They point you to an earlier episode that teaches the basics of Formula 1. If you’re new, it’s like a quick starter guide before you jump into race talk.
WEC is another major auto racing series, but it’s endurance racing (long races) instead of Formula 1. They’re saying WEC fans have had it tougher because fewer races means losing even one has a bigger impact.
GP2 was a stepping-stone racing league for drivers trying to reach Formula 1. It’s basically where many F1 drivers cut their teeth before getting the big opportunity.
Formula 2 is a ladder series that sits between junior racing and Formula 1. It exists to help drivers learn faster cars and more competitive racing before they move up.
Liberty Media is a company that helps run and manage big sports media properties. Here, they’re mentioned as the group that helped bring the feeder series into the Formula 1 ecosystem.
In racing, a lower division is the series below the top level that helps people move up. It’s common for these series to evolve or even vanish as the sport reorganizes.
The Suzuki Samurai is a small SUV made by Suzuki that’s built to handle rough roads and off-road trails. It’s known for being light and tough, which helps it do well outside normal city driving. It may be mentioned because it’s a recognizable off-road model with a strong reputation.
They’re talking about Formula 1 checking how new rules are working in practice. If the rules cause problems or unintended advantages, they may adjust them later.
Balance tweaks are adjustments intended to change how competitive different cars or setups are relative to each other. In F1, these can affect performance characteristics so the field is closer and no single concept dominates.
Think of it like charging a battery while slowing down, then using that stored energy later to go faster. The rules can limit how much you can store (“recharge”) and when you can use it.
In F1, the car isn’t just powered by fuel. It also has a battery that can store extra energy and then use it when you need a boost. If the battery is full or hits its limits, the car can’t use that boost as effectively.
Think of the battery like a phone battery with a hard limit. Once it’s at the maximum level (or can’t accept more power), the car has to stop “charging” it further and adjust how it uses the hybrid boost.
Harvesting energy means the car recovers some of the energy it would normally waste, especially when slowing down. That recovered energy gets stored so the car can use it later for extra acceleration.
MG UK is one of the hybrid car’s electric machines. It can act like a generator to capture energy (like during braking) and also like a motor to add power when the car needs a boost.
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pulling back
This sounds like the car temporarily backs off power because something is limiting it—like the battery being low or the system overheating. When that happens, the car can feel like it’s not accelerating as strongly, especially near the end of a straight.
In F1, the cars use an electric system that can add extra power for a limited amount. If the allowed limit goes up (from 250 kW to 350 kW), the car can use more electric boost, which can make it faster out of corners and down straights. The exact benefit depends on the circuit layout.
F1 hybrid cars can “store” energy when you slow down, like during braking. If the rules reduce how much energy they’re allowed to collect, the car will have less stored boost to use later. That can change race strategy and how often drivers can deploy extra power.
F1 uses a battery that stores energy and then releases it to help the car. That stored energy is measured in megajoules (MJ). If the allowed amount is lowered, the car has less energy to use later, so drivers spend less time managing charging and more time pushing normally.
“Battery harvesting” refers to collecting energy back into the battery, typically via regenerative braking and other energy-recovery strategies. The discussion implies that changing the harvesting/energy budget reduces how much the car needs to recharge during a lap or stint. That shifts driver time away from energy management and toward performance driving.
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energy management (recharging vs on-track time)
Energy management is the strategy of balancing when the car charges the battery and when it deploys that energy for acceleration and traction. The hosts argue that reducing the energy/harvesting limit can reduce the need to recharge, which changes how drivers pace the car. The key idea is that less time spent charging can mean more time spent at the performance “limit.”
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delta between charge and allowed energy
The “delta” here is the gap between how much charge the car is generating/harvesting and how much energy it’s allowed to use under the rules. A smaller delta means the system has less mismatch between charging and deployment opportunities. That can change how aggressively teams run energy recovery and how consistently the car can stay in its optimal operating window.
Clipping is when a measurement or signal reaches its top limit and then can’t go any higher. After that point, the system can’t “see” the difference between small changes, because everything looks the same at the limit.
A sensor can only measure up to a certain point. If the real signal gets too strong, the sensor “maxes out,” and the readings stop changing in a meaningful way.
Every system has a maximum it can handle. When you reach that maximum, the car or electronics can’t respond normally anymore and may behave differently than you’d expect.
“Storage” means the energy the car has saved up to use later for extra acceleration. If you can store less energy per lap, you’ll have less extra push available, so lap times can drop.
In F1, the “power unit” is the whole power system, including the engine and the hybrid energy parts. Even if the engine makes the same base power, using less stored hybrid energy can still make the car slower.
“Delta in speed” just means the speed difference between two cars. If one car is suddenly much faster or slower than expected, it can hint at a problem or a change in grip or car behavior.
Bottoming out means the suspension got compressed so far that it can’t move any more. That can make the car lose grip or suddenly behave differently, which is dangerous in a race.
“Boost mode” is when an F1 car gets extra power for a short time. It’s not unlimited—teams have to save energy and then spend it in the right places on the track.
They’re talking about how much electric power the hybrid system can send to the car. “350 kilowatts” is the maximum amount, but the rules may force the team to use less depending on where they are on track.
“250 kilowatts deployment” refers to a reduced allowed electrical power level in certain parts of the lap. The key point is that the car’s hybrid energy deployment is capped differently depending on location, which affects acceleration timing and overall lap strategy.
In hybrid F1 cars, there’s a battery that stores energy and then releases it to help the car go faster. If the team releases less of that stored energy, the car won’t be as quick—though it can be safer and more predictable.
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safe areas
“Safe areas” are parts of the track where the car can use energy more freely without risking running out. In other places, the team may hold back to keep the battery in a good state.
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overtake Delta
“Overtake Delta” means the gap in speed that helps one car catch and pass another. In hybrid F1, that speed advantage can change depending on when the battery energy is used.
They’re estimating that the car only has a small amount of time each lap where it can recharge the battery. Less time recharging means the team has to be careful about when it uses the stored energy.
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call-up in tow
“In tow” usually means you’re close behind another car, so you get less air resistance. A “call-up” is when the driver triggers extra power/energy—so the timing of that matters a lot.
In Formula 1, there are rules that limit how much power the car can use from its energy system at certain times and places. A “250 kW cap” means you can’t just push maximum power all the time—you have to save it for the best spots on track.
Because the car’s extra power is limited by rules, teams pick specific parts of the track to use it. Those “key acceleration zones” are usually places where the driver can accelerate hard without losing control or running into visibility problems.
They’re also limiting how strong the car’s extra “boost” can be—here, to 150 kW. So even if the driver earned boost earlier, the rules prevent it from being as powerful when they use it.
At the start, the car has to deliver power quickly, but there are limits to keep the engine and drivetrain safe. Teams tune how the car launches so it doesn’t bog or over-rev right when the lights go out.
They’re talking about a problem at the very beginning of a race: the car needs to build power fast when the lights go out. If it builds boost in an unexpected way, the launch can feel inconsistent or overly aggressive.
A turbo is a device that uses exhaust gases to force more air into the engine. That helps the engine make more power, but it also affects how quickly the car responds when you launch.
McLaren is one of the Formula 1 teams. Here, they’re talking about problems with getting off the line cleanly, which can make a driver lose positions right away.
In F1, “missing the start” means the car fails to launch effectively from the grid, often due to clutch/launch issues, traction problems, or hybrid deployment timing. The consequence is that the driver must accelerate through traffic, increasing the risk of collisions and safety-car situations.
This is a safety/assist system for race starts. If the car doesn’t launch properly, it can automatically use extra battery energy to help it accelerate so it doesn’t slow down the cars behind.
Topic
starting grid collision in Australia
The hosts reference a past F1 incident involving a starting grid collision in Australia to illustrate how start problems can lead to dangerous outcomes. This is used as context for why systems like low power start detection matter.
To “bog down” means the car doesn’t get moving smoothly and power drops off. In this case, if that happens, the rules allow the driver to use the battery to get going.
The internal combustion engine is the normal engine that makes power by burning fuel. Here, they’re saying that if everything goes well, the car should launch using just that engine.
Concept
software-controlled hybrid start management
They’re talking about a system that uses software to manage the hybrid power at the start. It can automatically decide what the car is allowed to use based on how the launch is going.
They’re talking about making F1 explanations easier to understand. Instead of complicated wording, the goal is to help fans follow what’s changing and why it matters.
The FIA is the organization that makes and enforces the rules for Formula 1. When they talk about simplifying language, it’s about making the rules and explanations easier for fans to understand.
Ohms (Ω) measure electrical resistance. When the hosts say they’re “this close” to figuring out how many ohms are in the system, they’re talking about diagnosing or validating the car’s electrical behavior by resistance values.
They’re talking about electrical resistance inside the car’s wiring and electronics. If that resistance changes, the car’s electronics can behave differently, so teams may adjust it to get the results they want.
They’re basically changing the car’s settings so it can save energy and use it at the right times. Instead of relying only on the engine, the team can manage energy like a resource during a lap.
The “battery tank” is a metaphor for the usable capacity of the car’s hybrid battery system. By changing charging and discharge behavior, teams can effectively make the battery act “bigger or smaller” in terms of how much energy is available over a lap.
F1 cars can store energy in a battery and then use it to add power. The rules and the car’s software decide when the battery is charged up and when that stored energy is spent.
The FIA rules don’t just limit total energy—they also control how and when you can use it. That means the car can’t freely use all its stored power whenever the driver wants.
Hybrid systems both collect energy and then spend it for extra performance. “Gained” is charging up; “deployed” is using that stored energy to go faster.
The track can be divided into sections where the rules let you use more stored energy in one spot, but less in another. Teams have to plan their “boost” timing around those sections.
In Formula 1, the rules aren’t just about race day—they also control what the teams are allowed to build and how they can develop their cars. The hosts are saying the rules can be changed or applied in a way that strongly affects car performance while the season is already underway.
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cap or extend the output of these cars
“Output” in F1 typically refers to how much energy the power unit can produce and/or how much performance the car can deliver under the regulations. A “cap” means the rules limit that output, while “extend” suggests the rules may allow more usage or flexibility—both can materially change lap times and strategy.
F1 regulations often involve constraints and allowances that don’t behave like “common sense” engineering. Small wording details can have big effects on what teams can do, which is why the hosts describe the rules as non-intuitive and requiring careful reading.
Current is basically how much electricity is flowing through a wire. Some rules talk about limits using this “flow” idea, even though other rules might talk about energy used or power delivered.
Volts are like the pressure of electricity—how strongly it’s pushing. The tricky part is that different rules or explanations might focus on different measurements, so you have to know which one they mean.
Wattage is just a way to say “power,” meaning how quickly energy is being used or delivered. It’s one of several measurements people use when talking about electric systems.
They’re talking about how today’s race strategy often expects drivers to push hard all the time. In the past, drivers had to be more careful and pace themselves more, especially over longer races.
In endurance-style racing, you can’t just go as fast as possible all the time. You have to save the car and your tires so you can keep performing later in the race.
It just means one car is much faster than the other. When the faster car catches the slower one, the driver has to deal with how quickly they’re closing in, which can be stressful and dangerous if it happens unexpectedly.
They’re talking about safety rules that try to stop dangerous situations before they happen. Rather than expecting drivers to always react perfectly, the goal is to reduce the chances of the risky moment occurring.
They’re saying F1 drivers are usually pushing the car as hard as it can go. That means there’s less room to “fix it” if something unexpected happens in front.
“Delta” is basically the performance gap—how much quicker one car is than another. In F1, that gap is so small that drivers can’t afford to be careless because they’ll meet other cars at the worst possible moments.
The hosts are talking about how circuit characteristics (“tracks”) interact with car design and setup. In F1, regulations and rule changes can shift how cars behave at high speed, under braking, and through corners, which means teams often have to “forgive” or adapt to track demands rather than designing purely for one ideal scenario. This is why changes to rules can make certain circuits feel different from what drivers expect.
Brake balance just means how much of the braking happens at the front wheels versus the rear wheels. If it’s set well, the car stays stable when you slow down and turns in predictably. If it’s set poorly, the car can feel twitchy or push wide during braking.
