good exit out of that chicane.
And George Russell was struggling so much on the brakes going into the hairpin that it was
giving Antonelli the impetus to then go and get directly in the slipstream of George Russell
and give himself the opportunity at making these passes. And that's something that definitely
kept this fight alive for as long as it did. I really enjoyed it. Not often will I comment on
saying how I appreciate mistakes from drivers, but I do think it made it incredibly exciting to see
both Russell and Antonelli have these lockups or missed corners or running over the grass and
just when the battle seems like it might be coming to a big of a lapse, close,
suddenly it's alive again. So it's clearly a lot to master. You heard Lewis Hamilton in the
call-down room saying just how volatile these cars are and how tricky they can be to get a handle of.
We saw that through so many different drivers today. It really is a mastery of making sure
that you can handle what is a very lively set of regulations. I think as well with the
the battling that we have between teammates, it's so critical at this stage in a regulation cycle.
And I liken this to 2014, 2015 style racing where it wasn't always perfect or it wasn't even always
good. But one thing that I think separated those good from bad races at that point is how much
Rosberg and Hamilton were able to battle with one another. And if that was alive and well,
if that rivalry was playing out, it became it became decent. And as soon as that went away,
it becomes a much more difficult prospect because all of these teams are strung out quite a lot
at the moment in terms of competitiveness. So whilst the battle between Antonelli and Russell
in isolation in a vacuum was brilliant to watch, I think it was really critical to the enjoyment
of this race because those first 25 laps just absolutely flew by.
Yeah. I mean, to the point where you say they flew by, I remember then looking up at the lap
counter after Russell's retirement and going, wait, we've still got half the Grand Prix to go.
It felt like in a snap, half a gong, and yet only half had gone. You are right though about the gaps.
We'll get on to the conversation more deeply later on in the show. But for the example,
let's take Hajar having to serve a time penalty and then a stop go penalty. And he's still like
10, 15 seconds clear of Colin Pinto, the car behind him. That's never what we want to see.
And that is a real flaw at the moment of where the cars sit in these new regulations.
Antonelli was able to set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap of the race. Having done,
I will check by notes. We're going to call it just under 40 laps on those medium tires.
Does that prove, I mean, first of all, I think it proves these tires can just go and go at the
moment. But secondly, does it prove that he likely had far far and away enough to see off
any competition that was in Russell? Yeah, two separate conversations there. The tires are
a dire part of Formula One right now. I mean, I guess you could say the compliment there is that
the battles that were happening, the Stappen Hamilton, for example, Lawson-Gastley, they were
raging on because the tires weren't falling off of a cliff. So we didn't have the management of the
tire, which is great. That is a good part of this. But the negative side, of course, is that
drivers are able to just run a single-stop strategy the entire way through the race. Any
jeopardy, any risk, and there's no variation in that. So we're lacking a big part of what Formula
One is right now. When it comes to Kimi Antonelli out front with a 10-second gap clear of this
for Stappen Hamilton battle, it felt like at any point he wanted to, he could kick on for five or
six laps and put 34 tenths of lap quite comfortably over any car behind them.
The upgrades were a little shaky at the start of the weekend. We saw that with the way the Qualifying
was playing out. It was close. The sprint race, of course, it was quite close.
And then even at the start of this Grand Prix, when the start didn't go perfectly to plan for
Mercedes and Landon Norris gets in front on the intermediate tires, it again felt like for a minute,
oh, maybe it hasn't clicked the way we thought. But once they cleared Landon Norris, once he
went into the pit lane to put on those slick tires, it just felt like something was awoken
in that car and able to just pull away so comfortably from the rest of the field.
And that's what makes the DNF for Russell so critical is that
they wouldn't have wanted a DNF, obviously, at any point in this year,
but you don't want to pick a point in time where there are 25 points up for offer and there isn't
another team in contention. There might be times later in the year, let's say Antonelli, this luck
for Russell kind of plays out the other way, this bad luck for Russell kind of goes on Antonelli's
shoulders and says... Swings back, yeah. Right. And let's say he retires from a race
two thirds of the way through the season, but at that point Ferrari or Red Bull or McLaren
have properly caught up and he retires from third or fourth place. Like that could happen.
This is a really critical DNF for George Russell. 25 points were there and you only have to think
about if the reverse had happened. Antonelli came into this, I think, with an 18 points advantage
after the sprint race, meaning that George Russell would have been leading the championship
if he won this race and Antonelli retired. Instead, Russell goes into Monaco, 43 points
behind his young Italian teammate. As we saw from his reaction after he retired,
that's going to be a tough one to overcome even this early in the year.
Yeah, very rightly infuriated by what happened to no fault of his own. He had the weekend
sown up. It was a little shaky, but he had it sown up. Fastest in the sprint quali,
fastest in the sprint race taking the victory there, fastest in qualifying again yesterday,
leading the Grand Prix. Yes, a little bit tumultuously perhaps, but leading nonetheless.
And you think this was the mental battle he was overcoming. Sure, he might have only gained seven
points over Antonelli. Had they finished one to a game and that gap would have gone down again,
right? It got down to what about 11 points at that point, which is really solid, really, really good.
I have great set forth for Russell needing after basically being demolished the last three
Grand Prix. And yet the mental battle had swung entirely the other way again back to Kimmy
Antonelli, who wins four Grand Prix in a row from his maiden victory through to the fourth. The first
time it's ever happened in Formula One has someone won their first ever Grand Prix, four Grand Prix,
back to back. It must be so destroying for George Russell to look at this and go,
what do I do? What can I actually do? The car's broken. Even when I'm better,
I can't get a leg up in this competition. The only saving grace, I think, is that
Charlotte Clair at this point, when the battle was happening with Max Verstappen in 2022,
I think it was, he was 43 points clear. Max Verstappen was beaten. He was driving a Ferrari,
that's the only thing. He was driving a Ferrari. It's a slightly different tale.
Yeah, it is tough for Russell to take. I think there are two perspectives and he'll need to
force himself to think one way rather than the other because you're right. He could very easily
come out of this weekend saying, I have done everything right. I've got two pole positions.
I've taken the sprint race win. I was leading the way in the main Grand Prix and despite all of that,
I have lost significant ground to my teammate. Really negative frame of mind. He can also view
it the other way, which is, I turned up at a racetrack and I was the better driver across the
weekend. I don't actually think he was significantly or at all faster than Antonelli, but he was the
one that was getting the results in the qualifying sessions and in the sprint race.
