The Suzuki Samurai is a small SUV made for off-road driving. It’s designed to handle rough roads and trails, and many owners like it because it’s straightforward to work on. That’s why it shows up in conversations about cars that are fun to take off the pavement.
The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a very well-known race that lasts a full day at the Nürburgring track. Cars have to last and keep performing for hours to win.
This means a Mercedes race car run by the Windward Racing team. In long races, the team’s strategy and setup matter a lot, not just how fast the car goes.
Endurance racing is long-duration racing where the car has to keep working for hours. It’s not just about speed—reliability matters a lot, and problems can force a retirement.
The drive shaft is a key part that sends power from the gearbox to the wheels. If it breaks or malfunctions, the car may not be able to keep driving and can have to stop.
“eSports racing” means people compete in racing video games. It’s a virtual version of racing that can still influence real-world driving and fan interest.
“Sim racing” is racing in a computer simulator with real-style controls like a wheel and pedals. People use it to practice and improve their driving skills.
An “owner driver” is a person who runs the team and also races in it. In endurance racing, that can affect how the team plans races and manages the car over long stints.
“Sectors” are parts of a race track used for timing. Instead of only checking the full lap time, you can see how fast (or slow) you are in each section.
In F1, the “engine” is the car’s power unit, and Honda is one of the engine brands that has powered teams. If it’s mentioned alongside being at the back of the grid, it suggests the cars weren’t performing well.
Aston Martin is being described as struggling compared to the rest of the field. The hosts are saying the 2026 rules are meant to help teams that are currently behind catch up.
ADUO is a rule that helps teams that are falling behind. If the FIA decides a team is too far back, they can get extra money and time to develop their car, so the racing stays closer.
This is an FIA scorecard for engine performance. It compares each team’s engine to the top engine using real-world information, so the FIA can decide who needs extra help.
In F1, the power unit is the car’s main engine-and-hybrid system that makes it move. When teams change it, it can affect how fast the car is and can also come with rules/penalties.
The chassis is the car’s main frame. The chassis team tunes how the car feels and handles, but if the engine can’t deliver, better handling alone won’t win races.
Budget caps are rules that limit how much teams can spend in F1. If a team gets extra help related to the cap, it can make it easier to catch up with upgrades.
Term
catch budget cap
A “catch budget cap” is a way for F1 rules to help struggling teams spend in a more flexible way so they can improve faster. The tradeoff is that it may not be a permanent fix.
This phrase means you fix one thing by taking from another. The host is basically asking whether the help might just shift the problem instead of truly solving it.
They’re talking about people and companies tied to Mercedes looking to invest in another team’s ownership. In F1, that kind of investment can shape who has influence behind the scenes.
A “B team” is like a second team that mainly helps the main team. In this discussion, they’re saying they don’t want Alpine to become just a supporting side for Mercedes.
The FIA is the organization that makes and enforces the rules for motorsport. Here, they’re being referenced because someone is arguing their rules should address team ownership and alliances.
This is about teams working together more closely than normal. The concern raised here is that it can make competition less fair if teams effectively coordinate behind the scenes.
A subordinate squad is a team that’s not fully independent. The idea here is that Alpine might end up taking direction from Mercedes instead of making its own decisions.
Team orders are when a team tells its drivers what to do during a race. For example, one driver might be asked to let the other go so the team can manage the result.
Red Bull is a Formula 1 team brand known for running a large driver development pipeline and for operating two F1 teams. In the segment, that structure is used to argue that Red Bull’s approach has helped produce drivers and shaped how other teams behave.
Gardening leave is when someone is paid to stay away from work for a while. In this case, they’re saying Red Bull promoted internally so they didn’t have to deal with that kind of “cooling off” arrangement.
F1 rules restrict what teams are allowed to share—especially technical know-how. The idea is to keep teams competing on a level playing field instead of letting one team’s ideas spread too easily.
Racing Bulls is the Red Bull-linked team being discussed. The hosts are basically asking whether a smaller/secondary team like this could ever have a big turnaround and fight for the top.
When cars leave the pits, they have to join the track while other cars are already racing fast. That can be risky because everyone is trying to get up to speed and find space at the same time.
A chicane is a part of the track where you have to turn left-right (or right-left) to slow down. It’s often where drivers brake hard and try to pass each other.
Runoff is the area next to the track that’s there to help if you make a mistake. Grass runoff can grab the car and make it slide, so you can still end up hitting the wall.
That phrase means a major braking area—where drivers slow down a lot for the next corner. Passing is more likely there because braking is where drivers can out-position each other.
DRS is a system that gives the car a short boost for passing by reducing drag. Drivers try to use it at the right moment so they can get close enough to overtake.
Lando Norris is an F1 driver. The point here is that if you’re following too closely—especially while trying to draft—you can accidentally hit the car in front.
“New regs” means newly introduced Formula 1 rules that change how teams design and operate their cars. Rule changes can alter performance balance, tire usage, braking/acceleration behavior, and even race strategy, so outcomes can be harder to predict early on.
The breaking point is the exact place on the track where you start slowing down for a turn. Drivers use it so they arrive at the corner at the right speed.
Lap to lap means each lap can feel a bit different. Tires and grip can change as you drive, so the car may not behave exactly the same every time around.
A wheel gunner is the pit crew member who uses a fast tool to take the wheel off and put the new one on. They’re a key part of how the pit stop gets done so quickly.
That phrase means the rear wing changes position quickly. Because the wing affects grip, a fast change can strongly affect how the car behaves in the next corner.
DRS is a special F1 system that makes the car easier to pass by reducing drag. “DRS activated” means the car is currently using that lower-drag wing setting.
Concept
DRS wing setting tied to track zones
The car’s adjustable wing isn’t allowed to move whenever it wants. It’s restricted to certain places on the track so the car doesn’t lose grip at the wrong time.
Term
active arrows
“Active arrows” is basically the car’s adjustable wing settings. The car uses sensors and race rules to decide when it can switch to a lower-drag setup for passing.
A throttle map is the car’s software that decides how the engine responds when you press the gas. The point here is that F1 wouldn’t want wing control tied to that software because it could cause the wrong behavior at the wrong time.
Downforce is what presses the car onto the road so the tires can grip better. If the car doesn’t have the right downforce for a corner, it can lose traction and become unstable.
Low drag settings are wing/airflow positions that make the car slice through the air more easily. They’re useful for speed, but if you use them in the wrong place you can lose grip for turning.
Term
wing timing discrepancy
F1 cars can change how much the rear wing “opens” to affect how much air resistance they have. A “wing timing discrepancy” is when that change happens at a slightly different time than you’d expect, which can throw off braking and how fast you can carry speed into a corner.
F1 cars can “capture” some energy when they slow down and save it to use later. That means the car may slow differently than you’d think, even before you press the brake, because it’s working to recover energy.
“Lift and coast” means you take your foot off the gas and let the car slow down by rolling. In F1, the car can still be doing energy recovery during that time, so the slowdown can be different than just “coasting” in a normal car.
The idea here is that the car being passed might actually have an advantage because it can also get the “low drag” benefit. Meanwhile, the attacker has to manage extra uncertainty about how the car will slow down and whether it can attack the corner at full speed.
Electrification means moving toward electric cars instead of gas-powered ones. The speaker is saying F1 and electric road cars are starting to pull in different directions.
