The Suzuki Samurai is a small SUV built to handle dirt roads and rough trails. It’s popular with people who like simple vehicles that can be upgraded and used off-road. You might hear it mentioned because it’s known for being tough and capable for its size.
Lando refers to Lando Norris, a McLaren Formula 1 driver. The segment describes a personal interaction involving Norris, which is relevant because it’s tied to the Monaco/Formula 1 social dynamics being discussed.
Person
Anthony
Anthony is a Formula 1 media personality/commentator. In this story, he’s the person whose jacket got water poured on it.
Tim Mayer is a person involved in the FIA leadership election discussion mentioned in the segment. The hosts say election rules prevented him from running against Ben Cilliam.
Person
Ben Cilliam
Ben Cilliam is the person mentioned as the FIA presidency candidate in this story. The hosts are discussing how election rules and term limits affect who can run.
Mercedes is the big racing team/brand in Formula 1. Here they’re talking about Mercedes trying to invest money into another team (Alpine) by buying part of it.
Atro is basically a financial holding company. It owns part of Alpine and is trying to sell that stake, and Mercedes and Atro couldn’t agree on the price.
A minority stake means someone owns only part of a team—not controlling it. Even without full control, it can still create concerns about fairness if two racing teams are connected by money.
They’re talking about IndyCar, the open-wheel racing series in the U.S. The conversation centers on what happened in the Indy 500 and why it was so dramatic.
Felix Rosenqvist is one of the IndyCar drivers in this race recap. The hosts mention his position so you understand who had a chance to win at the end.
In open-wheel racing, a restart is when the race resumes after a caution period, with cars re-forming and accelerating back to racing speed. Restarts are high-stakes because positioning and timing can create immediate passing opportunities.
Person
David Maluchus
David Maluchus is the driver the hosts say was leading late. They’re describing how he held on under extreme pressure in the final laps.
“White knuckle racing” just means the racing is super intense and stressful. The cars are close together and it feels like one mistake could ruin everything.
Blocking is when a driver moves around to stop another driver from passing. It can be legal or illegal depending on how it’s done, especially late in a race.
This is a race at Indianapolis using an older track layout. The hosts are talking about a past incident there where a car got stuck and the race had to be neutralized for safety.
A full course caution means the whole race track is slowed down for everyone. It’s used when there’s a problem somewhere on track, so cars can’t race at full speed until it’s safe.
The safety car is a special car that comes out to slow everyone down during an unsafe moment. Drivers follow it and can’t race normally until officials say it’s clear.
It means someone follows the rules in a way that causes problems, almost like they’re doing it to make a point. Here, the host is joking that officials are overusing the safety car because of pressure or criticism.
A winglet is a small fin on a race car that helps it stay stable by shaping the airflow. If one is found on the track, it means it broke off and could be dangerous for other cars.
A power unit is the whole engine-and-battery system that powers an F1 car. It includes both the fuel engine and the hybrid energy parts, and the rules can change how it’s used.
“Straight mode” is when the car uses extra battery power on long straight sections. Monaco doesn’t have enough real straight running, so the rules prevent it there.
Battery power is the extra energy from the hybrid battery that boosts acceleration. The rules here say that boost won’t stay strong at high speeds, so it fades (“tapers”) sooner.
“Corner mode” is how the car is set up when it’s mainly turning. Here, the team would reduce wing settings to cut drag, because Monaco is mostly corners rather than long straights.
Active aerodynamics are moving wing/airflow settings that change while you drive to help the car grip better or go faster. Monaco’s rules here mean you won’t see those adjustments happening.
“Overtake mode” is a temporary boost setting meant to help you pass. It’s still available at Monaco, but the rules change how the battery boost is delivered.
They’re saying that around 310 km/h, the extra battery boost starts to fade if you’re not in overtake mode. It shows the rules limit how long the boost can stay strong at high speed.
“Tapering” means the extra boost you get for overtaking slowly fades away instead of staying at full strength. The car’s systems limit how long and how hard that boost can be used. So drivers have to plan when to hit it and when it will start dropping off.
Monaco is the F1 race in Monaco, known for being very twisty and slow. Because it’s mostly corners, the car’s extra passing boost has to be used differently than on faster tracks. Teams also adjust steering so the car can turn sharply for the tightest sections.
Steering lock is how far you can turn the steering wheel before the front wheels can turn no more. Monaco has super tight turns, so teams set the car up so it can turn in sharply. That can mean drivers use a very awkward hand position to reach the needed steering angle.
“Spec” refers to the standardized, rules-mandated configuration of F1 cars (parts and limits that teams must follow). The host argues that car performance is “mediated” by these regulations, meaning the rulebook shapes what the cars can do and how strategies like overtake-mode behave. This is why Monaco-specific tweaks still operate within the same overall constraints.
The Canadian Grand Prix is an F1 race used here as a reference point for how teams manage race systems over a season. The host uses it to explain that they weren’t constantly worrying about the hybrid/battery management during that event.
F1 timing is split into sections of the track called “sectors.” Sector three is the last part of the lap, so if you mess it up, your lap time (and sometimes your race) can fall apart.
Guard rails are the metal barriers along the track that protect the drivers and spectators. In Monaco, the cars are so close to them that touching them can quickly wreck the car.
A pit stop cycle is the timing of when cars come in for tires and go back out. In Monaco, the order can get scrambled, so who ends up where can change a lot.
Rule changes are new regulations that teams have to follow. If the rules force everyone into the same approach, the race can become less interesting because there’s less room for different strategies.
“Two pit stops” means you’re required to come in for tires twice during the race. That removes some flexibility, so teams can’t gamble as much on one-stop or alternate timing.
Pit strategy is the plan for when to change tires and how that affects track position. In Monaco, because the track is tight, strategy decisions can make a big difference.
This is talking about Ayrton Senna, a famous Formula 1 driver. The host is saying Monaco is where he started showing he could make amazing passes, especially in the rain.
A “form book” means looking at past results and recent performance to guess who will do well. The host is saying those trends matter a lot for Monaco, especially qualifying.
Pierre Gasly is highlighted as a driver who benefits from Monaco’s specific demands, according to the host’s recent-form statistics. The implication is that his driving style and/or team setup tends to translate better to Monaco than for some rivals.
Sergio Perez is mentioned as having Monaco as a “bottom five track” in the host’s statistical analysis. This is an example of how certain circuits can be less favorable for specific drivers due to car balance, traffic sensitivity, or qualifying performance.
Driver standings are the championship points rankings for individual drivers across the season. The segment lists who is leading and how many points each driver has heading into Monaco.
Team standings are the championship points rankings for the constructors (the teams) across the season. This segment compares how teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren are positioned heading into Monaco.
COTA is the common shorthand for Circuit of the Americas, a racing circuit in Austin, Texas. It’s a modern track with long straights and heavy braking zones, so it tends to reward strong car balance and tire management.
IMSA refers to the International Motor Sports Association, which organizes sports car racing in North America. IMSA events often feature endurance-style formats and classes of cars that differ from Formula 1.
This is the Formula 1 track in Montreal. People go there for the race weekend because it’s set up like a big festival, with lots of places to watch and walk around.
In F1, “Austria” usually means the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. The track sits in a kind of bowl, so you can often see more of what’s happening.
