It means the driver won the race by starting first (pole) and then leading right from the start. “Lights” is the start signal at the beginning of the race.
“Chaotic” in an F1 context usually means the race had lots of unpredictable events—such as incidents, strategy swings, or safety-car periods—that disrupt normal racing order. The hosts connect this to weather expectations and what actually happened on track.
A “gridwalk” is when drivers walk around the starting grid area before the race, typically for media, sponsor, and fan interactions. It’s a common pre-race event in F1 weekends.
Stewards are the officials in Formula 1 who review incidents and enforce the rules. They can issue penalties, adjust race results, and investigate things like on-track collisions or unsafe conduct.
The pits are where the team stops the car to change tires (and sometimes do quick adjustments). If the pit stop is fast, the driver can gain positions.
Concept
first ever three Grand Prix in a row
They’re talking about a streak—winning three races in a row. In F1, that’s hard because races can change quickly due to strategy and on-track chaos.
Concept
360
A “360” is when a car spins all the way around. It usually happens when the tires lose grip, and it can drop the driver behind others.
Concept
second corner
The second corner is the next big turn early in the lap. Early corners are often crowded, so anything that goes wrong there affects lots of cars.
Pace management is about not just going flat-out all the time. It’s adjusting how hard you push so the car stays under control and you can keep strong speed.
Term
paddle problems
Paddle problems means the shift paddles on the steering wheel weren’t working right. Those paddles tell the car when to change gears, so problems can affect speed right away.
Some F1 weekends include a shorter “sprint” race. It’s used to set the starting order for the main race, so it’s a good preview—but it’s not the whole story.
Race management is about making smart decisions during the race, not just going as fast as possible. It includes knowing when to push and when to play it safe so you don’t lose positions.
Reaction speed is how fast the driver reacts when the race starts or when something changes. Even if someone reacts quickly, they can still lose time if the car doesn’t launch well or if the first part of the track is tricky.
Term
turn two and turn three
These are specific corners on the track. The hosts are saying the key moment happened as the driver moved through those corners while dealing with other cars.
Tyre management is about not destroying the tires too quickly. If you drive in a way that keeps the tires working well for longer, you can stay fast until the end of the race.
In Formula 1, drivers talk to their team over a live radio link while racing. “Team Radio” is that conversation you sometimes hear on TV right after a finish.
Qualifying is when drivers try to set the best single lap time to decide where they start the main race. If you qualify poorly, you start behind more cars and have to make up positions.
“Uphill start” just means the race got off to a tough start for them. Usually that’s because they started further back, so they had to work harder to get to the front.
Term
springing max for Stappen
The speaker is saying Norris had to avoid a risky move by Max Verstappen. It’s basically describing a moment where Norris had to steer around trouble to stay safe and keep his position.
“Outright race pace” means how quickly the car can go for the whole race, not just one fast lap. It’s about whether they’re truly quick from start to finish.
An undercut is a strategy where one driver pits earlier than another to use fresh tires and get ahead. If the timing is right, the earlier stop can beat the rival’s later stop.
Lando Norris is an F1 driver. The hosts are comparing his position and pace to what happened after the pit stops, to explain why Mercedes’ strategy worked.
That phrase means officials think the conditions could be dangerous. If the track is too risky—like being very slippery—they may change the schedule to reduce the chance of accidents.
Formula One is the highest level of car racing with teams and drivers competing on circuits around the world. The cars are very specialized, so weather like rain can change how they handle a lot.
That’s when the race happens in the rain. The track is slippery, so drivers have to brake earlier and be much more careful to keep the car under control.
They mean the race weekend is more often dry instead of wet. Wet weather makes the cars harder to drive because tires don’t grip the same way and braking is riskier.
The FIA is the organization that runs the sport’s rules and safety decisions. Here, they’re the ones who would judge whether weather is too dangerous to race.
They mean storms with lightning are dangerous for everyone at the track. Even if the rain isn’t the worst part, lightning can force officials to pause or delay the race.
They mean there’s a limited amount of time available to run the race. If weather causes delays, officials still have to fit everything into a set schedule.
They’re talking about very bad weather—rain heavy enough to make the track slippery. In F1, that affects how cars brake, turn, and which tires work best.
Starting second place means he began the race from the second spot on the starting grid. Where you start can make it easier or harder to control the early race and avoid traffic.
“Loops it” means the car spins or rotates out of control. If it happens coming out of a corner, it usually means the tires lost grip right as the driver tried to accelerate or straighten up.
An unforced error is a self-caused mistake. It’s not because someone else forced the issue—it’s usually the driver or team making the wrong call or executing poorly.
The throttle is basically the pedal that tells the engine how much power to make. If a driver is “too trigger-happy” on it, they’re giving too much power too suddenly, which can lead to losing control or making an error.
Tyres don’t stay perfect for the whole race. As they get used, they wear out and can lose grip, which makes the car less predictable and slower in corners.
When the track is unsafe, officials bring out a safety car to slow everyone down. Drivers may pit during that period because it usually costs less time than pitting under normal racing speed.
Tyre wear is how fast the tyres get worse as you drive. If there’s “lack of tyre wear,” it means the tyres didn’t degrade much, so the car stays grippy and fast for longer.
“Hard tyres” are the tougher tire option in F1. They don’t wear out as fast, so you can often run them longer, but they may not grip the track as well as softer tires.
“Strategically” means the team is making a plan for the race. Instead of just going as fast as possible, they choose when to pit and what tires to use to improve their overall result.
A “stint” is how long a driver stays out on one set of tires. Teams plan stints so the tires last long enough without losing too much speed.
Term
Leclerc and Russell
They’re naming two F1 drivers—Leclerc and Russell—who did a strategy move that worked. The speaker is using them as an example of how the race could have been played differently.
Sometimes teams think rain might be coming soon. Even if the track isn’t wet yet, that possibility can change when they pit and what tyres they choose.
Term
catch-up
“Catch-up” means how fast someone behind can make up time on the cars in front. It depends on things like tire freshness and whether the race strategy puts them in a better position.
In F1, “strategy” is the plan for when to pit and how to manage tires and timing. It can make a big difference in where you finish, especially when race conditions change.
Intermediates are special rain tires for “in-between” conditions—when it’s wet, but not a full downpour. They help the car grip better on a damp track.
Wheel-to-wheel incidents are when two cars are racing very close together and something goes wrong—like contact or a risky move. Officials then judge whether it was fair racing.
Concept
tuck in
“Tuck in” means sliding in behind another car to follow their line. It can make you faster or safer while you wait for a better chance to pass.
When two cars are racing side-by-side, they can get so close that the tires lightly touch. It’s not ideal, but a small amount can happen in hard racing.
“Passed by a lot” just means the driver got overtaken many times. In F1, that usually happens when their car isn’t keeping up or their tires/strategy aren’t working as well as the cars around them.
In F1, the “midfield” is the pack of teams that usually aren’t battling for the win, but also aren’t at the very back. Races there can be pretty unpredictable because small changes can make big differences.
Williams is one of the Formula 1 teams. Here, they’re talking about how a team like Williams has different goals and tactics than the cars fighting at the very front.
A “dive bomb” is when a driver brakes really late and then cuts into the corner to pass. It’s risky because there’s not much space to adjust if something goes wrong.
Car
Williams car
“Williams car” means the Formula 1 car from the Williams team. The idea here is that Williams probably won’t challenge Verstappen in a way that risks a collision.
“Hold their line” means the driver keeps the same track through the corner. When cars are racing side-by-side, it helps everyone stay predictable and avoid contact.
“Driver of the day” is a commentator’s way of picking the standout performer in that race. It’s based on things like how well they drove and how much they achieved compared to others.
Alpine is the Formula 1 team brand. The hosts are saying Alpine’s cars were faster than most of the other “mid-pack” teams, which helped their driver’s results.
Power Rankings are basically a “who’s doing best lately” list. They’re talking about a special episode where they rank drivers or teams based on how they performed.
Bargeboards are small aerodynamic parts on the front of an F1 car. They shape the air flowing around the car, and if they’re too wide, the car can be ruled illegal.
Back markers are the slower cars you have to pass while you’re trying to race for position. Passing them at the wrong time can make you lose time or get into trouble.
A “rookie mistake” means the driver made an error that’s more likely when you don’t have much experience yet. In F1, small mistakes can quickly turn into crashes.
