The Ferrari 456 M GT is a luxury-style Ferrari coupe made for long drives. It’s powered by a V12 engine and is designed to be comfortable while still feeling fast. It may come up in podcasts because it’s a well-known older Ferrari model from a particular time period.
The front row is where the top two qualifiers start—first and second. It’s helpful because you’re near the front and less likely to get boxed in right away.
SQ3 is the last part of sprint qualifying. It’s where the quickest drivers go to set the best times and improve their starting position for the sprint.
A lockup happens when the brakes are so strong that the wheels stop turning and start sliding. That usually makes the car lose grip, which can slow you down—especially before a tight corner.
A hairpin is a very tight corner where cars slow down a lot. If something goes wrong or goes right there—like braking behavior—it can strongly affect the lap time.
Term
Q3
Q3 is the last and most important part of qualifying. It’s when the fastest cars set their final laps to decide the top starting spots.
Porpoising is when the car starts bouncing up and down like a wave. It can happen at speed when the car’s suspension and the air under the car don’t stay stable.
The rear wing is the big aero fin on the back of an F1 car. It helps press the car onto the track for grip, and they’re talking about a noticeable design gap/shape on Red Bull’s wing.
Magnesium is a very light metal. Race cars sometimes use it to save weight, and if something goes wrong with a magnesium part, it can cause a big problem fast.
Sprint qualifying is a shorter race that decides where cars start for the main race. If something goes wrong in that sprint, it can really hurt your chances for the weekend.
“Top 10” means finishing in the first ten positions. In qualifying, that often matters because it can decide who gets to keep going or improve their start position.
A red flag is when officials stop the race/qualifying because something unsafe is happening on the track. It can mess with timing and strategy, especially if it comes out before drivers finish their laps.
SQ2 is the second part of sprint qualifying. If you don’t do well enough there, you don’t get to the next segment, which affects where you start the Sprint.
Sidepods are the body panels on the sides of the car. Their shape affects how the car cools its engine and how slippery it is through the air.
Term
EUO regulation
They’re talking about a new rule (EUO) that might change how teams build or tune their cars. When rules change in racing, it can help some teams and hurt others depending on how they adapt.
My guy's done like four laps in total this weekend.
I did actually want to shout out Franco Colopinto, which despite it being a far worse result for
Alpine than what we saw in Miami, of course, Colopinto, as you very well remember,
based on your bold prediction, was consistently in that top 10.
Colopinto didn't set a lap in practice, and he was really struggling from the off to make sure
that that wasn't a disadvantage. And he's there in 13th. He's competitive.
I mean, you could say, I'm making sure, I was a bit gutted for Gaston,
I'm very interested to see where he was. He could have got a lap in sooner that meant that
with the red flag, he was already outside of the bottom four, right? That would be a living
idea, because obviously we lost Alpine and Lawson. If you get your lap early, you do a good
enough job. When red flags come out, you don't got to worry about it. As we saw with the likes of
Fernando Alonso, who technically made it through to SQ2, even though he was the one that had the
incident, it's going to go in that we don't have the rule when you get eliminated yourself if you
bring out the issue. But you've got to get the job done, and you've got to get the job done as
soon as possible, otherwise you will fall foul to somebody else's mistake, especially at a track
like Canada, which alongside himself, when you make a mistake, there's walls. You will be out.
What about Audi? They're 11th and 12th, Hülkenberg just ahead of Bortoletto.
Are there two drivers, two teammates on the grid who are closer than Hülkenberg and Bortoletto
on an average? It always feels like they are separated by half a tenth of a second.
When the car works, they seem to just be glued to each other, which is great. I mean,
the Audi picked a lineup that could do the job for them. I do wonder if there's a driver out
there who would be able to do a good enough job to get that car into Q3. For example, if you're a
skick, Charles Leclerc in that car right now, is he able to elevate to where Carlos Sainz is?
