A Sprint is a shorter race during an F1 weekend. It helps decide where the cars line up for the main race and gives points for finishing near the front.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most famous and successful F1 drivers ever. In this segment, he’s mentioned as starting from the front of the Sprint grid.
British racing green is a classic deep green color linked to British racing. The hosts mention it because the cars were wearing a throwback color scheme.
Alex Albon is an F1 driver mentioned here for his sprint weekend situation: he qualified 16th but will start from the back due to a modification made under Park Fermé rules. That’s a concrete example of how qualifying results can be overridden by post-qualifying penalties.
After qualifying, F1 cars are put under strict rules called Park Fermé. Teams can’t freely change things, and if they do make certain changes, they may get a penalty like starting from the back of the grid.
Silverstone is a well-known Formula 1 race track in the UK. It has fast sections and places where cars can pass, so the first lap often turns into a big fight for position.
A race track is split into parts called sectors for timing. “Sector three” is the last part of the lap, and it helps teams understand where a car is gaining or losing time.
An overtake is when one car passes another. In F1, it can happen more than once in a short time because cars are very close in speed and tires change over the first laps.
Straight-line speed is just how fast the car goes when the track is straight. In racing, that matters because it helps you catch up to other cars and set up passes.
Piastri is a Formula 1 driver. They’re describing his position battles—he gets into a fight early, then later he’s said to be vulnerable to another driver.
Leclerc is a Formula 1 driver. Here they’re saying he wasn’t in the best position at first, but then he made a decisive move later at a famous corner called Brooklands.
The battery reserve is how much stored energy the hybrid system has left. Drivers spend it to help with speed and overtakes, but they also have to save enough so they can defend later.
“Power” here means the extra speed the car can produce using its hybrid energy. They’re saying Hamilton has to use that energy to defend, which can leave him vulnerable later.
Vale is a named part of the track. They’re using it to say where a driver managed to gain position.
Place
village
“Village” is a named area on the track. They’re saying the drivers are still battling for position as they pass through it.
Term
protective maintenance mode
It means the driver backs off a bit to avoid breaking the car. They’re trying to finish safely and keep the car healthy rather than going flat-out.
Concept
spin races
“Spin races” refers to races where the action can be disrupted by incidents or safety-car-like periods, causing the field to bunch up and then spread out again. The result is often a shift from early excitement to later “manage the gap” driving.
A pit stop is when the car comes into the pit lane during the race. Teams use it mainly to change tires and help decide how the race should be managed.
Tire strategy is the team’s plan for which tires to run and when to change them. Different tires wear out at different rates, so the plan affects how fast you can go and how long you can stay out.
That means one car is about 23 seconds behind another. When gaps get that big, it’s harder to catch and pass because you can’t just drive faster without consequences.
“Battery deployment” refers to how an F1 car uses stored electrical energy (from the battery) to provide extra power when needed. Teams meter this carefully because energy is limited and must be managed to maintain performance and position.
It means the driver isn’t pushing as hard because the car is trying to recharge energy. They’re focused on getting power back for later rather than spending it immediately.
A “yo-yo race” is when two cars keep swapping positions during the race. One car passes, then the other car gets back ahead again, so the lead keeps bouncing around.
“Lap advantage” means one car is quicker than another by enough time to matter. If that advantage lines up with the best overtaking spots, it can help the faster car get close enough to pass.
Concept
dynamic racing
“Dynamic racing” means the race doesn’t stay the same for long. Things like tire grip and strategy change, so drivers have to react and take more chances to pass.
“Marbles” are tiny bits of rubber that build up on the track. They can make the tires lose grip, so the car can feel less stable and harder to drive fast.
Concept
game of inches
It means the race is decided by very small margins—like fractions of a second and tiny positioning differences. Those small gaps can be the difference between getting past or not.
The “turbo hybrid era” is the modern F1 era where cars use turbo power plus an energy-recovery system. How and when that extra energy is used can change how well a track works for racing.
DRS is a system that briefly reduces air resistance on an F1 car. When it’s allowed, it helps the car go faster in a straight line so passing is more likely.
The battery boost can be used to help you go for a pass, or to help you stay ahead. “Offensive and defensive deployment options” means teams can choose when to use the boost for either purpose.
A “corner complex” is a sequence of linked corners that behave like one continuous driving challenge rather than isolated turns. At tracks with corner complexes, drivers must manage speed, traction, and—here—energy use across multiple corners, which can make overtakes and defenses more tactical.
The apex is the inside “turning point” of a corner—the closest point to the inside curb. Hitting it well helps the car carry speed and set up the next part of the track.
Becketts is a famous set of fast corners at Silverstone. It’s the kind of section where getting the line and timing right really matters, especially for how you manage the car’s extra energy.
Term
MAG
“MAG” here is a name people use for a particular corner/section at Silverstone. The point is that it’s not just one turn—you have to get through a sequence of corners, and that affects strategy.
Term
drained the juice
It means the driver used up most of the car’s stored battery boost. When that happens, the car can’t give as much extra power for the rest of the lap.
In F1, “energy” is the limited boost/power the car can use during the race. The strategy described is to make the other driver spend theirs early, then pass when they can’t match your pace.
A five-second penalty means the driver gets extra time added to their race result. It’s given for breaking race rules, and it can drop them down the order.
Term
leaving the track
Leaving the track means going off the racing surface. Drivers can sometimes do it without trouble, but if it gives them an advantage, race officials can penalize them.
Term
gaining an advantage
Gaining an advantage means the driver benefited from the mistake—like getting ahead or keeping more speed than they should. That’s what turns an error into something officials penalize.
A ten-second penalty adds ten seconds to a driver’s result. It’s typically for a bigger mistake, like causing a collision, and it can cost the driver a lot of positions.
A grid place penalty means the driver gets moved back on the starting grid. A “three grid place penalty” means they start three positions behind their qualifying spot.
Impeding means blocking or getting in the way of another driver during a lap. In qualifying, it can stop someone from getting a fair attempt at a fast time.
A 10-place penalty means the driver starts ten spots further back than their qualifying position. That’s a big setback and usually forces a different race plan.
A false start is when a driver starts moving too early, before the race start lights. Officials treat it as cheating because it can help the driver get a head start.
A five-second penalty means the driver has to lose five seconds because of a rules mistake. In F1, that time is usually served during a pit stop so it’s enforced fairly.
A “jump the start” is when a driver gets going too early, before the race start. If it’s detected, they may have to slow down or take a penalty, which can cost them places right away.
In F1, teams sometimes pit at different times on purpose. That can help them get a better position on the track, because other cars have to adjust their plans.
An undercut is when you pit sooner than the car you’re trying to beat. Fresh tires let you go faster for a while, so you can come out ahead after both cars have pitted.
This means the driver came into the pits at the end of lap 24. In F1, when you pit can decide who has the advantage because tires and track position change.
Term
served
In F1 radio/strategy talk, “served” usually refers to serving a penalty (for example, a drive-through or time penalty) according to the rules. The driver completes the required action, and then the race continues with the penalty accounted for.
Place
left, right, left
That phrase is describing the corner pattern—turn left, then right, then left again. Corner patterns like this can make overtaking tricky because the car has to change direction quickly and keep traction.
A slow puncture means the tire isn’t fully flat right away—it leaks air over time. That still makes the car handle worse and can get dangerous, so the team has to decide when to come in for a tire change.
Here “progressive” means the problem gets worse gradually. The tire keeps losing pressure, so it can feel okay for a bit and then suddenly become much worse.
Stowe is a famous corner complex at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, known for being fast and requiring precise braking and traction. In race strategy discussions, it’s often referenced because it’s a key point where cars can gain/lose time and where pit-lane timing can matter.
“Box” means come into the pits for a tire change (and sometimes other service). Teams call it at the right moment so you don’t lose too much time on track.
“Medium tires” are one of the tire types F1 teams can choose. They’re usually a compromise: they grip well enough to be quick, but they last longer than the softest tires.
Serrated curbs are curbs with a bumpy, ridged surface. When an F1 car hits them at speed, the ride and forces can spike, and that can sometimes lead to parts getting damaged.
A brake duct is a shaped opening that funnels air to cool the brakes. If debris or a broken wing gets into that area, it can affect how well the brakes stay cool.
A wheel shield is a panel near the wheel that helps with airflow and protection. If it gets hit or scraped during damage, it can be a sign of how far the broken parts traveled.
The wheel guard is a protective piece near the tire that also shapes airflow around the wheel. If it gets pushed into the brake duct area, it can cause damage that affects cooling and handling.