A low-speed corner is a turn where the car isn’t going very fast. At those speeds, it’s easier to lose time or stability, so drivers have to be very precise with braking and steering.
In F1, rain can make the track much slipperier. That changes how tires work and can change when teams decide to pit, so it can help or hurt depending on the situation.
F1 tyres come in different “grip levels.” “Medium” is a middle option—usually good balance of grip and durability—so teams choose it based on how long they need the tyre to last.
“P6 and P7” are where someone finished in the race: 6th place and 7th place. Higher numbers mean a worse finish, and it matters because it affects points.
Penalties are punishments for breaking race rules. Even if a driver finishes 6th or 7th on track, a penalty can move them up or down in the final results.
Term
P3
P3 means third place on the race classification at that moment. The hosts say third was still possible, implying the drivers behind could still challenge for podium position.
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Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday.
Hello and a very warm welcome to the late-breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hawking, reviewing today the Miami Grand Prix.
A Grand Prix won by Kimmy Antonelli for Mercedes, so much of the same as what we had before this long break, Sam, and that's pretty much our review. Not much else to comment on.
Yeah, pole to lights, that wing with absolutely no drama in between. Not really worth coming back for, I suppose, is what I would have said if that wasn't an absolutely crazy Grand Prix we had at Miami.
I love that Kimmy Antonelli can't win a Grand Prix by just staying in the lead and there has to be chaos endlessly. We're taking it, but hey, it was good to be back. We had a good race.
I love that we were talking all week about how this could be an incredibly chaotic Grand Prix because of the weather and what we got was an incredibly chaotic Grand Prix without any rain whatsoever.
It was like, yeah, the weather forecast was determined to make sure Miami stayed boring forever and then, I don't know, some magic happened at the track. Maybe it was DJ Khaled.
I reckon it might have been DJ Khaled, you know, another one, another raindrop. What did you make of Martin Brundle referring to DJ Khaled as just DJ?
I like it. That's actually his first name.
He was Chris and DJ first name.
I like how he met DJ Khaled on his gridwalk and it wasn't the weirdest.
Sorry, what is going on with Jimmy Fallon on that walk? What was happening there?
There's some strong stuff in Miami. That's what I'll say.
Guys, eating microphone tops.
Again, there's some strong stuff going on in Miami.
Anyway, plenty to talk about on today's review. There's like 20,000 things that are being reviewed by the stewards, by the way.
So we've got something of an idea of what the top 10 looks like. Could be completely different by the time we finish recording this.
And who knows, with the way the stewards behave today, it might not be three weeks until we learn about what those things are anyway.
But shall we start out front with Kimmy Antonelli claiming his third race win in a row?
Had to work a little bit for this.
Didn't got one of his patented, not very good starts to the Grand Prix.
He didn't have the lead coming out of lap one, but was able to make his way past Leclerc via some strategy.
Was able to make his way past Lando Norris with Mercedes being very, very quick in the pits.
How impressed were you with what Antonelli was doing towards the end of that Grand Prix given?
This weekend hasn't gone absolutely to plan for Mercedes.
No, it's been quite messy. And again, as I mentioned in that opening segment there, it seems like Kimmy Antonelli can't actually do a first to finish race here.
We were seeing him win three in a row, the first ever driver to win his first ever three Grand Prix in a row.
In the sense of also being from pole, we saw that Hill, of course, and Hackingen had done it their first three.
We saw that Sengari Shumakura taken three pole, their first three poles in a row.
But Kimmy Antonelli stands alone is doing all three of those things combined, which is an amazing feat for such a young driver.
And you look at these races that he's had, none of them have arguably been simple.
Every single one has had some kind of chaos or hurdle to overcome.
And this one more so than ever it feels like.
The start is poor again. He gets off the line badly, not as badly as he did in the sprint race, which is lucky for him.
He's immediately having to go around the outside of one car.
He's then greeted by Max Verstappen doing a 360 in the second corner.
He's then got to do with the fact that all the other McLaren's around him are trying to swamp him.
That's chaotic. That alone is enough for such a young driver.
And he handles it well. He's immediately on the pace chasing down the McLaren and the Ferrari who managed to get around him.
And I do think he keeps up this high intensity, high pace management for the car, which was going through some difficulties throughout the entire Grand Prix.
The way that he had paddle problems, possibly some braking issues, possibly some gear shifting problems.
And yet the gap continued to extend on Landon Morris, who slowly and surely fell away as the challenge arose as the Grand Prix moved on.
I thought he was pretty phenomenal in the way that he handed things.
I think Mercedes fully had his back in making sure it kind of came true because it easily could have gone the other way.
I think it could have swung in Norris' favour. It didn't.
And actually Mercedes, they rose to the challenge and they really delivered.
Yeah. The only thing that's scarier than a good driver is a good driver that keeps learning because, as mentioned, this weekend wasn't...
It wasn't a disaster far from it, but it wasn't going as to plan as some of those other races we've had so far this year.
And we saw in the sprint race that Antonelli's pace was OK, but not great.
It wasn't like he was challenging the McLarens for the race win or second place.
But what we saw here was a much more complete performance.
Whereas in the sprint race, he panicked and had multiple instances where he goes off the track, picks up that penalty as a result of too many infringements.
Here, whilst he does, again, pick up a few track limits warnings, he doesn't go overboard.
He manages it from there. He does have some issues late on. He doesn't panic.
And that's got to be pretty scary for his teammate and all of his rivals in this championship that someone at 19 years old does feel like they're getting a lot more...
But he was going to say he's getting a lot quicker. He's just getting more composed as he goes.
And that's got to be quite terrifying.
Yeah, I think his biggest weakness was his composure. He would rush into things previously.
Or if there's a 50-50 choice, much like myself, he'd make the wrong one.
But now, unlike me, he has learned and seems to regularly be making the right one.
The way he's handling difficult situations is of the mindset of someone 10 years further into their career right now.
And that is marvellous because he started with all the right equipment.
Raw speed and unwillingness to budge, he was going to push himself through every single corner, every single race.
And now he's pairing that with the race management, the ability to think through problems properly, the ability to overcome adverse situations.
Will to Will Racing is improving, despite what Charles Leclerc wanted to say to him.
So it is genuinely becoming quite a formidable opposition, especially for George Russell, who must be absolutely furious inside that helmet.
You see the shots of him slowly turning more and more green throughout the season.
As in he's becoming more and more like Shrek.
Well, yes, literally becoming more. I don't understand what's happening with the camera, but he is becoming a deeper shade of green.
Oh, that well-known song, yeah, yeah.
Famous, the sequel of Deeper Shaker Blue.
Yes, very impressive from Antonelli. I feel like as well with the start, I know he again didn't get a great start.
And what we're constantly seeing, we have the timings with the reaction speeds.
He's there. Like his reaction speed is fine, but for whatever reason, him plus that car cannot do those first, I don't know, 100 meters very well.
To the point where I think when he was coming out of turn two and turn three in second place, with everything that was happening with Verstappen and a lot of drivers trying to avoid him.
I think if you'd offered him that before the race, he probably would have taken it.
Even with the pole position that he had to say P2 after the first couple of corners, it had gone, yeah, that's fine.
I've got what it takes. I can get myself back to the front after a little while and he did.
He really managed to gather himself up.
And I think I'm quite amazing. No one got collected by Verstappen, especially him.
He's there right in the firing line of his spin.
That's a good thing he went deep into the first corner of ways.
Realistically, that has inadvertently saved him from possibly being gathered by Max Verstappen.
Yeah. And it's interesting to see as well.
It's probably a good thing for him and his development and maybe for Mercedes more generally that whilst Antonelli has been very good so far to this point in the season,
it has mostly been Mercedes just being very comfortably better than all of the other teams and other drivers,
which is great. And I'm sure Mercedes would have been happy for that to keep going.
And maybe we return to that at some point. That remains to be seen.
But it's probably a good thing for Antonelli's development that he's really had to work for this race win
and start to put himself in some situations, race winning situations that maybe he hasn't been in before
and to not only be in that situation but to come out on top of it.
Very good tyre management I fought for the most part today.
And whilst maybe like Suzuki, he did need a little bit of good fortune
to at least steer him in the right direction towards victory.
Still got to be there to take it.
And him and Norris, they were a long way clear of anyone else.
I think they were more than 30 seconds clear of Piazzari further back at the end of the Grand Prix.
It was something along those lines.
I didn't have it noted down. I had it around 20 seconds, but it might be more.