A track walk is when people go around the circuit on foot before the race. They look at where corners start, where braking points are, and how the track looks from different angles. That helps them plan what to do in the car during the race.
They’re talking about a Formula 1 race in Turkey coming back. When F1 adds or removes races, teams have to plan their whole season around those dates and locations.
The “F1 calendar” is the official schedule of Grand Prix events across the season. Changes to the calendar can reflect venue contracts, logistics, and broader planning—often discussed during off-season updates.
This segment notes that the Turkish Grand Prix is scheduled to return to the F1 calendar in 2027. For fans, this is a key “what’s next” update because it signals long-term scheduling shifts rather than a one-off replacement.
Topic
Porta Mau
Porta Mau is mentioned as another track coming into the F1 calendar. The hosts imply they didn’t receive the earlier bulletin/announcement about it, suggesting it’s a notable schedule change.
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Autodromo Dialgar
They’re talking about a specific race track (Autodromo Dialgar) that F1 has used before. The point is how its layout feels—short straights and lots of changes in direction.
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fixer circuits during the COVID year
In the COVID years, F1 didn’t have normal schedules. They leaned on certain tracks that were easier to run repeatedly, so the season could keep going.
They’re talking about the schedule for future years: Barcelona and Spa will take turns hosting F1 races. That matters because teams have to prepare for two different track styles.
Endurance racing is when cars race for a long time instead of just a short sprint. It’s more about strategy and keeping the car running than pure one-lap speed.
Topic
Turkey A
They’re using a label like “Turkey A” to refer to a particular Turkey race slot. The point is that Turkey is coming back as part of the calendar rotation.
Topic
Puerto Mac
They mention “Puerto Mac” as a track that’s returning and sounds exciting. The exact venue name is unclear from the transcript, but it’s being highlighted as a major addition.
Austria is being talked about as a race location that’s staying on the calendar for a long time. In F1, that’s usually the Red Bull Ring.
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Petro state street circuit
A street circuit is an F1 race track made from regular city roads. It usually feels tighter and riskier because there’s less space to make mistakes. The phrase “petro state” is the hosts’ way of criticizing the politics and money behind some of those races.
Baku is the location of an F1 race on city streets. It’s famous for being challenging—cars have to brake hard and turn into tight areas, but it can also be really exciting to watch.
The Red Bull Ring is the F1 track in Austria. Because Red Bull runs the team and has strong results there, people often connect it with Max Verstappen.
A “triple apex” corner is one where the racing line hits three distinct apex points, typically requiring careful throttle modulation and steering changes through the same overall turn. Calling it “looping” suggests a corner shape that feels like it wraps around or changes direction, which can create strong passing opportunities if drivers manage traction and exit speed well.
They’re talking about whether the last Formula 1 race of the year might be in Abu Dhabi. The last race is important because it can decide championships and teams plan their strategy around it.
Audi is the racing brand/manufacturer involved here. The episode is talking about how Audi is organizing who does what—engineering, team operations, and race-weekend leadership.
Instead of one boss doing everything, the team uses two leadership lanes. One group handles planning and engineering back at HQ, and another group focuses on what happens during the race weekend.
Field operations refers to the on-site execution side of a racing team—running the program at the circuit, coordinating race-day activities, and managing real-time decisions. It’s distinct from HQ engineering and corporate functions, which are typically handled away from the track.
Formula E is a racing series for electric cars. The hosts are saying the person they hired previously led Audi’s electric racing effort, which helped them handle tough situations and people.
Garden leave is when someone is still employed by a team, but they’re not really doing their job for a while. It’s used to protect the company before the person starts a new role.
The segment links personnel moves to Max Verstappen’s championship trajectory and the resulting uncertainty around his future. In F1, driver performance and contract situations are tightly connected to team stability, because leadership and engineering continuity affect results.
In F1, the team principal is basically the top boss who runs the team. If that person changes, it can affect how the whole team makes decisions and works together.
When F1 goes to a “new track,” the teams don’t fully know how the tires will behave or where the best passing spots are yet. Early races can be more chaotic because everyone is still figuring it out.
Hard Rock Stadium is the football stadium where the Miami GP is held. Because it’s a stadium, the race track is built around that venue, which can change how the event feels and how the track is set up.
The hosts describe how the Miami circuit was iterated during pre-production to fit within a constrained venue (a car park). This kind of track layout planning is common for street-style or venue-based circuits, where designers must balance safety, racing line variety, and overtaking opportunities within limited space. The “36 different variations” highlights how much geometry and corner sequencing can change before a final layout is chosen.
This is the circuit’s basic math: how many turns are on the track, how long one lap is, and how many laps the race runs. Together, they tell you how long the race is and how “busy” the track will feel for drivers. More turns usually means more braking and cornering instead of long flat-out sections.
This means the track has corners where you don’t slow down too much—you keep decent speed through the turn. That changes what the car needs to feel right, like grip and stability, because the tires are working differently than in slow corners. It also affects how drivers pace themselves over a lap.
A braking zone is where drivers slow down for a corner. “Tight” braking zones usually mean there isn’t much room to slow down, so it’s harder and more stressful. That’s often where passing attempts happen because drivers have to be precise and can make mistakes.
DRS is a system in F1 that lets the rear wing open a flap to make the car faster in a straight line. A “DRS zone” is a specific part of the track where drivers are allowed to use it, usually to help with passing. It’s basically an overtaking assist that depends on where you are relative to the car in front.
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back of the field doing the thing
They’re saying that at the start, the cars in the back often get stuck in a predictable problem because the first part of the lap doesn’t give them much room to sort themselves out. It’s about how the track’s early corners affect how cars accelerate and position. The exact issue isn’t spelled out, but it’s clearly a start-of-lap behavior.
Active DRS just means the driver is allowed to use the DRS system at that moment. It’s only usable in certain places on the track and usually only if you’re close enough to the car ahead. When it’s active, the car gets less drag so it can go faster down the straight.
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straight mode zone
They’re describing a part of the track where the car is basically going fast in a straight-line way, with less turning. That’s the kind of place where speed matters most and where passing can be easier. They mention it alongside DRS, which is used to gain speed in those areas.
Race tracks are split into sections so teams can measure performance. “Sector two” is the middle part of the track, and it helps explain where cars are gaining or losing time.
Turn 11 is a specific corner on the circuit that the hosts think could be a good place to try to pass. The idea is that the track setup there makes it easier to get alongside and then move ahead.
Turn 17 is a late corner where the track starts setting up the next straight. If you get a good run out of it, you’re more likely to be able to pass someone soon after.
Turns 18 and 19 are corners where the track is wide, so drivers can choose different lines. That width can make it easier to defend and still set up a pass later.
The start/finish line is where the race timing counts a new lap. Passing just before it can be important because it sets you up for the next lap’s first corner.
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overtake on 17
They’re talking about a specific part of the track (turn 17) where passing is hard. Even if you’re faster, the road layout may not give you a good chance to get alongside and make the move.
A “1-2” means one team has the top two spots in the race. It’s a big deal because it shows both cars are running well and the team is executing strategy.
They’re saying Miami’s first corner behaves like a famous tricky corner in Jeddah. Tight start corners often cause bunching, so it’s easier to lose or gain positions quickly.
“Elbows out” means the driver is defending very aggressively. It can be legal, but it also makes the situation tense and increases the chance of someone getting squeezed.
It means one driver gets pushed out of the track area and can’t stay on the racing line. That usually costs them positions and can even trigger penalties if it’s deemed unsafe or unfair.
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tasty 1-2
They mean it could be a really exciting top-two situation. If the leaders get control early, the race can quickly turn into a battle between those two cars.
They’re predicting the first couple of corners will be packed with cars. When that happens, it’s easier for drivers to get squeezed, lose places, or have to change strategy fast.
They’re referring to upcoming rule changes in Formula 1. Those rules can change how the cars handle and how easy it is to get close enough to pass. So they’re wondering whether the new rules will make overtaking better at Miami.
They’re talking about a particular set of corners on the Miami track. These corner groups are important because they can create chances to get alongside and try to pass.
They’re pointing out another part of the circuit—an S-shaped section—where cars keep fighting for position. These corners can be tricky to drive close together, so it’s a good sign when racing stays intense there.
Following distance is just how close one car can safely drive behind another. If you get too close, the air around the cars gets messed up, and the trailing car loses grip. That makes passing harder.
The “bus stop carousel” is a named corner complex on the Miami GP circuit. It’s described as a challenging place to attempt an overtake because it combines a tight inside curb and a sharp-radius turn, limiting run-off and making late braking and traction critical.
A curb is the raised edge at the side of the track. Drivers sometimes use it to help the car turn faster, but hitting it wrong can make the car lose grip or feel unstable.
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timing scoring line
The “timing/scoring line” is the point on the track where race timing and lap scoring are measured. Position relative to this line matters for strategy and for how you time your attacks—because the lap-to-lap timing can influence when a driver chooses to push for an overtake.
“Nowhere to hide” means the track doesn’t give drivers many easy sections to relax. If you’re not perfect, you can’t easily escape pressure, so passing attempts keep happening.
In a sprint weekend, F1 changes the usual schedule. Instead of qualifying fully setting the grid, there’s a shorter race on Saturday that affects how the weekend plays out.
A safety car is when officials slow the whole race down because something is wrong on the track. It gives drivers a safer, slower lap or two while the track is fixed, and it can affect pit stops and race strategy.
DNF means a driver didn’t finish the race. If there are more DNFs, it usually means the race is harder—either because of crashes or because cars are failing.
The driver’s championship is the overall points race for drivers across the whole season. Every race gives points based on where you finish, and those points add up.
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Goal difference
When two drivers have the same points, F1 still has to rank them. “Goal difference” here means they look at extra result details—like how well you finished across races—to decide who goes above the other.
Precipitation forecasts matter in racing because wet conditions change tire grip, braking distances, and how quickly cars can build heat in their tires. Even a small chance of rain can influence strategy decisions like when to pit and whether to gamble on slicks versus intermediates.
“Reg changes” means the rules for the cars have been updated. Those updates can change how the cars drive, so teams may not know exactly how fast or stable they’ll be yet—especially in bad weather.
A red flag means the race is stopped for safety. If conditions get dangerous, everyone slows down and waits, and teams have to adjust their plans for when racing can restart.
A street track is a race course made from regular city roads. Because it’s tighter and the surface behaves differently, rain can make it harder and more unpredictable than a normal racetrack.
Williams Martini Racing is the name fans used for the Williams Formula 1 team when Martini sponsored them. People often buy team hats and gear for race day.
A “third seat” is basically the extra person on the TV/radio commentary team. They help explain what’s happening on track and why, not just describe the action.
David Coulthard is a former F1 driver who later became a TV/radio analyst. They’re basically saying someone else might be better at that commentary job than he is.
They’re talking about a weirdly specific detail from an F1 explanation video. The point is that F1 is so intense that even small things people wouldn’t think about—like when drivers blink—can be part of how they manage attention and performance.
The Ford Mustang is a sports car made by Ford. It’s designed to be fun to drive and is popular with car enthusiasts. It may be mentioned because someone is considering it as a “dark horse” choice.
They’re talking about why people who are new to F1 keep watching. The idea is that it’s not only about fast cars—it’s also about the teams and the stories that unfold over the season.
It’s a Netflix show about Formula 1. Instead of only showing the races, it shows the people, rivalries, and drama around the teams, which makes it easier for new fans to get hooked.
They’re arguing that F1 is different from other racing series. Part of the reason is that it’s presented in a way that reaches a wider audience, not just people who already follow racing.
They’re saying F1 feels like a big show. It travels around the world and looks and sounds like a major event, which helps people want to watch even if they’re not hardcore racing fans.
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F1 movie helped
They mention that a movie about Formula 1 helped bring in new viewers. The point is that movies can make the sport easier to understand and more interesting to people who don’t follow racing yet.
Silverstone is a famous Formula 1 race track in the UK. The hosts are saying it can feel less “special” than some other F1 locations that look more like a city event.
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team-oriented confidence porn
They’re using a joking phrase to say F1 is exciting because you can see teams working together really well. It’s about the confidence that comes from having a strong plan and executing it.
The pit crew is the team of mechanics and specialists responsible for servicing the car during pit stops—typically tire changes, refueling (where applicable), and quick repairs. Their coordination and speed are crucial because pit stop time can swing race outcomes.