Exactly. Yeah. I think he can view that relatively positively going into Monaco and say,
well, if I keep doing this, that bad luck isn't going to happen every single week. At some point,
it's going to turn around and I'm going to be in this championship fight again. I think he really
needs to frame it that way. I think he will, based on some of his comments, even quarter of an hour
after the crash happened back in the media pen. What about ever so slightly further back? Lewis
Hamilton and Max Verstappen. We've seen a few duels between them in the past. This one over
second place with Lewis Hamilton eventually getting the better of his long time rival.
Hamilton, we've commented throughout the weekend, has seemed relatively comfortable
in comparison to at least some of the race weekends we've had from him at Ferrari to this point.
This is kind of not, it wasn't the wind to cap it all off, but a very strong result and he seemed
quite happy afterwards. This was Lewis Hamilton's best race weekend at Ferrari, since he joined
that team. I think it is by far the most consistently he has been equal to, if not better than Leclerc
in every single session that we've seen. He has been able to be the difference maker, which,
you know, it shows you that for the first time, I think he's felt truly comfortable in a Formula
1 car. And we saw he made that mistake where he went over the runoff area in turns seven and eight
on the chicane. And that cost him that place to Max Verstappen. He ended up dropping about four or
five seconds behind at that point. The gap also extended slightly towards the end of the soft
tire running. But something about that Ferrari on the medium tire, it just comes alive. And we saw
that actually very early on in spring qualifying, when they're mandated to run the medium tire,
how quick they were on the medium tires. Something about that compound works really well
for that Ferrari car. And the moment they got fitting on after the pit stops during the BSC,
Hamilton was just taking four or five tenths out of Max Verstappen, every single lap, setting the
fastest lap along the way, until Kim Yantung only took it right at the death at the end of the Grand
Prix. And then he rocks up to the back of him. And Brunel makes the great point that Murray Walker
always used to make, which was catching is one thing, passing is another. And we have seen it
time and time again, where Lewis Hamilton has been in the vicinity of another car. But maybe the
talent is slightly winged and we don't get what we're used to, where he isn't able to pass him
anymore. And yet he's working so well with that Ferrari today, that with the tire to hang on the
way the car was operating and how good it's been for Lewis Hamilton so far this weekend,
he's able to close up to the back and make a really fabulous overtake around the outside of
Max Verstappen in turn one, which is not easy to do in any way shape or form. I thought those
two battled brilliantly, really enjoyed watching it. I thought they both held themselves up
accountably very, very well. I loved it. It was great. Outside of this being a very good
performance from Lewis Hamilton, I think it was especially good based on it answering some
questions that maybe we've had at his Ferrari career so far, the first of which is what you
touched on, where he is very, very good will to will racer. I maintain that. But we have seen
over the last few years a real lack of clinical overtaking from Lewis Hamilton. He's not one
of the best on the grid at it anymore, quite frankly. And we were in a position going into
turn one where Lewis Hamilton needed to show that again. And the move that he put on Max Verstappen
was a brilliant one. And we saw with a lot of overtaking attempts at Canada this weekend,
there were some attempted moves from drivers that perhaps just came a little bit too early
in that they weren't patient enough to wait for the opportunity to be one where they can just
strike. Antonelli was maybe guilty of that throughout the weekend, maybe a few other
instances as well. Hamilton made sure that he made his move when he knew he was going to get it done
and it wasn't going to result in an incident, a great overtake. The other thing that I think he
answered, maybe even from the sprint race, was getting this done over a longer stint because
in the sprint race, he looked very good early on. And then late on started to struggle a little bit
versus his teammate. He still finished ahead, but started to struggle a bit more. And as soon
as he made that error that you referenced, I was worried we were getting back into the same thing
again. Exactly the same thought. I thought two seconds here, uh-oh,
he's going to close up again. And you think he could get pulled back into that and away from
the battle in front of him and then he kicks on. And he does a brilliant job from there to close in
on Max Verstappen and then obviously get the overtake done as well. You said this was his best
weekend in a Ferrari so far. I 100% agree. Let's not say it will carry on, but I think he can
feel pretty happy about that at a track that he mentioned afterwards is quite power sensitive,
power hungry, not necessarily Ferrari strength at the moment. So maybe friendly attracts going
forward. Maybe Hamilton can make this more of a habit. I'm fascinated to see how the Ferrari
goes around Monaco. You know, I'm fascinated to see what happens at Monaco full stop.
I do not know. Hopefully something exciting, maybe. Hopefully something exciting. Are we still
doing the two stop thing or is that gone? I think that's thankfully gone. It was going to come back
and then I think they got rid of it. Thank God, thanks for that. Well, sure we take a quick break.
On the other side, we might wrap up some some Ferrari chat, but then also get into Max Verstappen
and Red Bulls Day.
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Sam, before the break, we mentioned that Lewis Hamilton had maybe his best day in a Ferrari so
far. Charlotte Clara, I think earlier on in this weekend, quoted this as one of his worst weekends
at Ferrari. I don't think the race would have changed his opinion.
No. Earlier on in the weekend, there's a quite distinct radio message that came out where he
said, I don't know what's going on. It's going to be PA or the wall, I think it was. I can't work
out if that was Sprint Race or if that was qualifying. It wasn't going well for him.
Yeah. It didn't feel good for him. He never felt comfortable in the car. It felt like all weekend.
I think coming out of the Sprint Race, he would have probably looked at the result and gone,
all right, I'm not happy at the moment, but I've qualified right behind my teammate.
I'm in the battle with my teammate and other cars. It's okay. It's all right. It could be
worse here. Then actual qualifying rolls around is a couple of places behind. There's a couple of
cars in between, which is not ideal. Then the race happens. He's just not a part of the conversation
that we are so used to him not just being a part of the conversation, but leading the conversation.
Charlotte Clara is usually the guy that the others who aren't the race leagueers are trying to catch,
are trying to beat. He's usually so good at extracting performance out of the car. It feels
quite alien to see Charlotte Clara be the guy further back struggling for pacing. It might
be beneficial for him that the likes of Hadja had so many penalties coming his way that he wasn't
really challenged at the end of the Grand Prix. Walks away with a respectable position, but
it wasn't that simple for him to get there in the end.