Track limits are the rules about not going outside the marked edges of the race track. If you cut corners or run wide, officials may penalize you because it can make you faster.
In F1, the "meatball" is a warning that something is wrong with the car—often overheating. It’s basically the race telling the driver to get the issue checked.
In F1, gravel is the loose surface beside the track that can quickly slow the car and destabilize it. When a car goes into gravel, it often loses traction and can damage components or force a recovery back onto the racing line.
Onboard means the camera is mounted in the car, showing the driver’s perspective. Analysts use it to understand exactly what the car was doing and when it started to misbehave.
It’s a rear wing on an F1 car that can move by itself. It changes how much downforce the car makes depending on whether you’re going fast in a straight or turning into a corner.
This just means the car’s “turning mode.” The wing and aerodynamics are set up to help the car grip in a corner, and the problem here is that the wing didn’t switch over in time.
Here, “overtaking” just means passing another car. In F1, it’s harder when you’re behind someone because the air gets disturbed, so aero rules can make a big difference.
“Following distance” is how close a car can safely run behind another while maintaining stable aerodynamic grip. The speaker credits active aero rules with improving it, likely by reducing the turbulence sensitivity that makes close racing difficult.
“Ground effect” is when the car’s shape under the floor creates extra downforce. The “era” refers to a time in F1 history when that system was powerful enough to cause big problems, so the rules were changed.
These are car systems that use electricity to control moving parts. The idea here is that something about those electronic-controlled mechanical parts might be causing problems for Max.
When there’s an accident or danger on the track, F1 brings out the safety car to slow everyone down. That affects when teams pit and how drivers manage their position.
If the race ends under yellow, it means there was a hazard on track and drivers had to slow down and be careful. It’s not like a normal finish where everyone can push and race freely.
A software error here refers to a technical glitch that caused race-control messaging to display the wrong safety car “in lap” information. Even if the sporting procedure was correct, the incorrect message can lead to confusion about what the drivers should expect.
In F1, some cars can fall behind by a full lap. “Unlapped” means they get that lap back so they’re no longer a lap down compared to the leaders.
Person
Masi
“Masi” is shorthand for the F1 race director who makes calls about how the race is run during incidents. The speaker is saying those decisions weren’t consistent with the rules.
A restart is when the race begins racing again after it was slowed down or stopped. The officials decide how the cars line up when they go back to full speed.
Blue flags are warnings that a faster car is coming and you’re about to be passed. Drivers are expected to make it easier for the faster car to get by.
The unlapping procedure is the race-control process for getting lapped cars back into the correct order relative to the leaders. It’s used to manage traffic and reduce safety risks when a restart would otherwise force leaders and backmarkers to mix immediately.
Back markers are the slower cars near the back of the race. When faster cars catch them, it can change how easily they can overtake and can influence race strategy.
Field compression means the cars get closer together, usually because the safety car slows everyone down. When the race restarts, that tight spacing makes things more intense and harder to manage.
Fresh tires are new tires with maximum grip. After a restart, having them helps the car accelerate and turn better right away because worn tires don’t grip as well.
A one-lap penalty is a punishment for a rules mistake. It means the driver ends up losing the equivalent of one lap compared with where they would have finished.
LIVE
Music
Mark and Mindy and welcome to Shift F1, a podcast about speedy race cars.
That by the way is Cockney rhyming slang for windy.
Nanu nanu.
Nanu nanu to you.
Danny and all of our listeners.
A lot of cars getting blown around on this old airstrip this weekend.
By the way, they like to put airfields in windy areas, don't you know?
Good point.
I'm Drew Scanlon joining me.
Danny O'Dwyer, how are you Danny?
I'm doing good.
You know, it's been a really exciting couple of days in the FIFA World Cup
and with a lot of controversy to talk about.
So yeah, I'm happy we're here.
Great.
Also joining us Rob Zachney.
How are you Rob?
Just thinking about maps of prevailing winds in the Pacific
and how they perfectly map to air base locations.
And also the islands themselves are reshaped into almost natural airfields
by, you know, hundreds of years of wind contouring the earth.
Oh, wow.
And then they ruined it on Iwo Jima by just bombing it to smithereens.
We had a perfectly good airfield.
Nice and flash.
And that is divots all over it.
Did you know that the numbers of an airstrip correspond to the direction
that it's pointed in on a compass?
No, I did not.
Yes, so runway 26.
That's what the number on the airstrip is when you see a big number at the end of an airstrip.
Yep, runway 12 is at 120 degrees.
So that's why like runway 12, it's not this 12 runways.
It's runway 12, like north 12.
Yes, 120 degrees.
Yeah.
On the compass.
Yep.
Okay.
The more you know.
Intervals of 10.
Yeah, okay.
That makes sense.
You wouldn't care that much about single degree differences.
Right.
Amazing.
If you are new to this podcast, a very warm welcome 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 would like to go back and listen to that's episode 338.
Also, this show would not be possible without our audience over at patreon.com slash shiftf1,
where every month we release ad free versions of the podcast early along with bonus pods
and videos exclusively for our patrons that cover racing documentaries and films, F1
video games, experiments with 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 shiftf1 or click the link in the show notes.
Guys, I watched Death Race 2008.
Oh, you did?
Just for fun.
Well, I, yeah, solidarity.
Okay.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
And then I listened to your guys episode about it.
Great job.
Great job with, oh my God, not a good movie at all.
Maybe Death Race 2050 will heal us.
Oh boy.
Is that?
Rodney Corman coming back for one more bite at the apple.
Well, what do we have going on this month, Danny?
The Adrian Newey of directors, if you will, of producers, if you will.
Just, yes.
Squeeze, squeezing out the last before it all dries up.
Yeah, yeah.
We have, we have multiple death races for people to enjoy.
If you're a video sponsor, you get video versions of those podcasts as well.
Of course.
Yeah.
We covered Death Race, the original 1975 Roger Corbin created one and then the 2008
Jason Statham vehicle, if you will.
You can check both of those out over at patreon.com.
And a massive thanks to all of our incredible title sponsors, including God,
this person at the top every week.
Xylinder Algoswari to plots to produce the military industrial complex,
War Isle or IP Egberto and Igor Furman.
That video game podcast, let's Margot racing each in wells.
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It's a me for radio.
Nicotine purges.
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Get rich.
Oh, die.
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I got VATX.
Cypress training turf.
SES.
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Cigarettes.
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Dot com.
FTC.
Bottas calendar.
2026.
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The redeployed safety car.
Bailey foot.
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The Lally Lilo.
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Why did I mess that up?
They're supporting us.
They're here.
The Lally Lilo are here to stay.
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William Romphe.
Lackland.
The Maddened Man.
Sam Rae Love Story and Jason Kelly.
Thank you all so much for your support on exciting race weekends and
ones like this.
Wow.
All right.
Let's get ready.
It was all right.
F2 and F3 had some fun stuff going on as well.
There was a lot of racing, which was good.
There was a lot, Danny, because we had not only the British Grand Prix, we also had
the Sprint.
We did.
On this hallowed ground.
Let's start there, because it happened first.
Here's the Sprint grid hometown hero, Lewis Hamilton, starting on Sprint Pole, just ahead
of championship leader Kimmy Antonelli.
And then the four-time world champion, Max Verstappen, starting third alongside Charles
Leclerc.
And we've got George Russell.
Lando Norris, the first of the McLarens in their 1966 inspired white and British racing
green livery, which I found very hard to clock.
Yeah, me too.
Me too.
Especially when they were driving, like when they had shots that were low down of them and
the Mercedes in together, I was like squinting, being like, which one's which here?
Turns out that orange.
Pretty easy to pick out.
Yeah, who knew?
Who knew people high vis vests aren't white, you know?
Oscar Piastri, seventh.
Isaac Hadger, eighth.
Liam Lawson, ninth.
And Arvid Lindblad, also his home race for the first time.
Temp.
Pierre Gasly in 11th, followed by Gabriele Bordeletto, Nico Holkenberg, Franco Colipinto,
Carlos Sainz in 15th, then Oliver Bergman, Esteban Ocan, Sergio Perez, and Valtteri Bottas
They also have changed their liveries, more stars and stripes themed on account of the
250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence that happened over the weekend.
Fernando Alonso, 20th, Lance Droll, 21st, and then Alex Albon at the back of the grid.
He qualified 16th, but his car was modified under Park Fermet conditions, so he will
start at the back.
Of course, only points in the sprint go to the top eight finishers, so why not?
Why not upgrade the car a little bit or make some tweaks if you're at the back?
Anyway.
All right, the sprint.