Mission profile is the set of real-world operating conditions and goals a vehicle is designed around—like highway cruising, stop-and-go traffic, and durability. The speaker contrasts that with what an open-wheel F1 car is asked to do (high-load racing in a very different environment).
A brand halo effect is when a company borrows the “cool” or “serious” image of something like racing to make their regular cars seem better. It’s more about perception than direct engineering benefits.
“Sustainable fuels” are racing fuels designed to be cleaner than regular gasoline or diesel. The goal is to cut down the overall climate impact, not only the exhaust.
A “hybrid” F1 car uses both a fuel-burning engine and an electric system. The electric part helps the car use energy more efficiently.
Concept
rules archetypes
“Rules archetypes” describes the recurring regulatory “templates” F1 uses—such as different eras of engine and energy-system design—rather than one fixed technical direction. The speaker suggests F1 will keep rotating between these rule frameworks to keep the sport fresh.
A push-to-pass button is a feature where the driver can press a button to get extra power for overtaking. The point here is that the speaker wants that kind of direct control.
An enriched fuel mix means the engine is getting “more fuel than usual” compared to air. That can help the engine make more power, but it uses fuel faster.
Term
5050 balance
The “50/50 balance” is a rule that forces the car to use its fuel and electric parts in a specific proportion. Teams and drivers have to manage it during the race so the car stays within the allowed energy usage.
Concept
opaque math
The speaker means the rules and computer calculations are too complicated for the driver to feel in control. Instead of driver decisions, it becomes mostly team math and automation.
“Engine trouble” means the engine isn’t running right—something breaks or triggers a protection mode. In F1, that often means the driver has to stop the race.
The rear suspension is the system that connects the rear wheels to the car and controls how they move over bumps and maintain tire contact. If the rear suspension fails, the car can lose stability and traction immediately, which is especially catastrophic in wet, high-stakes races like Monaco.
The grid is where cars line up for the start based on qualifying. Starting 14th means you’re near the back, so winning from there is very unlikely—especially on a tight track like Monaco.
Sometimes a driver retires, but if they’ve completed enough of the race, they still get counted in the official results. If that counted position is high enough, they can still earn points.
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You know I'll never go as long as I know it's coming straight from the heart.
Welcome to Shift F1, a podcast about speedy race cars.
Those of course are lyrics by Canadian superstar Brian Adams.
Will Max Verstappen leave F1 and go endurance racing?
Is he speaking straight from the heart?
I'm Drew Scanlon joining me.
Rob Zachney, how are you Rob?
Doing pretty well.
Didn't get to watch as much as the Renewable Green 24 as I wanted because the streaming stuff was not as straightforward as I hoped.
But it's not something to qualify and looks like a great event.
Nice.
Okay we're going to have a check in on that.
Maybe we'll do a spoiler warning in case people have somehow DVR'd it.
But yeah, Danny Adwire on assignment this week.
He'll be back soon.
Haven't checked in on his exact timing.
But yes, if you are new to this podcast, a very warm welcome to you and if you are new to Formula One itself,
we recommend listening to our preseason primer episode, which assumes no prior F1 knowledge and explains how the sport works and who everybody is.
So if you'd like to go back and listen to that, it's episode 338.
Also this show would not be possible without our audience over at patreon.com slash shift F1,
where every month Rob, we release ad free versions of this podcast early for patrons,
along with bonus pods, videos exclusive for patrons,
and the pods themselves cover racing documentaries and films.
F1 video games, see I tried to improv a little bit in my script here and it did not work.
Never works.
Experiments with other racing series and a lot of weird things.
So if you'd like to support the show and get access to all that fun stuff,
head over to patreon.com slash shift F1 or click the link in the show notes.
I've been out for a bit.
Rob, what has been going on in Patreon land?
Yeah, I mean not a whole lot.
We're working on it.
We have a proposal that we might read on air about what is this month's patron movie that we will enjoy.
We just did the F2 primer, which was a lot of fun.
But this one ties in to something we've been talking about lately.
So we'll get to that in the letter section.
I think you'll approve.
And of course we have our title sponsors, you know, bedecking our livery.
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We hope you continue to enjoy the show.
Beautiful.
Before we jump into the news here, Rob, I have to apologize to the listeners.
A total little white lie about why I couldn't go to Monaco this year.
My sister-in-law is indeed getting married.
But the actual reason is that my wife Sarah just gave birth to twins.
So we've got some good support around here.
So I'm going to try to make it onto the podcast every week.
But we're going to see how that's going to go.
But yes, that is why I was out for a couple of weeks.
But yeah, I'm going to see if I can make it to the show every week.
Thank you to you, Rob and Danny for holding it down while I was out.
We will understand if you can't make it to the show.
We will understand if you can't make it to the show with like two minutes notice.
You get like a jail, like a get out of jail free card for like the next three years on this.
Once the kids are four, you're like, yeah, there's routines.
There's like systems in place here in that daycare window too.
But yeah, enjoy it.
Make use of that.
Make use of that card.
Thank you.
Yes.
I most definitely will.
All right.
Well, we talked about it.
We'd mentioned it.
The Nurburgring 24 hours race for Stappen entered spoilers here.
If you are planning on watching it, we're going to talk about the outcome, Rob, of that race.
Yeah.
So the thing everyone was watching was to see how Verstappen did with his windward racing
Mercedes and they had a pretty dominant weekend throughout.
They were, they looked immaculate in qualifying.
Verstappen has an incredible feel for that car and that was kind of all the commentators
were talking about pretty extensively too.
It was like sort of tracking the windward racing Mercedes and they were on track to cruise to
a victory, but this is endurance racing.
And so with three hours left left in the race, that's just happened was not behind the wheel,
but shortly into Danny Yucadela's stint with the car.
It seems like something happened with the drive shaft and the car retired with a mechanical fault.
And so Verstappen denied what was almost a lock for a victory, but seemed like he had a great time
and it certainly continues to stoke those rumors that he's contemplating a change of scenery.
Yeah.
I mean, it is a bummer for him, but like you said, Rob, that that's what happens in endurance racing.
Again, racing in general.
So yeah, I wonder if this will be enough for him to like to placate him a little bit, right?
Like because that was always the, I mean, he's been doing this kind of, you know,
off this kind of third party racing for years and it always seemed to me like a release valve
that Red Bull was opening so that their star driver could stay happy.
But yeah, I guess the question is like how long will that continue to work?
Yeah, the commentators were talking about how neat it was that you have a F1 driver doing the event.
You know, usually they're pretty stingy with what they let these guys go out and do.
But it's, and that's the thing, right?
Like it's a bit like with Alonzo.
When you have a star driver who is very dissatisfied with team situations,
suddenly the team starts trying to bribe them with treats.
And here the compromise is Max has a deal that you probably not enjoy if you went to other teams, right?
Being paid King's ransom.
Red Bull sort of as a retention play, I think, are just kind of letting him, you know, run wild with some of these other events.
Maybe that'll be enough.
Maybe that'll be the compromise.
But yeah, there's there's always that element of he seems to very sincerely enjoy team motorsports,
where he's part of a team of drivers.
It's a little like more collaborative than it necessarily is an F1.
And he seems to enjoy like the types of tracks that you encounter with sports car racing.
You know, the Nordschleife is a singular, very, very special kind of race.
And so, you know, in some ways, like he's unhappy with the regs and F1, a lot of the direction of it.
But there's also just a temperament issue where in a lot of ways,
like this guy is an incredible driver and he's born to like race F1 cars.