As far as P4s go, it wasn't a great one. In which case, I think Charlotte Clara might just go
after he's been frustrated at this weekend, might just go, sure.
I'd say that.
Yeah, I've dropped six points to my teammate. Could have been a lot more than that,
based on how I raced because we had the spin, obviously. We had just a distinct lack of pace,
which is very unusual from Charlotte Clara's perspective. I wonder whether, and it's not
just at Ferrari, whether this being a sprint weekend has impacted this. I feel like, based
on the pace that Leclerc did or didn't have in free practice on Friday, whether actually
across three free practice sessions, he might have been able to claw at least some of that back.
That's these things with the sprint weekends. You can get yourself stuck in a bit of a
hole and unable to get out of it. Charlotte Clara's had to salvage something,
and P4 was the best he could manage, like you say. Just fortune, I guess, that McLaren did
what they did and had job is still, I think, serving penalties for what he's done out there
today. Charlotte Clara by default and no other midfield team being close has managed to claim
fourth place.
Yeah, McLaren, I think, cost us what could have been an even more exciting fight for
those podium places. I don't think we have got exactly the same result with just McLaren
plonked in the middle, for example. I really think it would have been more cars down to the wire.
What about Red Bull? For Stappen, first podium of the year for both himself and the team,
I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted to wait all the way until Canada for that to be the case,
but a third place finish here, still definitely not on the pace of the Mercedes, but at least
competitive here with Ferrari. I don't really know what it would have been like versus McLaren,
of course. He seemed relatively content after the race.
Yeah, I think you can be happy when you pick up a podium, right? It's never going to be a bad day
if you're on the podium realistically. It could be far worse for you. The Red Bull journey is very
odd, confusing to come at. Brundle and Cronchand don't make some great points on the sky broadcast,
where they spoke about how in these tricky conditions, the Ferrari is probably the most
favorable car to look at, because the way the chassis and the suspension sits, they seem to
fire up their tires really well. We saw that. Hamilton on those meetings was able to really
get the tires running, but the complaints coming from Max Verstappen were that, again,
which had in the sprint race as well and qualifying, he could not get the tires in the
right window where he was able to actually maximize the performance of the car. I think
in a perfect day, that Red Bull probably could have beaten that Ferrari and actually could have
finished in second place, but with the real world conditions, it seems like it isn't able to
fire up the rubber in the cooler temperatures that we saw on the race day and actually get the
most out of the race car. They're faster in a straight line, quite comfortably. I think it was
clear that they were able to really get the most out of the straight line parts of the racetrack,
but in the grippiest sections in the actual cornering, the chassis and the wheel performance on
the Ferrari really outshone the Red Bull and left us playing a bit of an awkward juxtaposition
where he stuck between performance and Hamilton coming at him.
Yes, it led to a very balanced fight and one that was definitely there for the taking for both
drivers. Even though Verstappen has ended the wrong side of that, I think he's put in a very
good performance here on a weekend, maybe similar to Charles Leclerc where early on it wasn't looking
particularly comfortable for him, but unlike Charles Leclerc, he has been able to mostly salvage
this. Yes, I don't think Verstappen was ever going to keep pace with the Mercedes duo. As soon as he
got past Lewis Hamilton early on, I think we were thinking, can he pull off a bit of a miracle and
start to eat into this gap that the Mercedes have? We knew the Mercedes were very much scrapping away at
that point and probably costing themselves time, which is pretty terrifying that Verstappen still
didn't get anywhere near both of them, but it was for the most part enough to keep the Ferrari
and his teammate behind, enough so that we got this battle, battle later on. I don't think he'll
mind too much that he's ended on the wrong side of this one. It is good for him and for
the team that they found their way to the podium, even if it is slightly later than they would have
wanted. It does give them something to work with going forward. I think they'll be relatively
content with this one. I think he might be the only driver in the top six who had almost a
flawless drive. He got beaten by Lewis Hamilton, but by a very fantastic overtaking, a car that was
better suited to the conditions, he didn't make a mistake though all weekend unless I'm missing
something. That race day, he did not put a foot wrong. No, I don't think he did. There were
errors here, there and everywhere, and I don't remember any of them coming from Max Verstappen,
which shouldn't be a massive surprise at this point. No, but again, you say that about the likes of
Hamilton or Leclerc, and we saw that. He didn't get the result, but he had a very good drive.
One driver that probably doesn't fulfill the same category of not making an error out there was his
teammate, Isaac Hacha, who has managed to secure P5 for 10 points, which I think makes that his
best finish in a Red Bull so far. It is. I'm sure Isaac Hacha will just want the sentence to end there.
It's the first time two Red Bulls have been inside the top five, I think for 43 Grand Prix.
Isaac's like, focus on that. That's a great start. Hey, guys, look at what I did. He could not be
more lucky that the rest of the grid and the McLaren's were absolutely poo-poo in outright
pace today because any other race day, I think he maybe falls well outside the points. I mean,
at worst, he might not attend, but I think he falls well outside the points. I thought the pace was
not good, but I think it was okay enough. It's not like he was on the back of the
battle in front, but equally, he wasn't disappearing into the distance either.
Pace-wise, I thought it was okay. The problem I had was the conduct and the way in which he moved
across on Charles Leclerc. I mean, he picks up a penalty for it, rightly so. That was not good.
That was a big no-no. That's one of the fastest moments on the racetrack that we have. To come
across double like that and push the McLaren section into the grass to take a base of action,
just not okay. Outright unsafe. Could have really hurt someone, one of them to someone else,
really dangerous. Do not want to see that again. I don't often praise the stewards, but I'm going
to here because they gave a penalty for it. I think in the past, we've seen them lean on the
black and white flag too much for this sort of thing, where they've gone naughty, naughty.
One more, and you do that again. You're going to punish you. You're a very naughty boy.
But the problem when you do that every single time is that all of these drivers know,
I could do that once and get away with it. I don't think we want that attitude at all.