I'm going to toss it to you, Danny, for the start, and maybe Rob can help us through the
rest of it, because like before, I have not had so much time to prepare notes.
But yeah, Danny, why don't you kick it off?
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean, it's sort of a mad lap, the whole first lap of the sprint.
First things first, the second row really don't get off.
We're stopping the Clare, get gobbled up pretty fast once everyone rushes out.
Hamilton keeps his position.
And then the McLaren's have Piastri, especially at the start.
Well, they both have very good starts and end up sort of in the battles for a second
and third, respectively, around the first lap of Silverstone.
It seems that maybe they used a bit more charge, perhaps, to sort of cause an initial fight,
because then the Wellington straight, I think it's Antonelli gets past Norris, and then
Russell manages to overtake both of them in sector three with a pretty impressive move.
So by the time they get around to lap two, it's Hamilton, Antonelli and Russell, and
then the two McLaren's behind them, Norris and Piastri, and then for stopping in the
Clare in sixth and seventh.
And so it was sort of an RG bar G first race.
And the first sign maybe to all of us of just how, you know, regardless of if you can get past
someone, straight line speed of power over the course of a lap is what's going to dictate
who ends up on top on this weekend.
Yeah, tons of passing and repassing, at least at the start here.
Like you said, Danny, Russell gets by those two McLaren's in two corners, then Russell
retakes at the end of the lap, and then Verstappen gets by Russell, and Verstappen continues
kind of passing and repassing.
Verstappen gets past Piastri.
Is that what you mean?
Into fifth?
Sure.
And then from there, so many overtakes, and maybe Rob now is a good time to talk about
all the action that happened after lap one.
Yeah, it's pretty intense, because yeah, you have Russell and Piastri getting into it
for P5.
Russell did not have a good sprint qualifying, not having a particularly great sprint race.
Then Le Clare came in sort of struggling after Russell finally puts Piastri away.
Like that leaves Piastri set up lap four for a, he's vulnerable to Le Clare, and Le Clare
finally closes the deal at Brooklands.
Then you got lap five, Lindblad taking on Gasly, and actually continues at the front,
Antonelli steadily closing in on Hamilton, and then like lap eight, they have a nice little
duel.
Hamilton has to fend off Antonelli.
Basically, a pattern would see a lot.
This race is, you try to bait the person you're into, behind into burning
through their battery reserve, so they're vulnerable.
That's eventually what Antonelli does to Hamilton.
Hamilton has to burn through his power, and he is sort of a sitting duck.
Finally, when Antonelli gets him on lap eight.
Was it eight?
Yes, almost halfway through the race.
Meanwhile, I remember that whole time, Russell really struggling.
Like Verstappen got past him at one stage as well.
Like he was down fifth, I think, around that time in the race.
Yeah, he manages the battle back with, he closes back up to Verstappen.
Lap ten, he gets Max at Vale, but Max doesn't really let go of the positions.
They're fighting through village.
Then Russell takes an extremely wide line to put Max off the track, and that leaves
Max kind of a sitting duck for Leclerc, who doesn't get past him immediately, but does
make inroads and gets him before the end of the race.
From there, it does kind of settle in.
My notes kind of trail off past lap eleven as people are entering more of a protective
maintenance mode there.
I would say we see this pattern a lot with spin races.
You can get a lot of action sometimes, but it does feel like once you're two thirds
of the way through, everyone starts thinking about, well, we've got to bring these cars
home, and we've got to qualify in a couple hours.
It turns out without a pit stop or tire strategy required for the lengthy races, they do sort
of settle in two by two.
The other thing that happens a lot with servicing in particular is you do get these 23
second gaps between cars, which then can be tricky to battle back on.
I suspect with the way the battery deployment goes, you can maybe attempt to pull up some
of that speed or the delta, but lap to lap pace is so important here to keep your position
that I think just sort of focuses people into keeping what they have, maybe.
I will say they had a number of drivers heading into the weekend had set the expectations on
the floor about what we could expect at Silverstone, that this was not going to be a good race
because Silverstone would be a very challenging race for the power harvesting cycle, and so
you would see a lot of cars just sort of toodling down the straights on recovery mode, and you
would not see a lot of great action.
There's a little bit of that, I will say to me in qualifying in places, it did look like
the cars were straight up slow, but for the race, I do think it ended up being pretty
dynamic.
I think to me it didn't feel like it was a complete yo-yo race, what they were describing
it as, where you set someone up, you overtake them, they come back on you.
You did see that dynamic, but it did seem like through the weekend you had teams figuring
out what parts of the lap advantage them for attacks, given their own pace and what they're
optimized for and their power harvesting strategy.
A better sprint than I think we were expecting, and I think it sort of set up the fact that
Silverstone was at least not going to live down to the most dire expectations that a
race was heading into the weekend.
I think my critique of the yo-yo critique is that I would agree that it would be bad
if the yo-yo continued throughout the entire race, but that's not what happens.
It happens like two or three, you might flip back and forth two or three times, but eventually
someone does win out, and therefore isn't it working?
If the faster car ends up ahead, isn't that what we want?
I would agree.
Yeah, or is what we want, the idea that overtaking for overtaking sake, I think so much of that
stuff depends on how much buy-in you have on the battle.
For instance, nobody was complaining in Canada when we had this Mercedes back and forth for
the lead.
The death of that race was when Brussels' car went kaput.
We had in the first couple of races as well some interesting situations where cars that
wouldn't normally be able to defend, for instance.
If the overtake is something that happened historically, like over three or four laps,
somebody getting reeled in and then eventually getting overtaken, there is a satisfying element
to that as a viewer of sport, but that only goes one way.
You don't get the back and forth because it took so many laps to make that move happen
because of the very minimal disparity between these cars and the fact that overtaking was
tricky and following is tricky and all this sort of stuff.
They're managing a lot of stuff.
If the end result, the flip side of that is that you get these back and forth.
Cool, that's great.
Dynamic racing makes other things happen.
It forces cars to pick up marbles.
It forces people to try moves that might end up running them off or hitting somebody.
I think that dynamism is more valuable.
I think we can slip into an idea.
I get people being critical of it, but I think we can very easily slip into a nonsense summation
of what's going on there that's like, oh, it's just back and forth.
You know what I mean?
Look a little closer.
A lot of the time, this is a game of inches.
The track layout and the cars and all that stuff, especially in the longer races,
I think there's a lot more strategy going on there.
I haven't seen that play out this season like some people were saying at the start.
No, I was braced for like we're going to have another snoozer like Japan where it's clear
that the power settings just weren't really good for the circuit.
Japan's been tricky under two sets of rules now in the turbo hybrid era.
Japan is just becoming a challenging race to put on a good show for what they're running in F1.
You're right that for the most part, it seems like it's been a net improvement on the way things are working
when really the only mechanism we have is DRS where it was just, it either works or it doesn't.
You see that people close up in the exact same places every lap.
If they get it done, then they're through and maybe they can build some distance.
And if they don't get it done, well, they sort of drop back through the lap
and they wait to try it again next time.
Here there is a bit more of a, they have made it so that it seems like there's both
enough offensive and defensive deployment options that you will have people making different strategies
or using different tactics in these battles
and contesting different parts of the overtake through multiple corners.
Now, do you think Silverstone lends itself to that because we have some really fun corner complexes
where it's not like, alright, you made the apex, now you're off to the next straight.
It's a little bit more like-
It's a wide-ass track as well.
You made, alright, you handled, you handled MAG as well, but now here's Beckett's.
And so there's a lot of fun there.
Yeah, I do think, though, that the battery stuff, so much of this lap becomes a battery deployment thing,
which is, you know, the case in lots of the tracks, but especially I feel like here
with just so many high-speed corners, it's-
Just give the drivers full authority over how to use that battery.
Just like, just make it so that they want to be like, oh, wow, like,
Max Scott, Hanan the Collar, he's been clipping now for the entire rest of the lap
because he drained the juice.
But yeah, so the race sort of settles in there
and Antonelli kind of cruises, you know, to the win.
And that is certainly how it-
It certainly felt like this was a weekend that was setting up for, you know,
Russell never really showing great pace, including in the Sprint,
even sort of a damage control mode, didn't have a great qualifying.
Antonelli looking fantastic.
The Ferrari is a little bit so far of what we've seen in Austria,
which is like promising pace that doesn't bear out over like a race distance.
And so, you know, the Sprint comes to, you know,
somewhat anticlimactic end, you know, with Antonelli taking a pretty straightforward win over Hamilton.