“Spa” is shorthand for the famous Spa-Francorchamps race track in Belgium. It’s very historic, but because the track is so big, you can’t always see everything from where you sit.
Baku refers to the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan, known for racing through a dense urban street layout. It’s famous for dramatic scenery and a “street race” atmosphere that feels similar to Monaco in how the track weaves through the city.
The Mexico City Grand Prix is a Formula 1 race in Mexico City. The track and viewing areas are unusual, and the hosts are imagining watching it from a stadium area that’s associated with the event.
The Isle of Man TT is a famous motorcycle race on real roads around an island. It’s known for being extremely dangerous because there’s very little space for mistakes.
MotoGP Hungary round means the MotoGP motorcycle race weekend in Hungary. It’s one stop in the championship calendar.
Place
Batalon Park
Batalon Park is the venue where the MotoGP race weekend is happening. The track layout is different from place to place, so it changes how riders race.
Formula 3 is a younger-driver racing series. It often runs on the same weekends as bigger championships to help drivers move up the ladder.
LIVE
C'est pas la mer à boire, and welcome to Shift F1, a podcast about speedy race cars
that by the way is French for it's not like you have to drink the ocean, which means it's
difficult. Just like racing at Monaco with brand new power units and rules, it's a cinch.
I'm Drew Scanlon joining me, Rob Zagney, how are you Rob? Not bad. When I was in Miami with a
friend of mine, we were talking about, about various tracks in F1 2020, 25,
and I asked him like, how do you handle Monaco? And he's like, oh, I just skipped that. I just do,
if they make me do that, I'll qualify the car or whatever and I crash out and I'm just done with
it. I don't even take it seriously. I don't waste time on it, which is how I've handled it for
multiple seasons in the F1 games as well. It is such an outlier in terms of like what it demands
of you. And it's in the game too, you're not passing. So like nothing, it's just one of the
most demanding circuits and also like one of the least dynamic. And so it is, I'm glad that
there are many of us out there who want to like live that live that F1 life vicariously through
video games. But when we come to Monaco, we take a long hard look at ourselves in the mirror and
say, no, I'm good. We'll be consulting that mirror again a little later in the show when we do the
Monaco track walk. But until then, 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 episode, 338 also this show would not be possible without our
audience over at patreon.com slash shift F1 where every month we release ad free versions of the pod
early, although today it won't be because we're recording on Wednesday, along with bonus pods
and videos exclusive for our patrons, the cover racing documentaries and films, F1 video games,
experiments, the other racing series and a lot of weird things. So if you would 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. Danny O'Dwyer is on assignment this week. So I shall read the title
sponsors. However, Rob, did we decide that we are doing death race 2000 this month? We're doing
death race 2000. And then we might use a death race remake, but we're definitely okay. That's
all right, great. Well, not this month. Last month. That would be Mays. Yeah, we're a little late.
Sorry. Danny is traveling. So he's going to be tough to schedule in the immediate future. But
I actually think it back to back. Right. What's that? You literally had children born in the last
month. Also that. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Daniel traveling. I know it's just having been able to get
around to it. I think a movie and the remake is a great back to back to double dropping it
in a month for patrons. So plus this is a movie I'd love to see. Yes, the title sponsors over on
Patreon. We've got DC speed demons, the military industrial complex, war isle, RIP Egberto and
Eur Furman, TV, GP, TV, TV, GP dot TV, that video game podcast, which is not only difficult to say
out loud, it's true. It's also a bit of a misdirect because TV GP sounds and on a racing podcast
no less sounds racing adjacent. But it is it's that video game podcast. Fascinating stuff.
Let's Margo racing. Eaching Wells, Dr. V, Dean's It's a Me Furario, Cryptocurrency, Mojo Nixon,
Get Richard Dyerion, Agave ATX, Cypher's Training Turf SCS, Michael Maves, Cigarettes,
telemetrydeck.com, Botos Not Last, Drew Stewart, Peak Super Clippy, Bailey Foot, Abraham Getchell,
E3 Mysteries, they're right around the corner, hashtag bunny for work, Sniggs, Alex Gouchet,
Max Voltar keyboards, Jeff Foster, Troy Stammer, William Rumpf, Lachlan the Maddened Man, Samurai
Love Story, and Jason Kelly. Thank you as always to all of our Patreon supporters. Rob, we're going
to jump right in here to the news segment. And you said this one maybe the most unsurprising news
news story to come across our news desk here. This is an article from the BBC. Andrew Benson
did a great job writing this up, so I'm just going to quote a little bit from it. The headline,
Ben Suleyam, president of the FIA, wants to scrap FIA presidency term limits.
And this is from the article, the move would enable these 64-year-old Emirati, who was re-elected
unopposed in December as a result of a quirk in election rules that prevented anyone else from
standing, to continue as president beyond the current 12-year limit. So under the current rules,
each term is four years and you can run for re-election twice, making it a maximum of three
terms. The plan to change the FIA's statutes will be discussed and voted on at next month's FIA
General Assembly, where it is expected to be passed by members. And I'll just continue with
the article just for a second here. Asked by BBC Sport why it was decided to abolish term limits
for all posts, rather than instate them for those that don't currently have them,
NFIA spokesperson was unable to provide a specific answer. However,
spokesperson pointed to the NFL in the U.S. saying Roger Goodell had been commissioner since 2006
and had quote, transformed the sport into a global brand and it has an outstanding governance record.
Over to you, Rob. Yeah, but Roger Goodell isn't going around touching them kid's hair.
There's layers to weirdness with Ben Sullyam. The fact that now he's proposing
kicking the term limits aside after we just discovered effectively, no one can break his
voting block to keep him in that presidency. And so we're going to have to hear from this
motherfucker for the rest of our lives is kind of what we're what we're dealing with. And there is
the undiable fact like he rarely. It's interesting that the comparison with Godel that he's drawing
is kind of an interesting one. You know, the NFL commissioner is the description I heard of
Godel effectively is that he's a sycophant to owners in the NFL. And that's why they like him.
He's been better than anyone at massaging the egos of the owners and everyone sort of looks at him
as like, oh, he's he's my protege. He's sort of he's sort of approached me for seeking mentorship
for all from all these like various billionaires over the years. And now he's been there long
enough that yeah, he's actually got longer tenure than a lot of that a good number of the of the
owners. But there's also a bit of did Godel transform the sport? I don't know that he did.
It's just like the NFL just keep getting more popular and they kept selling off bits and
pieces of it to to increase the numbers like it's not it's just it's a strange comparison because
like you're not the president of F one. That's also a good point. Yeah. That's a good point.
Governing body of a world motor sport like you enforce the rule. I just his whole thing is
just so weird. Why do you want to? I don't know. And like genuinely, just the interactions with
younger drivers are are deeply odd with this guy that inserting himself into these moments and
then also just being like oddly touchy feely with with drivers in a way that often seems
surprising and someone unwelcome is is also deep. Like here's here's the way I put it.
Any other workplace this guy's before HR by this point. I'm not even kidding. Like any other
workplace is like, hey, we noticed you just been like going around giving people head pads like
pouring water down the back of their their their shirts. You saw that right? I did not see that.