Like that sort of a move should be discouraged, and what they did today has discouraged it in
the future. I'm with the stewards on this one. We've had a lot of praise for
that. It doesn't get my praise without a move. No, no. I mean, I'm all for aggressive hard-core
racing, wheel-to-wheel racing, a bit of rubbing on the tyres. I'm okay with that, but that is
just downright unsafe. I like you. Praise them in our Discord chat, actually, the stewards for how
often they were making decisions relatively close to the exit taking place. We saw the same thing
with Piascri, of course, happen. Valtteri Bottas picked up a penalty. Holgerberg picked up a lot
of penalties that got given during the Grand Prix, which is what we want to see.
Penalties actually taking place while the race is going on, and it actually affects what's going
on in the track. So well done for that. Was there any disappointment from your side that
Hajar, based on his qualifying pace where he routinely was either quicker than Verstappen,
or just behind him as we saw in Q3 by about a tenth of a second, then when it comes to race
pace, that can't be converted over. Again, he wasn't miles off, but he was never close to contending
with his teammate. I think he was sparing his blushes a little bit today with what was going on
around him. If we remove the penalties from the situation, we spoke about how he was there with
the club because there was a poor pitstop for Lewis Hamilton that meant that the club had to be
backed up a little bit. Hajar was introduced into the battle because the Red Bull garage is open,
because he is so far behind his teammate at that point. I do think if the midfielder are a bit
closer, I do think if McLaren are having a normal day, not even a good day, a normal day,
Hajar is well off of it, and I think he's comfortably sitting in eighth or ninth the best.
He is being really good at the start of this Red Bull season, and he's had some bad luck with a
mixture of failures, the car not working as we've seen demonstrating, of course, he put himself
in the water in Miami. This felt like a real chance this weekend for him to step forwards,
and I think for the first three parts of the race weekend, he did step forward. Everything that
he was asked of, he gave happily and did a really good job of. Yet the big moment on the big stage
where it actually makes a difference is quite lucky to have picked up P5. I do think that he
doesn't really deserve the points that he actually attained. I guess he's got away with one. I don't
want to see that happen again. I do not know what is going to happen at Monaco. I know we've already
said that in reference to other teams, but particularly with Red Bull, who have been very
strong there in previous years, whether they've still got the strengths that they previously
had at the Monaco track, I just don't know. I can't wait to see what Red Bull are going to be like
there. They could be really competitive, but equally, it would not shock me if they are really
struggling versus the top teams. Yeah, it'll be fascinating. It poses a very different challenge,
at least that's one good thing about the next race track we're going to. It will be
maybe a big shake up of the order. It might be the most dull thing you ever watch your entire life.
Well, of course, the Monaco GP takes place in two weeks time. We'll be here across that weekend
qualifying review and race review as we always are, and we'll be previewing it in the midweek
beforehand. Shall we go to Driver of the Day?
So Driver of the Day on the vote done by F1, won by Lewis Hamilton. Does he win it for you as well,
Sam? It's tricky because, as I mentioned, there was a mistake. It ran over the grass, of course,
I think, through turn seven and eight, but fully rectified as well. It ended up costing him nothing,
and usually I would take away a Driver of the Day for a mistake. For example, Collopinto, I think,
very much deserves to be in the conversation, kind of drove into the side of the pit lane,
which I still actually haven't seen. Honestly, I think he was bored. He had nothing going on in
this race. Guys, I am that good. Am I going to have to hamper myself just so you can catch up?
Equally, I thought the defense from Lawson with the ghastly fight was really fascinating,
usually, but there were mistakes there as well, ghastly catching up really good.
But I am going to give it to Lewis Hamilton. I just think that the combination of that
minor mistake compared to what he was actually able to achieve outshone everything else. So,
I was really pleased with that. The staff also deserves a shout. I thought he was brilliant
today. Yeah, so for me, Hamilton gets it. Folks, we go through every single driver
in our Power Rankings review on our Patreon, which you can join if you haven't already,
by clicking on the link in the description. Our top tier has access to all of those Power
Rankings episodes, including all of the ones that we've already done so far this year.
As I look down from 1 to 22 on my notes here, slight spoiler, I don't think there's going
to be any tens about. That's a fair point. I'm not sure there'll be any nines.
Because nearly everyone did make some sort of an error or has some reason why they're not the
driver of the day. Lewis Hamilton did make a nearly critical error midway through this Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen couldn't keep that position ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli, whilst he won the race,
might not have won that race of his teammate. My guy left the racetrack about nine times.
And also didn't want to do the racetrack. Franco Colopinto had a great race other than the fact
that he hit the wall on the pit exit. It's very difficult to say. I hate how I keep doing this,
but every time I look at this whole grid and who didn't make an error,
it always comes down to Carlos Sainz. I was about to say, is Carlos Sainz about to come out your
mouth? He started on the intermediate tyres, which was obviously the worst strategy,
and he salvaged two points from it. Yeah. Also, he just kept his head down. He just had no drama,
no fuss. It's always done all year. Yeah. And again, it's another two points picked up for him.
I'm going to go with him. Yeah. Fair. Don't blame me. What about worst driver of the day?
A large number of retirements in this one, so I'm not all of them self-inflicted, of course.
I feel like there are a few contenders about here. What do you say?
When the fact that maybe the driver of the day isn't even close to a nine,
it does mean that some other scores might be quite low. Firstly, the backmarkers,
do they know how to get out of the way of a vehicle coming towards them?
Give them some sympathy. They haven't got anything going on at the moment.
I've been lapped 83 times. That's more laps than I'm actually in the Grand Prix.
I was going to bring this up later, but like you've got Fernando Alonso,
who has managed to make an unbelievable start and then get overtaken by Lando Norris twice
in the space of like 20 laps before retiring because his seat's messed up.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not a good day. It's not a good day to be an Aston Martin driver.
Oh, lots to pick from. Lots You know, I think both Valdes have a bit of a tough day
in Eca Holgerberg, mostly notably having that sping all to himself. Sergio Perez was having a bit
of a rambunctious time and we might hear about one of the rays for a certain thing that happened
to him later on, but I am going to actually give it to Isaac Hatcher, I think, for my worst driver
of the day. Two penalties picked up, both safety-related. There was a yellow flag infringement
and the moving twice when defending from another driver. Pace was well off with his teammate.
Incredibly lucky to get away with the fact that he has managed to stay in a position that
essentially he was fighting for only because everyone else was so rubbish. So, yeah, for me,
it's Hatcher. There might be a few drivers that are fortunate not to get worst driver of the day
because they were a long, long way off the pace but didn't do anything strictly wrong.