Yeah, and it also foreshadows that kind of move you were talking about, Rob,
where you attack the car ahead on the Wellington Strait
and bait them into using too much energy and then get them by on the Hangar Strait,
which is what Antonelli did to Hamilton.
And we will definitely see that in the upcoming race.
Here we are, the Sprint result.
Kimmy Antonelli wins it, gets those eight championship points.
Lewis Hamilton second, followed by other Brit Lando Norris
and other Brit George Russell in third and fourth.
Charlotte Claire in fifth.
Max Verstappen sixth.
Oscar Piastri seventh.
And Liam Loss in the last of the points, paying positions in eighth.
Behind them, Isaac Hachar in ninth, and Arvid Lindblad in tenth.
Ahead of Gasly, Colapinto, Bordeletto, Bearman, Hockenberg,
who earned a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Sixteenth is Esteban O'Conn, followed by Sainz, Albon, Botas, Alonzo,
Stroll and Perez, who received a ten-second penalty for causing a collision.
And was that with, who was that with? I don't remember.
I kind of remember any collision on the Sprint race. I don't know.
All right, we're going to take a quick break, but we will be back with the race grid.
Pole position, Kimmy Antonelli.
Behind him, surprise, Charlotte Claire on the front row.
And behind him, his other Ferrari teammate, Lewis Hamilton,
and then the other Mercedes of George Russell in fourth.
Who binned it in Q1. He was a lucky boy.
He ended up in the gravel, and he did tap the barriers,
but was able to both not destroy his front wing and also drive out of there.
So yeah, he was a lucky man.
Yeah, not get beached in the gravel.
Isaac Adjar lines up fifth, two spots ahead of Max Verstappen,
between them is Landon Horace and sixth, Verstappen seventh,
Oscar Piazzari eighth, Arvid Lindblad ninth, and Liam Lawson tenth.
Those racing bulls, they're just, they're always there.
In 11th, Gabriele Bordoletto followed by Nico Hockenberg.
Then we've got Oliver Bearman in 13th, Carlos Sainz, 14th, and Pierre Gasly, 15th.
He qualified 12th, but got a three grid place penalty for impeding.
Alex Albon 16th followed by Espenuacan, Valtteri Bottas, Franco Colapinta,
who himself had a moment in Q1 after he spun and sort of skipped over the grass,
thankfully not hitting anything or anyone.
20th is Sergio Perez, then we got Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll,
who I think out-qualified Alonso, but received a 10-place penalty
for the use of additional power unit elements.
All right, Danny, you want to take us through the start of the race?
Oh, Danny, the start of the race, Dwyer, that's what they call me.
That's right.
But it shakes out a little bit different, so Antonelli doesn't have a...
He gets off the line, his second phase isn't wonderful.
Leclerc's got him gobbled up almost immediately,
but then Hamilton also manages to get around the outside of him on the first turn.
So by the time we're getting there to turn two, Antonelli's in third place already.
Russell's behind him, and then behind him is the other Red Bull,
as you mentioned.
Yeah, he's sort of challenging Hadjara through those first few corners.
Yeah, Hadjara's thrown it in on him there,
and eventually it doesn't come too much.
Hadjara sort of backs away a little bit, and it's down to the tumor save.
He's sort of trying to fight each other.
But two things happen, I guess, that should be noted at the start.
One, Hamilton had a false start.
He was moving slightly before the lights went out.
Sort of surprisingly managed to get away well,
considering the start was a little bit jumpy,
but obviously he'd broken that rule and got himself a,
was it a five seconds penalty that he ended up serving on his first pit stop?
And then the other thing was that Albon had a really bad break after the first straight
and took out, it was Callipinto, wasn't it?
Bearman.
Oh, sorry, Bearman, it was a Haas, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Took out Bearman.
Started a crap day for Williams.
Yes, yeah, absolutely.
So yeah, yeah, there was a, there's saucy first laps we're getting ahead of this,
which makes sense with all this, you know, battery power stuff.
He could just kind of decide to use it.
Is it a return to Ferrari having an amazing off the line performance?
Yeah, I mean, it helps me.
A story line that had been dropped,
and are you about to say that it's not good at the start?
No, I was gonna, that's all such,
I was gonna say that it helps when you jump the start.
Yeah.
Although he, it looks like.
But you're right though, yeah.
Yeah, I think it, from Hamilton Donboard, it's one of those where like,
he jumps and then stops and then has to go again.
So it's not like he, you know.
They actually probably got disadvantaged by that.
That never helps.
Yeah.
When you, when you stop the, when you have to check up like that,
but Claire got him clean.
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Russell with, with mirrors full of, full of Hajar manages to stay,
stay ahead of him.
And then lap three, I thought Red Bull were intentionally swapping Hajar
and Max so that.
Oh, it was so easy for him.
And that, to me, that looked like a quintessential team were to swap.
And then they start fighting like crazy.
And they're just like battling around the track.
Hajar not letting go of the, of the position.
You know, Max, Max barely holds onto it through cops.
Hajar, Hajar stays on him.
So that was a, you know, I guess sometimes with the way those
power settings can line up, it will look like choreographed.
And then you see where it just 100% is not.
Hajar, the red mist descended.
And he was like, no, not on my watch.
Max did eventually draw away.
Another thing that happened, I think on that opening lap is the
Piastry got front wing damage.
And I don't think we ever saw a replay of it.
But was it, was it a result of the Albonn-Bearman thing?
I'm not sure, but he had to pit and change the front wing.
Yes.
And then we get back to the Hamilton, Antonelli.
You know, an echo of the sprint lap 11 Antonelli does get by Hamilton
on one of them straights.
Smart finish straight.
Yeah.
And then we're up to, I've got lap 17 when now for a staff and having
gotten by his teammate, send it around the outside of Russell.
Yeah.
It makes him look like he's standing still.
It's, this is, you know what I love is when you've got sort of a
long-term storyline, which is basically these guys don't really
get on and they tend to not race each other particularly courteously.
And so, yeah, Max just gets into it with Russell here.
It turns out to be his in lap, which makes sense why he's driving
the car so hard, but does it make sense for Russell thinks he's
finding his position.
He tries to get the position back at the end of the hanger straight
and Max just swerves to cut him off.
May still have been a legal maneuver, especially because Max is
heading for the pits.
So he causes, he sort of checks up.
Was it not George?
Sorry.
No, it is, it is Matt, George boxes later.
The same thing happens, but in the first.
Oh, that was later.
Max runs in and Russell, Russell drives on.
So the whole thing was kind of just for nothing or just for pure
spite.
It's fantastic stuff.
So now they're running an offset strategy and the anticipation
here is that undercuts are going to be powerful today.
But the lap is long enough that it's not like you see, you
didn't see the sort of panicked everyone pits for the same
times, like the strategy is completely overlaid.
Like people are running different stints through this race.
The next note I have here after the Russell Max thing is the
brief VSC for someone losing their Landon Norris supporter
umbrella.
Yeah.
Yes.
That's right.
After, after gassing up the Landon Norris stands for like three
years running, somebody got that little novelty umbrella
ripped out of the hands and went bouncing across the tracks.
They had to put a VSC up for a Marshall to go and track it
down.
Wow.
That's like a hit man level.
I mean, there is literally one out of an open wheel racing
event.
But yeah, like an umbrella, hitting an umbrella at that
speed seems like a real bad time.
Oh, it seems like so many things that could go horribly
down there.
But so they recovered, they recovered the umbrella.
The VSC doesn't really get it.
Sorry, the Brawley, Rob.
Of course.
Of course.
Brawley or Brawley?
Brawley.
Brawley.
Either way.
Only, I think only like, I think one of the Alpenes was in
position to get an advantage.
Somebody dives.
I thought it might have been Ocon, but it saves him like a
couple seconds because it disappears so quickly.
It's kind of nothing.
Antonelli's on the radio, left 27 worrying about the
undercut.
But I'm not sure why because everyone he was racing with
had already stopped.
So like, and I think he, I think by that point, maybe he
also stopped.
But like, he was like, I've already done.
He's talking about Hamilton, Rob, who was upset that he
was, may have been undercut.
He pitted on lap 24.
Hamilton did find and served.
And complaining that my tires are still good.
Oh yeah.
And the way in he was.
Yeah.
They told him the box and he was not happy about it.
And he wasn't happy after the race either with the
strategy at all.
Maybe Antonelli just didn't know that the horse had
already bolted that like you've been undercut by
everybody.
Okay, man.
Okay, yeah.
You're kind of up against it.
We get a fun, probably the highlight of the race is the
Hamilton Russell duel.
Yeah.
