Engine upgrades mean the team improves the engine with new parts or settings. The goal is usually to make more power or use less fuel, while still staying within the rules.
New regulations are rule changes that affect how the race cars are built and driven. When the rules change, teams and drivers have to adjust their strategies and setups.
Ground effect is an aero trick where the car’s bottom helps pull it toward the track for grip. The “ground effect eras” are times when F1 rules made that kind of downforce especially important, so the cars handled differently.
A cost cap is a rule that limits how much money an F1 team is allowed to spend. It forces teams to be smarter about where they put their effort and upgrades. That can change how quickly teams improve from season to season.
Qualifying is the part of the weekend where drivers race to set their best lap time. Your qualifying result decides where you start on the grid for the race.
Barcelona is a famous race track in Spain that hosts Formula 1 events. The hosts are saying Hamilton has done well there before, which matters for expectations.
The hosts are discussing whether Ferrari (and by implication the wider field) can realistically fight for the 2026 Formula 1 championship. This is framed as a plausibility debate based on recent form and how long it’s been since Ferrari last mounted a serious title challenge.
Ferrari is a famous Formula 1 racing team. In this segment, the hosts are talking about whether Ferrari can realistically challenge for the championship again.
Person
Kimi Rai-gongeng
The hosts mention a name (“Kimi Rai-gongeng”) and then quickly realize they’re not talking about someone the other person recognizes. The exact driver being referenced isn’t clear from the transcript.
Compression ratio is how much an engine squeezes the fuel-air mixture inside the cylinder before it ignites. Squeezing it more can help the engine make more power and run more efficiently, but it also has limits. F1 teams tune this carefully because it affects how fast and how reliably the car can run.
Term
outright capacity
“Outright capacity” is basically the car’s top speed potential—how fast it can be when it’s at its best. It’s not about one specific moment or strategy; it’s the overall maximum performance. So the point is that those teams can reach a very high speed level consistently.
Practice sessions are the early track runs before qualifying where teams try out settings and learn how the car behaves. If the car looks “shaky” in practice, it usually means it wasn’t handling or performing as confidently as hoped yet. That’s why it matters when judging whether upgrades are working.
Term
BSC
BSC is an abbreviation the host uses to describe something that affected the race. The problem is that this snippet doesn’t say what BSC means, so we can’t be sure what specific race situation they’re referring to. You’d need the surrounding part of the episode where they define it.
F1 has rules about what engines can be built and how they can be developed. If the engine rules change, teams often have to redesign parts of the engine to keep making power within the new limits.
Term
Oduo process
The “Oduo process” sounds like a team’s step-by-step plan for developing upgrades. The point here is that even with new engine rules, they can still keep using that plan to improve the car.
Pole position means you qualify fastest and start the race from the very front. It’s a big advantage because you’re ahead of everyone else when the race begins.
George Russell is an F1 driver. In this part of the episode, he’s mentioned because he qualified fastest and started from pole position.
Person
Charlotte Clair
This sounds like a misspelling of Charles Leclerc, a Ferrari driver. The host is talking about how far behind he was in qualifying compared with the fastest driver.
Kimi Raikkonen is a famous Finnish Formula 1 race driver. He won the World Championship in 2007, and the hosts are bringing him up to remind Ferrari fans that titles can come late in the season.
Michael Schumacher is a legendary Formula 1 driver from Germany who won many championships. The hosts are using him as a reference point for when Ferrari was winning a lot.
Sebastian Vettel is a former top Formula 1 driver who won multiple World Championships. The hosts mention him because he’s part of the group of drivers who have been taking wins recently.
Mercedes is a top Formula 1 team that’s been very strong in recent years. The hosts are saying Ferrari has tried to challenge them but hasn’t managed to beat them yet.
Hamilton is a famous Formula 1 driver. They’re saying he hasn’t had a DNF yet, and they’re debating whether Mercedes’ race strategy could have changed the result.
DNF means the driver didn’t finish the race. In Formula 1, that usually happens because of a problem or an accident, and it usually means they don’t score points.
Toto Wolff is the top leader for Mercedes in Formula 1. Here, they’re talking about what he said about how Mercedes handled their race strategy and what it might mean for future races.
In Formula 1, “strategy” is how the team plans the race—like when to pit and how to manage tires. They’re saying Mercedes may have chosen a plan that made it harder to win.
“Bouncy” describes a car that oscillates vertically due to suspension and aerodynamic load changes, often making it harder to keep consistent tire contact. In eras with different aero behavior, some drivers adapted better than others to that ride/traction instability.
Side pods are the side sections of the F1 car’s body. They’re not just for looks—on many cars they help manage airflow and cooling, which can affect grip and handling.
F1 wings are the aerodynamic parts that push the car down onto the road. More downforce usually means better cornering grip, but the car can feel different depending on how much the wings vs the underfloor are doing.
The battery management system is the car’s brain for the hybrid battery. It controls how the battery charges and delivers power, and if it doesn’t feel smooth, the driver can struggle to use the power the way they want.
Charles Leclerc is a Formula 1 race driver. Here, the hosts are talking about how well he’s doing this season and whether he can improve his driving to avoid mistakes.
Singapore refers to the Singapore Grand Prix, a street circuit known for tight corners and heavy braking zones. The host uses it as a point in the season to judge whether Leclerc’s results and DNFs could swing the championship.
Overdrive means driving harder than the car can really manage. If you push too much, you can lose grip or make mistakes, so you have to drive more smoothly and within the car’s limits.
An “overdriver” is someone who drives too aggressively for what the car can safely handle. The host is saying Leclerc sometimes pushes harder than the car’s grip allows.
Miami refers to the Miami Grand Prix, a modern F1 street circuit with a mix of long straights and technical corners. The host points to an incident on the final lap there as a self-inflicted points loss for Leclerc.
A braking zone is the section of the track where drivers slow down a lot before a turn. If one driver brakes later or more effectively, they can carry more speed through the corner and be faster overall.
Austria is where the next Formula 1 race is happening. The track there can reward drivers who brake well, so they’re using it as a test of whether Leclerc’s braking-related pace issues will show up.
Pierre Gasly is an F1 driver. In this episode, they explain how a penalty related to pit lane speed was appealed and ultimately overturned, restoring his podium finish in Monaco.
Car
Alpine
Alpine is the Formula 1 team. Here, they successfully challenged a penalty that affected Pierre Gasly’s finishing position in Monaco.
Timing loops are sensors on the track that measure how fast a car goes over a specific stretch. If the measured distance is wrong, the speed calculation can be wrong too.
Monaco is a famous F1 race on city streets. It’s very tight and hard to overtake, so small problems can hurt a team a lot.
Term
meter wheels
F1 teams use special measuring tools to check distances very precisely. The point is that even small measurement differences can change how things work or whether rules are followed.
“Rights of review” in F1 are the official procedures that allow teams to challenge certain decisions or results using evidence (like timing/telemetry, measurements, or officiating records). The host is implying that the outcome was surprising given how review processes work.
A drive-through penalty means the driver has to go through the pit lane without stopping. Because the pit lane is slower, it makes them lose time. It’s a punishment for breaking race rules.
A black flag is a signal from race control telling the driver to stop racing and go back to the pits. It usually means something is wrong with the car or the driver has broken a rule. It’s a serious instruction that teams can’t just ignore.
A “knock-on” effect means one problem causes other problems afterward. In racing, one penalty can change strategy and finishing positions for multiple drivers. So the impact spreads beyond just the driver who got the penalty.
A time penalty is when race officials add extra time to a driver’s race result. Even a few seconds can drop you several places if other cars are close together.
A safety car is a car that comes out to slow everyone down and keep the track under control. When it shows up, the race gets reorganized and it can change who benefits from penalties.
“Margins” here means how much time or space you have over the cars around you. If you’ve got a cushion, you can drive a bit slower without dropping places.
A pit stop is when the car pulls into the pits during the race to do things like tire changes. It’s a big deal because it can cost time and also affects where you rejoin the track.
A “five second penalty” is when race officials add five seconds to your time (or make you serve it in the pits). It’s a way to punish a rule breach, and it can drop you back in the race.
In F1, “traffic” means being stuck behind other cars that you can’t easily overtake. It increases lap time because you can’t run your ideal racing line and may be forced to brake earlier or wait for gaps.
A black-and-white flag is a warning shown to a driver during a race. It usually means “we’ve noticed something—stop doing it or it could get worse.” If the driver keeps repeating the issue, they can be hit with a bigger penalty.
A safety button is a control meant to make the car safe quickly after an accident. In this case, it turns the car off so officials can deal with it safely.
FP2 means the second Free Practice session of a race weekend. Teams use FP2 to test setup and reliability, so a failure that prevents continuing can strongly affect their preparation.
A sporting penalty is something that changes how you do in the race, like a grid position drop. Here, they got a fine, but it didn’t directly alter their race result.
The Nürburgring is a well-known racing track in Germany. It’s famous for being long and complicated, so incidents can affect only part of the track. That’s why officials can sometimes warn drivers with localized yellow flags instead of slowing everyone everywhere.