He was more than 30 to his teammate, which, you know,
considering that we expected Russell to be the guy who was on top so far this season,
that is pretty special from a driver.
So inexperienced, especially right at the very top of a championship.
How does Lando Norris reflect on this one?
Because we obviously got a very raw reaction from him on Team Radio directly after finishing second here.
We know he won the sprint race that we had yesterday.
He led this race at one point.
He seemed to be quite disappointed,
thinking that the whilst McLaren had got themselves back into a better position
versus what they had in the first few races,
it was a race that was there for the taking.
Would you agree with him on that?
Fully would. Fully would agree.
And they struggled in qualifying.
So he had to really have a bit of an uphill start, but his start was very good.
You know, managing to get all the way into the top three positions very quickly,
dodging again the springing max for Stappen.
And I do think that on outright race pace across the entire Grand Prix,
especially against Anthony Elly,
it looks like the McLaren still isn't 100% up to speed with what the Mercedes is able to do.
So the ability to hold on to that Mercedes for that long, pushing him all the way,
and I mean literally all the way to the end of the Grand Prix,
shows that Lando Norris, when he gets a bit between his teeth,
when he's able to really get his head down and focus,
he's still got this absolutely brilliant pace.
And I think overall it was a very good race for him.
You could see his reaction after the Grand Prix.
You know, we should have won this.
He was swearing over the radio, he was really frustrated.
You could tell that he'd almost regretted what he was saying.
Maybe he's coming across too harsh with the, you know, our great progress.
It's good to see that we've made this step up.
You've got easy two minds. Totally get it.
And I think he's allowed to have that raw reaction on both sides.
Some people might slam him for being ungrateful,
but the point is, did the team cost him a race win here today
with a 3.7 second pit stop,
that was also caught out being undercut by Kimmy Antonelli,
where before that moment, he was in front of him.
And he was having a race that looked like Lando Norris
might have gone to actually win that Grand Prix.
So, yeah, I think he has every right to feel frustrated.
But equally, there's got to be a part of him that goes,
because of the team's efforts,
I'm in a position where I can be frustrated,
that I've just missed out on a race win,
because of a pit stop mistake, where we called it too late,
and the pit stop was a little bit slow.
So, it is two worlds, there are two sides of every story,
but I do think he's got a right to feel both ways.
And I think that will continue.
In the moment, it makes a lot of sense that he would be bitterly disappointed
that he couldn't claim this race win, because at the end of the day,
I mean, these drivers understatement, they're massively competitive,
and if there's a race win potentially in front of them,
they're going to be massively annoyed if it doesn't go their way.
And I don't think that will necessarily disappear in the coming days and weeks,
but I think when he sits down with it, and he's not in the heat of the moment,
he will see the progress that they've made.
This is a team that was struggling to start races in the first few Grand Prix of the year.
Here, not only have they well done started the race,
they finished the race and finished it very well.
And he raced very well.
As impressive as Antonelli was,
I think Norris was maybe as equally impressive as he was
in that you had the start, obviously, where Antonelli was ahead of Norris.
Norris had to get by Antonelli on pure pace in that first in, and he did.
He then had to hold off Antonelli in that first in. He did.
And whilst it would be easy to be critical of McLaren here
and getting undercut by Antonelli and Mercedes,
I'm actually going to lean more towards praising Mercedes on this,
because unless it was beaten very late on in this Grand Prix,
Antonelli's pit stop was the fastest pit stop of the race.
Antonelli needed to deliver an excellent outlap in addition to that excellent pit stop.
It's not like, as far as I remember,
it's not like Antonelli was half a second behind Landon Norris when he made that call.
It was actually a gap where you felt like Norris has probably got this in hand,
but the combination of those two things made it happen for Mercedes.
So maybe there is some blame to go on McLaren here.
I'm actually going more towards credit for the other team here.
Interesting. Yeah, I think we've criticised Mercedes a lot historically, actually,
especially up against Red Bull, about not being reactive enough,
actually not being proactive enough, sorry,
and rather being too reactive to teams around them or drivers around them.
We saw this. The biggest example might be Lewis Hamilton in Aberdeen 2021
where Max Verstappen managed to put on the right set of tyres
and Hamilton's course on an old set, and it costs you.
And it has cost them many a time in Grand Prix over the last decade,
and yet here they do seem to have made the right call,
which has allowed them to end up winning a race by a couple of seconds
over a fast-moving, very up-and-coming Landon Norris against McLaren.
It was a really enjoyable battle to watch.
I do think that it's Miami GP delivered a very fun race,
and I think that's a turnout for the books because it could have been wet,
it could have been boring, and yet we managed to get a little bit of in-between
where it was exciting enough to keep you interested.
You know, battles up and down the field.
There was a fight for the lead that went on for the majority of the Grand Prix,
and for the most part, everyone was all safe and happy.
Well, speaking of that, whilst we've got a little bit of time before we go to our first break,
I wanted to ask you about the decision as to why we're here
quite a few hours before we thought we'd be here.
The race was scheduled to – I'm going to use UK time, apologies –
the race was scheduled to start at 9pm UK time.
It was moved back three hours in the end.
What did you make of the decision, and do you think it was the right one?
Yeah, I believe it was going to be 4pm Miami time.
Which, OK, if it's health and safety, genuine health and safety risk,
it's very hard to argue against this.
You don't want anyone to get hurt because we've not bothered making a decision.
Equally, I am starting to err on the side of frustration with Formula One
and its safety concerns, especially around wet weather racing.
Wet weather racing is an integral part of Formula One.
It's crucial to make sure that it shows off best driver skill.
It does create exciting Grand Prix.
We get freak results, much like Holkerberg picking up a podium in Silverstone last year.
I do think that you see the Creme de la Creme, the absolute best of the best.
They rise to the top.
Yet, more and more often, we're becoming a dry weather sport.
If it was going to be so extreme and with hindsight, we can't really tell.
We don't know because we didn't go there, we didn't have it.
If the FIA told me, we've looked into the future, we had the wet race
and someone's car gets struck by lightning.
I'll go, all right, fair enough, don't want that.
Equally, I do think we're too adverse now to wet weather
and I do think we're too worried that someone might have a crash.
It's part of the sport. It's going to happen occasionally.
I think I love it for that reason.
Equally, I think a lot of people will forget that it's been moved
because we did end up having a very good Grand Prix.
I think my opinion is that I'm going to choose to believe
that their decision was based purely on the thunder and lightning risk
and not on the risk of heavy rain
because I'm with you when it comes to just heavy rain.
We should do everything we can to race in those conditions
until the point where it's just not doable.
But when it comes to thunder and lightning,
I understand there's an additional risk on top of that.
I'm generally okay with them pushing back the time
because it looked like we were going to get rain in the window we did race in.
We didn't in the end, but it didn't look like that was going to be the case.
I'm okay generally with pushing back the times a little bit
just based on this two-hour window we need to get F1 done in.
If we get to 4pm Miami time and that's when we start
and we can't get going at the time that we're scheduled to
because it's just too heavy
and then we don't have the daylight available to get those two hours in.
Everyone goes home incredibly disappointed.
At least when we're pushing it back three hours,
we are giving ourselves a bit more time to get those two hours in
even if it actually ends up happening at the same time as we were going to do it.
Anyway, that would be frustrating.
I appreciate, but they're giving the race every chance to go ahead.
If it was just a decision based on this heavy rain,
I don't agree with it, but I understand there was more play at least this time
compared to some of the other decisions we've had in the past.
Shall we go to our first break?
On the other side, we're going to be getting into Max Verstappen's race.
It could be a one hour segment.
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Welcome back, everyone.
As we're recording this,
Max Verstappen has finished P5 after starting second place in the Grand Prix.
Whether it is still P5 by the time you're listening to this,
who knows because there are multiple investigations going on,
not just concerning him but other drivers as well.
A very entertaining race,
whether it is for the right or wrong reasons,
I'll let you decide, Sam,
but should we start with the first quarter?
Seems to make sense to go in chronological order.
Massive spin for him.
Yeah, gets a good start.
Is able to get alongside Kimmy Antonelli.
You think, oh, okay, Max Verstappen is able to get away and lead the Grand Prix.
And the pace of that red ball,
you assume that there's a real chance he could go on to fight for the victory
with the way that he performed in qualifying,
and the sprint race was definitely improved.
And yet he absolutely loops it coming out of turn to a mistake
we so rarely see from Max Verstappen, especially in the dry,
where he has just spun entirely on his own.