Yeah, no, you ran over grabbed Lando's water after Anthony won in I want to say Miami might have been
yeah, I think it was Miami and just poured water down the back of Anthony's jacket surprising him
and then gave him a little pat and it was weird. Just a weird moment. It's just very strange dynamics
around that guy. But we kind of can't do anything about it because like technically he doesn't work
here. He works for the FIA. But yeah, he's this is a dude who generally seems like when he's good
at one thing, which is a running president of the FIA doesn't seem like the teams like him.
You know, you saw how much juice he had with the Andretti thing where he was like, I've looked
into it and I want to I think Andretti should be part of the sport. And I was like, that's great.
No one gives a shit. And Andretti will come in when we want them to. So he doesn't really have the
juice. I think he's going to try to like pose this return to V8's this perspective
as like his brainchild. But it's something that's been kicked around for years. Yeah, it's, you know,
it's this guy is seems like the sort of narcissist who craves a lot of attention wants to be at the
center of things doesn't seem to have the sort of any sort of special abilities that would enable
to be a possibility for him. But he's found the gig that makes his dream dream come true. He's
going to hang on to that spotlight as long as possible to quote, quiz show, he's going to
you know, to pull him out of that spotlight with his teeth marks still on it.
Yeah, I'm going to leave us here with a quote in this article from Tim Mayer,
who was blocked from opposing Ben Cilliam for the FIA presidency because of the organization's
election rules last year, who told BBC Sport quote, term limits are not a bureaucratic detail.
They're a fundamental safeguard of good governance recognized as essential to preventing the
concentration of power, ensuring renewal of leadership and maintaining accountability
to those an organization exists to serve. Couldn't have said it better myself.
All right, Rob, a couple of quick hits here from you.
Yeah, you know, we talked about this a couple weeks ago that Mercedes was looking at picking
up a significant stake of Alpine as one of the financiers behind Alpine. Atro, which is sort of
a investment vehicle used by a lot of people is selling their stake. Mercedes had made an offer,
but Atro wanted or Atro wanted more than Mercedes, significantly more than Mercedes was offering.
And Mercedes walked away from the table. So that appears to be for all the conversation around
like whether sports should even allow this, whether it was entirely kosher, the idea that
Mercedes would have a sizable minority stake in another F1 team. The deal appears to have
been founded not on the merits of that argument and how governance should work in Formula One.
It just founded on the fact that if one team is worth a lot of money and for whatever reason,
Mercedes does not want to spend that money to acquire that stake. Recession indicator?
Yeah, I mean, we've talked a lot about this. I would still like the conversation to happen.
I hope that this is not like, oh, it's not happening anymore. We can forget about it.
Yeah. Hey, maybe Ben Zilliam focused on something like this instead of trying to keep
your place forever. And then one more hit here, Rob, about Leclerc.
Yeah. So he remains Ferrari's driver of the past and future. So the word is here from
from the race, from John Noble writing over there, is that he is committed to a new contract with
Ferrari that is expected to keep him, quoting directly, expected to keep him there beyond 2030.
Details, these things are obviously kept fairly confidential, but once again,
seems like another long-term contract for him. However, I do wonder if it is one of those things
where in football, for instance, they will sign these contracts that are like ridiculous
top-line figures and how long the contract is. But all that really matters is the guarantees
in the contract. In American football, we signed this quarterback for eight years,
$800 million, something like that. And it's like, well, what you've guaranteed him is three years at
like $80 million a year. And that's really the contract. The rest of this is options that people
can pick up, but they almost never are. I think the equivalent of that in Formula One is just
left some outs to consider whether or not they want to actually keep him deep into 2030s
versus just see out this decade. Yeah, and it's usually, well, from what I gather,
it's often around performance. That's why you'll always hear like,
Leclerc signed a multi-year contract instead of a five-year contract. Sometimes you do get hard
numbers. I think actually with Leclerc is the one that he's extending. And Verstappen,
I think they actually put a number on it. But something like this, yeah, I imagine will be like
up to here, contingent on performance. If you can continue to finish ahead of your,
not be outqualified by your teammate by this percentage, I'm not sure how the language
actually goes. But yeah, I mean, he had always wanted to be a Ferrari driver. He seems like he's
doing great there, especially. I think his stock has probably gone up with being compared with
Louis Hamilton, seven-time world champion as his teammate. And I like him. I think that'll
be nice to have him around for longer. Yeah. And as we know, being a Ferrari driver is not
an easy thing. And so the fact that they found someone who can kind of wear that pretty lightly
is benefit. You don't throw that away lightly. Yeah. And Hamilton was out there, we didn't
touch on this. Yeah. But yeah, saying that like, no, I'm not retiring soon or anything.
I'm sticking around. Which was kind of weird. I don't know where the, I sort of missed the part
in the news cycle where the rumors started. But I think someone just asked him like, I think he,
I don't know that it was anything more meaty than someone just like, like a casual question.
But it was, it was interesting to me that he answered directly like, nope, I'm
going to be here for many years or planning to. I hope, I hope we don't get, how to say this,
I don't want to see Louis Hamilton racing at the back of a grid. I don't want a Fernando Alonso
outcome for him. And there's a degree you kind of can't. Like, I think in Parison is almost like
like a LeBron James type figure. Where LeBron is at in terms of his career right now,
he's still a very, very good player. He would be better served. He wanted to be competing for
championships by having a significantly like smaller contract, not LeBron James scale, right?
To go play somewhere else at a rate that was more commensurate with what he actually can
contribute like right now on the court. That's never going to happen because he's LeBron James.
And so you're kind of trapped by this because like you're too big a name and you're too good
to go and actually like, you know, actually go and take the hit for the sake of like competing
somewhere or like building a team toward championship run, you kind of can only operate
at a level of like fairly high prestige and compensation. But the market for you may be
shrinking at that point in your career because you're like, you're no longer young and you're
maybe no longer the greatest. And so that's kind of like, what are you? And then Hamilton's kind
of in that boat as well, where he's still very, very good and we don't know how good because
the car has been a little less competitive, but you know, he's sort of been beaten by his
last two teammates now in two different cars like Russell and LeClaire have both, you know,
handled him fairly easily. So, you know, he's maybe no longer at the top step of F1, but you
can't, I struggle to imagine a Hamilton showing up at Williams and being like, I'm just so excited
to be part of this great brand and behind part of Williams story and taking them back to the
front of the grid. I just don't think you can do that. I don't even be like, yeah, I'm going to,
I'm going to Aston to work with, I always wanted to work with Adrian Newey and I want to take this,
I just, I don't think you can do it. So I think he's kind of in a, in a pickle where I think
he could probably race for a good many years. I'm not sure he is willing to let himself suffer the
indignities that Fernando Alonso just has no sensitivity for, right? The Fernando Alonso,
I think Fernando Alonso passed through, he lost his capacity to be humiliated during that last
McLaren stint and now he's just a man living without shame. Like he could just, he might as
well just walk around naked all the time. That is how free he is. Yeah. All right. Let's take a
quick break here and then Rob, maybe we can talk a little IndyCar before jumping over to Monaco.