It's not a small game, but it's something that might be able to be done. But you can't ask for
too much more when you've got two drivers in the car, you're looking for development,
there's a tricky midfield battle going on, they're 11th and 12th. One thing happens in front and
they're into the top 10 very easily. I think they can put themselves on the back and be all
right. They just need to start having better starts to their races. As you mentioned a little
while ago, they've lost the most places on that one out of any team. They need to mitigate that
problem because otherwise it doesn't matter where they qualify or how good these drivers are.
Yeah, they just feel like they're on the cusp still. I say still, we haven't had that many
races yet, but it feels like they are quite consistently there or thereabouts and just
need that extra five percent. I am really glad they're there or thereabouts though. There was
a real risk with this Audi team, with their own engine, them being experimental with their side
pod design. We could have had another Aston Martin where they were going to be back there,
driving around with Cadillac and not really being a part of this show that we've got at the moment.
And they haven't. They've done a brilliant job at adapting and bringing this team in. They lost
Wheatley within what a race of the season for crying out loud. So they've had to deal with a lot
of different things going on. But, you know, element issue with trust and I believe it's all
going the right way. So, well, now they keep it up. They will be, I think they'll get their double Q3
soon then. At some point. And you think as well with them, if they had been struggling this year
with what we know with Cadillac and what we know with Aston Martin, these SQ1 and Q1 sessions,
they haven't been brilliant anyway because of that. We would just know going into all of these,
okay, there's the six they're eliminated. Exactly. Let's get to Q2.
You almost have to just say don't bother with the first session at that point, right?
Yeah. So I'm glad like you are that they are. They're more competitive than that.
Ocon and Bearman 14th and 15th. I think the worst part is they brought upgrades and they
haven't delivered so far anyway. Yeah. And they have had one practice session. They might work
sooner rather than later. We don't know. But racing balls, they seem to have had upgrades
that will work straight away. Has haven't. The issue for Haas as well is out of all these
midfield competitors that they're around, excluding Audi from this situation, their engine is the
worst out of the lot, right? The racing balls have the full power training in it, which if
rumors are true, it is right up there with the Mercedes engine. Alping and Williams are both
carrying the Mercedes engine as we know is very powerful. The Audi actually could be faster
for all we know. Then the Ferrari engine just might start as well. We need to see the analytics
when it comes to this EUO regulation that might or might not come through. So Haas are already
on a power deficit. And if they can't get the upgrades to work on the shatty side of things as
well, they're fighting a looting front on both levels there. So I do think they're struggling.
I'm hoping that the upgrades come good once they've had a bigger running time to adjust them.
Because 14th and 15th, it's almost slightly flattering when you consider
Lawson and Albin definitely would have had the opportunity to out qualify them if they matched
their teammates or even come close. I think for sure they lose one of their drivers in SQ1 if
everyone is running. Gasly, if he gets a lap together. It's true. I think they've really,
they are maybe the best benefitters out of the problems that came in the start of qualifying.
And that leads me quite nicely on, actually, because I'm going to say it very quietly. I very
intentionally mentioned Lawson, Albin and Gasly there as three drivers that maybe could have
outqualified the Hasses. Alonso was looking all right. Alonso was constantly outside the
elimination zone. He was, I think he might have just been inside the top 10 in practice,
or at least he was for most of the session. He was early in Q1 inside the top 10 as well.
It looks a bit better. I jokingly put in our discord and the links in the description if
you're enjoying it. I jokingly said, I wouldn't blame Alonso for causing a problem to stop the
session where he is convenient timing for everyone other than Alonso. I also, I'm not going to lie,
I felt a little gutted for Kegelak because it genuinely looked like they might be having some
time to play around with him. Paris was on a good run. Bottas was improving. I'm not saying they
get out of SQ1, but it would be great to have seen a full green session where they would show.
Yeah. They were only about 10th and a half off at that moment when the red flag came out.
So I've been really curious to see how they would have put their final maps together.