I don't know if he's born to be an F1 driver.
Yeah, I mean, he always has struck me as like a motorsports nerd.
Like the guy just lives racing in kind of any form.
I mean, he we talked about in the past, like he'll do a race and then jump into a 24 hour eye racing like virtual race.
He just he's that's maybe why he's so good.
He's just he's got a one track mind.
So I feel like he'll be happy kind of know, especially he's got so many championships under his belt,
kind of no matter where he goes.
Yeah, I do think maybe it's too early to talk this way.
But like I do think the sport would be it would lose something a little bit because he is sort of like the benchmark right now in this particular class of drivers.
But I think motorsport would gain something too.
Like I do think it would be a really strong argument for like, hey, F1 is not the be all and end all of racing.
Like here's a guy who, you know, he had a lock on it.
You know, sport was in his hands in a lot of ways and he just for love of the game went to these other these other sports.
So, you know, it could be in that positive if if he bounces and it would be.
I can see that being a really interesting thing because he has enough financing with his team red line stuff with the the eSports racing, the sim racing.
I could see him like we're 20 years from now.
He is still going.
It's like an owner driver of a endurance team.
So it could be interesting.
But in any case, it was a good reason to watch this event at the Nurburgring, which is incredible.
Like a race along Norwich Leiffa is just a ridiculous thing to behold.
I think they have nine sectors per lap.
So you're just watching like lap times tick by.
And it requires a lot of like thinking back to like, OK, so what was that guy's split time?
It's fantastic.
Well, you brought up Alonzo.
He has had multiple teams now where they've had to placate him because they've been at the back of the grid Honda.
The Honda engine.
Aston Martins are at the back of the grid this year.
And F1 had built in a way to, especially with this new regulations coming in in 2026, a way to sort of bring up anyone that had fallen behind.
This is known as the I always forget the actual acronym here.
A-D-U-O stands for Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities.
It's sort of what it does is modify the cost cap.
So there is a spending cap that all teams must adhere to so that we don't have runaway budgets like we used to in F1.
The goal is to keep everyone in relative performance windows to keep the racing close and to incentivize companies to actually come in and run F1 teams.
But this is a way A-D-U-O is to, for teams that have been deemed to have fallen behind, and I can talk about how they determine that, to raise that cap a little bit.
So that is effectively what's happening here with Honda.
They take the FIA basically monitors the performance of all manufacturers to a defined, they call it the internal combustion engine performance index.
So there's like a, I think it's like they take the real world data of I think the best engine and then compare that to the engines of the other teams.
And depending on how the percentage that your engine is off from that best engine, you get more development time and development money.
So there were these ranges, it was like here's two to four percent, here's four to six to eight percent.
Honda is way off the chart.
So they have had to come back and say, all right, we didn't think someone would be this far behind.
Here's even more money.
So at the end of the day, to make this kind of long story short, they will have up to $19 million to spend to help with their engine.
That is the money that they will have to spend.
It's not coming from FIA, but it's again an increase in the cost cap.
So that we will see when and how that will be applied and how effective it will work.
But that is that's what's going on with Honda.
I'm hoping that, you know, obviously we all want to see close racing.
It doesn't, you know, it's not fun to see, just know that a team is going to come.
You shaking your head, Rob.
It's kind of fun watching one.
There's kind of some fun watching this happen to a lot.
There's some shot in Freud, I'm sure.
And there's a little bit of like a little bit of like justice for Otmar.
Not that they fired Otmar, but like that it was clear Lawrence wanted to put his stamp on this team.
And so far things are pretty disastrous.
So that part is a little bit fun.
But I'm with you like it does kind of suck to just this issue moots anything else happening.
We saw this with McLaren.
McLaren may like eventually seem to have a pretty good car before they change power unit.
And once they change power unit, they're competitive again.
But when they were limping along with a busted Honda engine, it kind of didn't matter what the aerodynamic or chassis departments were doing.
Like you can't make power out of nothing.
So that part that part does suck.
And this is a huge embarrassment for for for Honda.
And again, just a the real cost of their sort of hokey pokey approach to F1 where like sometimes they're in and they pull back right as things are starting to turn around.
They consistently, I think, feel like a company that runs a little bit scared of the investment in in F1 specifically.
And their decision cycle is not synced up with how long it takes to see how things are playing out in the sport.
They begin to bail right as you start to see like the the effects of their expertise take take hold.
People should check out the story by John Noble over on therace.com where he explains this in a lot more detail about how all this works.
It does seem that some of the money Honda is getting for this.
It isn't totally like free budget stuff.
Some of this is is going to be like a advance on future budget caps, catch budget cap stuff.
So there is a little bit when you're this far behind, you're getting some help immediately.
But I do wonder we haven't seen these regulations play out before, right?
I do wonder if over time, even if they succeed in helping close this gap, do you discover that this is a complete robbing Peter to pay Paul situation?
And now you got a better engine, but you're choking on lack of development money.
Right. They basically are able to spend this upfront, but then have to quote unquote payback later.
Like their cost cap, I think in later seasons is then lower.
So but maybe if your engine is great, you don't have to spend as much theoretically.
All right, one more story here, Rob.
Speaking of McLaren, what's going on with Zach Brown?
Well, it's it's less he is becoming the the face of sort of a opposition to a story that we haven't really talked about much, but it's been going on in the background of the season, which is that Total Wolf and Mercedes are looking at investing pretty significantly in Alpine.
One of Alpine's ownership group is liquidating their their shares.
I want to say it's a 24 percent stake that.
Let me look at this.
Auto capital has in in in Alpine.
I wonder if this is the one that's like composed of a bunch of celebrities.
It is.
Okay.
This is Ryan Reynolds getting out.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't know if they're fully liquidating everything, but they're they're liquidating a significant share of it.
And one of the leading bidders is one is is Total Wolf and Mercedes.
And I think there's a mix of I think Total Wolf is throwing some of his money into it, but also Mercedes, the Mercedes team would also be taking a stake in it.
And which are kind of one in the same.
He owns that team outright.
Right.
He's like owning an ownership stake.
Okay.
Yeah.
I don't know if he owns it outright outright, but he owns a large, large share of it.
So their argument for doing this has always been just sort of a hey, we're diversifying our holdings in motor sports.
That seems it seems like just a sound investment opportunity for us, but we're not really looking at creating like a B team situation.
We're not trying to like turn Alpine into a satellite of Mercedes.
And what Zach Brown sort of said in the letter to the FIA is that we don't believe you that effectively the sort of team.
This is sort of a team alliance strategy, which if you recall, like, I don't know if that language is common elsewhere, but it may sound familiar from like carrier alliances and airlines,
which became methods in which companies that merging were able to significantly collude on, you know, prices and such.
And there were always arguments that there were efficiencies unlocked there.
But by and large, alliances were ways to sort of sidestep regulatory scrutiny and then consolidate routes and often the expense of passengers.
So the argument that Brown is making is that effectively whatever Mercedes is saying is their business case for taking on a significant ownership at the stake of Alpine.
This is going to play out in practice as Alpine is becoming a sort of subordinate squad to Mercedes.
And he made the argument that, you know, we already see issues happening on the on the track with, you know, Taro Russo R.B. sort of being given team orders throughout their history to just clear space.
They even sort of knows that you're you're coming up against Red Bull drivers when you're in those cars, not not just another team.