Now, he's in slightly awkward circumstances, of course.
He's got Charlotte Clarke going around his outside,
and he's a little bit squeezed,
but he's well within track limits,
and Clarke has left enough of a space that he could get round him.
But there was, I think, the kerb caused him to be a little bit caught up
with the way that he's flashed on the accelerator,
which has meant that he's lit up the rears on the kerb,
done a 360 spin.
I disagree with Martin Brundle and his incessant comments
about how incredibly controlled and clever it was
the way he got back in the Grand Prix.
I do think that we shouldn't really be praising someone
for rectifying a problem that they caused entirely by themselves,
and I think this was a pretty poor mistake from Max Verstappen.
I think this was quite amateurish, and I think he gets away with it.
Every other Grand Prix, nine times out of ten,
someone drives straight into you if that happens, your race is over,
and you've taken someone else out of that Grand Prix with you.
Everyone did a brilliant job to avoid him.
He got back on the track, and then we saw a very eventful race afterwards,
where we'll get into those details in a minute,
but it was pretty chaotic.
Yeah, sometimes it's just OK to say a driver made a mistake.
It was an error. It was an error, plain and simple.
And sure, well done for him for keeping it out of the wall,
but if you're putting together a positive and a negative side
of this instance, there's a lot more on the negative side
than the positive side.
He's lost multiple spots as a result of an unforced error,
and it happens to many drivers up and down the grid today.
Leclerc obviously had one late on.
We had other incidents that we'll get to later on in the episode as well.
This was just an instance where he was a bit too trigger-happy on the throttle,
and Verstappen immediately knew that.
He came over to Team Radio to say, almost straight away,
sorry, guys, that was an error.
And it is uncharacteristic. We don't usually see it.
When you're like 99 races out of 100, you can have that one error.
It's totally fine. It happens.
Oh, well, shrug it off, move on with your life.
We don't have to plaster it up with ridiculous compliments.
He's a brilliant race driver. He made one mistake. We move on.
Do you think, because the incident definitely changed the strategy he was on,
and maybe saw some of the incidents he got into,
again, that we will discuss.
But in terms of just outright pace, do you think he could have been in the mix?
Yeah, I genuinely think he could have been in the mix.
I think that we're actually robbed a little bit of another contender
to be involved at least with the podium places properly, with the podium places.
Not as a sitting duck who was trying to conserve really old tyres
and trying to hang on to any position you can.
I love seeing Max Verstappen on the offensive.
I love it when he's going out there and he's attacking.
Not in a slightly reckless chaotic vibe that we got from this Grand Prix,
but in a, I've got the car, I've got the tyres.
I've just focused on the guy in front of me.
I'm going to take this place because we see some brilliant racing
from Max Verstappen in that attitude.
And yet we had that taking away from us a little bit because of the spin,
then the early pit stop under the safety car, of course, which meant that
I think he was back in sixth place twice in the space of about five laps.
He looked like he could really move through the field.
Now, I know he was going through the midfield.
We've seen a large deficit between the two.
But I think if you have a clean start and we saw the first 10 laps without problem,
there's every chance that I think he is beating,
Piastry Leclerc, Russell, that fight that was happening,
which he ended up just kind of being around because of the lack of tyre wear.
So yeah, disappointed that we weren't able to actually see him fight for it properly.
I'm pretty convinced he had the pace for third.
I'm pretty convinced by that.
And whether he had the pace to challenge Norris or Antonelli,
I'm uncertain, but it wouldn't have shocked me based on what we saw
from his pace in the sprint yesterday quite late on.
And we saw it in part during this race as well.
Like you say, it was more difficult to judge
because those hard tyres he was on, he was trying to nurse to the end
and we never really saw just equal tyre versus Antonelli or versus Norris.
But he showed quite a bit in glimpses today.
I think that spin has ultimately cost him a podium
and maybe even something a little bit better than that.
It's a bit of a shame.
Where we had Antonelli and Norris,
you have to remember Antonelli strategically, of course, lap 26,
he came into the pits to go from medium to hard tyres.
Norris goes in the next lap.
Even if Verstappen was in that third spot
and maybe didn't quite have the pace of those two,
that would have opened up strategically
for him to do something a little bit different,
maybe go a bit longer on that stint
or even try and do something like Leclerc and Russell did.
We can go a bit earlier,
but maybe not have as much traffic to go through
to the point that maybe he could have made that work.
It would have been a lot more interesting to see him in that fight.
Yeah, I'd like to see him hang it out on the mediums tyre
where clearly it was good for him, the hard tyres last a long time.
So on the mediums, it might have been great to see it.
If a late safety car comes out,
we might see Verstappen having to defend from the lead
rather than try and come all the way back through
or sit on old hard tyres.
We saw it in the sprint. His best pace was late in that stint.
Of course, it's the equivalent of about one-third of a Grand Prix.
He was the one chasing down the likes of George Russell
in that sprint late on.
So there's every chance it could have worked the same way,
where even if he didn't have the pace to match Norris and Antonelli
early in the stint, maybe he could have done it late on.
There was a lot going on in Verstappen's race.
We saw him pit for those hard tyres quite early.
Do you think it was the right call?
Yeah, I think so.
I think so.
Realistically, they tried to do something else.
When we had the threat of rain coming on,
they were hoping that they could make up enough ground
on this fresh set of hard tyres
that it meant that either they could see out the lighter rain,
what others might have had to stop in tricky conditions,
and the hard time might have lasted longer than they expected.
Or it meant that they were able to use such great pace
that they could undercut everyone to such an extreme level
that the catch-up at the end of the Grand Prix might have been much harder.
I'm not saying that it was completely the right decision,
on the other hand, because Verstappen was clearly showing great pace
moving through the field.
Even though there were some complaints from the Williams drivers,
it felt like he was able to really side his way through,
reassert himself back into the top ten very quickly,
and with the safety car bringing the field back together,
it felt like he almost had a second lease of life
to kind of attack again that top six or seven.
I think he still beats Lewis Hamilton with the damage that he had,
for example, regardless.
I don't think he was going to lose out too much there.
So I would have liked to see him try, but it is the safe option,
and I think it was sensible for him to stop.
I think it's one of those where, regardless of what he did,
he'd have ended up in the same place.
I could see as an instance where he stayed out
and he didn't pit under the safety car
and actually just had the pace to legitimately beat
the couple of cars in front of him,
in which case that roughly gets him back to where he is anyway,
whether he would have been able to beat Piastri
on that strategy, for instance.
I don't know.
But I understood what Verstappen and Red Bull were going for.
At that point, we were still unsure
whether we were going to get any wet weather a bit later on,
whether that was on lap 25,
that first range that we were looking at,
or indeed later on, which was looking at about lap 40,
which seemed more likely and was going to be heavier.
At that point, it didn't look like anyone on the mediums
was going to hang out for that sort of game.
In which case Verstappen might have been able to undercut them all
and then when they all needed to come in for intermediates,
he could have been leading the way.
I don't mind what they were trying to do.
It was worth a go at that point.
In terms of his multiple wheel-to-wheel incidents,
if we were removing the start obviously from that,
since we've discussed it,
is there anything you felt was overboard?
It's always tough with Max Verstappen, isn't it?
He was aggressive out there.
He was aggressive out there.
There are a few moments where I'm thinking,
yeah, he's going to tuck in here.
Oh, no, he's gone for another lunch.
He's just absolutely sent it.
I really brought it up,
but it felt like the Williams team were definitely
one of the more worse off when it came to the Max Verstappen
onslaughts of moving through positions.
I do think he probably pushes the track limits a little far,
especially around a track like Miami
where the walls are so close.
It could be a little bit uncomfortable at times,
but equally, he knows his limits.
He knows his rulebook, and it's rough,
and it's ready, and wheel-to-wheel rubbing is racing,
and I don't hate it.
This is the thing.
I don't hate it, and I want drivers to be aggressive.
I want them to be assertive and clinical.
There are just a couple of moments where I think
you've probably slightly passed the line there a little bit,
although there was one comment from Crofty
that really made me laugh.
Classic Crofty as well, where he goes, you know,
Max Verstappen is a veteran driver now.
He's got great experience,
and he knows that fighting Charlotte Clair
is actually going to end up damaging his race,
so he won't do that at all.
Proceeds to fight Charlotte Clair through that single row.
I'm like, do you know what you're looking at?