Ocon. But I'm going to go with Oscar Piastri for the incident with Alex Albin.
That's very fair. It was a 10-second time penalty and it could not have been less than 10 seconds.
It's actually terrorism. It might have been. I don't think it was intentional in that he was
trying to get that move done. I think he's just completely missed his braking and realised
there's nothing I can do at this point. The difference between the way Norris got through
the sum of the traffic and the way that Piastri got through, it just shows you it. We saw you see
Piastri being so clinical with his moves that you think this is where he's going to come alive.
This is his forte. He was terrible. He was really rubbish. And look, McLaren's strategy kind of,
they made their own bed with that in that he was never going to be on the podium or battling the
Ferraris. But based on how quick that McLaren was, there was still sixth place, maybe even fifth
place with what Hadja was up to in the offing. And instead, Piastri has finished just outside the
points. So that was my vote. Yeah, there might have been some damage from that crash, but that was
entirely caused by him anyway. Yeah. Big brain strap. Bob, we're going to need you to box for
what? What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a
chance, let your teammate pass you. What? He crashed out. He's not even in the race.
I just gave three minutes about safe. It's good, isn't it? It's very good. A big brain
strategy that we give out on every race review for something that either strategically went very
right or sometimes very wrong. What have you gone for? Well, McLaren started on the intermediate.
It feels like a obvious one. Yeah. Well, very, very well. I just want to binging a well,
to be honest. It probably couldn't have got worse for them if they were. Yeah. And then the way they
felt like they handled the mistake was also shocking. It felt like communication was bad.
It's in like lap one, like the formation. Yeah. Yeah. They get the drivers are going,
this is wrong. We're doing the wrong thing. If I come in now among warm tires at least,
like, you know, and they're going, the soft tires around you are going to be really cold.
Okay. We're literally on the wrong tire. And they don't spit the strategy anyway.
It just felt like a massive, massive, you know, kicking their own teeth a little bit.
They really tripped themselves up there. It cost them anything. It just ruined the whole race.
It just went from bad to worse. A very good shout. And I knew you were going with that,
which is swaying on the negative side of big brain strats. So I was like,
I'm going to find something that was positive instead. And I've gone with the decision from
Alpine to pick Collopinto and Gasly onto the hard tire, which actually was quite bold based on what
we'd seen from every other team where they were all leaning towards the medium and the soft tire.
And we knew both of those tires could go quite a long way. And the hard tire, because it's the
hardest of the three available, probably the most difficult to heat up. There was a point where
I saw that no one else used the hard tire. As far as I'm aware, this whole race, and as soon as
they went onto it, I was like, I hope you haven't just made a really bad error and you can't get
those tires working with how cold it is. They did. And it was a fine strategy. So I'll go with that.
Yeah, worked really well. Good to see a difference. It was also nice to see them fighting with
Lorsing who at the time was on that soft tire still that made that work a really long time.
So nice to see a bit of a difference. I mean, a minor one, but a bit of a difference in tire
cool. Let's head to our next break. On the other side, we're going to get into how I think it was
about three years ago at this point, but Lando Norris was leading this race at some point,
and then very quickly lost it.
Sam, have you heard about the Scandinavian luggage brand that everyone seems to be talking
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Welcome back, everyone. Let's chat McLaren, because they decided to make the start of this race
a lot more spicy, going for the intermediate tyre, where most of the other runners,
particularly the front runners, went for dries. It worked very well, Sam, for four corners.
To be honest, if you'd said to me, put £100 on Landon Morris reading out a turn one,
I'd go, you're having a laugh. No chance is that happening, and then it happens.
That's why I'm not a gambling man, because I am famously terrible at 50-50 calls.
It's because of the McLaren on gamblers, either.
They lost out big time. They put it all on green. I'm quite surprised. Were you a bit
surprised at that? If we just talk about in layman's terms right now, I was quite shocked to see
the intermediate fired up the grip that quickly, in comparison to the soft tyre. It was still
a relatively dry track. I was surprised by it as well. I didn't think they'd get a better start
than those on the softs, but there must have been something around that corner where they can
just get that grip immediately versus those soft tyres, because they both would have been
incredibly cold to start this race. Landon Morris, it's not a long run down to turn one.
I know George Russell didn't get a good start to this race, but Antonelli did,
and he still got there ahead of Antonelli. Equally, Piastro got a pretty poor start,
and of course was behind Lewis Hamilton, at least going into turn one and two.
I really was surprised to see him get such a jump, and it's a shame that the rain never
actually came. I think we had a great race. I really enjoyed it, but it would be very
interesting to have seen if we had got just a sprinkle to see how that might have spiced up
that race. I do think it would have created a whole different journey. McLaren, of course,
were absolutely hoping and praying we would get it. I do wonder if there might be a conversation
with their weather team, that they made that call so badly and no one else did.
Yeah, because in the end, and I know it's easy to say this in hindsight,
it wasn't close. To defend McLaren here, it wasn't just them that made the call. The Audi guys did,
Cadillac guys did as well. One of the Williams did in Carlos Sainz. It wasn't just McLaren going
for this, but it was quite an error when you're having to put your drivers in after
one and two laps respectively. It's not like they could hang it out for
10 laps or so and try and make it work. I remember Haas did this a couple of years ago,
and I'm forgetting exactly what the situation was, but it might have been
the hash drivers were on intermediates versus everyone else on wets or maybe the other way
round, but they went against the strategy. Whilst I don't think it worked massively,
it was still enough for them to stay out there on that tire for a full stint or very close to
a full stint. This was just one lap in, put them in a bin. It just wasn't worth it in any way.
The other thing I found fascinating was that they kept on the Norris out the extra lap.
We didn't pit him first out of the situation. Usually the lead driver is on against the call
to go in first, even to the point where he pitted and came out about four places in front of
Oscar Piazuri, who I thought having a lap on warm, sick tires would be able to make the
difference, but clearly the traffic or something was causing him to be backed up.