In F1, engineers are responsible for race strategy, car setup, tire management, and real-time performance decisions. Their work connects directly to how the car behaves on track and how the team plans each stint.
A pit stop is when the car enters the pit lane for service during the race, most commonly to change tires and sometimes to make adjustments. In F1, pit stop timing and execution are tightly linked to strategy and can determine track position.
The hosts discuss the presence of AI-related advertising during race viewing and how it affects the listener’s emotional response to the sport. This is less about a technical F1 system and more about the cultural/ethical context surrounding modern motorsport.
They’re talking about F1 cars running on gasoline instead of switching to a totally different kind of power. The point is whether that’s “good enough” for sustainability, especially compared with the effort and optics of changing technology.
In F1, “hybrid” means the car uses more than just regular gasoline power. It also recovers energy while driving and can use that stored energy to help the car go faster and use less fuel.
“Sustainable fuel” means the fuel is supposed to be better for the climate than regular gasoline. The important part is whether the carbon is truly handled in a way that reduces emissions overall, not just marketing language.
Carbon offsets are like paying for someone else to “undo” pollution somewhere else to balance out your emissions. Here, the speaker is saying the approach isn’t just relying on those credits.
“Net zero” fuel aims to make the overall lifecycle carbon impact as close to zero as possible, typically by balancing emissions with carbon recapture or other accounting methods. In racing, this is especially scrutinized because the sport’s fuel use is direct and measurable, so the credibility depends on how recapture and lifecycle emissions are handled.
The Overton window is about what society thinks is “normal” or acceptable. Here, the speaker is saying the conversation about sustainability might be moving in a direction that makes them uneasy.
They’re not talking about car tech here—they’re talking about what F1 represents in society. The idea is that the sport is connected to big money and power in a way you don’t always notice day-to-day.
They’re talking about why Formula 1 exists in the first place, and how today’s sponsorship money can shape the sport. The point is that F1 started as a competition to push limits, but the business side can complicate that.
The hosts describe how sponsorship funding can come from organizations they consider “bad actors,” and how that can influence the sport’s culture and incentives. They also argue that enjoying the sport can feel like “playing their game,” which frames a broader ethical tension around commercial involvement in racing.
INEOS is mentioned as a sponsor/participant presence in the Formula 1 paddock environment. In F1, companies like INEOS are typically involved through team ownership, sponsorship, or branding, which ties directly into how the sport is funded and marketed.
OpenAI is a tech company mentioned as being around the Formula 1 scene. It’s a sign that modern racing isn’t just cars and engines—tech companies also get involved.
Slipstream is when you follow closely behind another car and it feels easier to go faster. The car in front pushes air out of the way, so the trailing car has less drag.
Pole position means you qualify fastest and start the race from the very front. That’s helpful because you’re less likely to get boxed in when the race starts.
A monocoque is the main safety “shell” of the car. In an F1 car it’s especially important because it protects the driver and helps the car stay rigid for better handling.
They’re talking about a racing series where the cars are pickup-style race trucks. It’s a different kind of racing than F1, but it’s part of the broader motorsport weekend.
Topic
speedycash.com 250
That name is the sponsor title for a particular race. It helps you know which event they’re talking about.
This is the track where the Miami Grand Prix happens. Different parts of the course stress the car in different ways, so teams have to tune the car for the whole lap.
NHRA is the National Hot Rod Association, which organizes drag racing events in the U.S. Drag racing focuses on straight-line acceleration, traction, and launch setup rather than cornering.
BRDC is a UK motorsport club that’s closely tied to racing in Britain. They also own Silverstone, so leadership changes can be significant for the racing world.
They’re talking about whether a new team is allowed to race in Formula 1. Getting permission isn’t automatic—teams have to meet rules, and disagreements can delay or block entry.
“Customer cars” refers to cars supplied to a team by another constructor rather than being fully developed in-house. In F1, this has historically been controversial because it affects competitive balance and the sport’s technical regulations.
Concept
OLED TV motion smoothing / adaptive frame rate
They’re talking about how to adjust TV settings so fast action looks smoother. It’s about making the broadcast easier to watch, not about the cars themselves.
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I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year.
All of the faces and all of the places wondering where they all disappeared.
Welcome to Shift F1, a podcast best feed to raise scars.
That, of course, is Jimmy Buffett, because F1 is back with all of the faces and places
we remember starting off with.
That changes in latitudes?
It is.
Yes!
Nice one.
It's amazing how one sided the Jimmy Buffett knowledge is in this podcast.
Well, you're from across the pond.
It's understandable.
Different, real different island vibes, if we're being honest.
It's true.
I've looked at the map, there's no Margaritaville in Ireland.
Not yet, my friend.
I could definitely bring those vibes there.
I'm all in on the Margaritaville feelings.
I feel like that is a good time.
It's a blank check for adults to just be free and have fun and kick off their shoes.
But I do need to listen to Mr. Buffet's back cod log a lot more.
His early stuff is legitimately excellent.
Great filling station holdup is a fantastic...
Jimmy Buffett gets a lot of shit for when he was just in his harvesting the parrot heads,
Jimmy Buffett incorporated era.
But early Gulf Coast, more Nashville, Jimmy Buffett, he did have legit chops.
Nice.
That is Parrot Head Rob Zachney.
I'm Parrot Head Drew Scanlon.
Future Parrot Head, Danny O'Dwyer.
Absolutely.
Kaka, is that what we do?
That's what they do.
When Jimmy Buffett goes out there on stage and says,
Parrot heads, let me hear you, then you go, Kaka!
Actually, they do ever love a lot of weed.
Hey, baby, I'm a Parrot Head already.
His backing band is called the Coral Reefers.
Oh, my God.
Everything you say makes me want to get into Jimmy Buffett more.
Also, the Kaka thing, that's literally how we find our daughter in a room of people.
If we're out in the bush, we don't shout her name, we just go, Kaka!
Because she knows that's us.
No one else deal that because it's going to be confusing otherwise.
If you're new to this podcast, a very warm welcome to you.
And if you're new to Formula One itself, we recommend listening to our pre-season primer episode,
which assumes no prior F1 knowledge and explains how the sport works and who everybody is.
So we'd like to go back and listen to that.
It's episode 338.
And don't worry, even though we are almost in May, you haven't missed much.
Because we had two races canceled.
Because the season's starting this weekend.
We just hit reset on everything.
Look, at least you're not WEC fans.
I was checking out the other day.
I was like, hey, what's Weckman up to?
I feel like he should have seen her and that's, oh, that's right.
Their entire opening part of the calendar depends on things being extremely normal.
Oh, really?
Wow.
And there are fewer races.
So a bigger chunk of their season has been taken out.
Yeah.
Qatar F4 is probably having a rough year.
Right.
Yeah.
Also, the show would not be possible without our audience over at patreon.com slash shift F1,
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What's been going on in Patreon land lately, Danny?
Well, we did experiment with another racing series,
you know, backed by popular demand.
We produced a primer for formula two.
So if you have been, you know, if F1, if the 24 race or 22 and counting race season,
hasn't entertained you enough for you've been,
you've been catching the highlights of F2 over on the formula one YouTube channel,
or maybe you're just interested in all of these beautiful young drivers coming up from the,
from the lower leagues, then you should check out this primer.
It was a bit a lot of people have been asking for a little while.
So it was fun to put together. We had a lot of fun chatting about it.
A lot of fun trying to get Drew to pronounce names properly.
Oh my God. Yes.
I actually really enjoy the process myself because, you know,
it's great having a way to get introduced to these drivers
before they make the jump to formula one.
You know, when they come in, if you already know them,
then you're already a fan or, you know, a non-fan.
Yeah, totally. It's a big school.
And a lot, honestly, a lot of the, like, you know,
rough edges of getting into a new racing series are sort of dealt with in some way
because, you know, you know the tracks, the cars are not too different fundamentally,
you know, even though there are some very big differences, obviously.
But yeah, so a lot of that stuff is sort of taken care of, you know,
rules and whatnot are familiar, things like that.
A lot of fun stories I didn't know before also,
just people's origins and the team origins.
Yeah.
It's the same as Formula One, man.
A hundred percent, yeah.
Yeah, and even just, like, this series's origin as well as an interesting story
of, like, what GP2 was, what, you know, European Formula 2 was,
all the different things and how eventually it was kind of Liberty Media
who sort of folded it in under the F1 banner
and sort of established it as a, you know,
a more traditional lower division as you see in many other sports.
Such as the life of a motorsport fan, though,
it's a lot of series that start and end the leagues that pop up here
and then disappear here.
Yeah, but yeah, you can check out our primer along with, you know,
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We're always here, even in the case that Rob's
house is exploding or something, you know?
It's doing the opposite of exploding, really.
It's leaking all over itself.
Good point. Yes, that is the opposite.
Now, it does look like it has exploded.
That is what my kitchen currently looks like.
It looks like someone detonated like
mining charges somewhere in my kitchen.
And now there's like tradespeople
sifting through the rubble for treasure
and clues as to what's happened.
Matt, the Iranians mined your kitchen as well.
They are just odd at the moment.
That's way too much.
That's just bad targeting on the Revolutionary
Guard Council's part.
I have nothing to do with this.
Okay, well, if Rob has to bail,
that's why, or mute or something.
But let's just jump right into the news here.
We mentioned before we went on break
that F1 would be reviewing these new rules
that kind of was always in the cards, I think.
We're going to try version one here,
and we have a planned update,
but what that update will actually be,
we don't know yet, and so they met over this break
and have come up with some changes, Danny.
Yes, the hotfix.
Download it now to access the servers.
I would call it a hotfix.
It's not like a full patch.
It's some balance tweaks.
And some of this stuff is also likely to change again.
I will say the sort of overriding conversation
about this has been what can we do
without it getting too political.
So they've tried to make changes,
but ultimately F1, as you all know,
if you listen to this podcast,
maybe you're new to the sport and you don't,
but trying to get all of the very stakeholders
to agree to things in very short periods of time
is not generally very easy,
but they have managed to make some changes.
I think a lot of these were changes
that you can read it and go,
they probably had this in their back pocket already
if things don't work.
And I've tried to sort of,
I don't know, make them as understandable as possible here.
So that these four main ones
we're going to talk about,
or at least the changes can be sort of like
put down into these four little bullet points.
So first of all, they have raised the super clipping limit.
So this was obviously one of the big issues
people had, a lot of big issues that the fans had,
but also the drivers, which was that other...
The phrasing here, I'm sorry,
this is going to be a little confusing,
we're going to do our best,
but the phrasing of all this stuff,
it's like raising a limit,
like a reduction in the recharge,
like what does...
Like there's a lot of like double negatives going on.
There is, even when I was writing this,
I was like, am I thinking that correctly?
Like is that actually what they're saying when they say that?
But yeah, yes, raising the limit
does seem like a bit of a contradiction in some way.
So essentially, obviously when the cars are driving in,
the straights in particular,
they're being powered by the internal combustion engine,
but also this new battery system,
hybrid battery system thing,
which is 50-50 at the moment,
or somewhere near that in terms of power output.
So one of the big things that we were running into
was that the batteries at a certain limit
would essentially hit their red line,
that you would not be able to put any more
through-push through the battery.
And so what was happening a lot was that
80% down a straight, maybe earlier,
the engine would essentially top out.
And it was very obvious that it was,
and it would start to slow down essentially.
Because it's recharging.
Yeah, because what it was doing was it was
essentially harvesting energy from the,
MG UK or from whatever,
it was pulling back,
so the car would go,
sort of make this awful sort of dying noise
as it was struggling at the end of the straight.
So essentially what they've done is
they've raised that limit from 250 kilowatts
to 350 kilowatts,
which on paper is a pretty sizable increase,
I'd say, it's like a third or something extra.
So at decent amount,
obviously it'll depend track by track
how useful this is.
And ultimately, I don't mind,
I don't know, I'm very forgiving of these things.
I care more that the racing is good
than the historical fan experience is the same.
So if the cars do make a little bit of a winny
at the end of the straight, which I'm sure they will,
this isn't going to necessarily on its own change that,
although the next point might help it.