In F1, the stewards are the officials who review incidents and apply the sporting regulations. They can issue penalties for things like unsafe driving, ignoring flags, or failing to comply with procedures such as VSC. Their decisions are often based on onboard footage, timing data, and trackside reports.
Yellow flags mean there’s a problem on the track ahead, so you have to slow down and drive carefully. You should be ready to react quickly if something is in your way. Race officials expect you to show you noticed the warning by slowing appropriately.
VSC means “Virtual Safety Car.” It’s how race control slows everyone down when there’s danger on track, but without sending the real Safety Car out. Drivers have to follow speed limits in the affected areas.
A “delta” is basically a time gap number. It tells you how much faster or slower you are compared to a reference point. Under VSC, it helps drivers stay within the required slowdown.
Micro sectors are tiny sections of the track used to time cars more precisely. Instead of just “sector 1/2/3,” they break it down further so you can see exactly where time is being made or lost.
Penalty points are like a warning system for driving incidents. If you get enough points, you can end up with a bigger punishment, such as missing a race.
“Race conditions” means what it’s like during the real race, not a test session. Cars may feel different because of tire wear, traffic, and the way other cars affect your speed, so passing can be tougher.
In racing, “overtake” means passing another car. It usually takes a good chance—like braking later, exiting a corner faster, or using the draft—because you can’t just pass anywhere.
Silverstone is a well-known race track in the UK that hosts Formula 1. It’s special because it mixes fast sections with slower, harder braking corners, so it shows how well a car handles in different situations.
“Revised regs” means revised racing regulations—rule changes that can alter car design, aerodynamic behavior, and how teams optimize for qualifying and race pace. In F1, even small regulation changes can significantly affect cornering speeds, tire wear, and overtaking opportunities.
Maggots and Beckett’s is a famous set of corners at Silverstone. Drivers have to stay smooth and keep the car stable while going fast, because it affects how well they can accelerate and set up the next section.
Tyre wear means the tires get worse as you drive them harder and longer. When tires wear out, they lose grip and you start going slower. Teams plan their race around how fast that happens.
Overtaking is when one driver passes another. Whether it’s easy or hard depends on how well the cars can brake and stick to the road, and how the tires are holding up. If passing looks likely, the race can turn into a lot of position battles.
Spa is a well-known Formula 1 race track in Belgium. It’s famous for being tricky and fast, and the lap is often broken into parts (“sectors”) to explain where cars are strong or weak.
In F1, “power unit” means the whole engine system that makes the car go. It includes the turbo engine and the hybrid/electric parts that store and reuse energy.
“Grand Effect era” is a time in F1 when the car’s floor helped create a lot of downforce, basically pressing the car to the track. The host is saying that in that period, they didn’t really get many dry races.
They’re talking about a Formula 1 race in Brazil and how the track layout affects how drivers race. Because there are lots of braking turns and limited room for error, it can turn into a very intense, high-pressure event.
These are corners where braking is the most important part of going fast. If you brake too late or the car isn’t balanced right, you’ll struggle to turn in and you’ll lose time (or make a mistake).
Over-steer is when the back of the car slides out more than you want while turning. It usually happens when the rear tires don’t have as much grip as the front tires.
“Deploy all battery” refers to using the car’s electric energy (from the battery) at a specific point on track for maximum acceleration or performance. In modern F1, this is tied to energy management—drivers can’t always use full battery power continuously.
LIVE
Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday.
Hello and a very warm welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hawking, on What Is Sadly?
Not an F1 week for the first time in a couple of weeks, but you're right, Sam.
You're saying booers?
I was saying booers.
Yeah, we've got a week's break until we get to the Austrian GP, but the good news is we've got a bit of time now to talk about some things that haven't had the time to talk about until now.
Yeah, it's unusual that we've got so much Formula One to talk about. I can't breathe for Formula One after that long spring break that we had to get through with the removal, of course, of Bahrain and Saudi, but now we've had so much going on that we've got to catch up on some topics.
So we've got some good shuffling points to get through.
We do. Just before we start, very, very quickly, do you have a sweepstake at work for the World Cup?
We do.
So I've got a spinner in front of me here. We haven't got a late breaking.
Is this a late breaking sweepstake?
All right. Here we go.
This is your team.
This is your team.
All right.
Who have I got?
Katar, mate.
Here's who I get, though.
Could be better.
Could be worse.
Oh, I get the Netherlands, so I'm doing all right.
Sorry, mate.
I think you might have won this week's break last week.
So whoever gets further out of the Netherlands and Katar actually wins £10,000.
We haven't got that much money to give away.
You are so right.
Shall we talk about some F1 things?
We're going to do a top five later on.
Our top five remaining races of the season.
We've got Gasly's third place being reinstated.
Obviously, that was announced towards the back end of last week,
but we haven't had the chance to talk about that on the podcast yet.
But let's start out with Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, because after the Barcelona, Catalonia GP,
Hamilton now trails Antonelli by 41 points in the Drivers' Championship
as a team, Ferrari Trail Mercedes, by 72 points.
When asked about the possibility of fighting for a championship,
Hamilton said, it's not over.
That's for sure.
It's his immediate post-Barcelona reaction.
So is a Drivers or a Constructors' Championship a possibility?
I mean, yeah.
Yeah, if we're going to talk factually, yes, it's a possibility, because they haven't lost it yet.
It's mathematically possible.
They haven't lost yet, have they, right?
The same for us, the mind.
It's like, say, in theory, the same for us.
You're Martin Kagalak, Williams, all the way through to Ferrari and even Mercedes.
No one has won either title yet, so mathematically possible.
Is it plausible?
Yeah, it is.
I just think that they maybe have asked him a little too soon.
Wait for the Hopium levels to come down a little bit.
Yeah, let's turn those off, please.
Thank you.
Oh, God, I can breathe again.
I'm more Hopium for me, just normal oxygen.
Yes, the car is good, right?
The car has been developed well.
We had a great step forward for Ferrari when it came to Barcelona.
But it's one event.
It's a one-off.
They work better at Monaco.
They work better at Japan.
They work better at Miami.
The engine has improved to be slower.
There's more negatives than there are positives
when it comes to Versys Mercedes right now.
They've got one wing.
Mercedes have, what, six?
It's more than one.
There you go.
Six, yeah.
More than one.
Kim Yatongami alone has more than every other team combined.
So it's, look, I understand the reasons to be positive.
And I am more than most ecstatic that Lewis Hamilton
is seemingly back to a strong pathway in Formula One.
But we're basing this on such a small group of analysis,
you know, of events to take place.
And let's see Austria.
Let's see Silverstone.
If we ask that question at the summer break,
and let's say Ferrari, not just Hamilton, but Ferrari,
have one, I don't know, two of the next five.
Okay.
I could start to see why you might be getting the information
from the Euro process coming in.
They might bring some engine upgrades in.
They might continue the development of the car.
Hamilton might continue to become more comfortable
with these new regulations.
So he definitely is better with the new regs
and the old ground effect eras.
He hated the ground effect eras.
But nonetheless, it's one of them.
And I really love the Hopium Ferrari fans.
Lewis Hamilton fans, I respect it.
But I'm just going to turn that dial down on the hob.
Let's go back to a simmer.
Let's not boil over just yet.
Come on.
This is where I think it's important to know
this discussion that we're having now.
We're just talking about the possibilities
of what can and might happen.
And I see all your comments on the internet.
As soon as we say something and speculate about something,
that immediately means we've predicted it.
It's not true.
We're just saying what...
If you're a Ferrari fan,
what are the reasons that you might be positive right now?
If you're not a Ferrari fan,
here are maybe the reasons why you don't have to be worried.
Just presenting some arguments here.
I think it's a possibility at this point.
And we have been saying all year, to be fair to us,
we've been saying all year that in 2026,
there are a lot of moving parts that are going to keep moving.
We've got a duo that's yet to take effect.
The compression ratio issue that has already been somewhat...
Just kicked in.
Yeah, just kicked in.
We've got an ongoing cost cap.
We've got frequent, very meaningful upgrades coming from all teams.
There's still a lot of development to do.
And of course, we've already had some rule changes,
not only for this year, but for also ensuing years too.
My point is that where we had 2014,
and we had Mercedes utterly dominant that season,
and it was allowed to carry on for multiple years,
not saying it's not possible for Mercedes to do that again.
It's not going to be as easy.
There are things in effect, particularly the cost cap and a duo right now,
they're going to struggle to stay ahead to the same extent that they did back then.
So in that respect, I can understand why, if you're a Ferrari fan,
there might be reason to be at least optimistic you can stay in this fight.
In terms of the constructors championship, 72 points.
It's a substantial deficit.
It's not massive at this point of the year,
especially the constructed side of things.
Yes, McLaren were over 100 points down in 2024.
And if you were, if you managed to get some sort of combination
of rejuvenated 2026 Lewis Hamilton,
and any other time, but 2026, Charles Leclerc, apparently,
that is a serious combination to be reckoned with.