Well, we saw that traffic really hurt McLaren because as soon as they were in that traffic,
regardless of how quick they were or weren't, they were just stuck. You saw the gap to the
front guys in particular just increasing and increasing, and you knew that they were out of
certainly of contention for the win at that point. Little did we know how badly their race
would go from there on out. One thing I wasn't sure about, and there was a lot made of the
communication between particularly Piazuri and the McLaren pit wall beforehand about whether
they had essentially made the wrong choice. I cannot for the life of me remember if this rule
was changed or not, but certainly a few years ago, it used to be the case that teams could not
give strategic advice to their drivers on the formation lap, and they had to make that call
by themselves. I remember the Hungarian GP, I think it was a few years ago, where some drivers came in
after the formation lap, and some of them were maybe penalized because their teams were essentially
telling them, you have to come into the pits because you're not allowed to do that. I thought
maybe it's still the case now because you didn't have McLaren outright saying come in a box. You
kind of have McLaren on those formation laps saying, this is the situation which they could get away
with. I don't know. I mean, if the rules are still in place, I feel like they rang a very fine line
because it felt very clear to me what was being discussed, you know, whether it was clearly
talking about tyre wear, tyre choice, sorry. It was clearly talking about the difference between
a slick tyre and an intermediate tyre. It was very obvious. If that rule is in place, for me,
they were in theory, have broken that rule because that conversation was very clear. But I would
maybe then err on the side of maybe the rule isn't in place anymore. To a degree, is there much
benefit in not being able to discuss tactics on a formation lap or strut? Who does it really add?
I agree with you on that. I do understand the intermediate cool in that, I think with how
cold it was, if they did have a bit of rain, I think that track would have just pretty much
remained damp for the entire Grand Prix. I know we had wind as well, but yeah, I think we could
have had that. It's not the same situation as maybe Miami where we've had rain before, but
it's so hot that as soon as that rain stops, like you're not going to be that far away from drives
again. This is one of those lingering rains that they could have just been on intermediates for
the rest of the race. I do get it, but it didn't work out at all. Lewis Hamilton was very, very
close to putting on the intermediate tyres. He had them on the car and swapped them out last
minute. Max Verstappen commented on that as well, which I thought was quite fascinating.
It does mean that McLaren lose a bit of ground to Ferrari in the constructors championship without
scoring any points whatsoever, of course. By my very quick maths, down 41 points to Ferrari now.
Ferrari 72 behind Mercedes, but they managed to make some headway into that advantage today by
five points. Ferrari are coming. We've got a title fight on someone's hands. That's the eight times
out of the last 10 McLaren haven't scored points at Canada. Really weird. I mean, some tracks we
see the cars have like a better time at. We used to comment Red Bull at Monaco in Mexico,
but that's a better time. Not often do you see a team so comfortably struggling more often than
not at this one race track. Indeed. What did you make of the midfield fights then? It was Alpine
that eventually won that midfield fight with Franca Colopinto ahead of Liam Lawson ahead of Pierre
Gasly. So double points for Alpine Gasly having a bit more work to do maybe to get back into that
position. But Alpine, similarly to Miami, seemingly still Kings in the midfield right now.
Yeah, I think actually it's a real shame that Limblog was unable to run the race. We saw that
issue on the starting grid that meant he was unable to get going. I do think with the pace that Lawson
had shown that there was a real chance that we could have had a really good four way car fight
between the racing balls and Alpine, because seemingly their upgrades have worked to real
treats coming to the Canadian GP and they are back in that midfield mix. Whereas in Miami,
they were quite comfortably out of it. So it's a shame. I'll give some praise to Colopinto though.
I know we had the instinct with the pit wall. I do think those hard tyres might have been so cold
that he was unable to just keep the car in line. A mistake is a mistake. But regardless of that,
he has been phenomenal. Really brilliant. The last kind of four or five competitive settings and I
include Miami in that as well. He has been better than Pierre Gasly and Gasly had some work to do.
He had to work through a lot of cars and there were some pitters going on. Of course,
the intermediate tyres that made his life a little bit easier. But it's not easy out there.
He really made it work. I think it's a real shame he wasn't actually able to get past
Lawson because I really put the cherry on the top of a really good race we came for him.
But Alpine can be very happy, I think, to walk away with sixth and eighth place after a really
difficult and tumultuous weekend for a lot of different teams.
Well, I think we maybe mentioned this after qualifying possibly when we were talking about
Collopinto essentially doing what he could do to get into the top ten. In the end, he didn't
even need to make his way past Limblud because of what happened before the race start. But we
kind of felt that Alpine had the race pace advantage, even if racing balls had the qualifying
advantage and being so close to Limblud would mean that if he could get by quite quickly,
he could then settle into ninth place and then just see where the race takes him in terms of
DNFs and weird things that happen. Today is one of those days where they were rewarded for their
patience in that both McLarens didn't score and we had that Russell retirement too. So ninth place
becomes sixth place, two points becomes eight points and Collopinto's tally for the season
suddenly looks a lot healthier. But he was great. As soon as he got through the start phase,
he was just able to kick on into the distance and didn't see another car for the rest of the day.
We've said this with a few drivers before as well that qualifying is often the moniker of if they
can have a good or a bad weekend. Collopinto is one of these drivers. If he qualifies well,
he gets away for a lot of the midfield rubbish that goes on between 15th to 10th. He's typically
able to then kick on and have a very competitive weekend. He's proven that here again in the main
Grand Prix by qualifying right next to those top ten runners. He's got past the trouble,
is able to have a settle into a lovely consistent Grand Prix. No battles going around him that
he needs to concern himself with scores and heat player points from the team. So great weekend.
Elsewhere in the midfield, Oli Berman and Haas managed to score one point for 10th place.
But he is behind Carlos Sainz, who was one of those ill-fated drivers that started on
the intermediate compound. Berman did not start on that and he's still lost out to him.
And Berman is very comfortably the faster of the two hash drivers on the day.
Haas hasn't been a good weekend for them whatsoever.
We are five races into this season and Williams were one of the laughing stocks of
this new regulation set five races ago. And now Carlos Sainz looks like he might be faster
than both of those hash cars around at least three last two races.
Yeah, I was going to say, is he ninth in three of the last four races? He was ninth in China,
he's ninth in Miami. He's scored in three of five now. More times than Ockong has scored
so far this season, which is not a good statistic for Ockong or for Haas. And Berman had to have
an almighty start to this Grand Prix to even become competitive for that points finish. He
absolutely sensed it at the start. A brilliant set of overtakes to get him into the points
paying positions. But Carlos Sainz does what Carlos Sainz does. He's quick to start with,
qualifies well, gets past the chaos and just consistent. So reliable is Carlos Sainz. So
does the job again for Williams. And that'll appreciate him for that, especially after what
happened to Alba, which no fault of his own, of course, but starting slightly further back means
he gets a bigger chaos throwing at him. Sometimes that doesn't go your way. So that'll appreciate
a couple of points on the board. Haas though, bit of turmoil.