But yeah, I think this was one that people saw coming anyway.
Yeah, maybe get to the next one
and we can kind of talk about both of these in conjunction.
Yeah, so the other thing that they have done
is they have reduced the harvesting limit.
Again, a little bit of word spaghetti here going on.
But essentially what they have done is
they have reduced the amount of charge
that the battery or the MG UK rather does.
No, it's the battery.
Yeah, I guess the storage.
Yes, through the various systems, I guess.
From 8 to 7 megajoules.
So essentially, this is the amount.
Do not think about this as output.
Think about this as the amount that the batteries themselves
are harvesting.
So what this kind of does is give
put less of an impetus on the act of recharging,
if that makes sense.
So the drivers are essentially spending less time doing that
and so will be more on the limit.
It seems a bit counterintuitive,
but essentially what it's going to do is
make it so that there is less, I guess,
of a delta between how much charge is happening
to allow the cars to sort of play in the mid...
Yeah, Guan Rob.
I'm just going to say here,
I'm surprised by how reactionary I'm feeling about this.
Okay.
I think this is the moment where I start to hate
this conception of F1.
I believe I'm saying that.
You did grimace, I saw.
It is partly these language issues you're having.
We're pretty smart people.
We follow the sport pretty closely.
There's just, stepping back,
there's a large conceptual issue here where
this stuff is speaking in language
that's very native to engineers.
My wife is a natural engineer.
Clipping is something that she completely understands.
In any context, no matter what type of system
you're looking at, clipping is something
that makes a great deal of intuitive sense
and that's something that engineers
across a lot of fields play around with.
What happens when you sort of saturate a sensor
or hit a limit, but that is not a thing
that most of us engage with on the regular
and all this stuff is phrased in such a way
that doesn't really have a ton of intuitive sense
for exactly what all these changes mean
and then the some effect of all these changes
is kind of like, it is a little bit like,
don't worry, we're gonna slow these cars down even more.
So like the super clipping limit,
basically what they're solving here
is what they're trying to solve
is that the super clipping is when you're heading down
the straight, you're full throttle
and then the car just begins harvesting energy
and that's where you would have the sort of paradoxical
like drivers fully on the throttle
but the car is no longer putting as much power out
as actually trying to recover some down the straight.
By raising this limit, the car is now recovering
more energy, i.e. slowing itself down
more when you are at full throttle on these straights.
So you're going to have cars, when they hit this limit
they're going to be slower down the straights.
But they're doing it for a shorter duration
for two reasons. One, because the power
that they're harvesting is now increased
so they're putting more energy per time
back into the battery and, as Danny said
the storage is also smaller.
So we're going from 8 to 7 megajoules.
And they may drop it down to 6.
Hang on, Drew, when you're saying they're doing it less
that means like, say you're heading down the straight.
Does that mean you're saying the time that you're doing it?
Do you mean like over the course of a lap
or do you mean like you're going to be clipping
for a shorter distance on the straight?
So the way I understand it is that
over a lap you only have a smaller amount of storage.
And then when the cars use super clipping to recharge
they do so faster so that they are super clipping
for less time. The recovery rate is higher.
Yeah, so that should be less obvious.
Okay, that is good. That sounds good to me.
Right.
But I think reading between the lines here
and what they're not saying out loud is that
okay, we've got, you know, just look at the storage amount.
You have now less power that you're deploying to the car
over the course of a lap.
Nothing else has changed about the power unit.
Your internal combustion engine is still
outputting the same amount.
So these cars will be slower in lap time.
And I'm going to agree with you, or I think maybe Danny said it.
That's fine with me.
I just want the racing to be good.
It's about a second lap they think they are going to be.
Obviously, we'll have to see.
Yeah, so those are the two main ones.
And like you said, they sort of work in tandem
and they are complicated and they are,
and ideally this is stuff that we wouldn't have ever had
to have known about in some way, I guess.
But yeah, so those are the two sort of main ones
that we're going to see lap by lap by lap.
There are two other aspects that are worth mentioning.
The first is the issue that we saw in Suzuka
with Ali Bearman's crash, which was this delta in speed,
essentially the closing speed between two cars,
which is something that happens in F1,
but usually because of some sort of mechanical issue
where somebody misses a, you know, back in the old days,
if somebody had lost a gear or something,
you know, this could happen, right?
But I think the nature of how it's happening in F1
with regards to the super clipping in particular,
and also, you know, as we saw that was on a turn, right,
where the car was clearly just had bottomed out.
One was in recharge and one was in, I don't know,
boost mode or whatever you want to call it.
Well, now you've got, instead of everyone having the same
kind of power unit, effectively, you now have occasions
where someone could be exceeding the speed with the boost
and much lower in harvesting.
Yeah, exactly.
So that is now new, and we've diverged from the normal speed
in two directions, so we're trying to even that back out.
So this one's a little bit, you know, more opaque,
less opaque, I can never figure out.
I don't love that there's a term I feel like I haven't seen
here before.
Yeah, so essentially there are now key acceleration zones
is what I've, I don't know if that's a term that they're
going to be using, but that is essentially the way that,
you know, from reading this stuff that I have sort of.
This is extremely hot fix.
Basically, the full 350 kilowatts of electrical power
remains available to deploy there,
but there are certain spots where it's 250.
Or sorry, the other way around.
Again, to Rob's point, I feel like they've messed this up.
Over the whole lap, I think, they are now limited,
they're limited from 350 to 250 kilowatts deployment.
However, there are certain zones where it is safe to use
the full 350.
Which is what essentially for the slower car,
I'm guessing.
No.
So the.
Wasn't that introduced to Delta?
The battery is deploying less energy to the car,
meaning now it won't go as fast.
Right.
Except in these safe areas.
Drew, explain to me again, like a small child here.
Yeah.
The bearman issue was that call-up in tow was harvesting.
Yes.
And you had huge overtake Delta.
How does this tweak change the risk profile?
Does that mean the call-up in tow would still be using
350 in that, even if he's in like harvest mode?
Well, so he theoretically would be using less harvesting
because of the previous points, right?
So now they've said that because we're now harvesting,
the rate of harvesting is higher and the total storage
that they have to refill is lower.
They're only going to be harvesting for two to four seconds
per lap.
So call-up in tow with would theoretically have been doing
less harvesting on that lap.
So theoretically wouldn't have been going as slow.
Again, this is how I understand it.
Also the point that we're talking about here,
because now the car is limited to 250 kilowatt deployment
in most areas, bearman wouldn't have been going as fast.
Oh, so that wouldn't have been a key acceleration zone.
That would have been a zone where they're just slapping
down the 250 limit and now bearman is not rocketing.
Exactly.
So the key acceleration zones will be in places that are
presumably safe, so straights and whatnot.
Well, coming out of a turn, I think, where you can see ahead
of you, not blind areas.
The other thing is, so they've also capped the boost.
So if bearman had gotten boost on call-up in tow,
the previous lap, and then deployed it,
that is now capped at 150 kilowatts.
So the boost isn't as powerful.
I don't know what it was before.
Crazy.
OK, do you want the last one?
I hope I've got all this right.
I hope so too, because honestly, I wrote all this stuff
down last night, and then this morning I looked at it,
I was like, this is Cyrillic.
When you write down a dream.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I made total sense when I wrote it down.
Key acceleration zone, more power, safety limit, bigger
and smaller.
OK, so now we've got the last one, folks.
Safety on starts, what I have coined the Ferrari problem.
So this is the issue that some cars are having with the
requirements to essentially spin up the engine to make sure
that it bites when the lights go out and they go.
We knew the Ferrari had problems with this before the season
even started.
Well, no, they had advantages.
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
The Ferrari problem is that their unit, I think it was
a smaller turbo, it's easier to spin up.
So the problem was, they are basically going like,
every start, they're getting the boost Mario Kart style.
I do hate how often that gets rolled.
I forget which team it was that was having the.
It's everyone else relative Ferrari, but some teams have been
really afflicted by it.
I want to say McLaren has gotten bogged.
I feel like Red Blossom had a great record of that either.
No, no, they haven't.
But I think for, yeah.
There's anyway, some teams are obviously or maybe it's drivers
really, maybe more so that are struggling with it because
the, you know, it's like the anti solid issues we used to see
a lot of about 10 years ago where, you know, if you're starting,
it's like missing the start going on a race.
Like you're just trying to catch up basically at that stage.
So essentially what they've done is they have added something
called low power start detection, which is a system that in
the events that you do bung up your start for whatever reason,
and the system will automatically kick in the MG UK deployment
so that you use the battery, use the battery.
So essentially it is like, so you don't crawl off the line
and the person behind you or more often than not the person
two cars or three cars behind you who doesn't know you're going slow
doesn't go into the back of you.
Essentially what it does is it gives you a little bit of battery
to try and get you going.
So at least you're not creating a roadblock.
They have,
Was it like Matrix Dodge, a starting grid collision in Australia?
Was it Portoletto?
Yeah, it was crazy.
It was a Portoletto who did it.
Yeah, it was remarkable.
Like remarkable that that wasn't worse.
Just an incredible piece of driving to get around.
But yeah, so essentially they have said there will be no
advantage from the system.
We're not talking about speeds that are going to, you know,
make this an advantage.
But yeah, essentially it's there to stop grid stalls
and then crashes at the start of the race.
Well, and remember we also disallowed cars from using
the battery at the start for safety reasons.
If they don't bog down, right?
So everyone, if all goes well and no one bogs down,
everyone is using only the internal combustion engine
to get off the line, right?
If you do bog down, then you are allowed to use your battery
and that all happen automatically.
Yes, exactly.
It'll know, apparently,
don't know how these engineers are managing to pull all this stuff off.
I don't think you can just software upgrade this thing, but...
It might be.
Yeah, maybe you can.
But yeah, so those are the four big changes.
Obviously, like you said,
Ferrari are probably not going to benefit from that last one.
Rob, you're making a face.
Yeah, what's going on?
You okay buddy?
Is this it?
You finally done with F1?
I think very...
It is so funny.
Well, I also got an unfortunate text that makes it sound like
the plumber is going to be busy for the rest of the day
before being able to address this leak.
So that is frustrating.
Can they turn the water off or do they need to?
No, we still got water.
Okay.
Fill up your bathtubs, maybe.
We'll hopefully be resolved.
But the...
It is so funny, first of all.
Do you remember last year, F1 was talking about
we need to simplify the language so our stupid fans
can follow this story.
Well, this is from the FIA, right?
And where we're at is you practically need an electronic...
You at least need to have done an electronics refresher
to know like we're this close to being like...
How many ohms are in the system here?
They've changed the resistance in the circuits on the F1 car.
You were just talking before we went live about vinyl players
and stuff like this is...
Saying it was magic.
We complain about this.
But this is why we're here, Rob.
We're sick, right?
This is why we're here.
This stuff is all interesting.
But I think the problem for me is there are a lot of now...
I think part of it is so much of this is not organic
or inherent to the way the cars function, right?
That this is a...
We are able to sort of just like literally tweak the dials
on how efficiently these things can recharge
versus how much power they can deploy over the course of a lap.
So like there's nothing inherent to...
There's no analog to like fuel in a car
because they can literally say like your battery tank
is bigger or smaller and fills up a different rate
depending on how it would be like tweak the dials.
So you don't have like an intuitive like that.
There's sort of a natural or inherent order
to the tech that these things are following
where like battery go up, battery go down.
It is that that itself is sort of a thing that is metered by the rules.
But now we are creating a lot of like sub rules
to how that metering works and how like how power is being gained,
how it is being deployed, where it can be deployed.
There are a lot of moving pieces to this
that like conceptually it just gets a little like messy to follow.
And maybe it only matters in the abstract.
Maybe like, you know, come this Sunday,
we won't care because the racing will be fine
and you won't be thinking about this stuff.
But just like looking at the rules,
there's now so many tweaks they've made to it
where like, well, the cars in this zone can use its full battery
and this zone it can't.
That's a lot of asterisks on like just how the cars are operating
or of course the lap.
Yeah, I think there's an argument here
that we can be either really kind to the FAA
and say like, this is the type of stuff that we're not usually exposed to
or we can feel from, you know, I think what you're saying is very fair.