Hell yeah. IndyCar Rob, let's talk about it. It's been a good year. It's, we're having a lot of fun
over there. It is, let's see, did you know, for instance, we had our closest finish in IndyCar
history at an Indianapolis 500? I heard that. I've not yet watched the 30 minute highlights
on their YouTube channel, but I'd like to. Yeah. It was, it was one of the wildest.
I think maybe there've been, I think maybe the only one that is maybe more exciting was like,
it wasn't the closest finish because they touched and Alonso Jr. went out, but like him
going side by side with Emerson Fittipaldi was like legendary, but this was a, the thing that's
so much about Indianapolis is it's a pretty long, it's a long oval. You know, it's, it's like two
and a half miles. And so that lap takes a surprisingly long time for them to go around
and you get a lot of business done on that last lap and having it come off a restart with
Felix Rosenquist in third and Chicago's own David Maluchus clinging to first. And then,
I think it was a Patricio award in the, in the middle, it was pure white knuckle racing for
that last lap. And it required like a double overtake and award did not give up without a fight.
So you, you just had like ridiculous that entire last lap Rosenquist just being like
within inches of other drivers and then need to make this final lunge toward Maluchus who starts,
they, I think Eddie Carlson lucked out because it was one of those things where
Maluchus, who isn't a rookie, but he's still very young in his career. He's still very early.
I think it was Rosenquist by that measure somewhat, but Maluchus is pretty young.
He started blocking. And to me, I think you would have looked at it and you would have been like,
I, this is not like the, like the, the stewards, they do something. You can't be doing this.
And he was doing it on the final straight leading to the line. And if he'd won, I think IndyCar
might have had a real nasty situation where you're trying to adjudicate like, do you just
let anything go on the last lap of the Indy 500 or are you going to take a win away from somebody
because they were blocking because it was, it was like, it was, I think over the, over the border
of, of good racing conduct, but instead, yeah, he won by like 18, like hundreds of, of a second.
So it was, was really something, something there. And then, you know,
we had a great Detroit GP and the one thing that's been really interesting in IndyCar,
and it reminds me of dilemmas we sometimes see in, in F1 is at the Indianapolis Grand Prix,
they had an incident where a driver got stranded on the main straight. The Indy, the Indy GP is the
one where they raced the infield, the old F1 circuit basically. A driver got stranded. It was
and so you had drivers coming down, coming off the banking at speed and then like basically
letting off the gas as they go down the straight, but like not that much. They're still like
rocketing past like 100, 120 miles per hour and then continue on racing at full pace. And
everyone was like, this is nuts. Like you cannot, you have a driver in a stopped car and you have
letting them basically just, hey, don't floor it past him, but beyond that, like you're good.
He like Rossi was pissed when he got out. And in response to that, since then,
and it feels almost passive aggressive, but we've sometimes seen like corrections like this in F1
too. The reaction was so strong from fans and other drivers, like you cannot leave a driver
stranded in a situation like that, you have to throw the full course caution that now
Indy is throwing full course cautions for everything. Like I did a driver spin and then
drive away. That my friends is a safety car. Like they are, they are bringing the safety car
out the top of the time and it almost feels like, I probably shouldn't read it this way,
but Drew, it feels so much like malicious compliance. Like somebody, like somebody got
yelled at and was like, Oh, Oh, you want the safety car out? Whatever. So, okay. Yeah, you know
what? You'll get your safety cars. So in the middle of like a really exciting season of Indy car,
Alex Polo doesn't look quite as dominant as usually, still looks pretty dominant,
but you're also having this drama with races being really like sort of cast in the chaos by
race control being like, that looks like a winglet on the track. Get that safety car out there.
Wow. Never a dull moment in Indy car. That's, that's great. I'm still going to watch that,
those highlights. Hang on. I have to, somebody is sawing something. I need to close that window
real quick because it's driving me nuts. All right, Rob. Well, as we head to Monaco here,
we're going to get to the track walk. But first I wanted to let everyone know there are some
rule changes as, as pertain to the new 2026 power unit stuff that we've got this year.
The short mode or the short mode, the short version is we've got no straight mode
for Monaco, all corners, oops, all corners. And the battery power is now going to start
tapering at lower speeds. So that's a lot. Basically, I'll take them one at a time.
The corner mode, we won't have the back wings or the front wings, also opening straight to give
the cars less drag. The FIA has some criteria that it applies to all tracks where, when it decides
where straight mode can be deployed. And they don't want it happening in areas where the cars
are searching for grip. And in Monaco, this is almost always happening because there's
always another corner coming up. You're either cornering or you're accelerating out of a corner
or you're braking before a corner. So the other thing is that it's, it sounds like from
this article on the race, which, which I can link that it takes about three seconds for any benefit
of straight mode to be felt by the car. And for that reason, another criterion is that
if you have a straight mode, it must last for at least three seconds. And there's just not space
for that to happen in Monaco and still be compliant with this, this grip stuff. So
it's a safety thing. It's sort of a sporting thing. So you won't see any active aerodynamics
happening at Monaco. Overtake mode, though, remains, but with that tweak that I mentioned. So
just to kind of recap here, this season in a regular race, that's not Monaco,
you don't get full benefit of your battery all the time, whether you're in overtake mode or not.
The battery will start to the battery, like the delivery of the power that you get will start to
taper at higher speeds. The race also has a good graph to see this visually that we'll put in the
show notes. But without overtake mode, once you hit 310 kilometers an hour, the battery starts
contributing less until you hit about 345 at what point, at which point it's giving you nothing.
It's just internal combustion. With overtake mode, the tapering starts
later, around 340 kilometers per hour and then tapers to nothing around 355. In Monaco,
the tapering for both starts way earlier and at the same point, 200 kilometers per hour.
The overtake mode's taper, though, just is shallower, so it will end. It's so strange that
I'm having to describe this, but this is where we're at. It really helps to see it visually. So
again, take a look at that in the show notes. But yeah, long story short, no straight mode,
it's all corners, and overtake will happen, but it's just been tweaked for the Monaco circuit.
Any thoughts on that, Rob?
That's more than I want to track.
Yeah, and it feels a little more, it feels like a new meeting old, right? We've always had to
adapt these cars. There's that tightest turn on the calendar. They have to change the steering
lock. They have to change the steering. I love seeing their on-boards when they're taking this
because they have to cross their hands over until they're driving with just one arm,
because they have to crank the steering wheel over so far. Everyone runs like the Monaco wing,
right? So yeah, but this just feels like even more than that.
Yeah, it's all of a piece, but it still, it does drive home, again, how mediated just like
car performance is through the rules and regulations with the spec in particular.
It's kind of a weird thing, but I'm curious if any of that's going to be palpable during the
race weekend. Yeah, I mean, again, I'm hoping you think it will. No, I bet you won't be,
because like this is ever going to be laboring under the same restrictions. They've just sort of
tweaked the performance envelope for these cars a little bit, and I'm just going to be
operating within them. It'll look pretty normal. Yeah, I'm hoping that, like I said before,
when we were, I think, first talking about this kind of, this new paradigm is that I,
and it felt this way to me that it, that I was hoping that it would become transparent,
that we really wouldn't think about it all that much. And to some degree, I think
that happened in the, for me at least, in the Canadian Grand Prix. I kind of knew, you know,
it helps to know that that system is underlying everything, but I'm not like, I wasn't like
worrying about it constantly. I was just kind of able to sit back and enjoy that battle that
Russell and Anthony nearly had without thinking about like, well, what, now what does his battery
look like? It was more like, okay, I understand that they're managing this stuff and can use
it tactically. Let's see how they do. I don't know. Yeah, Monaco is always a strange case,
but we'll, we'll see how it goes. You want to talk us through the track itself, Rob?