That man fights for everything to a nail,
and I respect that about him,
but it did damage his Grand Prix.
He then gets passed by a lot.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's hard to pick up.
What did you think?
What did you think about the Williams stuff?
You're always on the edge of your seat with Verstappen, aren't you?
You are.
He is a positive for this sport.
I will always maintain that,
because you don't quite know what you're going to get,
which, hey, entertainment, that's kind of why we're here.
I think the issue that maybe the midfield has,
and I understand it,
if you're in the position of the Williams,
say Carlos Sainz-Soup himself had a bit to say
on Team Radio about this,
they're running their own race,
they're not competing with Verstappen,
and Verstappen knows that.
So Verstappen is essentially happy to go into these corners,
dive bomb, not leave any room on the outside,
knowing that the Williams car
or any other car in that situation
is ultimately just going to back out,
because their choice is either crash,
which just doesn't help Verstappen,
but equally Verstappen knows they're not going to do that
because it doesn't help them at all,
given Williams have barely got any points so far this year,
but equally, he will keep doing that
if no one stands their ground
and decides to hold their line in a corner
and go side-by-side racing with him.
So as long as he can get away with it,
he's not going to stop doing it.
As soon as there's a crash,
like if Carlos Sainz, for example, decides to race him side-by-side
and Verstappen has contact and one of them's in the wall,
at that point Verstappen might get a penalty,
but he knows it's not going to get to that.
Equally, the one time that it felt like
there might almost be a crash,
where I think it was a Williams
that cut just back home front of the track
as they were going past the pit entrance.
What I hate this, what I respect about Max Verstappen
is I hear a complaint from him when that happened.
Oh, he said something about that.
Oh, did he?
Take it all back, little winch bag.
Don't do it if you don't like it.
Yeah.
I think at that point as well,
he was so determined to just cut through the midfield
as fast as he could.
Not saying it's everything was acceptable because of that,
but that was his mentality, wasn't it?
I need to clear these cars as fast as possible.
He saw them as an obstacle, not as competitors.
It's the wrong way to go about it.
Shall we have a look?
A driver of the day.
The verdict is in.
You're the driver of the day.
You're the driver of the day.
You're good at driving.
I love anyone who listens just to race reviews, by the way,
because they're probably thinking we're massively negative
about Verstappen, completely ignoring the fact
that we've been heaping praise on him
for the rest of the weekend.
He did get driver of the day from the public vote,
which did pull up the slightly amusing graphic
of started second, ended fifth.
But who are you giving driver of the day to?
I've got three contenders, I think.
Three.
There he is.
Antigali, Landon Norris, and Colopinto is the people on my list.
I'm not going for Colopinto because he was great.
It's his highest place to finish a Grand Prix,
but there were some mitigated circumstances
that I do think benefited him,
despite having a very consistent, strong Grand Prix
in the middle of nowhere.
And I'm not going to give it to Kimi Antigali either.
He had a couple of track infringements.
The start wasn't fantastic, but his race management was great.
I mean, outright pace was brilliant.
I think the cars were stacked against Landon Norris,
and I think that actually a car that wasn't as quick,
with a pit stop that wasn't as quick,
in a position that was hurled up further back,
he put up a real aginuing attack, offensive, when that leaned.
And I think he kept Kimi Antigali under pressure,
the entire Grand Prix, and I was really impressed
with what he was able to do in that car.
So for me, I've got Landon Norris.
They were the three names that I highlighted as well.
I think they were the three best on the day.
Colopinto, like you say, it sounds weird.
He might be held back slightly by Pierre Gasly
not being in this Grand Prix, because if Gasly's in that race
and Colopinto beats him by 10 seconds,
that really bolsters his claim to be driver of the day.
But ultimately, because Alpine were clear
of those other midfield cars,
he just barely saw him all afternoon,
because he was just running his own race.
Incredible to him.
He's picked up four very valuable points for the team.
But that's why I'm not going to go with him.
I'm going to go with Antigali,
but it's close between the other two.
I think they were, again, a long way clear of everyone else.
They were the class of the field in this Grand Prix,
where others were making errors,
getting involved in battles maybe they didn't want to be involved in.
They were sailing off into the distance.
I'll go Antigali for the way he managed it late on,
but it's close between those top two.
Wouldn't be surprised if they end up with a very similar grading
on tomorrow's Power Rankings episode
that you can find exclusively on our Patreon.
Hell yeah, and you can be involved in.
Don't forget that there is a Patreon member's vote
for each ranking as well.
So how have you say, get involved.
We love your involvement on this show.
As you'll find out at the end of this episode
with Mountain with a Race.
Indeed.
What about Worst Driver of the Day?
Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin.
Worst Driver of the Day.
Bin, bin, bin, bin.
Worst Driver of the Day.
Bin, bin, bin.
You suck at driving.
A few retirements in this one.
Sam, a few instances of a teammate finishing quite a long way behind.
Where are you going with this one?
Worst Driver of the Day is sometimes tricky to pick out, isn't it?
Because like, for example, I haven't given it to this person.
Let's take Charles Leclerc, for example,
leading the race at one point,
and then he speaks and hits the wall
and ends up dropping multiple dishes at the end of the Grand Prix.
And that's a pretty costly mistake,
which is entirely on himself.
And yet, he doesn't even come close to me.
The person that does, though, is Isaac Hatcher,
who has had a pretty tough weekend.
You know, he was disqualified from qualifying
due to his bargeboards being about, what,
two millimetres too wide, which is tough.
That is tough.
But then, only a few lapsing after what looked like
it could be quite a promising start for him,
getting past the immediate and obvious back markers,
he drives straight into the wall,
entirely on his own, unprovoked, unchallenged.
And that is just a rookie mistake.
He was having a bad weekend anyway,
when he was already a second behind the staffing and the qualifying,
you know, and then a tenth behind the staffing
and the other qualifying,
no points really to be scored elsewhere.
Yeah, it's been a rough weekend,
and that really was the cherry on the top of the cake.
Yeah, it's Hatcher.
There can be a few drivers that are thankful for Hatcher
and have avoided potentially being in the discussion
for this vote, because Hatcher crashed by himself.
Unfortunate error from him,
and we forget sometimes with how fast they're going
for even these low speed corners,
how marginal it is,
but ultimately, all of these other drivers
are doing this lap after lap after lap,
and Hatcher has made that error without,
I don't want to say without reason,
but it's not like he had someone side by side
with him in that corner or anything like that.
So yeah, he's easily his toughest race in a Red Bull so far,
frustratingly for him on the weekend
where Red Bull have showed the most so far.
Which maybe says something that the car is going away
from the second driver's seatability again.
We'll see when we get to Canada.
Big brain strat.
I'm going to jump in here and go with
Fernando Alonso just praying
that it's going to rain at some point.
In his car doing a whole rain dance
just to make something happen.
He was out there so long on those medium tyres
hoping that it was going to rain,
and what does he gain from doing it?
Like, nothing?
He beats Peres who was going to be anyway.
I feel so bad for him, man.
So bad for him.
But why not?
Why not, I guess?
What was your big brain strat?
I'll come back to the OGs, of course, Ferrari.
It's always good to give them something.
And they are the creators of the big brain strat for a reason.
But the reason to pit Charles Leclerc
without telling Charles Leclerc
that you're going to pit Charles Leclerc
and him understanding why Charles Leclerc has been pit
is quite comedic.
I am here.
Really, really funny.
Equally, just drops him behind George Russell
who he's, you know, he was leading at one point
and how he stuck behind Haas cars and George Russell.
That was like four weeks ago he was leading.
That can't have been today.
It's the same race.
He was leading on the first lap
and comfortably at one point.
Yeah, it was a real tough one for Charles Leclerc today.
That really was the funny bit, though.
Well, let's call that a little bit of an appetizer
because after the break,
we're going to be discussing more about Ferrari
and how on earth they managed to finish just sixth and seventh.
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Welcome back, everyone.
We appreciate some of you will be far more diligent
about watching or listening to our episodes
on a race weekend.
And we mentioned a few things in the preview last week
and also a couple of weeks ago
that we just wanted to reiterate here.
So firstly, if you missed the announcement,
we are going to be at the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
And we're looking to do something on the Thursday beforehand,
very novel idea.
We're looking to get an idea on numbers
of who is interested.
So there is a form in the description to this episode.
Just let us know how many, if it's just going to be yourself,
if there'd be a couple of others as well,
if you're interested.