So 72 points, by the way, it's five points per race weekend
from here until the end of the year, assuming we get 22 races this season.
It's not, it's not massive.
So I think Ferrari, at least in the constructors championship,
in an okay sport, and this is another point that we kind of stressed quite a bit, is that
we knew that a duo was happening when just let's take the gap between Japan and Miami,
when we had way too much time to talk about everything.
Right. We were saying a lot that Ferrari in this first part of the season
just need to keep things close as they can.
They're not going to win races.
And they did, I think.
I agree with you.
They did a pretty good job of just limiting the damage
to the point where if upgrades work, if the engine gets better,
and we still don't know that it will,
they will be in a position where it's not too big of a gap to do something about it.
72 points, I think, is a reasonable job from them so far.
Lewis Hamilton has been in the top six in every race.
It's been consistent.
And the qualifying gets better as well.
And I just think if you, to put that into context,
those points that you spoke about there,
if Ferrari go and have 12 finishes, and Mercedes finish 34
it'll only take five grand prix for that to be overhauled, right?
It really, but basically by the summer break, will have overhauled that lead.
So it really isn't impossible to see the class stepping back to its normal capabilities,
which I think is more than enough to pick up a first or a second if the car is there,
and Lewis Hamilton, if he's as good as he was in every other Grand Prix at Barcelona,
they'll have a field day.
He's going to have a great time this season.
So it genuinely is plausible, not impossible at all, definitely plausible,
that we do have a bit of a fight on our hands.
So let's say at the moment I am, I'm a random Ferrari fan,
and I'm going to use some excellent podcaster whose opinion I trust greatly.
Too kind. It's random listener, too kind.
Convince me, why can we do it?
There you go. That's the first problem.
I'm filled with enthusiasm, and I know we can do it now. Thank you.
The issue is your Ferrari, right? That's your big problem.
If you put a nondescript name and sticker over this team,
then there's every chance, actually, you can have the best time ever,
but you are Ferrari, and you haven't won something for essentially two decades at this point.
But on the first try.
I'm a young person. I don't remember on the season, so it's fine.
Kimi Rai-gongeng. Do you remember him?
I don't know who that is.
Oh, no. Disaster. 2007? Have you heard of that?
What's that?
Oh, good. Numbers not being taught either. That's terrible.
Ferrari are definitely in the most positive form they've had since probably 2024,
and then before that, 2018, maybe, maybe 2017 even,
which is the last time they really mounted a proper title challenge.
And you might be thinking, we're only 67 grand per year into this season.
How can you say that?
The tides are already shifting in Ferrari's favour, I think.
This compression ratio, I'm bleeding all about it.
I feel like I've talked about it more than literally all in the world,
but it's genuinely going to make a difference.
The speed that both Red Bull and Mercedes are able to deliver in the outright capacity,
and any knock for these big teams is a proper knocking performance.
And Ferrari, they're not victims of this.
They do not have to do this, so therefore, they haven't got to develop anything.
They haven't got to spend anything. They haven't got to change anything.
Maybe they can focus on progression.
And what have we seen at Barcelona?
Progression, eight upgrades.
As many as eight going on that car at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Sorry, Catalunya Barcelona Grand Prix.
That's never going to get old.
And they delivered. It worked.
It looked shaky in the practice sessions.
The qualifying looked not great.
The car crashed. We couldn't see the overall finish there.
But Hamilton did, in the end, deliver well.
And then the race, we're all arguing it.
There's a real chance that Hamilton could have won that Grand Prix,
even without the BSC taking part.
So, realistically, that's a great start for them.
You look forward now.
They're still within the cost cap budget.
The changes to the engine regulations are not voiding the Oduo process.
And because the power they're getting out of the engine seems less.
But actually, they're getting two upgrades this year.
Two upgrades next year.
There is every chance that come the end of 2027.
Ferrari will have the best engine on the grid as well.
So, if it's not this year, and they can keep improving the chassis
the same way that they have been,
there's a real chance that they can have the ultimate package
showing into the next year.
I'm going to add, for you Ferrari fans out there,
two other forms of maybe optimism.
Firstly, and this kind of speaks to what you said earlier
about the progression throughout the year.
So, and I mean that in both qualifying and races.
Remember back to Australia, which I know sounds like it was a long time ago.
In terms of number of races, it wasn't actually that long ago at all.
In Australia, qualifying,
Charlotte Clair was eight tenths behind George Russell,
who was on pole position.
Lewis Hamilton, that was about one second.
Oh, that's such a big gap in Formula One.
It is.
By the time we get to Miami, that gap is about four tenths.
So, much better.
But even then, we had Lando Norris take sprint pole,
and we had Max Verstappen be on the front row of the main grid.
So, both Red Bull and McLaren, at that point,
were offering more of a threat to Mercedes in terms of qualifying.
And then we get to Barcelona, and you're right,
we only see this on one car rather than both.
But Lewis Hamilton is within half a tenth of Russell's pole time.
That is a lot of progression from where they were.
Three tenths clear of another Mercedes.
Yes, absolutely.
A lot better than where they were at the beginning of the year.
In races as well, Charlotte Clair has led 35 laps this year,
and has had no hope of keeping it.
Keeping the lead.
Lewis Hamilton had no problem with that at all in Barcelona.
So, I think the way in which they've progressed
throughout the season is one thing to focus on.
The other thing, and I know we don't want to get ahead of ourselves here
in terms of a championship fight, because it is one Grand Prix.
The good news is, it is a very representative Grand Prix, Barcelona.
I went back and had a look at some of the numbers here.
It's a really good indicator in that 2014 to 2021,
Mercedes, who won the Constructors' Championship in every single year in that span,
they won every single Spanish Grand Prix in that span,
with the exception of the 2016 race,
which they probably would have won if they didn't crash into each other.
They were already two seconds clear when they took each other out.
I think they would have been fine.
2022 to 2024, Verstappen won three in a row.
He also won the Drivers' Championship in those years.
And even last year, appreciating Piastri didn't go on to win the Drivers' title,
but McLaren did go on to win the Constructors' Championship.
So it's quite a good track record.
It's almost like the, to give a US politics reference,
it's almost like the Ohio of F1, in that it's the Bellweather Circuit.
Basically, whoever Ohio chooses to be president usually ends up being president.
It's got this ridiculous track record, apart from like 2020, which...
Ohio. I know we haven't met before, but I think we could be great friends.
Game respect game.
I'll see you, Ohio, and I'll respect what you do.
So Barcelona, similar to that, kind of a Bellweather track for F1.
If you get a Barcelona, you'll probably be good elsewhere.
So like the anti-Monaco, the anti-Mexico, we're often,
we'll see an outlier go on to win that Grand Prix, where here,
this is kind of the rung of the mill.
If you're winning this one, you can win a lot of them.
All right, bad news, Sam. I've actually left and someone else has joined.
I actually hate Ferrari, but I still do value your opinion.
So tell me, why shouldn't I get ahead of myself?
Why shouldn't Ferrari fans get ahead of themselves here?
I want to see them fail. Tell me why they will.
Oh, well, they haven't won anything for two decades.
I know that 2007 is a long time ago,
and maybe you, young man, don't know what 2007 looks like.
But there was a lovely Finnish man called Kimi Raikkonen,
and he would do things like go assist with a boat, if he wasn't...
So before you're going to say something like that, Sam.
No, there's some lies we won't cross on the show.
And he managed to win a title on the last race of the season in 2007.
Before that, you had the great Michael Schumacher,
but since then, they have seen very, very little success.
Almost no wins, realistically.
They've only had four race winners in the last 12 years, I believe it is.
That is, of course, now Lewis Hamilton, Charlotte Clair,
Carlos Sainz, Angstavass, even Vettel.
Kimi Raikkonen, I'm not repeating,
he won, obviously, effectively in the first sting of his career.
That means they've had very limited success.
They've grown up against Mercedes.
Twice they went competitive against them, they lost.
They went up against Red Bull, they lost.
They went up against McLaren, they lost.
That was thanks to Canada as well,
because they definitely would have won it
if they didn't throw Canada into the mix.
Every time that Ferrari put under some kind of pressure to perform
and outperform someone in the development race,
they have lost in the last 20 years.
They have had poor management, poor communication,
no understanding of where the team direction should be.
Their CEO likes to throw slander at the team itself.
They like to change over who their team principal is every two years.
This is the first time that there's even been a glimmer
of some consistent hope for about four years at Ferrari.
So, realistically, if we're going to play the odds and play the averages,
you are more likely to see Ferrari fail over the next few Grand Prix
than you are to out-develop Mercedes.
You've done a very good job of summarising my bullet point, which was history.
Yeah. History does repeat.
That pretty much explains it.
The only things I would add in terms of why you might be more pessimistic
about Ferrari at the moment, Antonelli obviously had the DNF in Spain.
We say the reliability bug finally got him.
He hasn't really hit Ferrari all that much this year.
That's as well. Leclerc's had a couple of problems,
but Hamilton, like Antonelli was, has been playing sailing.