Yeah. Speed, like there's a lot of reasons it's a strange case. This is sort of
arguably the last of the truly old school races going back to 1929. I mean, I guess it's Monaco
and Indianapolis, really, are the races that are like, they've been racing cars here for,
for a hundred years and Monaco predates F1 by a good long while. They had their first race there
in 1929. They've been on the F1 calendar since F1 was incepted in 1955, but effectively there's
continuity for the Monaco Grand Prix going back to 1950. So again, like F1's been there. Like,
in a lot of ways. And that is kind of why Monaco is still here, despite being a track that you
would never, you would never run a street circuit here if you were starting from a blank slate,
because it is such a narrow, tightly packed, tightly packed circuit that overtaking has
effectively been impossible for, for decades. Like you go back, you hear people talking back in the
19, hell, I think if you, I think in the opening of the John Frank and I movie, movie Grand Prix,
I am pretty sure one of the characters is talking about the fact that effectively there's no passing
at this course. And that's in that's with the cars they're running in the 19, in the 1960s. And so
like overtaking has always been tricky here. And there's been a few reasons for that. It is a
narrow, twisting strip of city roads by the Monaco Harbor. And, you know, if you know the
Monaco geography at all, first of all, politically, like Monaco is its own country, a sort of tax
shots are given sovereignty. But it is all packed into it's packed into this like
cliffside basically on the Cote d'Igere. And so what you have is the lower half of the the circuit
is sea level, the harbor side of the circuit. And then you have uphill, you have the, you know,
the, the park that's up the bluff in the city. And so the whole thing is, is really squeezed
together as a follows the line of the of the harbor. And to make it all work, you just have
the absolute tightest and trickiest corners on the calendar. And then there's no runoff anywhere.
There's there's a bit of space to get things wrong at turn one, Sandoval. And if you if,
you know, if you're watching this weekend, if you're going to see action, it's probably going
to be turn one, Sandoval, because you can bail out of a move and probably not destroy your car
because the is a sharp right hander. There is some runoff area to the left. So you can,
you can afford to make a mistake there. Not much though, because we've seen some drivers adopt
that adopt that logic, have pretty harrowing accidents at turn one. The real danger is we
saw a couple of years ago with, I think it was Hulkenberg was people fighting out of turn one
up the, we call them straights. Nothing is truly straight in, in Monaco. After turn one,
you have the Bo Ravage straight, but it's kind of a, there's several bends in it as you, as you
race uphill, it tapers as you run uphill, heading to turn three and the casino square.
And so any sort of contact here, you're going to basically block the entire roadway, which was
what happened a few years ago where you had like multiple cars just completely come apart there.
And then, you know, past the casino square, one of the other iconic corners on the F1 calendar,
the, the hairpin at the, at the hotel, the road drops sharply down toward a ridiculously tight
hairpin that then kicks you out leading to Mirabeau and the, the run to the harbor through,
down through the tunnel. The tunnel puts you out by the water's edge. They added a chicane there
to slow things down before you, before you approach Tabak and you add to probably the most
exciting and, and tricky as part of the corner. The, the run into the, the third sector is super
fast, super tight and really features probably the, the nastiest corner on the F1 calendar,
rest casts, which is not quite, not, if you look at it, if you look at a circuit map,
it doesn't look as dramatic as the, as the hairpin at the hotel, but the line you have to take
means that you have to have all through the sector three, but especially here,
drivers will have their wheels, especially the rear wheels, brushing the guard rails,
just as a matter of course, as they whip past us. And if you get rest casts a little bit wrong,
it will, like drivers have talked about it, it's feeling like the, the guard rail
jumps out and grabs your car. And it will just like rip the back suspension apart.
And so usually it feels like once a year in qualifying, somebody gets it wrong in sector three
and often the payoff comes at rest casts before you make the, make the turn back to the star
finish straight. But there's so many places to have it go wrong and catastrophically so here
that it is a race where effectively where you qualify will be close to where you finish barring
pit stop cycle chaos and weather. So that is, I think in previous years, we've been pretty
down on this race because it isn't the most dynamic, but we have a few interesting races
there in the last like five years. The experiment with some rule changes last year that backfired
horribly and they've largely, I think abandoned, but they mandated two pit stops last year,
if I recall correctly, and that is no longer the case, just to try to, you know,
mix things up a little more and it did not. It was a really interesting example of like you think
that well, the pit strategy is where things get interesting. So we'll make, we'll force more
pit interactions, but what they effectively did was they created the same strategy for everyone
and removed any sort of variance in how the race could play out. And so it made for an abysmal
Monaco GP. So, you know, getting away from that has been, has been the right move. The last thing
I know is a very odd pits here as well. You effectively, what is it? The pits are effectively
like below the level of the raceway, right? You sort of drive up into it. Yes. Yeah. Again,
very tight, very congested and very, very, very high stakes. These pit stops because the race
lives and dies there. Lots of, you know, lots of iconic moments here usually associate with crashes.
This is where he had Senna experiencing his out of body experience and just pushing the car.
It's also a circuit that was sort of the origin story of the Senna legend, right? When he was
driving for a back marker team and started making multiple overtakes in the rain, which
nobody thought you could do here, but he found a way. So, you know, the race has its moments,
but I think really in the modern era, it's mostly memorable for, you know, the Schumacher era,
him doing things like parking the car in the hairpin. Oops, I had a mechanical issue and not
allowing it to be qualifying to finish. So, it's mostly people like whipping their steering wheels
into traffic just in the fury. So, not a ton of like dynamic racing moments per se here at Monaco,
but a lot of moments that are just memorable for infamy is the way I put it.
I think I have found enjoyment from Monaco once I corrected mentally for how static it can be.
So, I tend to actually enjoy watching this race, but it is more of a slow burn.
And I don't know, it's a mental battle that we all have to go through, but I personally have
rated, let's see, the past two races I rated it a two out of four, but the races before that I rated
it a three out of four. So, yeah, it looks like 2022 was a wet start. Speaking of the weather,
there's no rain, don't worry. Zero percent chance, maybe climbing to five percent on race day.
Just balmy temps though, looking like 72, gosh, it's perfect over there in Monaco land.
That could have been you.
It could have been me, Rob. I know a number of, it's not just the listeners who bought my tickets
are going, I think a few others are as well, so please write in with how it goes.
Oh, yes, and the form book, as you mentioned, Rob, qualifying matters a lot. So, if you're not
someone who tends to watch qualifying, I would say if you're gonna pick one, maybe watch qualifying
this weekend. But yeah, in my stats here, and I have data in the past, this is from 2019 to 2025,
by the way, I'm analyzing recent form. The qualifying and the race median statistics
look very similar for the drivers, but overall, statistically, at least in the past few years,
Max Verstappen, this is not one of his better tracks. It is a good track for Pierre Gasly
and Esteban Ocan and Alex Albin, interestingly. A bottom five track for Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll,
and that's it. Overall, team-wise, Ferrari has tended to do better here than Red Bull,
then Mercedes, and then McLaren. Racing Bulls, though, they tend to punch above their weight at
Monaco. Last five winners, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen,
so decent mix. I don't know that Perez is really in the cards for this one.