And then that gives us an idea as we look to plan that
in a couple of months' time.
Another thing that we updated you on a couple of weeks ago,
owing to some personal reasons that Harry mentioned
around Christmas time,
Harry's decided to take a short break away from podcasting.
We will get him back very shortly
and he misses you greatly.
We'll update you when we know more.
But I appreciate those of you that were listening a few weeks ago.
We'll already know that.
I just wanted to make sure that anyone who's returning
to the podcast maybe after a month away from F1 is updated.
Shall we get into Ferrari?
Oh, good.
Yes.
The main course has arrived.
You've had your appetizer, your own tray.
We've had a little chit chat.
Hang on, it's time to attack it.
P6 and P7, on appropriately,
episode number 667,
after, you rightly said,
Charlotte Clarke led this race.
Yeah.
It's like coming home, isn't it,
Ferrari P6 and P7?
It's a hard way back.
Nostalgia has kicked in.
Yeah.
We spoke a lot recently about how is there a risk
that they beat a Mercedes for a moment,
McLaren have stepped in.
There's a real chance that they can maybe capitalise.
All the pieces are coming together.
And yet, no.
No, no, no, no.
Some of the pieces are falling off, I would argue,
across this Grand Prix.
Scattered around the racetrack here in Miami.
So, yeah.
P6 and P7, well behind all of their competition
with potential penalties still to be applied.
I think it became clear even with Charlotte Clarke
leading on the first lap.
And he led more than just the first lap as well.
There was a good chunk of that first stint he was ahead.
I think it became clear that whilst Ferrari weren't slow,
Norris and Antonelli did have an advantage over him.
But equally, I felt it was only Norris and Antonelli.
And at that point, P3 was very much still there
for the taking.
And I don't think he would have been a huge amount
behind the top two.
But strategically, Ferrari have reared their ugly head once more.
Slow pit stop, trying to respond to George Russell
who wasn't very competitive in this race.
And ultimately, Leclerc is trying to manage tyres
late on that are quite worn.
It just, when Antonelli came out and the undercut of Charlotte Clarke
and indeed George Russell had not been effective in any way,
I just went aside.
Yeah, yeah.
Disappointment came out in a shape of a Ferrari car.
When George Russell pit first,
and they saw that he had basically caught up to traffic
almost immediately and wasn't making huge inroads
on the cars around him,
I was surprised that they felt what they needed to react
so quickly with Charlotte Clarke
because it did feel like the way that Antonelli and Norris
were starting to gap the field behind them.
Charlotte Clarke was almost being slightly told along
in that group.
He was kind of there or thereabouts.
He was able to make a bit of space for himself.
And I do think if they could just simmer down for five or six laps,
let's show, let him cook.
Let the mindset come and actually start to pull out a few tents
on the battle that was happening behind,
which was, at that point, Russell, Piastri.
Hamilton was kind of holding on.
Verstappen, of course, had the threat of the big undercut
on the hard side, but they'd known that for a long time
at that point.
It's all like that was new information to them.
I do think a bit of patience here
could have actually gone a long way.
And actually, because of the outright speed of the Ferrari,
I think the fresher tyres later on were massively benefited them.
They might not have had slow pit stop.
These things happen.
They might not have happened if they awaited.
He also wouldn't have had to deal with the Haas team.
Russell, we saw his pace.
I don't think he would have been any different
in terms of the perspective gap that he would have had there.
And, equally, the fresh tyres later on in the Grand Prix
would have allowed him to catch Verstappen more comfortably
and steer clear of Piastri and Russell,
who were chasing him further on in the race.
So it just felt like it all over.
They took one wrong turn, and it just unraveled completely for him.
And even with the way that it unraveled,
it still looked like P3 was possible.
I think if it weren't for the slow stop,
he comes out ahead of George Russell
and doesn't have to waste multiple laps getting past him.
And at that point, maybe Piastri catches him one lap too late.
And he isn't under pressure, and he does finish P3.
So I think third place was even doable
with the strategy not being optimal.
But if they did have an optimal strategy,
I think it would have been quite comfortable for him.
I just think that power unit is ever so slightly off
versus the Mercedes.
Not by much, but just about too far away at the moment.
But it does, I think, give them a fair amount of encouragement.
If they can fix that with potentially a review coming up shortly,
it could be enough again to put them in this conversation.
Oh, God, we're only going to stop having the conversation
about Ferrari putting themselves into the conversation.
Will they just be the conversation?
To be fair, that's the one thing we haven't seen from them, though,
is that power unit, if that can get better.
Because if that doesn't lead to them being, like,
in the mix for first and seconds,
then they might have to panic,
because I'm not sure where it's coming from at that point.
Yeah, yeah.
And you can say the same thing about the forward engine
in the back of the Red Bull.
I mean, even when Leclerc reached the staff on those much older tyres,
he was tricky to pass for him.
And actually going down the longer straights,
it took a couple of goes to get the job done.
Unlike Piastri, who basically, within a lap,
circulating the whole track around him,
got the job done and moved on.
It just shows you they've got that little bit extra oomph going down the straights.
Hamilton, at least at the moment, makes up the seventh of the P6, P7,
but that could change around if Leclerc is penalised at all
for what happened on the final lap.
He did pick up damage quite early on,
thanks to contact with Franco Colopinto.
But we also saw the rest this weekend,
Lewis Hamilton wasn't particularly quick.
Do you think it changed anything?
Would he have been fighting towards the front,
if not for that incident?
If the entire race was exactly the same,
and Lewis Hamilton didn't have damage with Franco Colopinto,
there's a chance he's on the back of that,
the Stappen, Russell, Leclerc, Schengangans in the last lap.
And I think I'm being kind with a chance.
I don't think it's a guarantee. I don't think he's ahead of anyone.
I do think he's still the last in that pack,
and he might get a bit lucky with someone falling short, being slow,
getting caught up in traffic, having damage, whatever it might be.
He managed his race well. He had proper damage.
The sidewalk was severely damaged after that lap weighing incident,
downforce in a lot of these areas, especially through sector one at Miami,
is really crucial for having a fast lap time.
He had to manage.
He's very fortunate that the cars behind him were either in the wall,
or they're in the midfield, and they're so far off the pace anyway,
that they're not really getting a challenge, even a damage Ferrari.
It was only the Stappen that you feel with the mistake that he made,
in a fully-fledged, functioning car,
he probably could have maybe gone on to beat.
But otherwise, I don't think the position alters.
I'll be honest.
If you presented that race to me and cut out the Hamilton Collopinto,
just cut out from the footage that had happened,
and you gave the result to me and said,
do you think Hamilton had damage?
I would say, yeah, I'm like 75% sure he had damage,
because sure, that result makes sense that he had damage,
and that's why he was slower than everyone else.
But equally, it was kind of in keeping with everything else we saw in the weekend.
The two qualifying sessions, he wasn't particularly quick.
He wasn't particularly quick in the sprint as well.
He was very comfortably, I thought, second best of the two Ferraris.
Yeah, he was.
This is his worst weekend so far this season,
and maybe the damage saves his blessings.
Blushes.
Blushes a little bit.
Yeah, idioms are hard.
Idioms are hard, but finishing higher than P6 is even more hard.
That's true.
Yeah, the concerning thing for Hamilton, I think, is that,
I agree, I think this was his most difficult weekend of the season so far.
It follows round three, which to that point was his most...
The course is the most difficult weekend of the season, yeah.
Trend isn't good.
I've said this after race two.
If other teams start getting better,
Lewis Hamilton is going to start getting worse,
because he just hasn't got that cutting edge that he had three, four years ago
to make the difference anymore,
and McLaren are now better.
Verstappen was very good on his raw pace,
maybe got in his race craft, it's okay, but that's one race.
If the Red Bull is going to be there every race now,
it's another spot that he's going to lose.
How long is it until Hadjar is able to pull more out of that Red Bull?
Sometimes I think a result doesn't necessarily tell the whole story,
and I think that applies with George Russell.
He was awful.
My man has got the luckiest two finishes across this weekend.
He has gained a century at the end of the Grand Prix twice this weekend.
I appreciate he avoided some errors where others found them,
and that deserves some credit, but if we're just talking pace,
that is one of his worst weekends in Formula One.
We're not talking this season.
When was the last time you can remember Russell being that much slower than a teammate?
He had Hamilton for a teammate.
Over 30 seconds back from a teammate, and it's not just any teammate.