He also sort of pointed out that there are costs of doing business that other teams have to do that Red Bull is spared from doing.
He pointed out that, you know, Red Bull was able to promote Laura Meckies to team principal without any sort of gardening leave or, you know, payment to the team he's leaving because it's just an internal promotion.
So, you know, are those are those issues going to crop up now in in Formula One as we sort of expand this model.
So he's really sort of laying that marker down as here is a here's an approach to F1 ownership that we want to block and hear the company here are the ways it's it's deleterious to the sport.
And the various incentives we have to to get rid of this kind of model.
The thing is, like he's undeniably right, I think on the facts like this is this is just true.
It's the the R.B. thing is weird.
It will expand that weirdness if Mercedes is now effectively a significant share owner of of Alpine.
On the other hand, I will say I don't know the R.B. thing has been bad for the sport.
I think on balance has actually been in that good, right?
That it's it's created a lot of drivers made their way in F1 in part because Red Bull's development program had two F1 teams they put drivers in and everyone has sort of drafted off that synergy, you know, that that operates there.
And it certainly has made R.B.'s situation more stable than a lot of other mid to back of the pack teams in terms of like financing and and ability to stay in the sport.
And so there's all these like sporting concerns that crop up with it.
But then there's like ecosystem issues that I think have actually proven to be kind of net beneficial for having a sort of A team and B team model.
And I'm not actually sure it's the worst thing if that model expands.
But ideally, the best way it would expand is like maybe there's more teams on the grid rather than having teams having having the more successful teams start snapping up, you know, secondary teams.
Already there's there's teams that have sort of an uncanny level of overlap between them as you have teams that supply.
Mercedes specifically, I think is tricky in this situation because they already supply so many teams with engines that you have teams that feel like they are already kind of clients of Mercedes,
both in the like direct we buy engines from them, but also in the we have a working relationship we need to protect.
And so that's going to change how things play out in the sport.
So I think specifically that is Mercedes doing this already sort of the most prolific engine supplier has some hackles up and Brown is asking the FIA to effectively block the move and revisit this this model of ownership.
Yeah, I mean, I just said some background for maybe people who are newer to F1.
There are rules about what teams can share like information, technical information with each other.
So there's there's certain things that like Red Bull and and oh my God, what are they called now?
RB. B car Barbie or whatever.
Racing Bulls. Wow. All right. Two weeks is a long time.
There are certain restrictions on the data that they can share.
I think Brown's point is there are advantages that go beyond just data there that we need to that may be anti competitive that we may need to address.
But yeah, I think you're right, Rob, that there are it's not only the advantages that two teams would get from doing this aren't necessarily detrimental to the sport or other teams.
I think the one that stands out to me is that I liked it.
Maybe this is naive, but I like to think that any team any team on the grid has a chance to have one hack of a turnaround of a season and get to the top.
Right.
I have my doubts that racing Bulls would do that.
Right.
Over Red Bull.
I'm with you.
They would, you know, snap up the talent.
Like you said, the pathways are too efficient for talent to move up in terms of team personnel and drivers.
And, you know, there's with the trickle down effect, you know, if, you know, despite the limits on data sharing, if there's some development, it's going to hit Red Bull first before racing Bulls.
Right.
So I think if you too many of those scenarios are diffused throughout the field, then we might it might just lock in more of the pecking order that would make for a less interesting sport.
But I could be wrong.
You know, Torrosso one has won in the past.
Have they beaten them in the championship?
No, I mean, maybe that OK, they may have finished ahead of them in the championship, like maybe once or twice in the history of these two teams.
I would have to look that up.
But I think your fundamental point is absolutely correct.
There's zero chance that you would have the secondary Red Bull squad move ahead of the Red Bull squad on a durable basis, right, where they are putting out a better car.
They have better drivers like Red Bull will consume those resources and like skim that talent and move it to the flagship team.
The second it is evident that they have like that there's an advantage to be gained there that is sort of their right.
And so the only way that would ever happen would be sort of in a really fun like major leagues or bad news bear bear situation where it's like the underdogs are despite having having their best talent sort of skimmed by the senior team are able to, you know, put together a winning campaign.
But ultimately, no, this is not a team that is designed to beat Red Bull.
And if it's not designed to beat Red Bull, then it's not designed to win a championship and beat the big, you know, the other the other members of the big four.
So you have a team who sort of capped in their overall potential.
But, you know, I think as you and I would know, like most teams are capped in their overall potential.
It's just like not like what if there's, you know, what if we kind of saw this with certain sign with McLaren.
But I was thinking more about Williams, like they were back over the grid and then they got a big they got bought.
But imagine like a big sponsor comes in, right?
And if they if that big sponsor lands in like through someone at racing bulls, right?
Well, then Red Bull is going to go like, OK, thanks for that.
We're going to take most of that sponsorship money and dump it all into red.
Like it's I don't know, it's just I think a little bit of it is OK.
I don't know that I want more of it, if that makes sense.
Yeah, that's certainly fair.
All right.
That is it for news where you're going to take a quick break and then we will be back with the track walk.
Canada, Rob, it's up there.
It's we stand out.
We stand on guard for the that is where that's what that's what we're here for.
So yeah, we are going to the circuit.
Jill Villeneuve built on the Notre Dame Island in the middle of St. Lawrence, an artificial island built for the 1967 World's Fair.
Some of the remnants you can still see on the Montreal skyline, including I think the geodesic dome
was that burned down some years after after the World's Fair.
We should we should bring that back.
We should we should.
Not just that World's Fairs, but also World's Fairs with like postmodernism or just modernism to be fair.
Like let's let's get back to it.
So this is an iconic track and until Shanghai, I think had the fastest top speed in the on the calendar.
It may have been overtaken now by some of the later additions, but for a long time it was notable for an incredibly long straight, you know, back straight leading to the star finish line.
You know, it's it's 4.36 kilometers, 2.7 miles.
They usually run extremely low downforce configurations here.
And there's lot the margins are really thin here for for the mistakes it tolerates.
And so you see you tend to see a lot of incidents as people are trying to ring that last bit of performance from from their lap time because the the consequences for getting it wrong are severe.
So, you know, it's it's the thing I love about this track as well is it's full of areas that sort of invite ambitious decisions that maybe the track doesn't fully support.
So, you know, you have a quick from the starting line, you have a quick run into a pretty sharp left right hander that you will sometimes have people trying to get around the outside of that right hand corner.
Can it be done rarely? Will people try?
Yeah, especially because the pits emerge into the middle of this corner.
And so you have some some really fraught pit exits blending in with cars that are already going hell for leather through a tight first turn complex.
And then they hit a couple chicanes through through sector one, a, you know, another place where you will see cars trying to sort of close out and overtake through these areas that are not really ideal passing zones.
But if you've sort of pushed all your chips into the middle of getting it done here at the end of a lap, that fight can sometimes continue through sector one as someone is just trying to get it done.
And it's especially unforgiving here because the runoff areas are grass.
And so it doesn't take much for somebody to go wide, hit the grass and then suddenly they're skidding toward walls that are not very far off.
And then you're in this like beautiful leafy back sector of the of the course, a fast back straight.
Some some quick like left right left handers in the back sector, but it's really building toward a fast approach to a huge looping hairpin.
Turn 10 at the end of sector two, start sector three.
And that is a good place for you to attempt and overtake because you have such a huge breaking event there.
And it's very forgiving.
There's a lot of room to get it wrong and run off, run wide or try and cut inside.