It starts around lap 29 and goes for two or three laps.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is really good.
Hamilton gets by, Russell fights back and then Hamilton
goes around the outside at Maggots into that sort of
left, right, left section narrowly gets around him
there and then Russell retakes on the hangar straight
two laps later, Hamilton comes back at him again
this time around the outside of Brooklyn's and then
Russell retakes again at, I believe it's cops.
Yes.
They did not go side by side on the way into the
turn.
No, that's funny.
After this whole duel.
Mercedes gets on the radio to Russell.
You've got a slow puncture and at that point you think
he's going to go into protection mode, but he goes
for another lap, doesn't he?
And appears to have lock and tone on Max Verstappen.
And so he dies in on Verstappen.
He's chasing down passes the pit entrance.
Mercedes was ready to receive him.
Russell goes blowing past radios.
Keep me posted about tire pressures, which is the most
for all that he is like Mr. Cool Common Collector that's
the reputation.
I do think there's moments where it's like, no, what
that reputation buys him is an ability to say like, oh, I
meant to do that.
Oh, I'm not driving angry.
I'm I'm perfectly in control.
This is me.
I am I am straight and level.
Don't worry about it.
I'm just driving a bum tire around the track so that I can
go fuck with Max.
I thought it was kind of badass.
I was like, I kind of liked it.
It seemed like weird and I don't know if the if maybe
his windows was coming up later anyway, or they had a
better strategy if he pushed another lap.
But I have never seen, you know, we've seen how fast
how fast a slow puncture can be.
I couldn't believe you managed to slow punctures.
Don't say they don't say slow.
These things tend to be progressive.
That's the fear is that there's a long.
There's a long lap, you know, so it's not quite spot.
But like, this is a long lap.
So he just stays out there.
He races through lap 34 lap 35.
I think is where now he catches up to Max runs him really
wide through Stowe and then dives for the pits to get
that stop after after the pits radio.
You need to box like right now like this is you need to
come in.
So he just again for pure love of the game, pure spite
just gets into it with Max and like does it's like I
don't know if this exists in football as much.
Maybe there's equivalent rugby, but you're familiar with
the concept of the enforcer and hockey where it's like
somebody does something to your team.
You go out there and it's like go fuck that guy up.
This is Russell being his own enforcer, I guess for for
Max's maneuvers early.
But the other fun thing is was it also last year at
Silverstone where Max like literally just hits Russell
because he's pissed.
I feel like that happened at Silverstone.
Might have been somewhere else, but you've got the
years of like growing bad blood between these guys
where no matter what the place, no matter what the
stakes, they do not keep eye on the prize.
They like George is in the title fight.
Now the weekend is not going well for him, but George
is in the title fight and he should be thinking about
like I don't want to just have a DNF.
I shouldn't be taking undue risks to fight Max or
Staphen who was way out of the title fight.
And no, instead he just is racing around there on
three good tires just to mess with Max on his way
into the pits.
It's a drive by.
I'm kind of with you.
Kind of badass.
Also indicative of the.
Oh yeah, that guy who decided to slap the shit out of
Altary both houses still in there.
Rosa comes out on lap 36 on new medium tires and gets
by Hajar for sixth place and then Hamilton back on
for Staphen lap 38.
He gets around him on the Wellington straight and
then lap 41 Antonelli slowing down from second place.
This was a frantic few laps because they don't really
know what is happening.
No, and they eventually come up with a replay that
shows as he's going over the serrated curbs.
A piece of the front wing breaks.
Yeah, it snaps in, doesn't it?
It kind of folds in.
Yeah, it goes into like the brake, the brake duct,
the wheel shield gets tagged on the brake duct,
but wasn't clear to me.
Was that the original thing that happened to him or
did he break the new wing they put on him?
Because it is a frantic few laps.
Antonelli does his best to soldier through a car that is
like comically falling apart around him.
He says something's broken.
He comes in.
He gets that he gets that new new wing.
Ted spots immediately.
You know, it looks like it looks to him like a
brake duct issue.
Russell goes by Antonelli comes out and immediately
is on the radio.
There's something fundamental with the car mate.
He's told the box.
He says I can drive and he stays out there,
but he can barely drive.
He's completely compromised.
He's running off right and left as he's limping
around out there.
It's clear Bono kind of wants to give him the hook.
He keeps being like come in, you know, we'll box.
He keeps saying you can stay out there.
This is when the footage comes of showing the the
brake duct, the the wheel guard going into the
brake duct lap 45.
You know, he says there's there's still something
deeper with the car.
Bono says if we box or box and retire and Antonelli
stays out and starts picking up infractions for
track limits, which I'm of two minds about it.
I'm kind of with the commentary team like track
limits violations are there to prevent you from
running wide and maintaining pace or like getting
an overtake done.
But like if the car is debilitated and you're
just like trying to hang on to it.
It's not like you're.
Still getting an advantage because you're it still
be worse if you were not cutting the track right
and left.
That's true.
You can you can break more to stay on the track.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And if it's a safety concern, maybe you shouldn't
be on the track at all.
That is the other part.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, you might get the the meatball as
well.
Right.
If there's a piece of your car that might fall
off.
This unfortunately wasn't like the famous Kimmy
Reichenan front wing brake that actually
improved his lap times from Ferrari days of your
yeah.
Yeah.
And maybe he was saved by what happened later in
the race lap 48 in a big cloud of dust.
Max Verstappen is off in the gravel and oddly
familiar sight and ones that may be connected.
It sounds like.
Yeah.
I mean, well, it's strange that we see Verstappen
make any kind of mistake because we watch an
onboard and he just kind of has a wiggle and tries
to correct it and the car spins the opposite way
and just off the track and commentators are a
little flummoxed by it.
But Rob, you've got some color on this.
Yeah.
Just that it appears to have been a similar error,
but not quite the exact same one that caught him
in Austria where he went off in the final corner
and qualifying.
But it appears like Red Bull has something that has
gone wrong now in two races in a row with the active
arrow and where it is going from straight mode to
cornering mode here.
What it looks like happened was the wing just was
late coming down into the cornering configuration.
And so you can see like the car box as the wing
rotates back into position.
And he's already basically applying a lot of steering
input when the wing goes locked into that position.
And so that little buck with the input already applied
appears to have caused Max to just lose the car
completely.
And he was furious coming out of the car because
they're both in scary accidents.
These have both been abnormal accidents.
In some ways, F1 has, I love the active arrow regs.
I think they've solved some long standing problems
for F1 and overtaking and following distance and
all that.
But when the system does open the possibility of F1
having successfully recreated the issues that brought
an end to the first ground effect era, which is that
you can generate so much downforce that when you
have sudden changes in downforce, you can't really
control the car.
And now you have the proverbial airplane crash, as
Brundle is fond of talking about.
And Max has had them twice, which does appear more
to point to not the regulations, but something
about the electromechanical systems that Red Bull
has placed on the car.
But that is not good for the Red Bull for
stopping marriage because he has now been in two
scary crashes because of a thing that isn't
happening to other drivers and shouldn't be
happening to him.
And arguably there are two corners that are good
to have those accidents on because there's a lot
of runoff.
You know what I mean?
Like this time as well, he managed to keep it out
of the barrier at least.
But yeah, you know, that happens in Jeddah.
It's a whole other kettle of fish.
Yeah, good point.
Well, we get a safety car pretty quickly.
And a few people pit with three laps to go.
Hamilton pits from second and Russell in third
stays out.
So that shuffles Russell up to second place.
And then we get a message that the safety car
is coming in with one lap to go, but that does
not happen.
The safety car stays out and the race ends under
yellow.
Such a bummer.
So why didn't it come in?
Does anyone know?
OK.
So this is from racefans.net.
The FIA has issued a statement saying the
safety car period regulation article B513.5.
Oh yeah, my favorite article.
States that one lap must be completed following
the unlapping procedure.
This process was followed by race operations.
The safety car in this lap message was displayed
erroneously to a software error.
So they were doing the right thing.
We just should not have gotten the safety car
in this lap message.
So hang on.
Did you say it's because of the unlapped procedure?
Right.
So they hadn't unlapped people.
They had, but they needed to do one more lap.
But if they hadn't unlapped them, if they kept
everyone in the order, are they allowed to do
that?
Could they have kept everyone where they are
including laps?
Maybe if we just have the first five unlapped
themselves.
How about that?
Maybe that would be a good situation.
I always felt like where Masi went wrong is
he just made up a rule and he applied it
selectively to part of the field and then
got this thing going.
It was like, well, let's move the guys out of
the way of the championship flight so we
can have this contract finish.