It's the 19-year-old that's only been in a championship fight
for the first time ever in his entire life.
It's jarring.
It doesn't look right, just based on, again,
I know we're looking at last year and Russell was consistently,
like that same distance better than Antonelli,
but again, he was with Hamilton at Mercedes for multiple years
where they were incredibly close.
It was very rare that one of them had a massive advantage over the other.
It doesn't look right that Russell is 30 seconds behind a teammate,
and yet here he is this weekend just not able to do what Antonelli was able to do.
Yeah, clearly he wasn't comfortable with the car in this Grand Prix.
I don't think there were problems with the car either.
I just think that something wasn't clicking,
and the frustrations you could hear were coming out.
You know, after the safety car restart,
guys, I'm in the wrong mode.
Like, why haven't you told me?
Well, equally, that is kind of on you as the driver to be aware of what mode you're in,
and that happened in Japan, and it's happened in China.
He's had three safety car restarts where it's not gone to plan for him,
and that starts to make a, you know, once is a mistake,
twice is a bit of a, you need to change something.
Three times, you look a bit of a fool,
and I think it's costing him again.
The pace after the pit stop, the undercut wasn't great.
Even on fresher tyres, he wasn't able to maximise things.
He only got the advantage with Charles Leclerc
because of a slow pit stop, which he then lost out to.
I think he's ended up incredibly lucky to finish P4 here
because of a huge calamity of errors from other drivers around him.
I hope for his sake, and I don't mind who wins the championships this year, of course.
I hope for his sake, he turns this around and becomes more competitive again,
because if he doesn't, his radio message after winning an Australia,
I love this engine, I love this car, is going to be replayed for years
and not in a good way.
What silly thing did he say after that?
I can't remember.
Did he do Borat or something?
Oh, yes. Yes, it was Borat.
Man, does Borat. I can't drive a car anymore.
Man, can I get me into oblivion if he doesn't win the championship
but does Borat after race one?
I think he does turn it around, but this was not a good one.
He even said, like, I think it was maybe after the Sprinter, after qualifying,
this isn't one of his favourite tracks, which kind of concerned,
because whilst I understand that might be true, it concerns me he said that
because, number one, he finished on the podium here last year,
and secondly, that wasn't a problem last year.
We didn't have any instance of, OK, this was just an off weekend.
He was just on it every weekend nearly.
It does seem to be a new trend this season,
where drivers are quite happily coming out and saying,
I don't really like this racetrack, and then that seems to be an excuse
to not be very good at the racetrack.
If you're going to win a title, you've got to really limit your bads
and maximise your goods, and George Russell did not do that.
He got so lucky to pick up another four or five points at the end of that Grand Prix,
because I think at one point he was going to be 24 points behind Kimmy Antonelli,
going into Canada, and now it's only going to be something like 18 or something like that.
So, you know, the limitations are starting to stack up here, George.
Can I hurt you real quick?
Moving a bit further down the grid, we had some early retirements in this race,
including Gasly and Lawson as a result of their contact into turn 17,
understanding after the race that Lawson seems to have a gearbox issue
that caused that crash and has ultimately caused the retirement of both of them.
I think based on Limblad's pace, I think racing balls were a bit stinky this weekend,
so it might not have actually, I don't think it would have got many points anyway,
but frustrating for him for his race to end so early.
Save for Gasly.
Yeah, I think he excelled in qualifying, actually, to pick up the position that he did.
I think that actually real shows good raw pace from Liam Lawson.
If it does come out 100% that it was the gearbox and this isn't a convenient excuse,
then that's just very unlucky, incredibly bad timing, a real shame for both drivers.
I'm going to say more so Pierre Gasly because Gasly was really unlucky with how the start happened.
He was one of those drivers that ended up being quite badly affected by Max Verstappen's spin,
by the way, the rejoin.
It kind of went exactly how we said in yesterday's review,
saying Colin Pinto had the bad luck and it could reverse tomorrow.
And it does.
It does.
And Gasly was starting to work his way back through and we know Gasly is a reliable driver.
He's super quick.
If anyone was going to maximise that outpeeing in the midfield, it was going to be him.
And I do think that beating both Williams, ensuring that he's probably going to finish,
maybe it was P9, was definitely on the cards for him.
So it's a couple of points lost.
I think it's fortunate it's only a couple of points lost because Gasly always looks good when he's on the race track.
Doesn't he just?
I've made you wait for this one, Sam.
Yeah, I know you have.
Strike it out, mate.
Some, some bold prediction hedging going on here on the show.
Let's do a bold predictions.
I'll get mine out the way because I said that Audi would score points with both drivers in this main race.
What did they do, mate?
I've got to make the same prediction next time because it's there.
They've got it and they can't convert it.
Bortoletto.
The car just blows up.
Yeah, I know. Bortoletto has finished 12th after starting on the back row of the grid
and had the pace, I think, to beat the hash drivers and maybe the Williams drivers as well.
Hülkenberg, who qualified well, was 11th.
I mean, at least I wasn't on the edge of my seat thinking, is this going to come true or not?
Because Hülkenberg was out and a few laps in.
But man, they just, there's just something that they can't put it all together.
Every time it's going to become funnier, you know that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good.
Mine, of course, was that Colopinto would be in the top ten for sprint qualifying, top ten for qualifying,
and then top ten for the race.
It was a triple parter.
Let me tell you the absolute poo that came out of my pants when I saw that Alpine upside down
and I thought, oh, no, no, no, please, Franco, no.
Thank you, Pierre, for sacrificing yourself for my bold prediction.
A rare moment of humility on this podcast, but I will say I am very glad you got the point here
because it was a very good bold prediction.
And if you'd got two thirds of the way there and something stupid had happened like Colopinto had retired
ten laps from the end, I would have felt genuinely bad for you
because we like to see good predictions rewarded on this podcast and today it has.
Yeah, it's nice to get one.
I think if we waited two million more races without either of us getting one, it might start to be a bit silly.
I think I've got my own fright for the Bahrain and Saudi races.
I think you did, too.
Oh, yeah.
Three, two now, yeah.
Yeah, sure, that's how it works.
Sure.
More bold predictions coming later in the month for the Canadian GP.
We're going to take one final break.
On the other side is moment of the race.
Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today's episode.
It's time for moments of the race.
And of course, that means we have discord submissions.
But before we get to those, Sam, what was your moments of the race?
I was so tempted to go for a moment of the race that happened before when Brundle did his grig walk.
And we have the incredible moment with DJ Khaled where he was on the live stream of DJ Khaled at the same time as being on the show.
What was he trying to say, by the way?
Like, we make the weather or the weather?
I don't know.
Doesn't rain on DJ Khaled?
He's got some supernatural powers where he doesn't feel the rain.
Cheers, DJ.
Yeah.
And then, of course, Jimmy Fallon is what was going on there.
Every time he sees anyone, he just seems to scream and jump around in their face.
It was bizarre.
He might be the most American man that's ever existed.
I didn't think he was that weird.
That was intense.
But I go for a tiny little detail and I think it was against the racing ball.
The staffman was having a fight and he thought, you know what?
I'm not going to let that get past me.
So around the outside, I think it was a turn three.
He just sings it all the way around the outside.
I thought that was sweet.
That was a naughty, naughty move and it was really, really well done.
So that was my moment of the race.
I'm going to give my moment of the race to David Croft, which might be a first.
And he gets a lot of stick on this podcast and it's like 99% deserved.
But the moment of the race.
Crofty sometimes this season has been willing to play ball when it comes to the regulations
and maybe try and hype them up a little bit.
Yeah, a bit of a yes man in that sense.
But today we got a bit of angry Crofty at the way in which the staffman's potential penalty
for crossing the pit lane exit line, we got a bit of anger from him
at the fact that it wasn't being investigated during the race.
And I have to say, David, you're 100% right.
Why is that not being investigated during the Grand Prix?
It's just it's very rare that I sit on my sofa watching a race and go, yes, Crofty, you are right.
You know what Dave, you're 100% right here.
They should be doing their job in the blooming races.
What else are they doing?
It was farcical and embarrassment to the sport.
Yes.
So that was mine, but we have got these discord submissions coming in.
Thank you very much to all of you after what has been a very long break for submitting.
I will play as many as we can.
We're going to start with DJ spin to win.
What's poppin everybody?
It is DJ spin to win my moment of the race for the Miami GP was the return of Mad Max.