All right, well, heading into the Monaco weekend, let's run down the driver standings here.
Kimmy Antonelli is on top with 131 points ahead of his teammate, George Russell, with 88 points.
Charles Leclerc is in third with 75, Lewis Hamilton in fourth with 72. Lando Norris,
the first of the McLaren's, in fifth with 58 points. Oscar Pastry in sixth with 48. Max Verstappen
is in seventh with 43 points. And then Pierre Gasly in eighth with 20. Oliver Bearman is in ninth
with 18 points, followed by Liam Lawson in tenth with 16. Then we've got Franco Colopinto with 15.
Isaac Hachar with 14. Carlos Sines with six. Arvid Lindblad with five. And Gabrielle Bortoletto
in 15th with two. Esteban O'Connor and Alex Albon both have one point. And then we've got
Hockenberg, Botas, Perez, Stroll, and Alonzo with no points. In the team standings, Mercedes is on
top with 219 points. Two Ferraris, 147. McLaren is in third with 106. Then Red Bull in fourth with
57. Alpine is in fifth with 35. Then Racing Bowls with 21. Jean Hassan team in seventh with 19.
Williams is in eighth with seven points. Audi is in ninth with two. And then Cadillac and Aston
Martin with zero. All right. If you'd like to join standings yourself, you can do so using the link
in the show notes to join our official Shift F1 fantasy league. You can also send us an email
shiftf1podcast or gmail.com or f1.cool slash emails. Rob, what do we have in email land this week?
Yeah, our first email comes from, oh, I didn't get the name. Hang on, let me go back to the
folder here and just pull that up real quick. Okay, Andrew. Our first email comes from Andrew.
For a while, I lived in San Antonio, so I had the ability to go see several races at Cota.
I definitely feel what Rob was saying about how there's always a feeling you didn't spend enough
money for the first few years. I got general admission and always had a great time. Then I
decided to splurge and get a grandstand seat. I went to an IMSA race, which was pretty much a
free for all as far as seating went. So I checked out various grandstands to see where I could get
the best experience for what I could afford. I finally settled on the grandstands around
turns three to five. I realized if I sat high up enough, I could see all the way over to turns
12 and 15, I bought my ticket for F1 and couldn't wait. When I finally got to the F1 race, I got
to my seat and realized that I'm behind a railing that is exactly at eye height and it obstructs
the actual track. Then I looked over towards turn 1215 and see that for F1 they have constructed a
two-story tall hospitality tent for rich people that completely blocks those turns. Add on to the
fact these seats were just medical bleachers and I was crammed into a bunch of people so I couldn't
really relax. It was very uncomfortable and worse than general admission. I eventually gave up and
just walked to a general admission area and sat on the grass where I could at least stretch out a bit.
When going to F1 races after that, I stuck to general admission only and sat at turn 19,
which was pretty great and even had a view of turn one. I wouldn't be surprised if they were
trying to find a way to obstruct that too. I think it's going to be the the story of all
F1 races. The margins are so good on constructing these hospitality areas and making it feel like
you're getting something special for a ridiculous amount of money. I was really surprised that
agreed to which just plunking those buildings in. Their dimensions do not show up on the circuit
maps. It's interesting what they do when I was looking at the seats we had for Miami. They show
you what your view is. It's like, yeah, it doesn't look bad, but it's not like I feel like sometimes
if you're looking at what your seats look like, if you're buying tickets to the sports stadium
or a basketball arena, you can see a panoramic. Here's all you can see from your view. Here's
what it looks like. You'll all be looking around at sitting in your seat. With F1, it was just like,
here's what is directly ahead of you. What that's not going to show you is if you turn your head
just like 20 degrees to the right, you're just staring at the lip of a tent that's blocking the
view. I think it feels like an issue that's going to be cropping up at a lot of different races.
Maybe it's going to be worse that the things like Miami that are super expensive like prestige
events, but I do think they may run into a problem where I guess it depends. Some people may be
motivated to go and splurge extra to try to like, okay, well, general mission or my grandstand
seating kind of sucked, but boy, those seats over there looked really good. So I'll spend
eight grand to have them, but I don't know. I do wonder to what degree you're actually going to be
discouraging where people are attending races at all. It's a real mixed experience when you
sort of get there and it's like, I kind of can't see anything and this is inconvenient at best.
Yeah, I do think that's maybe a feature that they want. I will say a way to not eliminate this,
but to help your chances a bit is to, if you're looking for where to sit at a race,
YouTube is your friend. I would just type in, you know, F1 grandstand seven,
circuit of the Americas, right? And then someone will, well, you hope someone has posted a video
of what the view actually looked like at an F1 event. Now, they could, F1 could still change
things about, you know, sight lines or whatever. But I think that like to Andrew's point, it looked
way different from the IMSA race versus the F1 race. So if you can actually find a YouTube clip
of an F1 race, that might give you a better indication. Also, for security Americas, I was
looking up where Danny and I sat and we went in 2016 and it was near turn 16. There's a grandstand
that's kind of looking at that 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 complex where they're kind of, it's not a chicane,
but they're kind of zigzagging in front of you and they're, to get there, they're coming down a
straight. So you can kind of see them at the end of the straight and then watch them navigate that
complex. That was a pretty cool spot, you know, if you're in the market for tickets again, Andrew,
or anyone else wanting to go to Circuit of the Americas. All right, should I take this next one
around? Zach in Savage Minnesota says, just a question I had about who picks the comms messages
that play during the broadcast is that Formula One management, Liberty Media, the FIA, the reason I
ask, and this is just kind of a feeling I get over the past few years, especially is that the
messages that seem, that play seem to almost fit into a larger narrative or at least compound the
perception of a driver. I don't think this is part of some larger insidious plot by anyone, but
maybe just the narrative, sorry, maybe just the broadcast wanting to lean into things a little
bit. When Pia Estri was dominating last year and the narrative was he was an unflappable iceman,
the comments that played always seemed to be him downplaying something which the commentators
could then immediately point to. Again, not negative, but it felt cherry-picked. When the idea
started up that George complained on the radio or lobbied a bit too much, we'd only get audio of
his woe is me moments or track limits, even though every single driver was constantly doing that.
Last year, when Lewis was in the dumps, they'd always find quotes of him bewildered or downtrodden.
I could go on, I don't know if anyone else has examples they can think of, but if you listen
to a race with comms audio, the things they play on air are a very small percentage of race
conversations and sometimes audio is played from many laps earlier. So yeah, does anyone
agree? And if so, who is making those calls and what do you think some of the motivations are?
Yeah, I think you've kind of nailed it here, Zach. It's my understanding. I wish I could remember.
We talked about, there was some video that someone shot describing all of this,
or maybe it was an article. This was like last year, I think sometime. I have to go look and
scour the past episode show notes, but they have, I think, multiple people listening to team radio
and then they'll kind of flag for the show, the broadcast producer, like, hey, we've got
a potentially good clip here and then they'll play it. And they've only got a certain window of
time to trim it out and put it through. It's something crazy. It's like six seconds or something.