I think unfortunately we are sort of being inundated with this new information
because we're trying to figure it out,
but also that it does feel like sort of government overreach or something.
I think there's two points I have here
or two things that this sort of brought up for me, I guess.
The first is that the, this really shows you how much control
Formula One has over the cars now
because they have access to this sort of sweeping legislation
that they can essentially impose on top of, you know, all of the teams.
It's like, you know, they always had rules that they were able to do,
but this is so much more direct,
like they're able to within a season essentially like cap
or extend the output of these cars, which is pretty remarkable.
And I think the other thing that this brings up for me is that, you know,
there are certain things, I don't know why,
maybe it's the way we are educated or the way we grow up,
but there are certain aspects of sort of science that feel natural to us
and then you open up a book about like astrophysics
and everything's topsy-turvy and doesn't make sense anymore.
You know what I mean?
Like things that you think would do one thing
are actually like the other way around.
It's not intuitive and I think there is an aspect of these rules
that is very non-intuitive.
You know what I mean?
Like you really have to stare at them for a second to sort of figure it out.
I think that's not helping.
Electricity in particular is tricky because electricity,
what do you mean when you're talking about power?
Do you mean current, for instance,
which a lot of these regs are written in the language
of like talking about current,
but then you're talking about joules,
just overall like energy expenditure.
So when we're talking about like what is the,
what does power mean from the battery?
Even there it gets a little bit fuzzy
because we're talking about like deploying kilowatts,
but then when we're talking about what you can do over the course of a lap,
we're back to joules.
You know, so I think power is an odd one
because there's so many different ways that we're used to measuring
like electrical systems power versus potential power.
It's kind of a goofy thing where like in some scenarios
we encounter electricity and the number,
the thing that matters is measured in volts.
In other spaces, what matters and usually wattage,
current is the measure of like how much power is actually going through a system.
But we encounter electricity in these different ways
and these different ways of like talking about like its capacity
and what it can do.
And I just don't think that stuff is terribly intuitive
compared to like revs on the internal combustion engine.
Very simple for me to understand.
When you're starting to talk about it and it's covering all this,
it starts to get a little bit fuzzy.
I know what a horse is.
All right, well, we'll see.
We'll see this weekend how things go
and I guess over the course of the rest of the season.
Or whether we can even determine a difference, you know.
Is there a little bit, just my last Boomer thought,
I'd never fully escaped the feeling that a little bit of bare man and call pinto
was like a skill issue thing though.
And like part of it, I think,
but this goes back to a lot of discussion around safety across open wheel racing,
going even tears down,
which is that the drivers are sort of expected to be full commit, quality pace, every lap.
And that is a really new phenomenon in racing.
It used to be much more you'd be sort of like managing these things for endurance.
Now drivers are sort of trained in condition to always be in like full Cobra Kai,
maximum pace mode.
And I was always a little bit like, yes, the speed differential in that scenario is alarming,
but I always looked at it as like column pinto drifting on the straight
felt to me like something that might have been fighting,
fighting words in the pit after a race like 30 years ago, right?
Where it's like, you don't do that in that position.
And like bare man not being prepared for a car,
he was overtaking to be moving relatively slow and occupying that space
also sort of felt to me like, yeah,
but I watched tons of other series where huge speed differentials now,
admittedly, like those are multi class racing,
you're supposed to know like what that car is capable of doing.
But the notion the driver like can't be prepared for a speed differential like that always kind of rub me the wrong way to where it's like,
what is happening on enough one track has changed.
And kind of what the argument has been here is for the sake of safety.
We can't tell drivers to like be more heads up about that and like maybe hedge their bets a little bit more.
Instead, it is we must prevent them from ever encountering a scenario where they have to react to a car moving that slowly ahead of them under these roles.
Yeah, I think a lot of this is downstream from what you said at the start,
which is that for whatever reason, especially in F1,
these cars are being driven at the limit almost the entire lap.
And I think you just you can't because of the the delta, if you will, between the competitors, you can't give an inch.
So yeah, I'm with you.
I think Colopinto was probably, you know, obviously was was more to blame in that situation.
But I think everyone is sort of put in an impossible situation where he has to take a uphill right hander kind of blind.
Because if he doesn't, he's going to gobbled up by somebody else because everyone else is also forced to do it.
But yeah, so it's yeah, it's not ideal.
And honestly, like so much of what whenever we talk about these rules, whenever we talk about the cars,
when we talk about the overtaking, so much of this always in the back of my head,
I'm thinking these tracks were not designed for cars like this.
Like they weren't designed for these closing speeds.
They weren't designed for these top speeds. They weren't designed for these speeds like that is not, you know,
they were built in a different era and they were driven entirely differently.
So, you know, I think in a way we are always sort of trying to forgive the tracks, you know,
in some way with with with with these regulations and rule changes.
We're trying to balance that stuff off.
And yeah, yeah.
Well, like you said, Rob, I hope these changes are for the sake of the viewer transparent.
Like we don't even really think about them the same way.
I don't really think about, you know, break balance, you know,
which is something that the drivers are feeling throughout a lap as well.
All right, we're going to take a quick break here, but we'll be back with some more news and then the Miami Track Walk.
Line out the door. Hank makes the pizza. Copilot handles the spreadsheets.
Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work.
Danny, give us some good news.
Turkey. Yay.
Yay.
Pronounce it with me.
Turkey. Yay.
Turkey. Yay.
That's the way we pronounce turkey now.
Just so you know, because it's been a while since we've been here, but they have officially
sick of people comparing them to a bird.
They have decided to employ the new international pronunciation of turkey.
And I'm here to say turkey. Yay.
We're going back, folks. We're going back.
Going back to the beautiful world of dictatorship of turkey.
Gurgling.
As if I'd say Victor Orban's turkey, but that's hungry.
Who also should maybe change their name, because we think that's associated with eating delicious birds.
But no, Erdogan's turkey is back on the calendar.
Turkey was a track...
Looks like turkey's back on the menu, boys.
There's so many we can... No, you're not allowed to say that.
See, turkey. Yay.
Looks like turkey. Yay is back on the menu, boys.
They've changed the pronunciation, but can't avoid the association.
It wasn't enough. Try again.
Roll again, turkey. Yay.
Yes, turkey was a track I loved.
2005 to 2021, we had it on the F1 calendar, and then it disappeared.
Like so many great tracks. I miss you.
I was about to say Singapore. I miss you. Malaysia. Thank you.
I'm very happy. It's back on the calendar from 2027.
Next year, we're going to have turkey back on the calendar.
And I, for one, am very happy. I think it's a great track.
But while I was doing this, there were other...
I was looking at the calendar stuff for the next couple of years,
and there were some other issues, some other things that I did not realize had happened.
Some of this must have been during the off season.
I don't think we talked about this because we were talking about this year's calendar,
which already has some changes with the madring coming in as well.
But a couple of other things that...
I had to double check this because I was like, this is...
Am I dreaming? Are two of the tracks that I've wanted back for years coming back?
But another track that's coming in is Porta Mau.
Yes.
Which I did not... I never got the bulletin on, I guess.
So the Autodromo Dialgar, which we last raced in a sort of...
It was one of the fixer circuits during the COVID year.
And we raced there, I want to say, two years.
Great little go-karty track, just a weird four-in-a-one track.
Not that many straights, and they're not that long.
And just lots of crazy...
Great cycling track, right?
Is it a cycling track?
No, it's not a motorcycle.
Oh, motorcycle. Oh yeah, it's 100% a GP track.
Yeah, it is built for bikes, you can tell.
It's lots of uphills.
It kind of feels like a track that probably changed a lot
just because of the ground shifting over the past 50 years or whatever.
So we're also going back next year there.
And then the other thing that's happening is that Barcelona is alternating
with Spa between here and 2032.
And then the one we talked about, I think we talked about the fact
that Zandvoort is off the calendar as of next year, which I'm also happy about.
I know that's a traditional track that came back, but I'm not a huge fan of it.
And maybe F1 knew that Max Verstappen was going to leave Formula 1
and go endurance race, I don't know.
Obviously, that is conjecture on my part.
He's really just going to Mercedes probably.
Time will tell what Max decides to do.
But yeah, I think that's great.
I'm really excited about it.
Turkey coming back, Turkey A, sorry.
Coming back, Turkey A.
And I'm very excited about Puerto Mac coming back.
Those are the two great tracks.
Yeah, Darth Noose on the Shift F1 Discord has posted an image
and maybe we can get this for the show notes that's like graphically
showing graphically when each track shows up.
So yeah, it's easy to see then Spa and Barcelona alternating
and then Turkey is effectively slotting in because by alternating
we're losing a track every other year instead of both of them all years.
I don't know, I think this chart points out is that Austria and Miami
are both confirmed to 2041.
Go ahead and add it up.
I mean, I love Austria.
Yeah, another track that has come back in recent years.
If they want to confirm Austria till the end of time, I'm good with that.
Yeah, it's like genuinely it's become one of the across multiple configurations
of the car. Good race.
Yeah, it's been a solid.
I think that and there's been a couple that have been surprisingly good.
I think Baku and it was introduced as well.
And it was a super we were that we were very I think skeptical of that
because it is another Petro state street circuit, but Baku has been has been great.
And yeah, Austria, obviously, another historic track in some respects,
the Austrian ring, but, you know, and it's a modern incarnation.
Also, sort of another Max Verstappen circuit because it's owned by Red Bull Ring.
But yeah, it's been another great track.
Bring back Turkey, man.
Bring back that looping triple apex corner.
There's great stuff there.
Yeah, it's a fun time.
So that's pretty cool.
I for one, I'm happy that we're just not adding.
I think we had a couple of like pretty cynical additions to the F1 calendar
over the past 10 years.
And yeah, these two or to mail.
I'm so happy to still run by an authoritarian basically single party system.
Yeah, still pretty cynical.
Very, very true.
Not too distant legacy of ethnic cleansing.
There's actually a couple we can talk about, right?
Like there's the Armenians and then there's the Kurds.
So like it's all it's all cynical all the way down,
but at least you get a good fucking race course out of this.
Hey, they haven't picked sides really on the Iran situation.
So we're going to have to see, you know, if the war expands over the next year,
then, you know, maybe maybe this will become enter the the zone of no F1
along with Baku and everything else.
Just on that, how are we feeling about the likelihood of an Abu Dhabi finale?
And what's the other one?
What'd you say?
Qatar.
Qatar.
Abu Dhabi, Qatar.
I do not feel good about it.
Me too.
We are, it's still, it is still such a long shot, especially since, you know, the,
first of all, we've heard so many times about negotiations happening,
then not happening, agreements being reached and then not being reached.
Like the level of, I mean, like here in the United States,
we basically know that like we have a regency presidency of like some of the
worst people on the planet and then a confused old man who is in charge of this
and kind of a dumbass.
So you already can't really trust the information you're getting from like the
American side of all this, but then you add that like level of uncertainty and
haplessness to the complexity of the international negotiation to reach a
settlement or at least reach an agreement to suspend the conflict and reopen
the straight.
I just don't see it happening.
Well, yeah.
And a company in Formula One that is trying to put their best face forward
and say like, everything's fine.
So that's totally race here.
That's the one way in which I feel like, like we saw that before with,
again, I think it was a Bahrain, which is the one that has the
land bridge with Saudi.
It's Bahrain, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that, remember years ago, the drivers staged a protest there,
but yeah, F1 again, we're more than happy to go for it.
So that's the gray zone that I'm not sure about.
I think pragmatically you probably shouldn't be doing this.
I don't think there's any world in which by the time we get to that part of
the year that I think the best case scenario is that there is a temporary
ceasefire that has continued into that point.
I cannot see diplomacy figuring this thing out within Trump's term probably
because it's just going to be such an L for the Americans.
And I don't think he's willing to do that.
But again, who knows?
Who knows what's going to happen in Iran with the current line of succession
is also in a weird spot with the new guy essentially being.
Kamenay the Younger?
Yeah.
Apparently quite injured from a strike and there's obviously IRGC
and other people fighting there too for a bit of power.
Who knows what's actually going on there?
And obviously they're doing their own ethnic cleansing behind the veil as well.
It sounds like, but I feel like, yeah, I just can't.
They're so, they're right there.
It's not like Jeddah.
You know what I mean?