But it's not right.
If he had been like, we're going to do the
restart, but we're not unlapping people.
I guess my question is like in the regs.
Is that an option?
Like if they brought the field together
under safety cars, are they supposed to
unlapped everyone before they go?
They don't have to.
Unless they change the rules because like,
you know, there's loads of races where they
don't bother unlapping them.
I don't know why you'd bother at the end of
a race.
Then they probably should have left the
back markers in the field and go back
to racing.
Is it true?
Is it true that if a safety car comes
out every time we've had to unlapped
back markers?
Absolutely not.
In my mind, they more often than not don't
have them unlapped.
Safety cars historically have come out
for like two laps before they had virtual
safety cars.
You know what I mean?
They had them come out for two laps and go
back in.
They don't always reshuffle them.
I mean, I'm shooting from the hip here
a little bit because I haven't researched
it in a while, but like if you were to ask
me on a pub, you know, randomly, I'd say,
no, they don't always do it.
It's always weird here too, because it
hits different here because it's a long
lap.
And so it feels like we have cleared
everything.
We can just go.
And they're kind of trapped by the fact
that the rules are very clear.
It's not.
It's not.
Do you have a clear feel to run the race?
It's you have to do this extra lap.
That's it.
And so like I can't.
I can't fault it.
I don't love the contrivance of manipulating
restart procedures that you can put on the
show.
Didn't like it in 2021.
I wouldn't have liked it here.
I don't feel necessarily like two
bummed about the lack of a restart.
Given that it was clear they were already
trying their tamtus to give us that.
Like my lander was was was really like
slow walking the field around the around
the track.
I like I think it's one of those things
where the issue would have to be fixed
at a rules level and not a day in
date of the race.
Let's just figure out how we can put on
the show.
Just thinking about it a little bit.
I can imagine there could be a safety issue
in this particular restart because you
basically would go restart with one lap.
Everyone's going health for leather and
suddenly you've got blue flags thrown in
there.
So I think that's why the unlapping procedure
exists.
So yeah, I guess I can sort of maybe it's
something at the end of races in particular
that they're more sensitive to because you
are basically sticking a bunch of blue flags
into an overtaking situation and then
well, but I mean from a sporting
perspective you also have crash hit
looming right like you could this is why
isn't it NASCAR that has some rule like
it can't enter under yellow or something
right.
Yeah, I mean you also want to talk about
maybe Brundle's idea which is why do we
have to have the back markers go forward.
Why can't they just pull over and let
everyone else through that would be much
faster.
Yeah, I'm not sure I've heard a good
explanation for.
Yeah, maybe those teams don't like the
idea of losing an extra lap.
Well, they wouldn't lose an extra lap.
No, they wouldn't.
No, because the lap is just a lapse.
No, I think you are right.
No, they would by the end of the race.
By the end of the race they would lose
an extra lap.
Yeah, and that's why you would need a
late race provision for this because
that totally screws you if it's like
halfway through a race and it's like
alright, just make your way for the
rest of the field.
So yeah.
Especially if you're a back marker
because of tire strategy or something,
you know what I mean?
Well, and again.
If you're a particularity and a really
bad strategy situation ended up in
14th and then suddenly you're.
The main reason this exists is also
you're doing like a safety car field
is going to be compressed.
Now you're introducing tons of blue
flags into that dynamic because
everyone's trying to let go like hell
for this restart.
And so you do want the back markers
clear in some in some direction.
So I think it's one of those things
where for these edge cases they can.
But if you're if you're shuffling them
forward so that they stay on that
so that they don't lose a lap,
isn't that already artificial?
Why couldn't you just drop them back and
say like, you know what, you didn't
actually lose one.
You know, I think it would like mess
with the like purity of statistics
and data and stuff in weird ways.
I think I'm with you.
But like it's it creates a weird
niggle and like maybe there's some
downstream effects like if this happened
on lap three, then you are basically
giving if you can if they can put two
sectors on the field, you're good.
But imagine like imagine this happens
in lap three.
Essentially you are giving a bunch of
these drivers like an extra lap
of fuel for the rest of the race.
You know what I mean?
There's a there's a sporting.
These things sound really straightforward
until you start trying to like,
what's the rule to create?
But I don't know.
To me, I'm just not.
I wasn't too moved by the.
Oh, we were cheated out of such a
good finish.
I was a bit.
I was.
I was I was like, this is the
logic that gave us 2021
right, which is like, you know,
no, the safety car should produce a
little tree, which is a
last minute sprint for the finish
that kind of nullifies a lot of
what's what's gone before.
And what happens is everyone just
deploys their battery and nobody
overtakes anyone.
But like, you know, I
will say this.
I felt bad for Hamilton.
I think Ferrari was the timing of this
was tough because it certainly felt
like.
I thought they were going to clear
and restart.
And in that situation, you'd
you'd want to be on fresh tires.
So I understood why they put Hamilton.
But it proved to be while he remembers
last time when he wasn't on fresh
tires.
I mean, if Hamilton didn't
pit, I'll bet George Russell does,
you know, and then maybe we got
Landon Norris on the podium.
So
we do have a little drama here
with that.
Antonelli has that five second
penalty for exceeding track limits.
So what does that do here?
Could we get going again?
And maybe he can make up a little bit
of a gap because I think he's sitting
in 10th when that
happens.
He doesn't.
He drops down to 15th place.
So Antonelli
signs also.
He let's see, he was
in 14th
when the safety car comes out.
He somehow
he overtook the safety car.
Maybe he accidentally unlapped himself
when he wasn't supposed to.
I haven't read the article.
No, I think that was it.
Is that they told him
he just thought they were unlapping everyone.
I guess they weren't unlapping him.
Right.
So he received a one lap
penalty.
There you go.
So he finishes the race in
technically 17th place
because Fernando Alonso Lantz
and Stroh were already one lap behind.
By the way, speaking of weird rules,
they almost had to invoke the 107%
rule.
Oh.
For them, which, you know,
if you, so the rule is
if you, if you
do a time that is greater
than 107% of,
is it the pole sitter?
I think it is.
I think it must be.
In qualifying.
It used to be that you just didn't qualify.
You couldn't race at all.
Now in the modern era,
you qualify to get in.
Yes, that's right.
Now in the modern era,
basically what happens is if that
would happen, they would go to the
stewards and say like, hey, can we race?
There's humiliation ritual, which I like.
Pretty much.
Yes.
Yes.
So you're not actually fit to be
an F1 team this weekend, but if you go
and plead before the council.
The other
driver narrowly escaping a penalty
is Lewis Hamilton.
And we get a, we get,
he's being investigated for a yellow flag
penalty, I think in the closing stages
here.
That was
waved.
And so race fans, again,
a good, yeah, thanks.
Break down here, the stewards
accepted that the
yellow flag signal appeared
late on Hamilton's steering
wheel and a green flag
panel was displayed
near the scene of Verstappen's
accident.
This is now quoting the stewards ruling.
The evidence showed that there was no
yellow light panel warning within the
driver's immediate field of vision
and that the yellow indication on the
steering wheel displayed remain visible
for only a very short period.
The stewards therefore were satisfied
that the time available for the driver to
react to the yellow flag indication was
very limited.
So he did not lift
for this yellow that was displayed,
but because it was only displayed
for a fraction of
the time
that would need to be, they did not
hand him a penalty, so he retains
his podium position.
One lower than he would have liked.
Who are the two? It's Antonelli
and Hamilton are really suffer with
Pitt's strategy with this
safety car kind of, isn't it?
Antonelli's already hosed.
Yeah, I guess.
Because of his issue.
Charlotte Claire
wins the British Grand Prix.
Ferrari's 250th win in the
Claire's first since, was it
Austin 2024?
Feels like it hasn't been that long,
but apparently it has.
George Russell comes home second after staying
out and Lewis Hamilton comes home third
after pitting.
Landon Orris finishes fourth.
A good recovery for McLaren who
did not seem to be having the greatest weekend.
Isaac Hatch are fifth.
The sole remaining Red Bull.
Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad
in the racing bulls cars in sixth
and seventh.
Gabriella Bortoletto
eighth, Franco Colapenzo ninth,
and Pierre Gasly tenth.
Bortoletto in the Audi, in eighth place.
Nice John. In 11th,
Oscar Piastri followed by Oliver
Bergman, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez
and Kimi Antonelli ending
up 15th behind them.
Valtteri Bottas Carlos signs with his
one lap penalty.
Fernando Lazo, 18th. Lance
Stroll, 19th.