But no matter how you tackle it, it exits you onto a huge straight that leads to a chicane right before the start finish straight.
And that chicane can be taken extremely fast.
And at the exit of that, on the right hand side of the course, there is a wall called the wall of champions because it collects them in in crashes.
But also, there is an argument to be made that if you do not have your back right tire, kiss that wall on the exit of that chicane.
You are simply not trying hard enough.
And so that is you see some of the highest speeds of the F one calendar here on that on that straight.
And then some of the chanceous moves at that chicane leading to the start finish straight.
And notably, of course, this invites a lot of ways for people to get it wrong, not just with the wall of champions, but sometimes with following distance.
This is a lot of time spent in the draft of someone else.
The DRS era, you were certainly encouraged to just just riding that, riding that draft.
Effectively, we still have that.
You still have a lot of incentive to draft pretty intensely here.
And sometimes you just get it wrong, like Lando Norris did last year when he just kind of absentmindedly drove up the back of Piastri and into the wall.
But not the only incident we've seen like that where someone is trying to time that overtake where they can just flick out at the absolute last possible second and get the most benefit of the draft.
All it takes is you misjudging it slightly or someone checking up on their brakes just a little bit more than you expected at the chicane or heading into turn one and your toast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I like looking at this track on TV.
It's a great looking track.
There are a lot of distinct areas that I remember and that are fun to watch the drivers navigate.
In recent years, it hasn't been the most exciting.
I would agree.
Circuit.
In my personal ratings here, it's averaged a 2.5 out of four for the last four years.
But that can always change.
New regs.
I'm curious to see how things play out here.
In terms of the driver form book, drivers and teams here, I'll do drivers first.
In the races, this is one of Lewis Hamilton's favorite tracks as well as with George Russell and, interestingly, Lance Stroll and Nico Holkenberg.
It is sort of a bugbear for Sergio Perez and Lando Norris, interestingly.
Teams.
Let's see.
We've got Mercedes is on average in the past few years, has done the best and then Red Bull and then Ferrari.
Past winners, though.
Most recently, George Russell and then a three year streak of Max Verstappen and then in 2019 was Lewis Hamilton because we had a few years in the COVID gap there.
I remember we talked about it, but last year, Russell was doing a video for Mercedes where he's talking to their F1 Academy driver about some of these corners.
And the thing he explained about this is this track sort of breaks you of your more prescriptive techniques where you're like, oh, here's your breaking point.
This is such a track of extremes that your car is approaching the same places on the track, but it will have evolved quite a bit just from lap to lap.
And so where the driver is really put to the test in Montreal is your breaking points are changing constantly more than more than you're used to in an F1 car.
And you kind of have to feel out what the what you think the car is going to do before you commit to your breaking points.
And that is really counter counter to what the approach is a lot of other tracks where it's like you can just use your reference points and sort of guide yourself by that until you feel the car going away from it.
Montreal, at least going to Russell is much more of a place where you know your car is not going to hit this hit this corner the same way it did just a lap ago, but you're not entirely sure in what way it's changed.
Hmm.
Okay.
Well, it's a sprint weekend this weekend.
So weather wise, we're looking at a Friday that is sunny.
That will be for sprint qualifying 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 Celsius low chance of precipitation.
I'm looking here at zero and wind.
Let's see 14 kilometers an hour nine miles an hour not so bad.
Saturday temps climb a little bit 71 slash 22 precipitation 10% sort of across the sprint and race qualifying time slots wind less we got six miles an hour 10 kilometers an hour pretty steady across that day as well.
But Sunday we're looking at similar temps 72 Fahrenheit 22 Celsius precipitation though 45%.
And it looks to be that it may roll in during the race according to this which is you know, we're many days out from the race time so things could still change but wouldn't that be fun Rob?
It certainly would.
I'm always hoping for that.
Yes.
I mean rain has produced some pretty great stuff at Canada.
Let's run down the driver standings here after the Miami round Kimmy Antonelli is still on top with 100 points.
A Benjamin just ahead of George Russell not just had 20 points ahead of his teammate George Russell.
That's a lot considering we are only a few races into this season.
Canada's round five.
Charlotte Claire is third with 59 points.
Landon Norris fourth with 51 tied on points with Lewis Hamilton.
Oscar Priastri is sixth with 43.
Then we've got Max Verstappen in seventh place with 26 points.
Oliver Bearman in eighth with 17.
Pierre Gasly in ninth with 16 points.
And then Liam Lawson in tenth with 10 points.
Franca Colapinto is 11th followed by Arvid Lindblad and Isaac Hajjar and Carlos Sainz who are all tied on points.
Gabrielle Bordelotto is in 15th with two.
Esteban O'Conn and Alex Albon are in 16th and 17th tied on points.
And then with no points we have an 18th.
Nico Holkenberg followed by Valtteri Bottas Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
In the team standings, Mercedes is comfortably out front currently with 180 points.
Ferrari is in second with 110.
McLaren is in third with 94.
And then a big jump down to Red Bull in fourth with 30.
Alpine is holding it strong in fifth with 23 points.
That's surprising.
Seven points behind Red Bull.
Gene Haasen team are in sixth with 18 points.
Racing Bull is in seventh with 14.
Williams is in eighth with five.
Audi is in ninth with two.
And then the zeroes of Cadillac and Aston Martin.
If you'd like to join the official Shift of One fantasy league, you can do so using the link in the show notes.
You can also send us an email at ShiftofOnePodcastinGEMA.com or f1.cool slash emails.
Rob, what have the people said this week?
Well, Kyle from Montana writes,
while I was in Las Vegas with my brother last week, we had a few hours to kill between events.
It turns out that the permanent building they constructed for the paddock is open during the off season
and is home to F1X, an immersive F1 experience.
So we decided to check it out.
First off, my brother does not watch any motor sports and only vaguely recognize Michael Schumacher's name.
You don't need a ticket to get into the F1 hub, which is basically a bar and gift shop located on the upper level,
although they apparently host watch parties for other races.
To get into F1X, you have to buy tickets, which were $59 each when we went.
There's also a cart track set up on the start finish straight and simulators,
which just appeared to be playing the Vegas track in F125 in the fancy cockpit that you can buy time on that we didn't participate in,
though they definitely tried to upsell you on tickets for everything in bundles if you buy tickets online.
Okay.
Welcome to us.
There was also a touchscreen to design your own helmet, displays of all the flags used,
and a game where you could test your reaction times to the starting lights.
After this, you move into the F1 factory, a clean white room with the 2024 McLaren on display,
along with a few engines, tires, and a bunch of screens explaining technical features of the cars.
The most interesting thing here was a touchscreen with a model of one of the F1 team steering wheels
that allowed you to touch any control on the wheel and it would zoom in and tell you what it controls.
Following this was the car design lab giving you a touchscreen and the ability to design your own F1 livery.
Pick some colors and choose how many Salesforce logos you wanted, along with logos for all the Vegas hotel and casinos,
and this got saved to your lanyard.
The most physical part of the experience after this was where after signing a waiver,
we were able to practice a real pit stop.
Since there are only two of us, one of the attendants joined us to remove the wheel as I was the wheel gunner,
and my brother put on the new one.
After a few tries, we were able to get the timing down to eight seconds.
My brother overheard the attendants as we were leaving saying, wow, those guys were fast.