You can have a sort of a situation where you're being as safe as humanly possible.
But they are right there and also Iran is more than happy to hit,
especially the Emirates, like especially the UAE.
They are more than happy.
NF1 is an American company.
NF1 is an American company.
That is a good point.
Sorry, I don't want to belabor the point.
But even if you're, I think there is an element of like even, you know,
state sanctioned violence, you have to think about other parties within that.
Because like, you know, between that and, you know,
there's a lot more skin in the game going on here with other states fighting each other
and infighting and other, you know, ethnic groups and religious groups
within those countries as well that kind of makes the UAE a bit of a target at the moment.
So yeah, you know.
Well, from track changes to personnel changes.
Rob, we got a couple notes here and maybe let's kind of speed through this.
We got to talk about Miami.
We got a just a quick update here.
So as we know, Wheatley left Audi in Parker's speculation was that his role was not as team
principle-ish as he had hoped.
And Mattia Bonato was really overseeing the team and Wheatley was more of a trackside guy,
which was not he signed up for.
So they've now appointed a racing director of Audi Endurance Racing legend, Alan Mignich.
He survived a few of the most hair-raising crashes I've ever seen and came away OK.
He is now the racing director and it does seem like they are now sort of moving toward
a dual command structure for Audi, which I think is the way the sport is increasingly going.
There will be someone overseeing team operations and engineering and all the headquarters stuff.
And then there's someone flying out to oversee field operations, lead the team on race day
and crucially interact with high level VIP stakeholders on these race weekends with which
Mignich has experience doing in his role as a driver.
But also he is coming off a stint heading up the I think the Audi Formula E program where
he acquitted himself quite well in the face of some real challenges.
The race has a good write up on this and it's clear the reporters like him for how he dealt
with them and dealt with some challenging things that came up in the Formula E campaign.
But they have found their guys, it looks like Bernardo sort of overall in charge and in
charge of the engineering and like corporate side and then Mignich is going to be leading
the team on race weekends.
The other big person I'll change and this one is pretty significant.
Jean-Pierre Alambiasse is leaving Red Bull and he will be joining McLaren after a period
of garden leave in 2028.
Man, they must have locked that dude up with a contract.
Now, obviously GPs at a point in his career and he's grown in stature as Max's championship
career is taken off that like engineers like this do tend to get tapped like he's at the
point in his career where you get tapped for these bigger roles.
The initial word was maybe GP was heading to McLaren to replace Andre Estella.
They have quashed those rumors but it wouldn't surprise me if he is being sort of groomed
for a like successorship within the organization to take over one of the major principal roles.
The other part of this though is this is yet another person close to Max who is withdrawing
from Red Bull and leaving that program in a much more uncomfortable position and making
it very uncertain what Max's future is.
Yeah, it's crazy how like every piece of new news coming out of Red Bull with people leaving
because it doesn't look like it's that bad there but clearly the rats are jumping overboard
so you're kind of like, ooh, what's going on?
Well, you had a change in team principal, right?
It might just be a result of.
I don't know.
It seems like the vibes are off but he is staying for the duration of his contract through
I guess through 2028 so maybe it won't be a garden leave.
Maybe he will just literally be at the, he will be alongside Max or whoever through 2028
until 2028 and then he'll make the jump.
So it is not an immediate like bailing out and then hitting the mandated gardening leave
but yeah, it does suggest the, there are major sea changes already afoot at Red Bull
and there may be more.
It's going to be weird here saying, hello, hey George.
You know, I'm not sure.
It's going to sound weird to my ears.
Oh, Georgetown McLaren calling it.
Oh, God.
Yeah.
All right, Danny.
Miami.
F1 to Miami.
Welcome to Miami.
That was our good friend.
Well, Will Smith didn't sing that part.
We're going back to Miami folks.
We're first race here in 2022.
It's a new track.
It's not really a track.
It is a car park but I'm trying to not think about that too much.
It takes place in the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, home of the Miami Dolphins, Dan Marino,
Finkel and Einhorn.
That's how everything I knew about the Miami laces out.
Exactly.
Everything I knew about Formula One was based from Torra Pet Detective.
Or sorry, the Miami Dolphins was an ace from Torra Pet Detective.
This track has had good years and bad years I'd say or good maybe parts of races and
then sort of slowed into a procession.
It's an interesting track.
It has 19 turns.
They did 36 different variations of this during pre-production, let's call it, during planning
to see how they could fit a track in this car park and they landed on this one.
19 turns, 57 laps, 5.4 kilometers, 3.3 miles.
It is essentially, God, it's a funny one.
It kind of comes down to long straights and two tight braking zones and then a lot of
mid-speed to high-speed cornering.
The two main braking zones, which are obviously the ones to think about what we would have
called DRS zones in the past, obviously.
We no longer play in that era of F1.
The actual start straight is kind of weirdly short to the point where the back of the field
is often doing the thing.
We don't often see in Formula One, we see it a lot in other racing series where the cars
are starting on the final turn a little bit.
There is a straight mode zone there for the drivers to use with their active DRS and whatnot.
But it's not much of an overtaking opportunity unless you're going to throw it into turn
one, which people have tried to do.
The two main ones are the start of sector one, right after the first turn they're into
this sort of mid- to eventually high-speed cornering section, left-right, left-right
kind of stuff.
It's wiggly.
Kind of cool.
Yeah, very wiggly, kind of cool, kind of good televisually, I would say.
Then essentially the turns sort of wiggle themselves out, kind of, and eventually turn into a straight
on sector two, but the start of that straight mode zone happens before some, I don't know
if we call them turns, we'll call them kinks in the road or something like that.
The end of sector two has a heartbreaking zone at turn 11, which is one of the spots where
you can go for an overtake.
I don't think it's going to be the one where they go for overtakes this time because after
a small enough sort of arena-style section they are onto the proper straight, the main
straight.
This is kind of like the straight in the back of, I would compare it to the back of Austin,
where you have a straight that is late in the lap that goes in, but this one's quite late
in the lap.
Then turn 17, which is the third to last turn, excuse me, is the sort of, you know, at the
end of this, the longer of the straights, or at least the straighter, longer of the straights,
is the point at which we see a lot of overtaking.
Now we did see some interesting battles here, though, over the past couple of years, where
the track is wide enough here, and again this is sort of like speaking perhaps to the modern
inclinations of F1 tracks, but it's been wide enough in the past where people have defended
on, you know, the inside or outside and then just had a better turn into turn 18 and 19,
which are actually kind of wide turns and then have gotten people into that, you know,
on that truncated straight on the start finish line have managed to get past before the entry
into turn one.
So, I don't know in the current era of F1 which way this is going to go, because obviously
with the harvesting and stuff over the lap, I don't know if it is better for people to
attempt it on turn 11 now instead and try and get a gap on that crazy back straight.
I kind of don't think so, but I am interested because with before this era, we did have
people battling after that straight, which you tend to not have.
You tend to not have somebody passes on DRS and then immediately are under attack, but
we have had that in Miami.
So I don't know if this is going to be similar to previous years, if it's going to be even
more so than previous years that you just can't overtake on 17.
I don't necessarily see that.
I don't know if the new regs are obviously going to have an implication here as well,
but we'll wait and see I guess.
Antonelli had a rough season last year, but this was really strong for him in his opening
stint.
He came sixth here.
This was obviously another McLaren dominated race.
The first 20 laps last year were good fun, until McLaren got into their 1-2 position,
which was interesting.
Then the other thing to think about on this one is for the start.
This is where Verstappen, this is kind of like turn one in Jeddah, this opening turn
here is quite tight and then turn two is also quite tight.
So this is where Verstappen's elbows out.
I think in a fair way on Lando, but Lando ended up losing like five or six positions
off of essentially trying to getting driven off the track by Max.
But again, I think it was actually, Max was in his right to do it, given where he was
in the track position, but it can be a tasty 1-2.
So if we have a Ferrari still having good starts and one of the many drivers in that
front having a tricky start, that turn one two is going to get super busy on the first
lap.
I'm not kind of wood.
I think we get a really good one here.
Miami is low key.
I think better track than I think a lot of us figured.
Yes.
I feel like part of the story that has been the amount of the track that they will contest
for position has increased over time.
So I'm really curious what the new regs are going to do because yeah, like 17 proved
not to be necessarily the place to do the overtake, but it is where you set up an attack
through the end of the lap and start of the new one.
And we have now seen fights go through the one, two, three complex and I want to say
we've seen them continue through the next set of S's like four, five and six.
So like you have a lot of you have a lot of this laugh where now it is you can try
something and this is but that that is under a much more punishing set of era regs for
like following distance and much more challenging cars in terms of like just pure size.
So what's going to open up?
Like I don't think we're ever going to get well, I would be curious if anyone was ever
optimistic enough to try something at that bus stop carousel at 12, we basically have
a huge curb on the inside and then like a 180 degree radius corner, I'm curious to see
it, but I think we could have a really good one.
Solvously, I'm extra hoping for that because I'm pretty sure I'm down near the timing
scoring line.
Oh, yeah, Rob's going.
Yeah, I think I agree.
I think this is one of the few F1 tracks where there's kind of nowhere to hide.
Like there's no, there's no respite area from overtaking.
You're pretty much coming up on a spot where somebody might try something or might try
and close the gap.
And I think, yeah, I'm optimistic, cautiously optimistic.
I don't like to ever, you know, say it outright, but like similar to Rob, like I think this
could be a fun weekend.
Yeah.
Do you know what you're doing with practice?
Is some sort of weird practice that you're changing?
They're adding 30 minutes to practice.
To practice, yes.
Because there's only one, it's a sprint weekend.
Of course.
We're going to have one practice session.
So it's starting a half hour earlier and it will be 90 minutes total.
Okay.
This is to sort of help everyone get to grips with the new rules, specifically, I think
the starting stuff.
Yeah.
But yeah, statistically, the last four winners have been Verstappen, Verstappen, Norris,
Piastri.
Those are all the winners in event history.
And the, let's see, looking at the median finishing for drivers here in the top five,
this is in the top five tracks for Landon Norris, Sergio Perez, and Carlos Sainz.
It's in the bottom five tracks for Alonzo, Piastri, Botas, and Hulkenberg.
It is in the bottom five also for Mercedes as a team, as well as McLaren, Aston Martin,
and Williams.
Statistically, Masterstappen and Red Bull have done the best.
Yeah.
McLaren dominated last year, but Max, I forget what happened, was there, there was a red,
there was two instances of safety car, I believe, last year, we had two crashes.
So I think maybe that played into it.
I can't remember.
But yeah.
Average numbers of DNFs, 2.5 for this.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's a street circuit.
Track?
Yeah.
So people hit the walls and then if they do, there tends to be a safety car to try and
get rid of them.
Yeah.
As, as you both mentioned, I think my personal ratings have increased over time.
So out of, these are scores out of four, I've gone from 2022, A2, A2, and then a three and
a three.
Yeah.
So we could, we could see something nice.
Driver's standings, Kimmy Antonelli is leading the driver's championship, Andrea Kimmy Antonelli,
which I have heard that he prefers.
Oh, he does.
Okay.
Yes.
He is leading with 72 points ahead of his teammate, George Russell, with 63, then we've
got Charlotte Clare in third with 49 points, Lewis Hamilton, his teammate, and fourth with
41.
Then the two McLarens of Landon Norris in fifth and Oscar Piaz III sixth, Oliver Bearman
sitting in seventh, ahead of Pierre Gasly, who is himself three points ahead of Max Verstappen,
and then Liam Lawson in 10th.
Arvid Lindblad is in 11th, followed by Isaac Hajar in 12th, Gabrielle Bortoletto in the
Audi is 13th, tied on points with Carlos Sainz in 14th, Esteban O'Conn is 15th, followed
by Franco Colapinto, the last with any points.
And then we've got Nico Hockenberg in 17th, followed by Albon, Botas, Perez, and then
Alonso and Stroll.
Teamwise, Mercedes is of course on top of the 135 points, that is 45 points ahead of
Ferrari in second, and they are 44 points ahead of McLaren in third.
Then Haas is in Genos and team fourth place with 18 points, that's two points ahead of
Alpine in fifth, and then Red Bull in sixth, though those two are tied on points.