I think in races, unless I'm missing something,
that was Ferrari's first reliability DNF of the year.
I think Hamilton is also the only person in the top eight to have not had a DNF yet.
Yeah. So, it might come back around at some point.
The other thing I wanted to mention, and this was actually raised on Patreon
by one of our subscribers, James, and I wanted to shout him out here
because this is a really good point.
And it's about Toto Wolff and some of his comments that were made
after the Barcelona-Catalonia GP talking about how there is a chance
that the way that they played it strategically hurt their chances of winning the Grand Prix.
Antonelli appeared quicker. They let their drivers race.
They might have been hampered by that.
And Toto Wolff is kind of referencing,
we might need to review how we go racing now.
So, my point is, where in spare, I'm not saying Hamilton probably would have won anyway,
but I think Toto Wolff and Mercedes might now be eyes wide open to the challenge.
They made it easier than they needed to.
I don't think they'll play it the same way again.
Do you want Toto Wolff also to sing after the Spanish Grand Prix?
I only want to hear it if it's in Toto Wolff's accent.
You're lucky because we've got him on the show.
So, here he is. Toto, what did you say after Spain?
Ah, he's got a girlfriend now, so I think he must be very good for him.
That's literally what he said about Lewis Hamilton.
Okay. Cheers, Toto. Appreciate that.
Yeah, useful insight.
Yeah. Last question when it comes to Ferrari.
Any concerns on the close side of the garage?
Yeah, I mean, we've seen certain eras of cars not suit certain Formula One drivers, haven't we?
You know, you look at Lewis Hamilton for the prime example here in this comparison.
The ground affected cars were not his bag.
He grew up in an era of Formula One where the cars were bouncy.
They were lairy. You had to wrestle the cars through the corners.
That's what he grew up watching as well in the late 90s, the early 2000s.
And then we got to these planting machines where the aero was created by your side pods,
your wings. And suddenly, we're at something completely different.
World ground effect cars where the floor is so important to what's going on in the way they
hug their cars. And we see him struggle.
And actually, it's very rare that we see a driver be so prominently good across all different formulas.
For example, Alonso has always gets a lot of credit for being consistently decent,
but it's also hard to give him credit for being decent when he's in the green machine at the back there.
He's under-delivering. That car's the best on the grid.
Yeah, lockstroll is actually so, so bad.
Anyway, Daniel Ricciardo is another example here.
We saw Ricciardo in the teams in that red ball.
And even in the Renault, where I think he did a pretty good job,
looked very competitive and yet the new effect comes in.
He joins McLaren. It's poor.
He then gets a chance, of course, in the junior red ball team.
It's not great again. We've seen how this affects others.
There is a chance that Charles Leclerc just isn't
gelling with the battery management system, the Lyco,
what we're going to drive it in the certain style that he likes to it being something more lairy.
I'm airing on the side of caution.
I think Leclerc is still producing enough really strong results so far this season
that I'm not feeling worried about him.
But don't get me wrong. If this continues until, let's say,
Singapore later on in the season, and he's had another couple of DNFs,
Hamilton is handily beating him, then sure, we might need to ask a couple of questions.
But Leclerc is talented enough. I think he's got what it takes.
I don't think it'll be a problem.
I'm relatively confident as well, he'll turn this around.
I think one thing that's becoming very clear in F1 in 2026 is that,
and this definitely relates to style of driving, it's you don't want to overdrive the car.
And that is something that Charles Leclerc has been guilty of.
Chronic, chronic overdriver.
He's been guilty of it a few times this season.
If he can fix that, I'm not overly worried.
Right now he's 40 points, I think, behind Lewis Hamilton in the championship.
Bad luck, and it depends if you're calling Monaco bad luck.
I am personally, but I'm not.
I appreciate opinions differ on that one.
In my book, bad luck has cost him 25 points.
And then he cost himself a further eight points with what he did in Miami on the final lap.
So some of this, again, it depends where you draw the line exactly,
but at least some of this is self-inflicted.
If he can avoid doing that to himself and he can also avoid these DNFs as well,
obviously he's the first one here in Spain, I think it will get better.
In my estimation, in terms of race pace, I think it's either 4-3 to Hamilton
or 4-3 to Leclerc.
I think it's pretty close.
It shows how similar they are.
Basically, I think it's 4-3 in one of their favours,
depending on who you think was quicker in Monaco.
And I think that can be argued.
So I think it's been very close between them,
but he needs to cut out the errors that, quite frankly, Hamilton isn't making.
I think the other difference here, the point of difference between them,
which is quite a prominent conversation topic,
and one that Ferrari are addressing are the brakes.
Clearly, Leclerc was struggling on confidence in the first few Grand Prix.
I watched the...
They liked about a ghost car replay, sometimes Formula One.
And they put out Lewis Hamilton with George Russell as the ghost car,
of course, because that was the difference in the pole lap and himself.
The ground that Hamilton makes up under brakes is phenomenal.
He's so much better in braking zones than everyone around him.
I wonder if Leclerc is losing pace in those heavy braking zones,
which if that is the case, Austria might be a tricky one for him.
Yeah, and not long to go until we find out whether they can back up that performance in Austria,
a circuit that Leclerc has a very mixed relationship with, let's say.
Yeah, yeah, not great.
Let's take a quick break.
On the other side, we're getting into Pierre Gasly and his Monaco podium being reinstated.
Welcome back, everyone.
Some news from the end of last week.
And that is that Alpine has successfully overturned the penalty
that initially cost Pierre Gasly a podium finish in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Gasly was one of five drivers handed five-second penalties
for exceeding the pit lane speed limit during the race.
However, unlike the other four drivers,
Gasly did not serve his penalty before the check and flag,
leaving the sanction open to challenge.
How did he got serve it?
How has he got punished for not serving it?
Following the race, Alpine submitted a successful right of review to the FIA.
The stewards accepted the team's argument that the shortest distance between the timing loops
used to monitor pit lane speeds had been incorrectly measured.
Prior to the race, Formula One management stated the distance was 26.92 meters,
and it was actually 0.77 shorter than that.
As a result, the speeds of drivers passing through that section of the pit lane were miscalculated.
Gasly and the other four penalized drivers had each been a judge to have exceeded the speed limit
by just 0.1 kilometers per hour.
Any surprise before we get into whether this was the correct or the incorrect decision?
Were you surprised at all by this?
Yeah, I was surprised that they actually had the...
With the FIA, with the stewards, often you don't see them almost admit a mistake.
It's very rare that we see them come out and go,
we were really wrong with this.
And one of my most enjoyable images from Monaco this year
was the Alpine mechanic walking down the pit lane with one of those meter wheels
that you roll alongside of you, clicking along meter by meter,
and they were straight out there, immediately out there trying to prove the difference.
And I'm really baffled that they let such a...
It's not like it's a tiny margin.
It's not like the length difference is 0.1 of a meter.
And you might go, all right, I can see how that's got a tiny inflection.
So it's 60 kilometers an hour.
It's actually 60.1 in your speeding.
This is nearly a meter difference here, 0.7, not nearly 0.8 of a meter.
It's quite a gap.
So I was really surprised that, one, the issue happened in the first place.
But two, it had such an impact on the Grand Prix that we saw at the likes of Alpine.
I immediately raised this as a mistake.
Yeah, and it's not a surprise that the F1 teams treat it this way,
in that you might argue, well, to be safe about these sorts of things,
every team can run one mile an hour or one kilometer an hour
below what they need to, to just have that margin.
This is F1, like you have to race right up until...
We measure to the thousands.
We measure to the thousands.
I was a bit surprised, mainly because the rights of review
is very rarely successful.
When we're talking about rights of review,
we're not talking about the decision that happens.
So in this instance, they decided that he should have the podium back.
It's actually the step before that.
It's even the chance to...
Yeah, it's the appeal.
And in most instances, the FIA will just turn around and go,
we're not even going to review this.
And that's because the FIA requires new information,
new information they didn't have at the time in order to go ahead with it.
The team has to present that to the FIA.
Most often, like a camera angle that's been caught,
that they can prove something.
But the fact that the new information is the length of the pit lane...
Well, this is my point.
It's like most of the time, the combination of F1 and the FIA,
because again, they are different,
they will have so much access to camera angles and literally anything.
That's why these rights of reviews are very rarely successful,
because there's not often anything teams can put forward, which is different.
And we have to see it, they have to see it,
because we need to make sure that people are following the rules,
which is fair enough.
But the pit lane length being nearly a meter wrong.
That's...
It makes sense for me that they have at least the FIA looked at this,
not even in terms of like Alpine and what happens with their result.
This is something that they had to look at afterwards,
because it's clearly wrong.
We had too many penalties come through.
It makes me worry that if Alpine didn't penalise...
Alpine didn't appeal this.
They wouldn't have done anything about it.
Oh, they wouldn't have done anything about it.
I have no doubt in my mind that they would not have done anything about it.
I think the next big question is,
why does this...
How has this not impacted every other team?