There was a car reveal room after this feature, after this featuring a blank white F1 car,
they projection mapped the livery you designed earlier onto, which was pretty neat,
followed by a pit wall recreation where you could listen to actual 2025 Vegas GP radio
and a cool down room and a podium where they take your picture in front of a green screen so you could buy pictures afterwards.
Lastly was the 4D experience, a Disneyland style ride simulator where you put on 3D glasses
and watched a 3D conversion of the 2025 Vegas GP race highlights,
watching the race as the seats moved and even stimulated bumps when going over curbs.
At the end, some 3D animated champagne sprayed on the screen and the seats blew water in our faces.
Did I learn anything from this that I didn't already know due to the 12 years of watching F1 preseason primers?
Absolutely not.
Did I have a great time explaining things to my brother while he had a blast learning about everything and doing all the activities?
I sure did.
I think that anyone who had listened to this podcast would probably enjoy spending a couple hours doing this,
especially if they were in town with some friends that don't watch F1.
And you can check out more.
It's at grandpreplaza.com.
This is the site for the permanent install at Vegas.
Okay.
All right.
That sounds right on the boundary of worth it for me.
Yeah.
Like $60.
But like it sounds kind of goofy and dominant way that could be fun.
Yeah.
And Kyle said two hours.
So I don't know.
That's not bad.
That's maybe twice the cost of a movie these days.
But yeah, I don't know.
I feel like I want to try the pit stop.
You know?
Yeah.
Eight seconds.
I feel like I can beat that, but maybe not.
Nice.
Okay.
Thanks, Kyle.
Should I take this one from Mike?
Yeah.
All right.
Mike in Chicago writes,
Rob, maybe you have more insight into this.
I think, and I'm just going off of the way that DRS worked,
which was you manually pressed a button to open it.
But as soon as you touched the break,
that is when it automatically closed.
That is my suspicion is what Mike is seeing is that somebody was able to
leave their wing open just a little bit further than the other driver.
Yeah.
So that fundamentally somebody had to either tap a break or,
yeah, like manually close it to have that wing snap down.
Because like conditions were a little tricky that day.
And, you know, you don't want to drive up the back of someone.
So it's possible that Max not having to worry about running into someone
versus the Claire, trying to execute an overtake.
Look, Claire has to be hedging his bets a little bit more as he approaches
the corner.
They are these things were there were sensors that sort of capped where
the DRS activated.
My assumption is that is how the active arrows is still working.
I'm not sure you would tie it.
I don't think F1 would tie it to the throttle map system they use
because that can throw errors.
And so the thing you absolutely don't want is the wrong arrow setting
for any part of the track where it's like you need downforce to make this corner.
F1's nightmare is like, you know, it doesn't they don't get their downforce
back and somebody just goes like rocketing off into into a crash
because the system failed.
So they're going to be there.
Like if there's one thing I trust the FIA to have pinned down,
it's controlling where the low drag settings are deployed.
Yeah.
And I think we might actually see more of this wing timing discrepancy
that Mike is describing because we have more the cars slow with with
the energy recovery, the cars slow more with lift and coast.
So if even though you haven't depressed the break yet and therefore
your wing is still open, you are still able to slow down
and therefore can continue further than someone else who is pressing the break,
if that makes sense.
You'll get a good look at how this is working in Canada for sure
because there's there's so many straights here.
You're going to get a lot of opportunities to see what's happening with that arrow.
And I think you're going to see people having to hedge their bets a little bit
as they as they come up behind some people.
So in a weird way, I hadn't thought about this, but hearing this email,
it does make me think DRS was always meant to give an attacker advantage
to overtaking.
But now it's kind of sounds like there's a defender advantage
because they're getting effectively the low drag setting too,
but they don't have to worry about driving in the back of someone
whereas the person on the attack absolutely has to worry about like,
is this person's car going to start slowing for additional energy harvesting?
Is are they going to attack the corner at full speed?
So now this system might require the person in the attacking position
to carry a little bit more concern into the attacking zone.
Christopher writes, I would be interested in y'all's thoughts
on how much F1 is tied to petroleum for the sport in each of you personally.
With more and more talk from Big Ben about forcing F1 down the V8 path,
I do find myself pondering my continued interest in it.
I enjoy some formulae, but it needs work for sure.
It is not a replacement for F1 weekends at this point.
I think I really enjoy the logic and strategy that integrated electrical engines
and battery management brings to a race.
I see F1 as the peak of drivers in the world, not the peak of gas engines.
So I moved to V8 dropping the at least 50-50 electric path
as a huge step backwards in my opinion.
I'm not a lifetime fan of F1, so my perspective is limited to this electric era.
I began listening and watching along with Drew back in the Alt-F1 days.
For me, the link for the electric motors and ERS to the practical future integration
into consumer cars is the key part of the draw to watch F1 over other forms of racing.
Watching drivers spend 90% of a lap at full throttle is not the complex driver risk and reward system I crave.
This year of smart laps, winning over foot to the floor laps has been a real boon to my enjoyment watching.
We're running to pure gas-powered cars, would certainly put my F1 subscription in question.
How would a switch to V8 with no electrical engine in the mix affect your support and interest?
I feel that's about petroleum, state power, our baseline understanding of course.
My answer to this is probably, you know, you're catching me at a moment in time.
So here's where I'm at today.
I think a few years ago, I might have been pretty thoroughly in your camp that hybridization
and electrification was the way things are going and F1 needs to get with that.
I think what I've come around to though is a lot of that stuff for,
and we talked about this in the news story last week, that Nick Timbasi is the long-term
long-time director of open-wheel racing for the FIA.
And he said, we kind of need to break this consideration of road relevance for F1.
And I'm kind of there too, because road relevance has been an increasingly tenuous connection
since like the 1980s, early 90s between motorsport and what's happening with consumer cars.
And honestly, in that era, that is where you started seeing motorsport already turning away
from directions that consumer cars were going.
Your car has a traction control system that is, I mean, it exists.
So it is more advanced than what they are doing in F1 cars.
F1 ruled out anti-lock brakes.
Every car has that as just a basic safety feature so that people can't lock their brakes in a panic stop.
The connection between the technology of consumer road cars and motorsports
started to really fray apart in the 90s, and that has continued with the push to EVs,
in part because the mission profile of a consumer car traveling highways and suburban roads
is so vastly different from what any race car, but particularly an open-wheel F1 car,
is being asked to do, that I kind of do think we're kidding ourselves if we are looking at F1
as this is where the technologies of the future are being perfected for road cars.
I don't think that's really true.
Manufacturers made a big deal out of it, but I think that was mostly for brand halo effects
of the car manufacturers as they were making huge push to EVs,
did not want to be associated with a race series that was increasingly out of step with that
and resisting electrification.
But the position F1 arrived at is these manufacturers are kind of flaky anyway when it comes to their commitment to F1,
and in the meantime we're compromising an awful lot to sort of herd these cats into F1,
and in the meantime it compromises us on a lot of other areas of car design and racing spectacle.
So for me, I have kind of reached this point where F1 as being on the forefront of electrification of vehicles
is not really a super high priority for me because this is already such constructed sport,
it's really increasingly disconnected from the automotive industry.
Again, I have to stress as well, F1, by all appearances, when I was looking into this,
their commitment to sustainable fuels, I really thought we dragged them for years about this.
They have to be full of shit.
This is going to be the most like, hey, it's all sustainable buddy.
We planted some trees somewhere, it's going to be fine.