Racing Bulls is in 7th, two points back, and then a big gap down to Audi in 8th and
Williams in 9th are both tied with two points apiece, then Cadillac in 10th and Aston Martin
in 11th.
And if you're wondering why you can be tied on points but still a place behind, that is
all to do with your finishing, total finishing positions, like how many seconds, second places
do you have?
Goal difference.
Okay, looking ahead to the weather, so we have, it is a sprint weekend, as I mentioned,
so we'll have practice.
Yeah, what's Rob wearing?
It's got to be nothing.
You all seen Borat?
So sprint qualifying is happening at 4.30pm local, we are looking at 87 degrees Fahrenheit,
that's 31 Celsius, 52% humidity, 0% chance precipitation though and 11 miles an hour,
or 18 kilometers an hour out of the south in terms of wind, temperature climbing on,
let's see, sprint and qualifying day, to a high of 92 or 33 Celsius, also low percent
of precipitation, just about 5% around 2pm.
Because all the water will evaporate when that would actually make precipitation, probably.
And that is, I think, between sessions, so you should skip things there.
Different on race day though, we're looking at 86, is that high in Fahrenheit or 36?
Balmy 30 degrees Celsius, humidity still 50 to 60%.
Precipitation though, at race time 4pm, looks like about 10% climbing to 20, and there's
a little lightning bolt icon here on my screen.
That's what tends to happen.
We don't lightning strikes, but we do want rain.
So here's the thing, I don't know if we want rain, because I think with the reg changes,
they are going to be even, they're already a little bit worried about, because we haven't
seen these cars perform.
Oh, you'll think they'll just panic red flag.
100%.
I think street track, the type of rain you tend to get in Miami when there's a cloud
burst and the new regs just getting shifted.
I think they would be very fast on the red flag if it happens.
So you know, I'm a fan of rain.
I grew up in Ireland, so it's part of our DNA, but yeah.
The more we rebuild the east.
My question is, Rob, do you have a parasol?
I do not.
Now, my wife has a number of floppy hats, so I think she's covered.
It's like, like gardening, gardening hats, things like that.
But I, I do not.
So I might need to buy some sort of, yeah, maybe a little parasol or, I don't know, maybe
we need to find a baseball cap.
I'll actually look good in a Williams martini racing.
Well, as Drew knows, if you want to save money, then don't buy them at the track.
But you will have a very nice hat that you get to wear on a podcast for the next 10 years.
Or you could do what my buddy, Ethan, did at the Austin Grand Prix, which is by last
year's Mexico Grand Prix hat.
Yeah.
It was a cool hat.
Yeah.
Not this, like not the current year and not the current track.
I know.
So much of a dumbass.
Like I was hovering over the buy now button for a shockingly long time on a set of completely
unremarkable Ray-Bans, except they were Malaysian Grand Prix edition Ray-Bans from the last
year.
And I was like, well, how can I pass up the opportunity to own?
So like, no, I'm going to hit those merch stands, like a category for her.
Okay.
Yeah.
Brilliant.
Yeah.
Go for it.
You're already over there.
You've already bought the tickets.
I didn't buy shit.
Oh, right.
My buddy, my buddy, his family bought tickets and then the family made other plans.
And so I got promoted to family.
They kind of have to hold on to load up, right?
Isn't that the thing?
Like you got.
Right.
That's the thing.
Like you would discount if you keep reapping.
So it was like use them or lose them or lose that discount at least.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, you know, another way to save money is to not buy the tickets and not
use them.
But hey, look, I'm happy you fell on the right side of that particular transaction.
Have fun.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to the next podge here all the baddest.
All right.
We're going to take it to emails here in a second.
Rob, do you want to choose maybe three here?
Can I read this top one quickly?
Well, yeah.
Before we do that, if you want to join the Shift F1 Fantasy League, you can do so using
the link in the show notes.
You can also send us an email at shiftf1podcastedemail.com or f1.cool slash emails.
Danny, I say we skip that top one.
Sure.
It's just good advice for me about Florida.
We should be nicer to Florida.
Okay.
Good point.
Thank you for the good advice on the track.
Cool.
Thanks, Chris.
Thank you, Chris.
Drew, you want to read this next one from Jonathan?
Yes.
Jonathan writes, which of the recent crop of drivers do you think would be best at making
the jump to commentary?
It seems to take a mix of ability, affability, technical knowledge, communication, and a desire
to travel and stay with the sport.
As we saw with Daniel Ricardo, even charismatic figures can fail at it.
And people with unremarkable careers can be phenomenal analysts like Julian Palmer.
My vote would be Alex Albarn.
He's low-key, funny, and knowledgeable.
And I would love to hear Alex Jakes and Julian Palmer responding to his flights of fancy.
Cheers, Jonathan.
Yeah, I'm going to agree with that one because I think he would be a great third seat in
that respect, certainly better than David Coulthard.
I just, I respect the man.
I don't think he's great at the boots.
Oh, really?
I was also, Albarn was the name that came to mind for me as well.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I think there's some great drivers.
Max is very good at talking technically, but he doesn't fill air.
Like you need somebody to talk more than he does.
Obviously, Hamilton, you know, I think he should just be too wealthy.
He wouldn't need to be doing any of that.
I think Hamilton's kind of shy.
He's too positive.
That's true as well.
Yeah.
He's quite like introverted, probably, you know, in that way.
I could see Carlos Sainz also being good at us, especially because he's multilingual
as well, which I think really out of it.
Him and Albarn are fantastic when they get into the nitty-gritty.
When they stop goofing around, they get in the nitty-gritty of racing.
Like they really love talking about this at a really detailed level.
So I like that.
Piastri, low-key, a great explainer of things about the sport.
You've seen the videos F1 has put out where Piastri explained some obscure aspect.
The video that jumped out at me was talking about when to do F1 drivers blink.
And he had a really detailed answer for that is the thing you have to consider when you're
an F1 driver.
And he broke it down so beautifully and so well.
It's like, oh yeah, I would sit in Professor Piastri's class and have him unpack this for me.
So that would be my dark horse candidate.
Danny, you want to read this next one from Izzy.
Absolutely.
Izzy writes, this is a shout out to my dad, who's a huge F1 fan and loves the podcast.
And has got me into the world of F1.
So I wanted to shout him out on the podcast, if possible.
His name is not here.
Izzy's dad.
Izzy's dad.
Congrats.
Izzy's dad, congrats on Izzy.
She's rad.
She's got a question.
Thank you, she says.
You're welcome, Izzy.
And my question is, why do you think so many new F1 fans have flocked to F1 and stuck with it?
We talked about this a bit over the years.
Strive to survive, I think, is a great gateway drug for people to understand that it's about
the people and it's about the teams.
It's not just about the cars and that it's not just about who wins.
It's also about all the other little dramas that are happening in it.
I think just inherently it is an exciting sport.
I think people who don't care about football will watch the Super Bowl.
People who don't care about soccer will tune into the World Cup.
And I think in a way F1 is unique.
Motorsport is like this, but I think F1 is still unique within the world of motorsport
and certainly within sport and that is this amazing traveling global circus, high production,
camera shots, different parts of the world, different cultures, different tracks.
And I think it's just inherently exciting in a way that as much as I love my favorite soccer team
or my favorite whatever team, it's in the same stadium every weekend, right?
Or largely.
And I think that is a big part of it.
I think the spectacle of the sport is important and goes a long way to people
tuning in initially.
Yeah, I think the movie also helped.
And I think the movie was, I think F1 was aided by the movie being very much about Formula One
and about what it is like to race and how races go.
I think that's why you would, I would suspect that you are not getting a bait and switch
when you watch the F1 movie and then go watch Formula One.
It is very similar.
Yeah, it's oddly technical.
It's not overly technical, but it's oddly technical and also not accurately technical.
But yeah, I think you're right, Dan.
I think there is, even though Drive to Survive has really onboarded a lot of people,
I think two Americans for me, the one is still a little exotic and that's why
that's what drew me to it initially, right?
It's like this strange Euro sport.
What's going on with this?
And I think it's exotic to kind of everyone because not every weekend,
when it's in Silverstone, doesn't feel very exotic.
But a lot of the time it is because it's in Baku or Miami.
Miami for people in the UK is like, in Ireland, it's cool.
Well, it's kind of cool, but it's like, let's go to Disneyland.
Sorry, and then I'm talking about Miami again.
Sorry, Chris.
I'd also say there's team-oriented confidence porn, I think is exciting.
Oh, that's true.
It's clearly, as much as F1 is like the drivers, the gladiators and all that,
it is so clear that like from the pit crew, the engineers, all of it is like a lot of effort
and ability and resources, let's be frank, being oriented toward this one goal and then
seeing them all sort of fire off their best shot all at once, it's compelling theater.
Speaking of those resources, Drew, you want to read this next one from Kelly?
Yes, Kelly from Seattle writes, hey, shifties, I recently stepped into a new job that's pretty
structurally linked to AI data center stuff and it's got me thinking a lot about how we choose
to compromise our morals as people who must live in the real world.
F1 has been a sport I've loved since my uncle introduced it to me when I was a teen
and I've followed the podcast on and off since the beginning.
However, while watching races this year and seeing all the AI ads, I found myself wincing.
Truly F1 is raised up by the things I hate the most about us as a species.
How can I square loving watching race cars?
Zoom go fast and the silly man children with the undeniable fact that the sport is constructed for
by and as a symbol of the destructive capitalist system which would happily
chuck anything into the meat grinder as long as the system gets to keep on trucking.
I'm not sure I expect an answer or for you to unlock the secret, but it's been a wild
and few months of introspection for me and I would appreciate any thoughts you have.
Yeah, thanks Kelly. I think a lot about something that Rob said many years ago
about sometimes we just need and maybe Rob, you can correct me if I'm
misconstruing what you said, but sometimes we just need to have fun.
That doesn't mean that you need to throw out the things that you care about.
But yeah, I think you can kind of hold both and I think it's good to keep things in perspective.
Many people would disagree with me on this, but I kind of think that maybe at this point
it wouldn't be so bad if Formula One was like, you know what, we are just a gasoline powered,
our cars are gasoline powered. We're going to be sustainable as we can getting all of our equipment
because when you think about it, the gas that is burned by the cars on track for the duration of
the weekend is infinitesimal in the global scheme. That's hankers and I understand optics
and everything. You want to make sure that, look, we want to promote hybrid technology,
but if you didn't have to worry about that, say, and we're just looking at like
actual fuel expenditures, like yes, organize the calendar so that you were most efficient
about transportation. They finally have done that to a certain extent, which is good.
You got to weigh this stuff. I feel weird about it. Maybe I've broadened a little bit from Kelly's
actual question. I feel like one thing about the sustainable fuels thing, it is more real than
we gave the credit for. I looked into this a little bit. It turns out they're not doing
carbon offsets. It has to be recaptured. They're not doing offsets. They're not doing growing
stuff for the sole purpose of returning it into fuel. They actually went considerably further
with a net zero racing fuel than I really thought. I was quite cynical about it too.
I worry a bit about the Overton window shifting on the sustainability stuff a little bit. I do
think we are pulling back a bit more conservative on this stuff in a way that makes me feel a
little uncomfortable. Last year was the year that the most gas was consumed in the world.
People talk a lot about how China is doing a lot about renewables. China is also gobbling
up more and more and more as well. Everyone is. That's just we live in a society where
your houses are made of concrete and your clothes have got plastic in them. Everything's
made of oil. We can't escape it. I don't think we should throw the cat out with the kitchen.
I'm just going to say that. Let's make some metaphors. But to Kelly's original thing,
I think, and I'm interested, like you said, Drew, and Rob has to say about this because I think
he's got a great way of words about this stuff. To me, what F1 is, is a window into the bourgeois
that we don't see in our day-to-day lives. I think the power structures that exist and that
keep us in our place and that ultimately the money centers that the world rotate around
are always there. We're just not looking at them. F1 is a part of the world in which,
unfortunately, we have to stare into that abyss. It is a sport that requires so much
money to work that it has to rub shoulders with the tip of the capitalist iceberg.