His racecraft today was phenomenal as well.
The debut of the yellow V carb that livery is chef's kiss.
Anyways, keep breaking late.
Okay.
All right.
Intro and outro music.
I love it.
I'll pick up on the second point of the the racing bulls livery, which I don't love as
much as most.
I think it's okay.
I don't love it as much as maybe some of the other ones they've done.
Who decided to put yellow on the bot on the trousers?
Why is it on the Croft area?
Why have they yellow in the only space on the whole suit is where they're growing is.
Why?
Why?
What's impressive is racing bulls have race suits where it looks like the drivers have
peed themselves.
Yep.
And yet they don't have the worst race suits this weekend because Mercedes showed up.
What is up with those Milka?
Big up Milka, by the way.
Very tasty chocolate.
I don't think a race suit like that.
Exactly.
Thank you very much, DJ spin to win for the very musical submission.
Shall we hear from the one and only?
Norm from Texas.
Oh, hello, my lake breaking friends from across the lake.
Big what it is.
I know from Texas and I'm here to get my moment of the race and my moment of the race is coming
back from break.
We get in an absolute banger of a race.
Anyway, moment of the race.
Whole thing.
Anyway, keep breaking.
Love that.
No, it works.
Norm by appreciate the submission.
My guy has been here like since day one.
Norm is an OG and yet he still doesn't do it correctly.
I live for that.
I live for the fact that that submission was 17 seconds long and nine seconds of it was
the intro.
That's how Norm rolls, baby.
Love it, man.
Thank you very much, Norm.
Let's head next to RAF 21.
Moment of the race was Charles O'Tooleir giving me an absolute heart attack when he spun
on the final lap and then proceeding to drop three positions.
It might be the most Ferrari of Ferrari races that I just watched, but oh well.
Good race nonetheless.
Entertaining.
Yeah, my fantasy team didn't like that.
No, mine neither.
I'll tell you what, though.
Outside of the very glad that he's okay, obviously, with this, the image of him just like appearing
out of the corner drive was heroic.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like, he's like, oh, no, Charlotte closed out on the race.
I have risen.
No, I'm not.
I'm actually nervous like a Michael Bay moment as he comes around the corner.
Like the Avengers theme would play as he pulls around.
But it's a shame he was really slow for the rest of the lap.
Yeah.
Not his best lap in F1.
No.
The Bungalorian.
It's the McLaren CEO.
Yeah.
And the moment of the race has to be the melee that was lap one.
Oh my gosh.
Everything was chaos.
Somehow no rain.
But that was crazy.
Yeah.
I will say with first laps, and maybe just like the first portions of races this year,
it does feel like the start of races are absolute chaos.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
They're a log of fun.
They're a log of fun.
I mean, it also helps that the Sadies cannot do road starts because of their lives.
And they're often the ones at the front.
So we tend to get new race leaguers, which means fight for the lead.
It's a very convenient issue to have currently.
I'd like it to continue to the rest of the Grand Prix.
Would you get some lull moments?
But Miami was better.
Thank you very much, Bongus, who clearly with McLaren's upturn in form this weekend
is proud to be McLaren CEO once more.
Yeah.
Let's go to Charlotte.
Hey, Elby.
My moment of the race was Isaac physically crashing out and then mentally crashing out.
It was devastatingly emo.
Felt like we needed some of my chemical romance or something in there.
All we were missing was that, no, no, I destroyed the car.
I love that clip so much.
I destroyed the car.
Do you have a lot of people that got no idea what that is?
I can't remember if it's F2 or F3, but Jack Doon also did an impression of him doing that,
which was very funny last year.
Speaking of Hagsha, there was a shot earlier where it should be falling again.
He was doing an interview.
How was that?
I got three references.
I know.
And Hagsha, and he's speaking to a camera, right?
And his producer is holding a notepad over the top of the camera.
I'm here with my favorite F1 drivers right now, Max Verstappen.
Ritter is Max Verstappen.
And Isaac Hagsha, all in like Daphmark's, forgettably spelled out like it's hard to say.
I mean, to be fair, you might look at Isaac and say automatically Isaac.
Isaac, sure.
So I under, I appreciate the effort to try and get it right, even if it looks a bit weird.
But Hagsha?
Even Crofty's found that one difficult at times this year, so maybe playing it safe.
I've got to let that one slide.
And thank you, Charlotte, for the submission.
You win crispest submission of the week, beautiful audio.
George Russell's tears up next.
Oh, God.
Hi, guys.
It's me, George Russell's tears.
My moment of the race was what I saw.
Can we win the race again?
And then I did Max again in front of him.
Man, it's so good to see 20 years later, the resurfacing of leave Britney alone guy.
Yeah, he definitely sent that from under a blanket with mascara running down his face.
Yeah, fair play.
That was good.
That was funny.
Also, I love that George's tears are American.
Yeah, you wouldn't have thought to say that.
Here we are.
Absolute Gem is up next.
Hello, good people of late breaking.
Absolute Gem here with my moment of the race, which is the announcement,
the breaking news that Aston Martin were on for a double car finish their first of the season.
Big worth.
Yeah, he's very right.
That's the best thing that's happened to Aston Martin all season.
Well done.
I guess that each beat one Cadillac each.
Yeah, honestly, it was depressing with like Alonso was on those fresh soft tires towards the end of this race.
And Perez was on used hearts in his Cadillac that remember six months ago, Watson's an F1 team.
And Alonso, he gets by Perez.
Just.
It took him like ten attempts to do it.
Yeah, we had to listen to this whole sphere about how many races Alonso Perez and Bottas they all been going through.
And in this whole conversation, Alonso still hasn't got past Perez at that point.
It's pretty tragic.
Final submission for today comes from random CAD.
Hello, late breaking a lot.
This is random CAD.
So my moment of the race has got to be when they all collectively in the cool down room just went at the race start.
I was surprised with the cool down room that they didn't turn down the volume as soon as Piastri started talking about the regulations.
Man, these cars are really difficult to defend with just fades to nothing.
DJ Khaled just starts playing over the top.
Shaquille O'Neal, I don't know where.
Oh, I was thinking, I was thinking about DFS today, right?
And in the, yeah, right?
Road turn.
In the back of the shop, there's a giant diesel Chaco and Neil poster.
Why?
It's DFS.
So it was lazy boys, you know?
I was like, in a furniture store.
Yeah, like a British furniture store.
There's DFS.
You see Antonelli thought that he saw Shaquille O'Neal in his press conference.
No.
He was in his press conference, I think after qualifying yesterday and there's someone DJ and he thinks it's Shaquille O'Neal.
And I think one of, maybe it was for Stappen or Leclerc just, that's not Shaq.
I got it back, he's got Shaq.
Thank you very much to all of those moment of the race submissions.
Much appreciated.
Next time we'll be back with those will be the Canadian GP, which is in a few weeks time, Sam,
but we've got plenty of F1 to be talking about between now and then.
If you wouldn't mind getting us out of here.
Folks, by our midweek review, we may have just heard what the skewers decisions were when it comes to all these penalties.
Who knows, maybe we'll get a whole new race review out of it.
You never know.
Do join us though for that midweek and make sure you join us on Patreon tomorrow,
where we go back to power rankings discussing every single driver's full drive for the day.
We make sure we categorize them rankings between one and ten, maybe a zero if you're really that bad.
And you can get involved as well.
Plus a whole host of other benefits for the cost of like a cup of coffee for your whole month.
So please check out our sport to show.
Join the Discord, the links in the description, follow us on social media, late breaking F1 and subscribe on YouTube.
It massively helps us out.
We'll see you in the midweek.
In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage.
And I've been Ben Hocking.
And remember, keep breaking late.
About this episode
Miami delivered a chaotic mix of breakthrough success, strategic misfires, and a few self-inflicted wounds. Kimmy Antonelli took Mercedes to victory after recovering from a messy start, while Lando Norris was left frustrated by a slow pit stop and an undercut. Max Verstappen’s spin likely cost him a podium, Ferrari’s timing again unravelled, and the midfield produced crashes, retirements, and plenty of debate about race control and weather delays.
Turns out we didn't need a wet race to get chaos... Ben and Sam review a wild Miami GP, from Verstappen's first lap spin through to Leclerc's last lap heartbreak - and everything in between!
Heading to the Dutch GP and interested in a Thursday meet-up? Fill out this quick form so we can keep you updated: >>> CLICK HERE <<<