Those trees definitely didn't burn down in the climate disaster.
We really thought it was going to be like complete greenwashing bullshit.
It isn't.
The sustainable fuels thing is really interesting.
It's pretty demanding.
It's kind of cool.
And so in large measure, I look at that as F1 did kind of figure out a way to have this type of motorsports
in a way that is still compatible with trying to reduce emissions from vehicles.
It was already the case that F1, its real carbon footprint is just moving the circus around the world.
But if we're talking about like what is powering the cars,
they did find a pretty good solution for having that move away from the petrochemical infrastructure
that is heating the planet and burning sections of it down right now.
So I kind of do have to give them some credit for that, having addressed that.
And that opens me up a little bit to saying like if the stakeholders really do feel it is a better sport
if you reduce some of the hybrid stuff, I am open to that.
I doubt, I don't think I do want a full return to like purviates or maybe I would be fine with it for a cycle, right?
And I think that is probably the future of F1 is we're just going to see them cycling through rules archetypes
for the sake of changing it and making it interesting.
I would be fine if we had like 56 years on V8s and then it was like, hey, you know, it's cool, hybrids.
The big thing for me is I just want to fix the following stuff with the era rules,
which their rules package seems to have finally been more successful than anything I've seen in my life watching F1.
The era rules they pulled off here seem to largely reduce a lot of the issues that made following impossible.
So now I am open to seeing some other things happen with the with the engine.
I think to your point, we bring it up a lot.
I also I think would have enjoyed the 5050 electrical thing if there were more driver control over it,
if it felt like the drivers were in control of these resources more like in IndyCar,
drivers have the option to use their push to pass button, right?
And that is a driver going to be like, fuck it, I'm doing it now and just mash that button in the car.
Roars off of the enriched fuel mix.
That is not how the hybrid stuff feels like it is working in F1.
The drivers feel really disconnected and out of control with it in places that so much of it is just happening under the hood with the throttle map.
That I think that is probably the mistake they made, which is that they kind of left this to be a thing for the team to automatically optimize for in the background,
rather than it being a resource drivers really have to think about and manage and have discipline with.
So I think that for me is like the big disappointment with the direction the hybrid rules have gone,
which is that it's not really feeling like the drivers are putting on their thinking caps and coming up with strategies on the fly during a race to get the most out of the 5050 balance.
It is feeling like there is some opaque math that every team has done under the hood that just kind of takes a lot of these resource questions out of the driver's hands
and makes them almost passengers to their own race in ways that they don't like and is maybe a little underwhelming from a specter perspective.
Yeah, I think I agree wholeheartedly with what you said, Rob.
I think to some degree we've solved, we know the answer to consumer cars and it's electric, they should be electric.
And that kind of exists separately for me from what I want Formula One to be, which is I want the racing to be good and close.
And I want there to be, you know, I want to watch people solve complex technical problems and see who can do it better.
Whether that means, and that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to have electric power.
I think that having to contend with a hybrid power unit does make the technological challenge more interesting than just who can make the most efficient internal combustion engine
and having to manage all these sporting regulations that keep the racing close.
I also think that it would be a very tall order to go completely back to combustion only when you do, like if, like I said, we solved consumer cars, they all should be electric.
Well, if Mercedes has an F1 team that is using all petroleum, what is that look that doesn't that might not make sense to consume like that would be a tall order for a company to do.
So I while I understand wanting to say like what is the platonic ideal of a race car and it's explosive fuel only.
I don't know that that necessarily would fly with these automotive companies.
And I don't actually I'm not totally convinced that it would result in the most exciting sport to watch either.
So curious to see how things develop.
But yeah, I think you articulated it well, Rob.
Should I take this next one?
Look at this situation.
OK, Ben writes problematic IndyCar merch and links to a blue sky post.
I don't think many words are needed here.
Wow.
You want to describe what you're seeing?
First of all, I saw people talking about this in the discord.
This is this is real, right?
This is real.
I think this was on IndyCar's website, but they have since taken it down.
Yeah, it is a white t-shirt with a helmeted driver sitting in a chair like Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial with some American flag red and white stripes behind him.
And the text says one nation, one race.
The Indy 500, Rob.
That's what that means.
That's the race we're talking about.
Yeah, I think I know.
I'm going to immediately.
I must have this shirt.
I must have it.
It is such a disaster.
It is like, yeah, it's it's it's a nightmare.
It is so funny.
Like, you know, maybe you could get away with it.
No, you couldn't.
There's nothing like if there's something to indicate they're talking about the Indy 500, but no, it is just you can't be doing this.
You know, if it was just like a checkered flag and those those words, you still can't do it.
Yeah, you can't do it.
Yeah.
Wow.
What is it?
Like I'm Volk like one like 11 country one Volk or something.
But like there's yeah, it's that is that is the Volts back.
It's looking.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I'm just talking.
I'm just talking about people transportation.
Tom from Wales writes.
Hey, guys, I tend to think of advertising and sports is pretty benign or cringe worthy at best.
But I had an experience at work this week that blew my mind and I had to share it with you.
I was a doctor in the UK and was seeing a lovely patient in her 70s who had an F1 magazine on her table.
I started chatting to her about Miami and she's been an F1 fan her whole life.
We were talking about some classic cars.
She said that she thought the John player special Lotus, you know, the one great looking car looked so incredible back in the day that she literally started smoking because of it.
Not only that, but she switched to Marlboro Reds when she became a Santa fan.
It turns out this shit actually works and it's probably for the best that it's not allowed anymore.
Now I think of it.
My dad always smoked Benson and hedges and loved rooting for Jordan when they had those amazing liveries with the Hornets.
So maybe the evidence has always been there.
Yeah, so I am surprised somebody looking at delivery and deciding to take up smoking that that part surprises me.
Once you're through being a smoker, though.
This is the part where advertising does kind of work because it's kind of like, well, this is this is the type of brand we have.
This is the associations we want.
Like absolutely, I became a lucky strike smoker because of two things, band of brothers and then like vintage lucky strike ads.
We're like the coolest fucking things for like through the thirties into like the seventies eighties.
I loved the look of the pack.
I loved everything about the brand.
I still do.
Like I think I still have lucky strike merch floating around here.
Now, in my case, though, lucky strikes really are different.
They are as unfiltered cigarettes go, they are one of the better ones.
But man, I smoked a lot like filtered cigarettes.
That shit all tasted pretty similar to me except Marlboro lights, which were.
You just you'd taste the chemicals on that one.
But yeah, no, like I'm not surprised at all that once people were through the through the door of smoking, they're looking at the car liveries and being like, yeah, you know what?
That speaks to me.
And then they're they're buying those packs.
I like American.
That's amazing.
Thank you, Tom.
All right, well, shift of one podcast to gmail.com or f1.cool slash emails or you can hit us up on the socials.
That is us around the Internet.
And now let's take it around the world of racing, Rob, starting with the craftsman trucks.
They are at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200.
Formula two will be supporting Formula One this weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
They also have DTM.
DTM is in Zandvoort in Zinedelens for their race one and two.
We have the NASCAR O'Reilly series.
They are also in Concord, North Carolina for the Charbroil 300.
It's been never stopping barbecue season here, my friend.
We have Super Formula this weekend in Suzukashi Mie Prefecture.
At the Suzuka Circuit.
The Repco Supercars are in Tassie for the Tasmania Super 440.
Motocross Grand Prix is in France at Circuit Motocross La Capelle Marvial in Marvial France.