How have we not had a full investigation into what's going on?
Because so many things have been affected by this.
Yeah, and this comes down to the way in which you can and can't appeal penalties in F1.
As mentioned, Pierre Gasly was the only driver who didn't serve the penalty during the race.
Right, but he pitted after he got the penalty.
I'm guessing we've got this wrong and he didn't,
because I don't understand how otherwise...
Surely, yeah, because surely he should have got the same penalty as Russell at that point.
Yes, so I think we missed something in what was a very hectic race, but...
The reason why the likes of McLaren 4, Piazzarri or Ferrari for Hamilton,
it really made any difference to his race.
The reason why they didn't come forward with,
you know, we want to challenge this after the fact is that
they served the penalty during the race.
At that point, they actually can't within the rules do anything, the FIA.
Which it may immediately mean essentially for the FIA, they've got to get out of jail free card.
Yeah.
Because if everyone had served their penalty, nothing would have been done about it.
George Russell is in a world of pain, because realistically he's been giving a penalty,
and then un-served penalty for the fault of the FIA, not himself.
Yeah, which is why I don't agree with the decision personally.
As brutal of a situation as it is for Piazzarri, and I genuinely mean that,
a podium at Monaco very clearly means and meant a lot to him.
But the only reason Gazzly was in line for a podium is because before a tough decision
went his way, is because all of these other cars like Piazzarri himself pit
because he had the penalty.
So Gazzly can say it's horrible luck that I didn't get the podium.
The only reason you were competing for the podium is because the same thing that happened to you
also happened to other drivers.
So I see what you mean.
Penalties have a knocking effect, especially at a track like Monaco.
And so you can sit there.
It's like going back and changing time.
If you walk out there and you go back 10 days and I suddenly puncture my own car tyre,
that won't just knock on the fact that I've got to change my car tyre.
It means that I get to work late.
It means that maybe I missed something at work and decision isn't made.
It's all these little things that actually stack up.
And that's what's happened here to Gazzly, that he drove a great race at Monaco.
And I get why he's so gutted about the situation,
but he is looking at it only from an internal viewpoint and got a race-wide viewpoint, I think.
And again, once you've taken the penalty, there's nothing you can do about it.
So in Russell's instance, he has to serve a drive-through penalty.
And you can say that's because Mercedes messed up and they did.
But the only reason why Mercedes messed up is because he got a penalty,
for the same thing that Gazzly did.
And there's nothing that they could have done about otherwise.
If they had just ignored the drive-through penalty,
Russell gets disqualified and he has given the black flag.
And you can't rescind that either, can you?
Like, yeah.
So it's a fast-core situation.
It's really poor from the skewinging, again,
to show that they've made such a crucial error, a track like Monaco,
where the pit lane might be more crucial than the actual racetrack,
and they've made such a glaring error here.
And it has such a poor knock-on to so many people's race performances.
So, yeah, really disappointed.
Yeah, it's one of those where Gazzly can say after the...
And I get why Alpina are challenging this and why Gazzly's happy.
Like, I don't blame them at all for this, but like, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But I think this is a situation where, you know,
Gazzly was in that group of impacted drivers who were let down,
by the way, the FIA have done this.
And it's almost like Gazzly has been taken out of that group,
but that has meant the other people who are still in the group
have been disadvantaged even more than they were in the first place,
because they've seen someone get out who has suffered the same thing as them.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I think it opens the can of worms.
It's one of those things you can't really unpick now it's happened.
You'd have to do it the moment the penalty is served.
It's a mingestant, so to speak, before they serve it, which you can't do.
It's impractical if you can't do it.
Or you go, sorry, we mucked up and we have to just take it on the chin.
It's one of those where I understand time penalties and why they're in place,
but at least part of me doesn't like time penalties,
because there is at least something of an incentive
not to serve your penalty during the race and just wait until the end.
And this is another reason why you should do that,
because Gasly can challenge, whereas none of these others can.
And I don't think that's the way we ideally should want to go racing.
Whilst drive-through penalties are drastic,
and again, I understand why we have time penalties,
because you want an intermediate penalty between nothing and a drive-through.
But the good thing about a drive-through penalty
is that you have to serve it during the race,
and when it's done, it's done, and you're penalised there.
And then time penalties, you apply a five-second time penalty.
That can mean very different things, depending on where you are on track.
When you put your foot down, if you've got clean air,
or a safety car arrives in the last two laps,
it's something you think, oh, pray, I'm going to be 12th instead of third now,
because we're all backed up with each other.
Yeah. One final point on this that I just wanted to raise, actually, is,
Gassley did it again. Gassley broke this twice.
And why maybe I don't have full sympathy for Gassley is,
the first time he does this, he goes over by 0.1 kilometres.
The second time he does it, after being warned what had happened the first time,
he goes over by 0.4 kilometres, which I, sure, I don't really understand why.
But I don't know if you heard the team radio between Antonelli and Bono
on Antonelli's stop. And obviously, what was happening with Russell and the other drivers
was well known at this stage. And Bono's communication over team radio with Antonelli
is really good. And he is just like, we need to be careful. We've got cars coming across here.
We just need to be careful, which is great. And Antonelli does his pit stop.
And then on pit exit, Bono knows the gap. And Antonelli's a massive gap at this point.
And he's just like, we just need to lift from you before we get to the end of the pit line.
Just lift. I know it might not make sense at the moment. Just go a little bit slow.
We've got the margin. You don't need to worry. Just lift and slow down the car a little bit.
And that's what a lot of other teams and drivers should have been doing,
was just playing it safe where they had margins to other cars around them.
You'd rather cost yourself 0.7 of a second by lifting. Then you would five seconds,
and then having to sit around at the pit stop or get charged at the end,
or get a drive through for not serving it. The risk versus reward there is quite clear, right?
You would lift once, back on, you're fine. Especially because if you're, say you're four
seconds clear of this driver you're racing, and you want to take an extra second in the pits to
just make sure, and that's only three seconds, how does it matter at Monaco?
Especially if then they go through and they pick up a five second penalty because they don't do
that. It's just one of the, like a five second advantage at Monaco or a one second advantage
in Monaco. It's basically the same thing. You can't overtake. It doesn't matter.
That's where you praise the lights above. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
We've come through and we praise him endlessly for the way he communicates.
McLaren and, I think this is where we're at at the moment, McLaren and Red Bull have
intend to challenge this ruling. And it's, I think as of today, as we're recording this,
Mercedes are joining in on that as well. So firstly, we've managed to find something that
Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren all agree on, which is ridiculous.
Do you think they'll be successful in challenging the challenge?
I think the FIA will see their argument. And I think McLaren have had to have got to take this
to court essentially to make sure they get some kind of verdict out of this. So it's going to have
to go an extra step from what Gasly and Alpine had to do. I think they'll end up with some form
of compensation. I think that'll be where we end up getting to here. It will be some kind of
cash compensation or something like that, because there's no way that they can accurately
unpick what went on in that Grand Prix after penalties were served, where you got put into
traffic, you were stuck behind maybe a slower car, then it cost you a certain amount of time,
you wouldn't have had to have been impacted by. There's no way they can fairly do that,
but it affects every single other driver in an equally fair manner that can produce a right
result. And I'm sure Engel with any rushing out could go, yeah, I was affected the worst,
George Russell. I was affected the worst out of all of this, but you can say to George,
but why is that fair on limb blood? Are you doing the wrong? It's not his fault, is it? So why do
you suddenly get to have it all back? And I think they'll understand that. So I think what they'll
do is, when they will go to court about this, I expect there to be some kind of sorry, have
some cash move on. Maybe we should do that. Just try to get some court passes. We can't afford to
money to go the second time. We can't make it a career to go to court.
I don't like your lack of ambition. I do agree with you. I think in sporting terms,
I don't think they'll get anywhere with this. And this is where I do at least have some sympathy
with the FIA and how they've reviewed this. With the writer review and the Alpine incident, I get
why they have to view it in isolation. They have to just look at what has happened with Alpine
and go, right, something's gone wrong here. We understand the evidence you've brought in
front of us. We're going to make this decision. And I think within their remit, it is actually
correct to not pay any attention to McLaren or anyone else who might have been. They just have
to review the case on its merit and nothing else. So I completely get that. I don't think
they'll get anywhere with it. But maybe... It's a rubbish situation.
It's rubbish. Yeah, yeah. The FIA need to sort this out to make sure it doesn't happen elsewhere.
They do. And I get why they're disgruntled. I get why they're frustrated. And I wish I could come up
with a solution that is fair to everyone that had to go through it and those people that didn't
break the rules, essentially. But you can't. It isn't possible.
All right. Well, we'll see what happens with that. I'd like to think that
McLaren, after challenging Alpine's challenge, Alpine will have to challenge the challenge
that challenged the Alpine. And eventually, Zach Brown and Flav will have to joust down the
Monaco Strait. Who would you back? Zach Brown. Zach Brown. Flav will play dirty, but I think
Zach's got that grunt. dogging. He's got that dogging and Zach ain't losing that fight.