And then the DNFs of Max Verstappen,
Alex Albon and Nico Holkenberg,
who we didn't talk about, and I didn't see
what happened to him, but he...
He brought out a VSC.
There was a brief VSC.
We skipped over it, but he parked
inside cops, told the team was told
to shut off the car.
The only one who got advantage by that
was Max, lap 39 getting
a VSC pit stop.
Great. Thank you. Thank you, Rob.
All right.
Let us take it to...
You know what? Before we take it to...
We need to reach championship standings now, don't we?
That's right. That's right. We do.
The situation has changed a bit.
I told you. I told everyone
two months ago, I said
stop with this. He's running away
with it nonsense. All you need is
a couple of bad, a couple
engine problems, a couple of weekends
and those 50 points disappear.
We're not even halfway through the season.
No.
Kimmy Antonelli is still on top
with 179 points, but
George Russell now in second
with 154.
Louis Hamilton is in third with 147
and Charle Claire in fourth
with 108.
Lando Norris is in fifth with 97
followed by Oscar Piastri with 82.
Max Verstappen is in seventh
with 76, followed by
Azacajar with 52.
Pierre Gasly is ninth
with 42 points, followed by
Liam Lawson in tenth with
39. By the way, if you noticed
that's two by two
by two by two.
Mercedes Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull
drivers.
Arvid Lindblad 11th with 20.
Oliver Bearman and Franco Colpinto
tied on points at 18.
Gabriela Bordoletto is 14th
with 6, same as Carlos
Sainz. Alex Albon is 16th
with 5, Esteban Ocan has 3
and Fernando Alonso has 1.
Then we've got Hülkenberg, Bottas, Peres
and Stroll with 0 points apiece.
In the team standings
Mercedes is on top with
333, then we've got Ferrari
with 255, McLaren with 179
and Red Bull with 128.
Alpine is in fifth
with 60 points, one point ahead
of Racing Bowls in sixth.
Gina Hassan team have 21 points
Williams in eighth with 11
Audi in ninth with 6
Aston Martin in tenth with 1
and Cadillac still with 0.
In the fantasy standings
which you can join using the link
in the show notes.
Okay, fantasy.
The British Grand Prix podium looks
like this. In third
Audi's nuts.
Surprised we've never heard that one.
It's pretty good. In second
I Hassan Idea
and in first
Lando Blando
but overall we have
in third, oh dropping down
this week, cigarettes.
In second
Fan Amp Fantasy HQ
and in first
the Macarena
it will never die.
No, they were playing during
one of the breaks to Hadressillon
in the World Cup
you can hear him
in the stadium.
People love it. Okay, now
let us take it to the nearers.
Rob
we're still talking VAs.
We are.
Love that to me to juice.
That is the direction things are moving.
A few more details just emerged
about where the FIA is at with this.
Ben Slane
was talking about this.
One of the interesting parts
of this is
one thing
F1 is looking at doing is
creating an off the shelf engine manufacturer
not going to a stock engine
not going to a spec engine for the series
but making it so that
you don't have to go to one of the other teams
to buy your engine there would be
a stock engine say like
Cosworth that makes a V8
power unit for those
regulations so that
teams that don't have
their own engine programs
will have a non-affiliated
partner they can go to
to get engines from
which actually is one of those line squirrel
finding in not situations
where I'm like that doesn't seem like a bad idea.
It
sort of
pointed at resolving some
of the political tensions that arise
between teams when they are dependent
on another team
for their power units it also
addresses some of the weirdness with
you know the word that
Mercedes basically dropped the
pieces of the engines off to
McLaren this year and was like
figure it out
and drove off
yeah like minimum documentation
you know
it's like getting a Nintendo dev kit
yeah like very much
we delivered all the parts of the power unit
that we were obliged to we just didn't give
you any of the like customer service
that makes it easy to sort
of plug into your car so it
addresses some of that these directions
are all in French
the other hope
is that it will
you know with a move
toward greater
internal combustion power
you will have more teams that have like
bailed on making their own
engines maybe tempted to get back into it
Zach Brown has
said that something with McLaren would
seriously consider
I don't know that seems like
seriously consider a lot of things
but engine
development costs are enormous
tell you who's not buying is Alpine
we're very clear
we killed that engine unit
we ain't bringing it back you can do
whatever you want we're not
building engines the other thing this
ties into is there's a couple other
things they pointed out they're trying to work through
what role do turbos play
with the system
how turbo dependency
do you want it to be and then
do you bring back refueling
because if you're increasing the amount
of
internal combustion power you're using
then necessarily you're going to need
more fuel to run that
which means you're saving weight
by reducing the battery dependence
and maybe the battery size but now you're
pumping more fuel into the car
so if you actually want
to reduce the weight of the cars which is
one of the main reasons this entire conversation
started then
you maybe need to consider bringing back
refueling so that
you can keep the
stat that the race has is
the 200 liter tank in
2010 was 150 kilograms
and F1 is fighting
to get the car they're
trying to knock 100 kilograms off the car
and the easiest place
they can make that up is the battery
but you
take battery weight out and suddenly
you're looking at fuel weight plus
the manufacturer has been very clear
it's got to be partially electrified
if they're going to stay involved
so
the VA thing is not a return
to like
some sort of naturally aspirated
golden age that F1 is trying to get into
it's more
trying to resolve some of the tensions
that have built up with the turbo hybrid
unit but the most interesting part I think
is the notion that you have
an unaffiliated engine supplier
that like teams
the Williams's
and the Haas's of the world could go work with
that's really interesting
yeah
I will keep
following this story
just because I'm very
interested in seeing how this shapes out
but of course we will also bring you
any updates
that there are
this is just some
proposed idea
at this stage
proposed but becoming increasingly real
like the VA thing is happening apparently
like that is just a
we're going to VA in a couple years
it's what
is the shape of those rigs going to look like
but everyone is basically signed on with it
so that appears to be
be a done deal
we're now certainly negotiating what
that all looks like
one
quick news hit something I'd missed
I don't know if anyone else caught it but apparently
Lewis exercised an option
to stay at Ferrari that was on his contract
and after Barcelona
Mercedes exercised an option on George's contract
to retain him
and so
for a change because we know how
I think it's more interesting the Mercedes side of it
we know that
Wolf loves to
play the Dread Pirates
and Voltaire never got
a multi-year extension
he's been very stingy about that with George
he was quick on the trigger this year
in a year where George has
you know hit some
has had a rougher year than I think we were expecting
maybe this was
the other side of Wolf trying to motivate
with a vote of confidence
or maybe it's just that
he feels like he's got his guy in Kimi
and he doesn't want to rock the boat
he likes this lineup
and so he is
abandoning the Max for stopping sweepstakes
it looks like
okay
and then Rob
one more bit of
driver movement news
they're not in Formula One
IndyCar Minute
there's a McLaren connection
it's just interesting I don't know
I can't quite figure it all out
at the end of an era
Scott Dixon is leaving
Ganassi Racing and going
to Aero McLaren
Scott Dixon
is one of the
winningest drivers
in IndyCar history
he's one of the all-time greats and in a lot of ways
his heir has been his teammate
Alex Palau
who has a similar sort of meticulous driving style
and the ability to optimize
every race to an insane degree
but he's leaving Ganassi, he's heading to McLaren
and that's McLaren then
saying goodbye to Alex Lungard
who's been one of their
top drivers
so it's kind of an odd maneuver because
Dixon
it doesn't seem like it's a hostile divorce
but Dixon's at an odd point in his career
because he's
frankly old as hell
and things haven't been amazing at Ganassi
so I'm kind of curious like
why McLaren is
bringing him in, it might just be to have
sort of the old veteran presence on the team
but
it's an interesting maneuver
mostly because like
Dixon seemed to have one of those
like, you know, I'm going to have this job
until I want to retire
situation and that was kind of a
pretty sharp turn
likewise McLaren
had a really good lineup of Lungard
in it and they've
decided to let him go
fully knowing that like he's going to be a top prospect
for other teams so
interesting maneuvers in IndyCarland
some long standing
fixtures of the grid being shaken up
and you know
to touch on some F1 stuff here
maybe we can talk about 500
Felix Rosenquist also going
to McLaren as well
did you
have we talked about the Indy500 or did we
spoiler free that?
We did? Was I on that podcast?