And a little race called Rob, the Indy 500.
One Nation at Speedway, Indiana, 110th Indy 500.
That's exciting.
Boy, not happening on the same weekend as Monaco, although maybe that changed last year as well.
I feel like this is the year the change has gone through.
But yeah, they're breaking up the trifecta.
And we got NASCAR also at the Charrolet Motor Speedway.
Speaking of brands, what are red and gets you addicted to the product Coca-Cola 600 this weekend?
Or you just watch Logan Lucky again.
Can't go wrong watching Logan Lucky.
That's true.
We got a Patreon episode about that, if you want.
And Formula One.
Maybe you've heard of it.
Friday, May 22nd, things kick off.
Free Practice 1, 12.30 PM Eastern Time, followed by Sprint Qualifying at 4.30 PM.
Saturday, May 23rd, the Sprint is at noon PM Eastern Time, followed by Qualifying at 4.
And the race, everyone, Sunday, May 24th at 4 PM Eastern Time.
Oh my gosh, Danny sent us a screenshot of the grimoire.
Sorry, I remember.
I'm going to read one last email.
Yes, okay, great.
Let me find it, because this is about...
Let's see, I had it a second ago.
Damn it.
Do you want me to read the grimoire?
Okay.
Read the grimoire.
Okay.
May 19th, day of recording.
We're doing day of recording, right?
I think this season is what Danny's been doing.
Monaco seems to throw up dramas and surprises like no other race.
And today in 1996 saw one of the most incredible grand prix of modern times.
On a rain-soaked day, Michael Schumacher crashed out before Damon Hill, who had a commanding
lead, retired with engine trouble.
Jean Alacie was leading until his rear suspension failed, as almost every other driver had problems.
It fell to Olivier Panis, who started 14th on the grid to carve his way through the chaos
for an unexpected and unbelievable first win in his Ligier.
He was the first French driver to win at Monaco in a French car since Rene Dreyfus in a Bugatti
in 1930.
Just three cars actually crossed the finish line to complete the race.
The fewest number of finishers ever in a modern grand prix, with McLaren's David Coulthard
and Sauber's Johnny Herbert completing the podium.
Heinz-Harold Frenzen, Mika Salo, and Mika Hakkinen were also classified in the points
despite not finishing.
Wow, the entire finishing field on the podium.
I had never heard of this.
That's amazing.
So somebody wrote in also, their proposal for us watching a movie, but you didn't listen
to last week's episode.
Right.
We talked about a commercial airliner that had a dual engine failure over Canada, and
one of the flight crew had been stationed at an RCAF base years earlier when they were
military and so directed them to this decommissioned RCAF base, except it had suffered the fate
or been blessed by the fate of many air bases of being converted into a motorsports park.
And there was an event.
No.
So the airliner glided extensively toward this RCAF base and then landed on a straight
that had a guardrail running down the middle of it.
The runway was now divided by a guardrail and they brought it down during a live race weekend.
And the front gear failed.
The thing went skidding along the guardrail, but may have actually saved lives because
effectively like it served as like an arresting wire for them.
And then because there was a race that weekend, there was tons of fire suppression on site.
And so when a fire broke out, there was immediately people available to to to extinguish the fire
and assist with passenger and crew evacuation.
Wow.
So awesome story.
Nick Kay writes high shifties.
There actually is a movie about the Gimli glider.
The airbase was Gimli.
It's on YouTube maybe fit for a patron podcast.
It's called free free flight free fall flight one flight 17.
It looks it looks very TV movie tastic.
Nick Kay adds my father was a ramp rat with the Gimli glider went down.
He was stationed at the Winnipeg airport and they were prepared for an emergency landing.
When they found out the glider went down in Gimli, everyone hopped in their vehicle and ripped out there to assist.
Anyways, very cool.
The story was brought up on the show.
Wow.
I'm sold.
Yeah.
Was this like the 70s or something?
I want to say it's like a 70s or 80s aviation accident.
The movie is made in 1995, but I feel like it was a little bit older than that.
Also, somebody did write in with an alternate grimoire entry.
Oh, OK.
Scott writes on this day in history.
I'm hoping I'm not just getting played here and this is 100% real.
Drew, just look out Monaco Diamond Heist real quick.
Just make sure I'm real.
Oh, this is real.
OK.
On this day in history, the Monaco Grand Prix became the stage for one of the most improbable mysteries in modern motorsport.
On May 23, 2004, Jaguar Racing arrived in Monte Carlo for the Monaco GP with a promotional stunt designed to turn heads.
Partnering with Steinmetz, the team mounted real diamonds worth approximately $300,000 each onto the nose cones of their Formula 1 cars.
The purpose was pure marketing, as the diamonds were meant to promote the upcoming film Oceans 12
by gleaming under the Riviera sun and capturing the attention of the viewing audience.
What happened on this day would echo through racing history.
On the very first lap, at the tight, low's hairpin, Christian Clean clipped the barrier and retired from the race.
When Marshalls reached the damaged Jaguar, the diamond that had been fixed to the nose was no longer there.
It had vanished.
Team members searched the crash site.
Marshalls searched.
Officials searched.
No one was able to locate the diamond.
Mark Webber completed the race in his Jaguar with its diamond still intact, but Clean's jewel had disappeared before the first lap was even complete.
The team later stated they believed the diamond likely fell off during the impact, yet no one saw it, it fall, no one found it, and no one ever turned then.
A quarter of a million dollar diamond mounted in plain sight on a Formula 1 car had simply vanished.
And so the legend of the Monaco Diamond Heist was born, a caper that required no planning, no disguises, and no getaway vehicles.
Despite interviews, investigations, and 20 years of speculation, the missing diamond has never resurfaced.
Maybe it was scooped up in the chaos.
Maybe it was still wedged somewhere in the Armco barriers.
Maybe someone in the crowd walked away from the hairpin that day with the luckiest souvenir in motorsport history.
What is certain is that Jaguar's promotional stunt for Oceans 12 became far more famous than intended.
The diamond became a myth, the story became folklore, and the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix earned its place in racing history as the day a priceless gem disappeared without leaving a trace.
Wow. That's great. I just, I love Formula 1.
Alright, final thoughts, Rob, ahead of Canada.
When we go there next year, we need to find that diamond.
Well, I know a few folks including those who bought my Monaco tickets will be attending this year, so maybe they can take a look as well.
Alright, well, if you would like to support the show and get access to all of our bonus episodes, the early ad-free version of this podcast and the official Shift F1 Discord, you can do so over at patreon.com.
Have a good race weekend everyone, we will see you all next week.
About this episode
Montreal’s Canadian GP gets a track-walk focus: the circuit’s long straight, “extremely low downforce configurations,” and “thin margins” set up why mistakes and ambitious overtakes are so punishing. The hosts break down where passes happen—pit-exit merges, chicanes, and grass runoff—plus how DRS and drafting shape timing. Off-track, they debate 2026 ADUO cost-cap rules and Honda’s extra budget, then discuss Mercedes’ potential Alpine investment and the FIA/ownership concerns.
Drew’s back with Rob to tee up Canada and discuss Verstappen’s Nurburgring performance, immersive F1 X-periences, and, as always, cigarettes.
SHOW NOTES
The-Race’s article about Honda and AUDO
In case you want to Experience F1 in Vegas
The unfortunate Indy shirt
Pics & story of the Jaguar “diamond car”
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