Yeah, last point on the midfield just with Audi. They finally solved what to do on lap
ones. Start on the intermediate tyre. The problem is that strategy doesn't go very well after lap one.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. How does that work then? How does that work?
It doesn't. Yeah, they actually, I think Holkenberg actually, I can't believe I'm saying this,
made up one spot at the start today. And Bortoletto, I think, held position,
which is a miracle for Audi. And then the intermediate tyre needed to be replaced after
two laps. And it was, it was completely meaningless. One day they'll get it right.
The irony is, if they're starting on the soft tyre, they would have just gone backwards,
but they've gone overtaking all the intermediate ruggers anyway, so they can further ahead.
Oh, Audi. Before we go to our final break, shall we review our bold predictions? Because,
Sam, you were coming off a win at Miami by saying that the Colopinto would
essentially have a very good weekend managing to sweep top tens and in Q3s.
So a lot of pressure on you this time out. Remind us what your bold prediction was.
I said at least up to eighth place in the main Grand Prix would be lapped by the leader.
You've essentially managed to predict something and then like five times that thing has happened.
Like, obviously, it's so rare you get this many people get lapped. And then, of course,
the day that I predicted it's a bold prediction, it almost feels not that bold in comparison to
what genuinely happened. Well, I think maybe the boldest element of it is that we have like an 80%
chance here of a safety car. And whilst we had a lot of yellow flags, we had a lot of VSCs,
we didn't get a safety car. I was waiting for that safety car to come out and then all to go
back through. And I thought, I was going to be honoured if it wasn't at the line, at the finish
line, I wasn't going to count it. That's how we do these bold predictions. I feel like I got lucky
because, especially with Russell's, I feel like it could have been a safety car.
Yeah, yeah, I figured that might be. But they kept it away and gives you a second point of the
year. My bold prediction was that Max Verstappen would win a race this weekend, sprint or the main
race. I was essentially looking for one of two things, a much improved Red Bull or rain. And I
think that Verstappen was P2 as soon as Russell's power unit went boom. And I thought, well, that
could be a Mercedes issue rather than a Russell issue. The second one happens again. Yeah,
there's a, I did think there's a real chance you could be on for this, but unfortunately,
hitting the goal post again. Yeah, never mind. And I'll remain on zero points.
Let's take our final break on this episode on the other side, Moment of the Race.
Sam, have you heard about the Scandinavian luggage brand that everyone seems to be talking
about at the moment? You must be talking about DB Journey. I've seen loads of their backpacks
and luggage and airports recently. Yeah, same. And I don't think that's set to slow down either,
with their Ramwerk Alluline having just launched. It's the world's first infinitely
repairable luggage on the market made using entirely custom made components.
I can't say enough good things about it. The aluminium shell feels incredibly solid,
and the custom centre frame, the edge frame design makes it feel properly durable without
being awkward to travel with. I love how quiet the wheels are. It's not something you immediately
think about when you're hauling around bad luggage until you make the switch to DB Journey.
At first, it feels like something's missing. And then you realise what you're missing is
that annoying noise. You know me, Ben. I go through life with one motto. If something's
good enough for Valtry Bottas, it's good enough for me. He's using DB Journey Gear all the time,
and it's not just Bottas either. They're also the official luggage partner of Alpine.
Very true. Now, DB's Ramwerk luggage is rarely discounted, but you lovely listeners can get
an exclusive 15% discount code across the entire site. All you need to do is go to dbjourney.com
and use the code BREAK15. That's B-R-A-K-E-1-5.
Welcome back, everyone. At Moment of the Race, we've got some discourse submissions coming up
in just a moment's time. Before we do that, Sam, what was your moment of the race?
Historically, I am known for enjoying a tyre or two spontaneously combustion on the side of the
car. Flashback to Sebastian Buemini in the Chinese Grand Prix. Today, we got a little
taster of that once again, as Sergio Perez was cruising into the pit lane at his right tyre and
just said, bye-bye. I just fell off the car. The thing is, if it happened to any other team,
I'd have been like, oh, my God, it was Cadillac. I was like, oh, it took a miss long, didn't it?
It's about time that that fell off the car, everything else has.
Yeah, that was odd. Fungy, fungy, harmless.
Yes, fortunately, absolutely harmless. I'm glad that maybe Perez's experience really paid off
there and he knew he had an issue with going into the pits, because if that happens at 200 miles
an hour, like 500 meters back, yeah. At my moment of the race, I don't have a few here,
and I don't know which one to go for. I'm going to go with, no, I want to pick one just in case
we get some of these pop up from the submissions. I'm going to go with a new character that I'm
calling Prison Russell, which behind the fence, it looks like he's in Fox penitentiary with Michael
and Link the Sink, but yeah, I absolutely love that. I'm really enjoying the Anglican Skywalker
Sith comparisons to George Russell. I was so angst on the dark side.
I used the force to absolutely yeet that headrest out of there, right?
Oh, God, yeah, I've been fair playing. If you're going to do it, do it chromatically.
Yeah, so I went with, I know it was unfortunate. I do genuinely feel sorry for him, but Prison
Russell wins. What about our Discord submissions though? Thank you so much to everyone who's
put a submission in. We've got a lot of you that have submitted, so we'll try and get through
as many as we can. We're going to start with a favorite of ours, Norm from Texas.
Oh, hello, my late breaking friends. Norm from Texas here trying something new.
When did the Canadian GP decide to have hands? Also, shout out to the Marshall who dove through
that on track window like he was trying to audition for a Wachowski movie. Anyway, keep
breaking my great shout on the Marshall. Absolutely like tumble rolling through the
tiny little window like he's like a Michigan possible movie. Yes. Yeah, some slick work.
Thank you very much, Norm. Let's go on to Obi-John Kenobi.