I know you mentioned it earlier as well. I am such a massive supporter of ensuring that drivers who
cause definitely a red flag, but honestly, I'm in favour of this for double wave yellows as well.
Drivers that cause red flags need, at the very least, their lap times deleted from the session,
or they get put straight to the bottom of the session that they're in.
Even if it's a flat five-place grid penalty or something, there needs to be some penalty for
crashing. I don't understand why we don't have it because not only do other big motorsport
series have this in the world, Junior Formula has this. Yeah. So it's almost exclusionary
just to F1 to not have it at this point. It's very unlikely that Alonso would have got much
further than 16th in this session if it was full green flag running. He might still have made it
to Q2. He genuinely had some all-right pace in that qualifying session. It's not like he was
thinking about making it to Q3. He probably was thinking about making it to Q3, but no one normal
was. Yeah, exactly. I think it's a shame that other drivers who have done nothing wrong
pay the price for other people's mistakes. Indeed. Anything else you wanted to chat about inside the
bottom six teams or so? The best thing about Langstroll is his helmet out of context, F1.
He's got a really lovely paint job. He's got a really lovely helmet.
Well, that's all I've heard. It's on Instagram. If you're going to look at it.
Oh, wow. How did he get that? I'm walking away further with this.
Okay. Pretty good idea. It felt like Stroll was struggling against Alonso earlier today.
He ended up six tenths off at the end, so weirdly that was better than it was looking earlier.
But six tenths has got to be what the biggest gap between teammates other than, I think,
Colin Pinkton and Gastly who didn't get the lapping is real. And considering that Stroll
was one of the two able to get a proper lap timing at the end, I was hoping we'd see some
Stroll magic, but it just never happened. No. And we know what Aston Martin's upgrade strategy is,
never bring any. Just never. Eventually, things go full circle and they will become the best car
just out of time. I like that theory. Driver of the session?
Driver of the session. Quite tempted to go Limblad. He really impressed me. Yeah, I am
going to go Limblad. I thought he was really great. Great step back from the racing balls.
And to be only a tenth away from your sister team, I thought was really brilliant.
Yeah, I think that's a fair shout. It is difficult with both Limblad and signs because
of the lack of teammates. But I'm going to go with Carlos Sines because I think
tenth place is actually pole position for that Williams right now. I don't think
realistically he could have got really anywhere close to the top nine in this session. And all
of these drivers were scrapping it out for P10 and he's the one that won it. So Russell,
of course, deserves a shout. Limblad But I'm going to go Carlos Sines.
That was a three for me as well. All right. Plenty more driver of the sessions to hand out
because we're going to be back tomorrow. Of course, Sam, we're going to be reviewing
qualifying. Sorry, we're going to be reviewing the sprint, first of all, and then we'll be
reviewing qualifying for the main Grand Prix on Sunday. Yeah, so those two are all into one episode.
So don't expect two review episodes qualifying and sprint going to one main race will be straight
with you again after the full Grand Prix on the Sunday. And if you think, oh, I'd like a little
bit more F1 content from the gorgeously handsome late breaking boys, well, then go check out
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We'll see you tomorrow in the meantime. I've been Samuel Sage and I've been Ben Hawking.
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About this episode
The Late Braking F1 Podcast opens with condolences for Kyle Busch, then dives into the Canadian GP sprint qualifying weekend. George Russell’s pole run anchors the Mercedes story, including how a spin in FP1 and a key improvement in SQ2 set up the result. The hosts weigh how close Kimi Antonelli was, why early SQ1 can mislead, and what start execution means for race day. They also break down McLaren’s late-session turnaround, Red Bull’s porpoising and gap changes under new rules, and midfield swings shaped by red flags, upgrades, and limited practice.
The weekend of action has kicked off in Montreal, and Ben and Sam are here to break down all the big talking points ahead of tomorrow’s sprint: from the impact of Mercedes’ upgrades through to Alonso’s costly mistake, and the return of Canada’s infamous groundhogs leaving one driver with plenty of work to do tomorrow...