Well, on that note, let's move on to F1 Fantasy and our updates from the Barcelona Catalonia GB.
All right, good. Yeah, you don't seem very infused this time out.
No, it was looking really good. And then it wasn't looking very good at all.
Before we get onto what wasn't looking good in LB land, let's talk about the top three in the
championship. So no change in terms of who's in the top three, but a slight change in the order.
It's still never Lewis Faith leading the way, 2042 points. But then we've got a
Lonely Speed Syndicate into second and Feisty Pancake back to third.
Let's just swap there. Yes. But they are the only three teams at the moment,
all over 2000 points in the league. So well done to all three of you. The winner for the race,
and you'll love this name, Sam. It's silent but deadly. Oh, gosh, yes. Classic. Classic,
mate. That always gets you. You know that, what did he know, meme? This is what I've got for this
team, because they put three times on Hamilton and two times on Hadja. What did they know?
What did they know? Did you go back into the future and come back?
It's a 268 points. Well done to you. Another really...
So many more than I got. It was a tough week for F1 fantasy. And anyone who played their
wild cards or limitless chips definitely didn't pick a particularly good weekend and do it on
my friend. No negatives. We've worked well here. Well, I spoke to which producer Kirstie earlier
today and she was disappointed because she's gone down 39 spots to 431st. What she didn't
realise is that now puts her number one in the league. Oh, crying out loud. It's really close
at the minute. So 431st is Kirstie. 452nd is me. That's gone from first to third. That's down 31
spots. But Sam, you have gone from first to third. You're now 473rd. So there's only 42 spots between
the three of us, but that is a drop of 147 from last week. It was qualifying. I was 300th.
I'm like a real poop day there. Real stinky. Also, obviously, some of the
Monaco numbers changed. Yeah, I should mention these numbers are still provisional, by the way.
They're still working out the Monaco stuff. Well, I am being hit left, right and centre here.
They've gone, SamTax, you were doing too well. Knock him down a peg. Do you want to hear the
good news? I would love to hear some good news. You're third, but you're not last.
An update from Mr. Harry Yead. He's 782nd. What do you say to that?
Things are only going to get better. I've got you right where I want you.
I'm calling rubbish. No, he doesn't. Yeah, so a bit of work for Harry to do in the second half
of the season, but it's looking very close between the three of us as we head to Austria.
Going to make wholesale changes. Wholesale changes promised from Chairman Sage.
Let's take a quick break for you to make those changes. On the other side,
we're going to wrap up some of the things from the Spanish GP. Sorry, the Barcelona
team.
Welcome back, everyone. I tried to hit as many things as we possibly could from the
from the review on Sunday, but there are some things that managed to evade us or indeed were
announced after the fact. So firstly, Kimmy Antonelli received a five second penalty after
the race, which, man, that really hurt him. Oh, he's got a sting for a while on that one.
So it managed to affect his result. So he went from a DNF to a DNF. Do you have any concern,
though, as this isn't the first time we've seen Antonelli pick up a five second penalty so far
this year from memory. The Miami sprint was another one where he did just seem to come.
There are a few instances with track limits that seem to get him.
Yeah, he's got more than most. And for many drivers, I think I'd be concerned. But Kimmy
Antonelli's raw pace is so good. He is a generational talent. He is the next big thing to
properly hit Formula One. I think that I'd rather he push the boundaries of every racetrack and
sometimes pay the price with a five second time penalty because he's so determined to find the
fastest way around a racetrack. I don't mind you because he backs it up with genuine speed.
If it was a midfield driver who hasn't got that level of raw pace and actually needs to have
other things going for him, consistency, not colliding with other people, tire wearability,
these extras that might set you aside, I'd go, you can't risk a five seconds. You're too close to
other people. Antonelli, is that good on the odd occasion? I don't care if he picks up a five second
time penalty. I don't want him to lose that mentality. No, you feel like he has the, I can be
5.1 seconds faster on track so it doesn't matter that I get a five second time penalty.
I want that in a race winner. I'm a bit more concerned. He managed to pick these up very
quickly, by the way, on Sunday. I don't know if we don't hear every single one as it comes through,
so that might have played into it a little bit, but it did feel like we went from,
there's nothing to worry about to, oh, he's actually got a black and white flag. This is
going to happen if he does it again and he has to go through probably about 50% of the race without
doing another one. It might be more. Yeah, which I think is a situation that he'd like to avoid,
and I think Bono does a generally pretty good job of talking Antonelli down a little.
He's very good at that, it's Bono. He is. I've got a lot of praise for Bono.
I do give Bono a lot of praise as well in regards to Antonelli and Hamilton, just two very different
drivers at very different ends of their careers, and he's managed both equally well. I just think
maybe with if Ferrari are going to be more competitive going forward, we don't know that,
it's just a possibility. Maybe McLaren will as well. I think until this point in the season,
five second time penalties have been relatively worthless in that for Mercedes, they're so
far clear it's not going to impact them that much. There might actually be a situation now
where a five second penalty could be the difference between second and fourth or something like that,
in which case he might want to cut it out a little bit.
I see your point. Antonelli agree with what you're saying. I think he's picked them up at
the right part of the season. While he's still adapting, if he now goes into Austria,
Silverstone, wherever it might be, and we only see this happen maybe once more in the whole
season, he's done it at the right time. If it's a regular trend where every other race,
he's getting a five second penalty, we might be taking it that one in the bud.
Oh, it's all about timing. With Miami again, he managed to do that in a sprint race,
which again, a third of the race. Early, early in the sprint race.
But timing, perfect, because it impacted his sprint race. He then went and won the feature race,
and it was absolutely... He did it the right way round.
Yeah, barely cropped to a point in that sprint race because of it.
Another thing we wanted to cover off was the reason for Nico Holkenberg's DNF, which we didn't know.
Wow, come on, come on about us.
So, Holkenberg, I was going to say catching Liam Lawson, basically stuck behind Liam Lawson with
seemingly the cornering pace to get by, but not the straight line pace to get by.
And Liam Lawson goes a little bit wide in the final sector and kicks up some gravel.
The gravel, obviously with Holkenberg directly behind, sort of sprays...
Shower's the car.
Shower's the car. Sure, shower's the car.
One such pebble...
A pebble.
...has managed to hit the...
I can't remember...
Is the emergency kills.
Yeah, it has another name, I can't remember what it is, I've told my head.
But it's hit that button that essentially means the car is shut down.
It's the, as you say, the emergency need to kill the car.
It's a big safety button to turn everything off.
Which is an important button on the car and it is needed, particularly for when a driver retires
and you've got marshals that are trying to manoeuvre the car and they don't want the risk of...
Batteries could be dangerous, we've seen it, it can be really bad.
Just brutal luck that it's hit that button.
The odds must be astronomical.
That a pebble flying from the back of another Formula One car displaced from a gravel trap
has fallen in such a way that it wipes out the main button of a car that stops it from working.
The luck is astronomically bad.
He was on for his first points, he would have got points this Grand Prix, I've no doubt about it.
Just devastatingly bad luck.
It reminded me of an incident in Formula Two and this was back...
I think it was 2020 because it was Mick Schumacher.
And it was at Austria and I don't remember what it was.
It wasn't a pebble, it must...
I think it was like some plastic or something.
But it's same sort of thing, it hit a button that it wasn't supposed to.
And Mick Schumacher not only retires from the race, he's absolutely covered in foam,
like from the car, just like shot up basically and he has to retire.
So it's not completely unprecedented, but it is incredibly unlucky.
The other thing that I've seen some people reference as part of this,
I don't know if you saw in Monaco, Lando Norris, of course, had to...
It was FP2 of one of the practice sessions that he had a reliability issue and couldn't continue.
And McLaren got in trouble and they were fined, I think, 30,000 euros because
when the marshals were trying to move the car away, they couldn't do so because
the button that you need to hit in order to basically maneuver the car...
Free up for car, yeah.
McLaren had taped over it for aerodynamic reasons.
They got in trouble with the FIA, got this fine, obviously, but not a sporting penalty.
And people were saying after this, if Audi could have taken a fine for doing the same thing,
they probably would have done.
You'd earn more money with championship points being scored than you would by taking a fine
with a button being taped over.
Which isn't me saying they should have done that, by the way, but I'm just...
I see the reason behind it, though. I see why you'd say it.
Yeah, which I just thought was interesting, but yeah, it is an important button on the car.
Last thing just to talk about is Franco Colopinto.
So in our race review, we probably said he finished eighth, which he did on track,
but a penalty afterwards due to a yellow flag infringement saw him finish just P10
for one point behind both racing balls.
Given that is the midfield championship battle, it seems at the moment,
it does come at a cost.
It does.
And I think Colopinto is having a strong Grand Prix, not his best one of the season,
but really respectable.
He's been showing great form recently.
You know, other than Monaco, the last two or three have been really strong for him.
This is the kind of penalty and the kind of infringement I have very little sympathy for.
It's silly. It's dangerous.
It's a yellow flag infringement.