My moment of the race is when Charlotte Clairsus was engineer. Can we please just stop talking
till the last lap, please? That was one of my contenders and not only for the team radio
aspect of it, but also for the when he spins aspect. I just imagined him just going, I'm not
going to say anything now you spun. Yes, the engineer sat there like, mm-hmm. You could deal
with that by yourself. Yeah, it's what actually a Darmie is the new engineer for La Clair we
go to Kate Durante. Hi, guys. This is Kate Traxide in Montreal. Hope everyone enjoyed
the race. We loved a good masterclass between Max and Louis to keep breaking leaps.
We absolutely. It's always great to hear a Traxide. We love a Traxide submission and
yeah, very jealous of you managing to get front row seats to that Verstappen and Hamilton battle.
So soon after the Antonelli and Russell battle, you were absolutely spoiled. Thank you so much for
taking time out of your post race data to get the submission in. Let's go to game more next.
First time submission here. I feel like I have to call out the journalistic integrity of this
podcast. In the pre race show, a groundhog in Canada was told that he might be able to survive
an encounter with a Williams and that was a lie and he has perished. Do better guys.
I game more. I'd like to applaud you on your non-biased attitude towards this show.
Applaud you for holding us. Let's say holding us. Holding Ben, accountable. Ben, any words?
That groundhog had it coming for it. Oh, no. Oh, no. The whole of Canada is now angry.
Thanks, Game More. I just really appreciated the way he went and he perished.
That's the fact. My apologies to the groundhog that I have inadvertently
sent to the grave. Bless up. Yeah. Let's go to RAF Next.
The race definitely shattered to the ND 500. Might have been the best race I've ever seen in my life,
but that's not F1. So another race from the Canadian Grand Prix was definitely Lewis's
move on Max, pure filth. I think I need to take a shower. Great race though.
Yeah, fantastic move. Good to see those two big boys at F1 go at it will to will.
Yeah. I often say this about the Stappen and Hamilton battles where
there is so much attention to the ones that didn't go well. There are many that did go well in that
they are really entertaining. And this is one of those. So yeah, great shout from us.
Did you watch the 500? I didn't watch the 500. No, annoyingly.
Yeah, I was the same. And then I was really annoyed that I probably could have got it
in before the race started as well. Yeah, I was too busy watching Formula 2 be Formula 2.
Ah, I was just really sweaty from the boat trip that I went on.
Sweaty boatman. I was a swamp. Cheers, Shrek. Let's move on to Hazer.
All right, boys. Moment of the race for me and Northern George. We've had a beer.
My moment of the race was McLaren starting on Inters for some reason, even though the track
was dry. George? Franco Colpin on P6. So the winter of all winters and it's proving it now.
Can't argue with that. Cheers, boys. What a great winter.
The best winter. He might be the winter soldier at this point.
He might just be. I do have to ask Hazer and George a question, though, because they very
specifically said they've had a beer. I don't believe you've had a beer in the singular form.
No. No, no, no. It's not how Hazer and Northern George roll. Where are we? Let's go to Jaffonator next.
Hey, guys, it's Jaffonator. My moment of the race was definitely the contrast between
George's tantrum and Landon Norris looking like Paul Atreides walking through a big crowd of people.
Pretty wild to see the difference between the way these two guys have handled going out of races.
I mean, Paul Atreides' reference on the show is unusual, but pick up and do.
I would argue that while he's in a championship fight, it just hangs,
dreams dash. The other one's like, I'm already a world champ, so I just wave at the crowd.
And Norris is just Austin, 11th place finish here. I think you'll probably be all right after that.
Yeah. It was an interesting scene, though, wasn't it, where you had all of the crowd
almost on top of Landon Norris. It was kind of scary, actually, how much access they had to someone.
I fully respect the people of good people. It takes one person to not be good people,
and we have a problem on our hands. I guess a bit of a distance, I wouldn't mind it.
Yes. Penultimate one for the day, we've got stocks and albums.
Hey, late breakers, my moment of the race is David Croft completely unsure
about why Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg were in the same spot. Even he is so confused that
Gaston Martin is so slow that he didn't realize they could not lap twice. It's great.
What was that? You, sir, you, finger. What was he on about? What was he going on about?
He had a real hunker at some point to this one. You, sir.
There's a timing tower right there. It's not hidden.
What do you mean, though? It's very confusing.
Yeah, very confusing. Yes, I'm sorry, folks. It's called a past midnight. I can't be dealing with
this. I can't be dealing with this. Right, let's finish off with Tim.
All right, boys, moment of the race comes after the race. It's Heiky Kovalainen.
Where have you been, mate? Brazilian Grand Prix 2013 was the last time anyone thought you,
in my bestie and right impression, someone told me you were dead.
Welcome back to the paddock, mate.
It's got such a baby face, that boy, but it was good to see him back.
I thought he was dead. I thought he was dead. It was nice to see Heiky Kovalainen, wasn't it?
It was very nice to see Heiky Kovalainen. I can't believe we're ending the review on this.
Why was Heiky Kovalainen there, really? I don't really understand it, but I'm here for it.
Yeah, just fancied it, didn't it? Thank you so much for all of those submissions.
Very much appreciated. Your next opportunity for those will be two weeks' time
when we do a moment of the race for the Monaco GP. We have got plenty of episodes between now and
then, though, Sam. We do, indeed. Thank you so much for your support. We'll be on Patreon tomorrow
doing our power rankings. We'll review every single performance of every single driver throughout
that race as well. Get in there. Get involved. We'd love to see you over there. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for sticking around with us, and we're back fully into F1 content time now, which is great
stuff. We'll see you then. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sange. I've been Ben Hawking. Remember,
keep breaking late.
About this episode
Wheel-to-wheel Canadian GP action takes center stage, with hosts praising “proper wheel-to-wheel” lead battles and explaining how Antonelli’s slipstream pressure and braking mistakes kept the fight alive. Russell’s power-unit retirement becomes the biggest swing, described as “a massive 25-point swing,” reshaping the title math heading into Monaco. They also dig into tire behavior, why durable tires reduce strategy variety, and how Hamilton’s Ferrari weekend and turn-one pass stood out despite radio confusion. Penalties and sprint-weekend dynamics round out the review.
Montreal madness! Ben and Sam break down the thriller packed with penalties, retirements, epic wheel-to-wheel battles, and of course a shock DNF that could prove costly for one side of the Mercedes garage in the championship fight...