So they're trying to get it out as fast as possible, but yeah, you do inevitably have
some kind of a delay there. It's not like, is it any car that they just open the comms and
you're just listening to it live? It's not like that. So you do, that's worth recognizing when
you're watching because what they're saying is not directly what is happening on screen.
But in terms of cherry picking, I think that's just a consequence of,
was two things happening. One, the director is trying to pick
things that they think the audience will be wanting to hear and or is relevant to what's
happening in the race. But by definition, you are getting a very small slice of what that
driver is saying and what all drivers are saying. If you played anyone's messages,
you might get the sense that they are complainers because they have to relay
everything that they're feeling back to the pit wall. And so what sounds like a quote unquote
complaint might just be seen from another perspective feedback. So I think there is an
inevitable distortion effect that happens when you do this. But I do think that there is pressure
to cherry pick stuff that does fit into an existing narrative.
Yeah, I think that mostly covers it. I think we've heard drivers talk about this,
where they feel like they're getting done dirty a little bit by some of the radio messages that
are selected for broadcast. The thing I would say is the drivers of some of them speak about it in
terms of agenda, where it feels like they feel this way more about drive to survive, which
is basically reality TV, where the drivers are aware that they're being put in the service
of narratives and that someone really pisses them off. But with the FOM thing, I think the other
thing that I can't stress enough, I don't do as much journalism now as I was doing like 10 years
ago. But the thing I can't stress enough for everyone is how powerful confirmation bias is.
And the minute you know a space at all, you sort of have your perspective on what's going on there.
And it gets really hard then to sort of leave that behind and look at it with fresh eyes.
Maybe some people can do it. But for the most part, I think people tend to think
I have a good lens that I apply to the subject. I know it well. And so I sort of know what the
personalities are, what the dynamics are in the space. And therefore, as you're listening to all
these radio messages coming through, you're going to flag stuff that sort of fits and illustrates
things that you already believe. You're like, Oh, this is an important bit because it really
shows like so and so is having trouble with their engineer or is clearly there's a broken dynamic
there between them and the pit wall. And if you've reached that conclusion, it's not even
necessary. You won't think of it as like I'm pushing an agenda. You won't think of it where it's
like a wrestling shoot where you are creating a storyline is so easy. If you're doing a job
like that, because this is similar to how you deal with like interview transcripts. I would come
out of interviews and I'd be like, Wow, like that's great. I got everything I wanted needed.
That's that's perfect. And what I remember is like, you know, maybe a half dozen times interview
that like totally backed up everything that what I was saying. And I'd be sitting there doing the
transcript and like, Whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. This is actually more complicated. And the person
gave me I'm actually, I was a little bit wrong actually in there. There's some major contradictions
now between what I believe and what they're saying. But that's me sitting there doing a full
transcript hours or days later. Doing this in the race, you're just going to have that instinct
of like, Yep, hey, there's that thing, the thing I was watching for, there it is, I'll throw it
up there and that'll be helpful to people watching. And I just suspect they're guilty of it as as
anyone. I do think if they have an agenda, it probably is to make things a little spicier,
to grab things that sound interesting and get shed a little more human emotion into those
moments, they're going to be going for like higher stress and more fractious moments.
Yeah, there's another phenomenon that I have noticed a lot is that particularly at the end of a race,
you will get messages of the driver in the lead, or maybe no matter where he is for Stappen,
talking about some issue with the car. And this I think, you know, when it was Hamilton,
often in the lead, this is the broadcast, trying to introduce some drama, like Hamilton's talking
about his tires going off or, you know, there's something weird's going on with the shifts.
And I think when the director is playing that, they are trying to introduce drama to a race
where Hamilton's running away at the front, right? Oh, keep watching because this might develop into
something worse, or they someone might come up and catch him. And then the like a related
consequence of that is that now Hamilton seems to the audience to be a complainer. When again,
or like he's he's trying to get in the minds of all the other drivers to say that his tires are
dead. Well, maybe maybe he is. But also, like I said, they are constantly relaying feedback to the
team. When you snip a part of that out and played at a certain time, it just it takes on a little more
a different character. So great question, though. It's something I think about a lot as we as we
watch these these races. Rob, next one for you. Yeah, Jimmy here with a real morbid one. I don't
want to derail the podcast into horrible traffic stories, but hearing about the classes showing
horrific traffic accidents for the Swiss license training reminded me of my time in the 82nd
Airborne in the early 2000s. Automobile fatalities were such a problem with the division that the
division safety officer a full time civilian employee would conduct mandatory classes that
showed uncensored photos of soldiers who had died in car accidents. To incentivize good driving
behavior, the whole division would get a day off if the entire division of 15,000 or so soldiers
went 82 days without a car crash fatality. In my five years in the 82nd, 30 months of 30 months
at home not deployed. I can only remember getting four or five of these extra days off. There was
a billboard on the side of the road when leaving base that showed the counter of how many days
since the last fatality. One day you see 70 days since the last out of fatality and the next
one day since the last out of fatality. The one time we hit 164 days without a fatality,
two days off was 13 quarters. The division was deployed overseas. Wow. I feel like that.
Do you think that's just, sorry, maybe you're going to say the same thing I was. Go ahead.
No, go for it. Do you think that's just a, if you take 15,000 people, do you think that's just
what happens? No. I think it's when you take 15,000 military-age people. And I think actually
the demographics get worse. I don't know in the 2000s how many women would have been in the 82nd,
but my suspicion is you take 15,000 military-age young men. You're going to have a
death per thousand that is just off the charts bad compared to general populace.
Likewise, I think if you subtract young drivers from the pool of drivers,
like driving is a way less lethal task than it looks statistically because it disproportionately
affects young people who are making bad decisions behind there. And I think it probably does get
a little more skewed where it's like, now you've got 15,000 young people who chose to be fucking
paratroopers. You've got 15,000 people who self-selected to be like jumping out of a plane
into combat. Yeah, sign me up for that. And so do I think that probably tracks with a whole lot of
like thrill-seeking behavior and like a little bit of borderline, like adrenaline addiction?
I think that might be part of it. And it's the mid-2000s, so you got a lot of people who are
seeing active combat in this era. So, you know, there's probably some mood dysregulation happening
as a consequence of that. And that makes you drive like an asshole sometimes. So I think
it's like a perfect storm of like, if there's a group of people who are going to be dropping
like flies behind the wheel, it's going to be a unit like the 82nd, especially if it's like
during a time of active combat deployment. But it reminds me though of, I don't know if it's
as bad, but for a while, University of Georgia was having a problem with, I think this problem is
still ongoing, that there's like a wild street racing scene down in Georgia and people just like
getting in high speed street races. And like, nobody can quite stop it. And obviously, you know,
cops aren't going like, I think for the most part, people are not going, nor should they be,
pursuing people through high speeds, like street races. So you kind of can't just like go chasing
after them. But like, there was a period where it felt like every year, a couple players from the
University of Georgia football team, like famously, like right after the championship win, a bunch of
players like were killed in a car accident, like just reckless driving. And so I do think there's
just an element of like giving people age 18 to 20 to 25. I mean, there's a reason they won't rent
cars to people in that age group. It's just, it's not a good proposition.