While along those cars, parts of the side, there may be marshals arriving on track,
speeding essentially under the yellow flag got paying attention to the Delta.
It's really dangerous.
And every other driver has to adhere to this.
It's track-wide.
It's not like you're the only car stuck in this little segment,
which if you're aware of the 24 hours of the Nürburgring, for example,
you'll know that they have localized yellows,
where actually you might get lucky enough to be around the part of the race track
where it never affects you.
That isn't the case here with the VSC that is called.
Everyone has to adhere to it.
Collopindo doesn't properly pick up the penalty.
I really don't have any sympathy for this.
I don't think you're going anything.
I think you've risked too much.
I'm not really happy with this.
I was trying to find the onboard, couldn't.
So I'm going to have to go with the stewards and their decision here.
He's always a vague one when it comes to yellow flags and slowing down enough
to show that you're aware of the incident.
Because that's kind of what they're doing here,
is just being able to say,
I've been slow enough here that I know that that is an incident
and now I'm going to carry on.
But it is so, it is very vague.
It's very vague language.
It kind of has to be, though, because you can't,
I don't think you can mandate a certain percentage lower because-
I mean, under the VSC, they have a delta, right?
So they typically-
I'm sure.
I think this is before even the VSC,
like just before it became a VSC.
But you could compare it to sector.
And they have micro sectors,
which we as a normal audience don't see.
It's not that difficult,
but I do agree that vague language is needed to make sure
that you genuinely can portray this result after result.
It's a tough one, but understandable penalty.
And weirdly, the first penalty point handed out in 2026.
Yeah, they're keeping these for safety infringements now,
aren't they, realistically?
Unless something is actually unsafe,
you tend to just get a sporting penalty now.
Yeah, it's good news for Ollie Berman,
because I know he might actually still be in a bit of trouble.
But beginning of the year, in particular, it was like,
one incident and he might have to serve a race ban.
Yeah, I think he'll get away with it
just because of how they've changed the ruleset.
Yeah, thinking he had a couple of Monaco last year
and a couple of Silverstone,
which have either come off or are very close to coming off.
So yeah, I think that does it for that Grand Prix.
We can move forward.
We can look forward to the rest of the 2026.
What we're doing in our next segment,
we've got our top five races to look forward to in 2026,
the remaining races to look forward to in 2026.
Now, this isn't necessarily just our five favorite circuits
that are still to come.
We're talking here more about how good the circuit is.
We'll play into it, no doubt.
But it will also be what storylines maybe are emerging
throughout the year that could play out a particular circuit
that maybe we didn't know about at the beginning of the year.
So very interested to see how these lists go.
We'll start this on this side of the break,
then we'll take a quick break
and then finish it off on the other side.
What's number five for you?
Five on my list of tracks I'm most excited to see
for the rest of the season.
I've got Kota.
We've been there three years in a row.
We are sadly not attending this year,
which it does make me create every time.
Speak for yourself, boy.
See you later, boy.
I think Kota for a few reasons.
One is come up in recent conversations
where actually if the storyline of the season
continues to evolve the way we're expecting,
the Kota might be a bit of a landmark
where a championship lead could be crucial.
It could happen.
It could change.
We're getting to that end point of the season
where we'll start to see potentially a championship battle.
I also think battery could be really fascinating at Kota.
The cars are going to be lairy through the S's,
which is always fun to watch,
even with the ground effect cars.
But I think that's going to be exciting.
The big, long straight in the back
is going to be really interesting to see
if we harvest correctly in there,
what overtakes we get down there as well.
And then the uphill is a turn one.
Now, some of you will have had the fortune that we've had.
We've stood on that uphill.
We're big on the racetrack.
We've stood on that hill.
Barely stood.
It's that steep.
It's a hill?
That is a hill.
If you want to look up.
Can we please just clip?
It's a hill.
If you want definition of a hill,
that is the third part of the hill team.
You know, you've got Graham, Damon,
Cota Hill.
Respect Phil Hill, man.
It's a mixed racetrack.
I just think with these cars,
I'm really fascinated to see how it plays in.
And I do think as the story of the season progresses,
that could be a pivotal race.
Yeah.
Like you say, a gutted not to be there this year.
We'll definitely miss it.
And where we usually sat turn 12
is a very interesting corner at the end of that long straight.
And I think who succeeds in Cota
will likely be who's still got some battery
at the end of that straight.
Because you're going to want as much of it
as you can throughout the first sector as well.
But I think when we get into race conditions,
it's very difficult to overtake through there.
That's probably the area some of these teams
are going to try and save to make sure
they're not caught out later in the lap.
What about you, Ben?
What's number five?
Number five for me.
I'm looking forward to shock the British GP.
Yeah, I know, right?
And it isn't even British bias.
I just love Silverstone.
Silverstone is great in any season.
But why this season in particular?
I'd firstly, and this is more of a hope than anything,
I'm hoping that the revised regs make
Maggots and Beckett's actual challenges.
And I hope that those couple of corners
do get to see what we have done in previous years.
Because that's an incredible section of the track.
So fingers crossed on that one.
And there are some other longer corners as well,
like Stowe and Brooklands and the couple after that.
Yeah. And I think you've got,
for those interested in a potential home win,
very interesting storylines going on here.
Lando Norris obviously going for a second straight British GP win.
George Russell going for his first
after coming close a couple of years ago.
And of course, Lewis Hamilton having just one last time out.
Perhaps more of a possibility that he wins here.
A bit of a stat for you.
If he wins, it would be his 10th British GP victory.
That is astounding.
In what would be his 20th British GP start.
So if he were to win,
he will have won exactly 50% of the races
that he had done for the British GP.
That is incredible, isn't it?
Yeah. That is incredible.
That is a stat, man, if I've never heard of one.
Yeah. That's just, there are so many F1 drivers
that will not do 10 British Grand Prix.
They won't win 10 Grand Prix.
Right. Yeah.
So my guys want to take up one track
if he wins this one.
That'll be something to look out for.
Two other quick reasons.
Firstly, it is unpredictable.
Last four seasons, we've had four different drivers
and four different teams win at Silverstone.
And then also it is a higher chance of rain,
which isn't something we've seen in this season yet.
And last year, that was chaos.
Yes. What's number four on your list?
I'm sticking to state size.
I've gone Vegas.
You love yourself some Vegas?
I do. I think I am one of the bigger fangs
of the Vegas race track.
And I think it throws up a really unique challenge.
The weather is fascinating when it comes to Vegas.
The temperature often drops
and we see some real bizarre moments in that Grand Prix.
Tire warm-up is really tricky.
And if Barcelona was ready to go by with the heat,
I'm fascinating to see what it means in the cold
and where the tyres can get into the working range.
And you hear from drivers and teams all the time,
we actually missed out on Q3, for example,
because we couldn't get two tenths of the tyres
because they weren't in the working window
and we can't get them in the working window.
I think that might be fascinating
when it comes to something like Vegas.
The straits in Vegas are immense.
The straight line sections are so crazy.
The recharge is going to be fascinating.
I don't know if drivers are just not going to bother.
I don't know if we're going to have Lyco for half the racetrack.
I don't know if we're going to see the regulations completely change.
And we almost remove the battery element
and it becomes very ITE-focused.
It's fascinating to see how that might work.
And I think with the walls as well,
Vegas brings up such a unique challenge
where you see drivers make mistakes
and they are impacted by it as well.
We're seeing on the same as we're in here,
Dominique and George Russell previously,
and we saw a real different battle as well the year before.
So I'm quite fascinated to see how this rolls out.
Yeah, again, that back straight.
I do not know what that's going to look like.
It's going to be a real surprise.
It really is.
Thank you, number four for you.
A nice bit of variety to start our list
because whilst you're staying stateside,
I'm staying in Europe.
And I'm going to the Dutch Grand Prix.
And I mean that very literally.
And that's one of the reasons why it's on this list.
It's going to be there.
I am going to be at the Dutch GP and guess what?
Oh, so are you.
Wait, you got me a ticket?
Yeah, I'll work on that.
Yeah, we're going to be in Zambor.
We're going to be in Amsterdam for the Dutch GP weekend.
So I've never been to Amsterdam.
Nope, neither have I.
I cannot wait for my life.
We are.
I know we've mentioned this before.
We are going to do something ahead of time.
So if you're at the track, obviously at the weekend,
we'll have a time and a destination for you to meet us.
But also we'll do something on the Thursday ahead of the weekend as well.
But if you are in Amsterdam for the weekend,
just stay tuned for more details in the not too distant future.
But in terms of the race itself,
because that is a big reason in its own right.
But I'm very excited for this race because
can Verstappen win, in theory, the last Dutch Grand Prix?
Last for now.
Last for now.
Sure, it might come back.
You never know.
But at least for now, it will be Verstappen's last one here.
And we don't know whether the Dutch GP is coming back.
We don't know how long Verstappen's going to be here either.
So there is a very good chance that this will be the final one on paper,
at least at the moment.
And I know we've got a bit of time before we get there.