No. I don't think I was
that was very cool to see
I mean crazy last lap
crazy push to the end
and look anytime
a Formula 1 head
manages to pull off a big win at Indy
I think is something I'll
cheer behind but yeah that was
that was a crazy crazy ending
Yeah, there's a good extended highlights
of the race on
IndyCar YouTube channel
Nice one, yeah very cool
Last
one here Rob you flag this to me
Speaking of electrification
and the weird
It's so weird
situation we find ourselves
in with teams trying to
wrap their heads around what's the best way to get around
a lap with so much battery
and I don't
fully understand this I'll put a link to the
the Autosport article in the show notes
but I think what's happening here is
so remember when we were talking about
like when a car is
harvesting energy
it's got so much to do now
that it can be very very slow
on a lap and that
speed difference can be dangerous
if you have a car going really slow and
you know you got Piastri coming around the corner on Call of Pinto
he might have to bail off track and that's
we don't want that so part
of what happens is that
when the battery is
getting depleted
it tapers
so you don't have
you don't have
100% of your battery flow
happening and then it just shuts off
because then your internal combustion engine
has to take over and then because
it can't keep up
your car will slow very
dramatically and so
there's a taper to the battery deployment
when you're getting
to the end of it
in qualifying you might not
want that because if you think about getting
to the end of your lap
you don't want the taper
to start happening
so I think
what's what Mercedes
is doing here
is they're instructing their
drivers to lift
before
the end of the lap in qualifying
so that the taper doesn't
happen
yeah
thereby lifting
off the gas pedal
you are completing the lap
faster than if you had kept it
yes yeah which seems
very counterintuitive for
a driver but because of the mandated
roll-off curve right
right that's so
I think that's what's happening
again on their own
I think autosport is doing a good job explaining it
here but
there's a graph in everything
the autosport article is basically written
like an Ikea
set for toddlers
where they're like okay here's a problem
here's the next problem
here's the next thing you need to know about
and this is what they're doing
okay yeah because it's so
bizarre and weird but
look the drivers have said these cars are so
weird to drive and counterintuitive
and they're getting a lot of simulator time
apparently to try to figure this stuff out
well Hamilton probably not as much
as before
and then one last
quick hit here
if you're wondering when is Aston Martin going to get good
we might have an answer
and good of course being subjective
we're getting
an upgraded chassis in Hungary
and then an upgraded engine
at Zandvoort
Nui's been out there blaming
old
Excel spreadsheets for
the problems Aston Martin
yeah exactly
alright well
speaking of the digital
you can send us an email if you like
shift up on podcast at gmail.com or f1.cool
slash email so you can also hit us up on the socials
that's us around the internet should we take it around the world Danny
let's race around the world
alright the Goodwood Festival of Speed
is happening this upcoming weekend
which is a good four days
of old cars
new cars going up a hill
love some good wood
yep
we've got the Repco Supercars
in
Townsville
in nation
country
planet world
planet world that's good
in I think Queensland
QLD Queensland
by the way sounds like Danny you were right
the Northern Territory
is what that previous abbreviation was
right
they were trying to come up with a name for their Northern Territory
that's what they came up with
the Northern Territory I don't think anyone lives
is Darwin even in the Northern Territories
I don't know
well you know some of our originals
maybe
we are in
Oberlundwitz, Germany
for the MotoGP
Soxen Ring round
the World Superbike Championship
is in Castle
Donnington
Tocatoren cars I know it well
we've got the Craftsman
Trucks in Lakeville, Connecticut
at Lime Rock Park
Lakeville
come on
almost as bad as Townsville
Townsville
the NASCAR O'Reilly series
I'm sorry
the Craftsman Truck race
is called the Leuna 150
what's Leuna
we ask this every time
yes
oh yes
almost said
NASCAR XFINITY series
that's not right
by the way I dumped XFINITY finally
I got that AT&T fiber
oh nice
oh fiber
they don't bring fiber out to me
in the fucking boonies
well I had to wait a long long time
for it Danny
why don't you get Starlink
Focused Health 250 at the Echo Park
Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
um
bleh what else
this weekend
the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
in Bowmanville, Ontario
for the
Chevrolet Grand Prix
Andy Bamenville
WEC everyone
is in Sao Paulo for the Rolex
six hours
of interlagos
wow it's like half a watch
that's right
when they cut to it on the camera feed
six pounds just the left half
see you're a dad now you have to laugh at these
that's right I can
understand
and we got Nascar
also at Echo Park Speedway
in Hampton, Georgia
for the Quaker State
400 available at Walmart
which part is
available at Walmart
the race
you can just go into a Walmart and watch it
did you see all the Aussie football fans
who went into a Walmart
I mean I've
been seeing everything
you know a lot of Europeans
coming over to America
getting excited about stuff and one of them was
Danny
I remember you saying that when you first came over
you were amazed
by yellow school buses
yes whenever people ask me about what the thing
Americans don't realize is American
I always say
yellow school buses
because they're so
American to people outside of America
but I think most Americans don't realize that they're not
common outside of America
so there is videos
of people eating hamburgers and shit
pointing at yellow school buses
it's sweet I like it
the Aussies at Walmart was good because
it was what I would call
to roll back
to 2011 or something
it was what I'd call a flash mob
do you remember that stuff
where they all just went into Walmart
and started singing songs and then
the best part I think is when security was
kicking them out and they sang
to a classic footballing
chanting tune
we're getting deported
wow which I thought was
pretty good
it's a good football chant guys
good job
amazing
alright well that's what's going on around
around
racing this weekend
Danny
I said I could change the date
but Rob was adamant
that I do not break the sanctity
of the Necromicon
you don't want to bring a curse upon our house
that's a good point yeah
Joe Schessler was a popular French
racing driver in the 1960s
who had most of his success in sports
car racing when Honda offered him
their experimental
magnesium ore 302
for the 1968 French GP
at Rowan on this day
he couldn't refuse despite
the fact regular Honda tester John
30s had declined to use the car
saying it was not ready and
potentially dangerous
on lap 2
he was proved right when Schessler
lost control hit a bank and
the car overturned and caught fire
he was unable to escape from the
flames and was killed
he was the 4th driver to die that
season
after Jim Clark
Mike Spence and
Lodovico Scarfiotti
when his friend
Guy Lager later became
a constructor he prefixed all
of his cars with JS
in memory of Schessler
meanwhile the race continued
and was drawn by Belgian
Jackie eggs in a Ferrari
his first victory in only
his 9th Grand Prix
different times
yeah
magnesium
yeah
so the metal itself caught fire
too
can do that
I fear it may have
that's like putting hydrogen in
a zeppelin
that's grim
I'm gonna go with ignorance's
bless on the details of that one
yeah alright well thanks Danny
you're welcome my children
see you next week on shift F1
final thoughts
Danny
a bit of a week off until Spa
we'll have the
pre-race next week
Spa's gonna be interesting
we're gonna run out of battery there
there's a lot of
uphill
there's a lot of
there's some downhill but those breaking
zones aren't that crazy in Spa
the only one is really the
chicane at the end
you're not really
breaking for much of that
I guess in the start of sector 2
the end of the
what's that straight called again
the one up on top of the hill
you're talking about a rouge are you
we record the straight after a rouge
after Radion
up there I forget though
sorry folks we record these very early
I'm looking ahead to
my Belgium ratings
by the way
I was thinking about giving
this Silverstone race a 2
what do you guys think? oh yeah this is 2
this is 2 territory for me
although
I will say I think
some of what we're experiencing now
is this sort of
shuffling of the
the teams into their slots
like a lot of the early
excitement like some of these
teams are off the pace like we're
really not having
maybe it was midfield
battles we were having last year
driver standings are also 100% it's
nose on 2w2
it's gotten a little deterministic
yeah I think we're not getting a lot of
the midfield stuff
so maybe across
yeah I don't know it's funny
when Aston Martin gets their upgrades guys
it's gonna
be a real yeah
I guess we'll see
it's a newie day
that's beautiful
there you go that's his new
if you want to go straight his book for him go ahead
uh
final thoughts Rob
that was it
alright well
if you'd like to support the show
coming to Netflix
all of our bonus episodes
the early ad 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
weekend everyone we will see you all
next week
you
About this episode
Silverstone’s weekend delivered plenty of drama, starting with the British GP sprint: Lewis Hamilton took pole, but the opening laps turned into a power-and-position chess match. Max Verstappen and George Russell traded places with multiple McLaren battles, while Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri fought hard for fifth. As battery management shaped who could attack, Antonelli eventually forced Hamilton to burn power and closed the gap. The hosts also debate whether the “yo-yo” sprint pattern dominated, concluding it was dynamic rather than dull.
We're back in Blighty for long laps, fast corners, and a Sprint Race to boot. But which direction will the winds blow?
SHOW NOTES
Autosport's explanation of Mercedes' battery tactics in qualifying
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