Yeah. All right, should I take this next one? Yep.
Botas, not botas, not last, surprisingly difficult to say, writes last weekend was a complete wash
out in the Mid-Atlantic. And though some bad parentheses, good luck, we canceled our beach
weekend and needed a backup plan quick. Voila, the Montreal forecast was a little better and
tickets on stub hub seemed less than they had been for the past many months. We packed the kids and
drove up from Philly Friday evening to an Airbnb near the Berry UQAM metro station,
which connects directly to the entrance number one of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
There was an incredible amount of foot traffic, but it was efficient and we were able to get to
our seats in the quote family section at turn six in about 90 minutes. Sunday, it would take us
105 minutes to get to the Alpine fan section across from the Alpine and Audi garages just behind
the 22nd grid spot. CGV, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was so beautiful, like an arm,
arbore, arboretum. I've never pronounced that word before. Lots of gardens, looming trees and
water, festival style vendors dotted the trails with a variety of local and international selections.
Euros, burgers, tacos, pizza and so much poutine. My son 10 and daughter 11
and I did the pit stop challenge in less than six seconds. Nice.
Three stars race day. Really unique was the gassy and calipinto shirt cannon event. The pit crew
had tested them in advance and it was clear one cannon wasn't working so that's apparently the
one they gave to call a pinto. He misfired it so many times it was windy enough that he couldn't
get it over the fence. So he then tried throwing some hats over the fence. You were through a frisbee,
a little wild upward and it basically comes right back to you. That's what he and Gasly did
for a few minutes. They looked like ballerinas then they gave up. This was our first F1 trip
and we're already trying to figure out how to go to another question. What are the top three
circuits on your bucket list? Ours are Austria, Spa and Silverstone. Those are good ones.
Austria I think has consistently been an exciting race that happens and I'm attracted by the fact
that it looks like it sits in a little bowl so you'd be able to see a lot of the track. Spa,
the opposite. You can't see very much because it's so large and the racing hasn't been that great
but it's out in the middle of nowhere and seems like a great festival vibe. Everyone is there
together to watch one thing. It's such a historic track. Silverstone seems like kind of a mix of
both. Probably a good race and a really historic venue personally. I think Japan would be really
fun to see. The race is typically, again, not that exciting but I would just love to go to a
race in Japan. What about you, Rob? I think Spa is definitely there with the same caveats. Do I
expect that race would be a great spectator experience? Probably not but just being there
I think would be magical. I think Austria is such a good pool. It's consistently a good race and then
the views look amazing and just being up there in the mountains sounds awesome. That seems like
one that would be a lot of fun. I think for me it's not a classic per se but every time I look
at Baku, I'm just like, this looks exquisite. That city is gorgeous. It kind of looks like
exciting Monaco, right? When they're racing through the street down the streets in sector one
and you got the balcony, the little Juliet balconies that are open and people leaning out
watching from those, it looks magical. It looks absolutely awesome. I think for me that's
low-key one where it's like every year I see that race, I'm like, that looks like a fun one to attend.
City looks cool and then it seems like it should be possible to have a really magical
racing experience somewhere on that circuit. I think the other one I throw in is I would
love to sit in the old baseball stadium of the Mexico City Grand Prix. I think that would be
pretty cool. You want to take this last one, Rob? Yeah, Patrick writes, sitting in the shop waiting
for my car and I saw they had a stack of Avans quarterly issues. Had never seen these before
but they feature stunning photos and some great stories. Figured I'd share in case you hadn't
heard of these before. Seems like they might be incredibly Rob's shit. These do look like they
are incredibly my shit. Just a lifestyle mag of cool cars and beautiful photography.
Hell yeah, sign me up. Okay, maybe we can find something to put in the show notes there.
And if you aren't following Rob on Blue Sky, it's mostly bring a trailer, links.
That's true.
You can follow us elsewhere on the socials using the link in the show notes. You can also hit us
up via email shift at shift of one podcast G1.com or fn.cool slash emails that is us around the
internet. Oh my god, that is us around the internet. It's time to take it around the world. The Isle
of Man TT, speaking of dangerous driving, is happening this week. This is now race week.
We've got the MotoGP Hungary round in Batalon Park. Formula 2 and Formula 3 will both be supporting
Formula 1 this weekend in Monaco. We've got the Craftsman Trucks at the Michigan International
Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan for the DQS Solutions and Staffing 250 powered by Precision
Vehicle Logistics. Almost ran out of breath there. Motocross Grand Prix of Latvia is in
Rimbottes, Pagats, Pagasts.
We're just crashing and burning on this one. Yeah, I got nothing for Latvia.
The NHRA is in Epping, New Hampshire for the New England Nationals at the New England Dragway.
IndyCar is at the Worldwide Technology Raceway in Madison, IL for the
Balmaurito Automotive Group 500. And we've got NASCAR also at the Michigan International Speedway
for the Fire Keepers Casino 400. Keep that fire, but not your money. And for me the one,
maybe you've heard of it, it's happening this weekend. Friday, June 5th, Free Practice 1 kicks
off at 7.30 a.m. Eastern Time followed by Free Practice 2 at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 6th, Free
Practice 3 is at 6.30 a.m. followed by qualifying at 10 a.m. Eastern, but the race every Sunday,
June 7th, 9 a.m. Eastern Time on your Apple TVs. Or wherever. However, F1, maybe we should
re-mention this again. You have to sign up for, if you're in America, you have to sign up for
Apple TV to watch Formula One, but you can tie your Apple TV accounts to an F1 TV account and
then use the F1 TV app to watch the races. And that is how I do it and that's how I'd recommend
doing it. Just a lot easier. Nice for interface. All right, that is the Monaco Pre-Race.
Danny did not send us a photograph of his book, so we don't have that. But we will, I believe,
see him next week, right? I wonder if he brought his book on his trip. Final thoughts
ahead of Monaco, Rob. I had a really good thought a while ago, but it's gone now. I was like,
I better save this for the end of the show. And it has escaped me completely. Now I'm buying time,
trying to recover it, but it's gone. It's gone. Just hoping for a good race. That's all I got.
Yeah. All right, well, if you'd like to support the show and get access to all of our bonus
episodes, the early app reversion of the podcast and the official Shift F1 Discord, you can do so
over at patreon.com slash Shift F1. Have a good race week and everyone. We will see you all next week.
About this episode
Monaco GP prerace coverage kicks off with why the circuit is such an outlier: “overtaking has effectively been impossible for, for decades,” runoff is scarce, and qualifying often lines up with the finish. The hosts then zoom into 2026 power-unit deployment—“we've got no straight mode for Monaco, all corners”—and how overtake-mode tapering and steering-lock changes reshape setup. A governance/news detour covers FIA presidency term limits and related election politics, plus driver/contract and broadcast-comms debates, before ending with Monaco weekend timing and how to watch.
We scrap term limits for the podcast and continue with the same hosts as always, talking Monaco, dispatches from COTA and Canada, and why being in the military is dangerous, but not for the reasons you may think!
SHOW NOTES
Battery deployment graphs courtesy of The-Race
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