I don't see it as like, we live in a society. Everything we do is controlled in some way by
the systems of capital that we were born into. For me, F1 is just like, it's a portal that we
unfortunately have to see the realities of that a little bit closer. I don't think people should be
feel personally attacked by it. I think it is worse to have your life be worse in another level
because of the effects of capital, but I also don't think that that should be a blank check for
people to just say, hey, we can do whatever. You know what I mean? Smoke with you, Adam.
I think it's good to feel sensitive about those things, but I would be very hesitant, Kelly,
to feel personally bad about us because that is already what the system is likely doing to you
and you don't deserve a double tap. I think there's a few levels of this. One is that,
and this is going to be ironic, I don't think in its origins or in how it's played out, F1 is
particularly capitalist. I think it's a fun byproduct of a capitalist system and a very
capitalist auto motive industry, but fundamentally F1 is an expression of a desire to play and an
expression to test ourselves. The origins of this is for no real upshot, people being like,
can I make car go fast? Can I make it go faster? I like going in fast car and that might be born
and supported by an automotive race on Sunday, sell on Monday type conception of things, but
ultimately I think F1 is just an expression of impulse to play and an impulse to create.
The thing that I always try and bear in mind when I think about the sponsorship money the
floods in and the ways the sport is sustained and supported by bad actors is that to a degree I feel
like we end up playing their game if we feel like it kind of lets them ruin it for us, which I think
is good and fun is bringing people together and they force themselves to be a part of it.
Oh, OpenAI is here. Oh, INEOS is here. So we're part of it too. It's sort of a cops at pride
type thing. Does that mean pride is bad? The police are trying to send attachments to march in it?
Obviously not, but there is a cynical effort to infiltrate it and both steal some of its
reflected goodness, but then also I think it still suits their objectives and overall agenda
to make you feel shitty about like being there and be sitting there and thinking,
am I complicit in these horrible systems by enjoying the sport that these people rolled up on
and bought out wholesale? Danny I'm sure struggles with this even more pointedly as a football fan.
That you just look up one day in a club you've loved for 30 years is now just intimately
associated with somebody who's involved in war crimes or upholding an authoritarian government.
I'm glad I'm not into golf. Right. And so to a degree, I think that feeling of discomfort and the
God like am I should I even still be enjoying this? I think even that ends up playing into
an overall sinister agenda because it forces the conflict inward. Yes.
What it really needs to be outward because fundamentally, and I part from a lot of my
colleagues here on a variety of axes, but I actually don't think there's any moral good
served by being in moral agony about something that's affiliated or connected to bad actors.
Yeah. The actual like angle of attack on these folks is through through political action.
And now that can get blurry with things about like organized activism and like to what degree is
a boycott effective activism. But overall, my view is every time the conversation is turning
inward about like how you feel about something or your individual actions which have no material
impact on these systems. Anytime the conflict moves inward and it becomes about what you are
doing on these individual levels in reaction to the systems. I think that's a suckers game
because I think that leads to paralysis. I think it leads to actually deeper alienation
from folks who you're looking at them and hey, we share the same values, but why are you enjoying
this thing? And I'm feeling like the buzzkill saying that you shouldn't be. And suddenly it's
who care checking out entirely. Right. And ultimately, like my sort of view on this is
really simple. These systems don't care one iota about your inner conflict. They don't care one
iota about your passive complicity. Like participate don't doesn't matter to them. It will not affect
them one job. What affects them is losing the political battle. The political battle like
affects the overall landscape of these things. These folks like there's a reason they work so hard
to twist elections. There's a reason they buy off politicians is because like with stroke of a pen
a lot of this can be profoundly modified or ended. And that is that's ultimately their objective
to avoid that ever happening and to masquerade as like friends of the common people and friends of
a prosperous status quo. But ultimately for me it really comes down to do those feelings
direct you outward toward like effective political action or do they direct you inward
toward self analysis and withdrawal from other people from things you like. And that is where I
come down. There's a lot of people who disagree profoundly with me and would say like that is
that is a lot of words to explain your own complacency entirely possible. But that is
that is where I come down to the best of my ability to analyze this. That is the landscape that I see
and that's kind of how I act. Just a quick quickly capstone on that one. Like I agree entirely and
I think what happens a lot is and I've learned it I think moving from Europe to America is that
people are ultimately only able to express themselves politically when they have the means
to do so through whatever vectors there are. And I think one of the problems you run into and
perhaps this is why I personally feel like boycotts are an effective part of protesting but
to a limit. But I think in a in a society like America in which individual political power has
been so constrained that people over index the importance of it as a means of political action
because it's the only weapon they've got in their closet sometimes. But I'm totally I think I said
something similar with Rob where like the inward battle you've explained it perfectly is exactly
why you should avoid. Like if that pushes you into actually changing the world around you that's
better. And also the last thing I'll say is I don't think sports washing works.
No. This is people off. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouth. If anything it highlights the
contradictions. You know what I mean? Like we've now lived in sort of an era of this for a couple
of decades and I think like Rob said the ways in which these centers of power influence the world
is through politics and ultimately that's also where our eyes should be when we're trying to
effect change is politics. Yeah I mean in a lot of ways it feels to me it feels like it's my sport
and sometimes people I don't like are trying to take it from here and that's why we get heated
on this podcast. Yeah that's a good way of putting it. Closing on a light note Zach from
Savage Minnesota making up for that hallmark movie debacle with a with a good email here.
Since I am known as the motorsport obsessive in my family I tend to get a lot of racing related
gifts from people who don't know what to get me. I also enjoy reading a lot so this year for my
birthday I got Racing Hearts by Grace Newman which is part of the ever-growing list of F1
related romance novels from someone who didn't know what that word meant. It's about the first
female F1 driver doing what all women at the top of their game would do which is falling in love
with a male driver. Granted in this story it's a fake romance to gain oh man it's a fake
romance to gain sponsors but it ends up becoming the real deal. Wow okay I'm back in. I didn't
love it compared to say Adrian Newey's book but unlike Newey's book it was pretty steamy in places
and you could read it in a long afternoon. I used to review games and movies so this activated the
part of my brain that makes me want to dive into a genre and learn it. Thanks to my local library
I now have read double apex cross the line slipstream these all sound dirty now they do
drive me crazy and pole position my first male slash male book oh my god thank you god
my quest will continue until I find one I think is really good as so far they've all been pretty
I need to write one I can fucking nail this but if anyone is looking for recommendations
pole position and drive me crazy we're the ones that seem to understand motorsport the best
final note it is staggering how many authors seem to think it would be physically possible to have
sex inside an F1 car that's a rookie move you gotta put someone over a part of an F1 car
that you could sort of buy yeah but like in no not the wings the wings are way too they look
they're not as strong as they look but yeah in a car no pole position is that is S tier
guy on guy romance title that is I'm gonna be thinking about that for the rest of the week that
is an amazing spit roasted on the monocoque by Rob Zachney ground effect god you can do anything
you can do anything oh my god well you can do anything like send us an email at shiftuponpodcast
or gmail.com or a note on the socials using the link in the show notes that is us around the internet
should we take it around the world let's race around the world kicking things off on friday with
the craftsman trucks at texas motor speedway for the speedycash.com 250 yeah we've got the world
superbike championship at balton park circuit in hungary formula e is that the berlin temple
half airport for the berlin e-pre formula two formula two yeah it's a it's a cool track
right yeah recall correctly uh formula two is supporting formula one in the miami international
autodrome check out our primer become a page indeed we've got our uh the nascar o'reilly
auto parts series at texas motor speedway for andy's frozen custard 340 such a good one i cannot
believe they sell enough frozen custard to sponsor a race that is people must be just insane for
trifles down there it's amazing yeah uh the m cell weather tech sports car championship is at laguna
seca uh in beautiful marie selenus should we head down should we head down let's do it uh that sounds
like a great time two hour it's a two hour 40 minute race with looks like just uh gt cars can you
on the way there i mean maybe not for for msa you know yeah i guess i guess it's still a little
underground yeah that's true um the n h r a is that the south georgia motorsports park in adel georgia
ooh emigrant nascar y'all also in texas for the
i'm gonna go with the german pronunciation verse verse it's w and then a u with the
two dots the umlau umlau okay what the verse 400 presented by verse liquid liquid molly
oh liquid molly good stuff yep it's my favorite way to take molly
i still don't know what liquid molly is i just it just makes me think i think it's a petroleum
product of some kind it makes sense uh for me the one maybe you've heard of it kicks things off
sprint weekend friday may 1st free practice one starts at 12 if you're planning on watching
practice set your vcrs to 30 minutes earlier sprint qualifying is at 4 30 p.m eastern these are
eastern times by the way and then saturday may 2nd the sprint is at 12 noon followed by qualifying
at 4 p.m and then the race everyone sunday may 3rd at 4 p.m eastern in florida i'm not seeing
the channels anymore because it's all on apple tv yeah it's weird yeah uh all right well that's
what's going on this weekend danie what happened this day in the past the book is here this day
we're gonna go again by recording day especially because of our early access patrons all the
patrons get this podcast you may not know this like pretty much the day before it goes up the
morning of recording so this will be up in a bit an hour so april 28th in the past i had it open on
march 28th do you know what's really sad i actually uh was organizing an interview as i find the date
here um for the past week or so um which was for the 28th of may that i thought was for the 28th
of april and it wasn't until like late last night that i realized i wasn't driving to san francisco
today as well to do an interview so yeah i'm not great one month it turns out so here we go
and i have opened it once again to may so let's try this again now we're gonna go for the middle
one split the difference split the difference april 28th damon hill got a new job in 2006 when he
was elected as the new president of the british racing drivers club at their annual general
meeting the brdc which owns the silverson circuit chose hill to replace sir jackie steward hill
said to be elected to such a prestigious club is an honor it's a big job and slow news day on
april 28th wow yeah that might be the least substantive one we've ever done i totally agree but
perhaps the second paragraph is even more boring also today 2006 dav richards pro drive company was
granted permission to enter an f1 team in 2008 richards had previously served as a team boss at
benetton and bar but his own team has yet to enter the sport after a row over its proposed
use of customer cars that is the worst one we've ever had jesus so glad so glad we're now doing
recording day yeah exactly we're mixing yeah who knew god that was what a snooze fest sorry well
at least no one died in miami you know will not be a snooze fest final thoughts um final
thoughts danny excited for miami i hate i hated this break we didn't need to have um
yeah so excited to get back racing just excited it's also good it's a fun it's a fun us race
and also i got a new tv that has sweet like it's oled and has all the macgobbins and everything
looks fucking amazing on it and all the motion smoothing all the way it does 144 hearts do we
know if apple pushes past 59 97 or anything i don't think it does i don't know yeah you know what
for sports i'll turn on the motion smoothing i'll turn on the adaptive frame rate stuff the only
acceptable i sometimes do that myself yeah i'll do it i'll do it i'll do it i'll make me do it
i'll do it uh final thoughts rob i'm trying to find like the greatest review of margaritaville
restaurant like i like there's somewhere like in the deep in my brain like 15 years ago there's
review of margaritaville location in new york that was like this meditation on it's not the
eater one people don't think it's the one from eater it's not but it was this meditation on like
um sort of the the the sort of bitter sweetness of like people clinging to the parrothead margaritaville
lifestyle in the midst of midtown manhattan uh and what it means that even in places where it
makes no sense this dream has such a lore but i can't find it wow it's how i feel if you do we'll
put it in the show now it's how i feel about rainforest cafes a little piece of nature in
the middle of all this concrete well uh maybe there's a metaphor there somewhere um if you
would like to support the show and get access to all of our bonus episodes the early ad-free version
of the podcast and the official shift f1 discord you can do so over at patreon.com slash shift f1
have a good race weekend everyone we will see you all next week
um
you
About this episode
Miami arrives with a lot of rule talk and calendar chatter. The hosts unpack Formula 1’s latest power-unit tweaks, including changes to super clipping, harvesting, boost limits, and start detection, while debating whether the language is too technical and whether the cars are being slowed down. They also cover future calendar moves like Turkey’s return, Portimão’s comeback, and Barcelona alternating with Spa, before shifting into a Miami track walk focused on the circuit’s layout and overtaking spots.
F1 returns to America's wang with some new regulations and personnel changes. But Come Monday, who will be eating a Cheeseburger in Paradise?
SHOW NOTES
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