Doesn't feel like a track that would suit Red Bull,
but you know Verstappen is going to give absolutely everything that weekend.
And you might remember his start, that first lap that he did,
where he was nearly sideways trying to make moves.
I wouldn't be shocked at all if we got the same thing again from him here.
Yeah, I think it's a great shout.
Also, the Orange Army, the Dutchies, I've got to shout you out here,
because you know how to start an atmosphere, the rave, the support,
the flares, everything that you give is immense.
And I love watching it on the telly.
In fact, we're going to get to be a part of it and see it in person.
It's so exciting.
Absolutely love the way you guys do track side support.
So I'm sure Max will feel that and does feel that every year.
Fascinating to see what he can bring to his home GP.
We'll also be an interesting test, given it will come not long after we've had
Austria, maybe Silverstone, Monza, these sort of high power tracks.
Very varied.
Could be a different challenge for them.
And we've still got a top three to run through,
but we're going to take a quick break on the other side.
We get to that top three.
Welcome back, everyone.
What ranks third for you, Sam, on the races you're most looking forward to?
Ranking third on the races that I am looking most forward to is our next Grand Prix.
And that is Austria.
I love the Austrian Grand Prix.
I think it's an amazing Grand Prix.
I'm always excited for it, but I'm very excited for it
after what just happened in Barcelona.
It feels like there is a real opportunity here that this title fight just became multi-teamed.
And this is the next step in that situation, realistically.
It feels like after the result where Mercedes are having inter-team battles,
they're nearly making contact.
They're overtaking each other.
You've now got the threat of Ferrari emerging.
We've had the Oduo process coming out.
So the compression ratio has changed.
It's a power track.
So maybe the engines are becoming more balanced as well.
It started to feel like a massive unknown where previous races before Barcelona
felt like there was a big of an unwritten story that we already knew was going to be read.
It felt like Mercedes will eventually win the day,
even if they've got absolutely nothing.
One of them is going to come out on top.
The other cars will filter in behind.
This genuinely feels like we're going to the first kind of race where I don't know.
I don't know again.
And that in Formula One is such an exciting feeling.
It could be Leclerc bouncing back.
Hamilton could go two in a row.
We might see George Russell wipe the floor with everyone.
I don't know.
You don't know.
And that's the best bit here.
Also, tyre wear is secretly quite difficult.
Overtaking could be immense here.
I'm fascinated to see what Austria brings.
What is the actual correct answer to what is the most exciting race?
What?
The next one.
It's always the next one.
So I nearly had Austria on my list for that same reason.
I'm fascinated to see how that goes.
Number three on my list.
And welcome to Europe, by the way.
Sam, thank you for going across the Atlantic to join me here.
Because I've gone with the Belgian GP Spa.
Of course, we're not going to see as much of Spa over the next few years
as we've become accustomed to.
The main reason here is, and we've discussed this over previous race reviews,
it is maybe the biggest challenge or the biggest difference between sectors
that we have, I think, on the whole calendar.
We have turned up at several years here, like 2019 is a very good example
when Ferrari had that very powerful, very legal engine
that allowed Charles Leclerc to claim his first victory.
And Ferrari was so good in the first and final sectors where you've got the straights.
And Mercedes was so good in the middle sector.
And that was essentially the battle, was how far could Ferrari get out on those straights
to then not become, you know, a risk from the Mercedes in the middle sector.
It would be like a second and a half between sectors, right?
Yeah, we've had that.
And it's not that's one example.
We've had this before with McLaren as well, I think,
who have been very good in the middle sector, not as good in the first and third.
And now you bring the new regulations into it.
And I do not know how that is going to go.
I don't know whether we will get if power units are maybe similar at the time.
Maybe Red Bull will be really quick in the first and third sectors.
Maybe Ferrari will be really good in the middle sector.
I don't know.
And I'm fascinated to find out.
Yeah, so different car strengths could lead to some different results.
I agree. It's always one that throws up some unknowns.
I didn't have it in my top five.
And that's simply because of the weather threats, right?
We've seen with Spa that the rain has caused,
it doesn't bring excitement like it does in some places.
It often brings cancellation or struggles in what goes on.
So I'm hoping that actually it's just a dry weekend.
We have a really fun dry weekend there.
Yeah, weirdly, weather is part of the reason why I've got this on the list
because it can be interesting.
And of the last five Belgian GP, three of them have been in some way impacted by rain.
Of course, one of those five that you were referring to was completely cancelled.
So it can go completely the other way.
But I think if we get a dry race, that could be really interesting as well.
Because there isn't as much data here as we get maybe some other tracks
where we've had consistently dry races for the last half a decade.
Yeah, we barely had a dry race, especially in the Grand Effect era.
I also think that just a Rouge with these lairy cars could be fun again
because it feels too flat out at the moment.
Also, Stoffel van Doorn might be there.
Amazing. What more do you need?
As we learned from our last Patreon episode, you love Stoffel van Doorn.
I adore the waffle.
In all seriousness, folks, we on Patreon decided to rank the last 10
McLaren drivers of which van Doorn is part of that list and put them in a tier list.
He's in S tier just to give you a bit of a spoiler.
Because you can't spell Stoffel without S tier.
Number two on your list, Sam, what is it?
Number two on my list is, I think it's got to be on pretty much every list.
It's Brazil.
Brazil is, speaking of, this is off topic.
That comes from the ITB coverage of Brazilian Grand Prix, right?
That's where we joke about it from.
That was the World Cup, yeah.
It was the World Cup.
The World Cup is on now as we speak about this.
ITB are also broadcasting.
Then have you heard the song?
Life is how it...
Every single album, I've got to hear that guitar intro.
What do you mean you've got to hear it?
You've got... It's a blessing to be able to hear that.
It's one of the best songs of all time.
It's one of the best songs of all time.
And Brazil.
I think Brazil could be a speed fest.
I think it could be the perfect track for these regulations.
Half of the track, three-quarters
is mid-speed, braking zone-based corners.
And I think with the current cars that we've got, they're going to be lary.
They're going to be pushing those cars through those corners.
And you see with cars that they snap on over-steer,
they run with under-steer, and you get punished in Brazil
if you make a mistake.
There's grass on the outside, the walls aren't too far.
And then you get that essentially that one blast of the straight.
It's not really a straight.
It's a big curve that you go through.
But I think you could deploy all battery down that straight,
essentially, into the Sangareses.
And I'm fascinated you can see who's able to mitigate that.
It's also a pinnacle moment that if the championship keeps rolling the way it does,
if we do have Antigale, Russell, Hamilton,
let's say the Clare makes it into the fight as well with some better results,
it could be an immense moment.
We've seen some great title fights in Brazil.
Hamilton has been involved in some.
I really think it could be fascinating at the end of the year.
We finally come together, Sam. We agree.
I've also got into Lagos at number two.
I'm a day in South America for us.
That sounds all right.
I won't add too much just based on what you've already said there.
Everyone did two stops here last year.
Could be another tire wear affected race like we had in Catalonia.
It's not a sprint for the first time since 2019.
Good guess for that.
Which is interesting.
The other thing about Ferrari, I went back at some of the stats here.
This is a real bogey track for Ferrari.
They obviously won in 2008 with Felipe Massa.
Very memorable race when Lewis Hamilton won the world championship, of course.
But Massa won that Grand Prix.
Since then, they have won once.
Sebastian Vessel in 2017.
That's the only time they've won this track since then.
They haven't done well here at all.
Yeah, go say it.
It's weird.
Yeah, very odd.
It was for Ferrari, that's weird.
Yeah, that is odd.
Yeah, so I'm intrigued to see if they can turn that around.
But we've come to number one on our list.
Sam, what is the circuit you're most looking forward to seeing in the rest of 2026?
Yeah, the circuit I'm really looking forward to seeing the most is Silverstone.
I'm coming home then after the holiday.
We've come home.
I just think Silverstone is the perfect race track, realistically.
It has a combination of everything.
And I'm not just talking the types of corners and straights on the track,
which I do think will complement these cars and be a real challenge.
You brought up Mac at some beckets already.
I think that would be fascinating.
I think Cops Corner is going to be a nightmare for some of these drivers.
I think Backstreet Management should be fascinating to see if they can deliver on it.
But we've seen historically, tyre wear could be a nightmare here.
And what do we just get in Barcelona?
Three stops, two stops.
People don't know in what side they should be on.
The same can happen at Silverstone if you get the heat.
But if you don't get the heat, you get the rain.
And Silverstone and the rain is chaos half the time.
So I am very excited for either way.
And the final point then, we're going to be there.
We're going to be there.
And we're going to be at Vale on Sunday.
So again, we'll release some details as to where we'll be on that Sunday, maybe beforehand.
But the premise of being at...
My first British GP for a very long time.
Yes, same.
You know, I was a babby last time I went to the British Grand Prix.
The fact that in theory, the crowd is going to be pumping to have either,
like you mentioned, a Norris win, a Russell win, a Hamilton win,
for all those agreed reasons.
So you can just guarantee now that Piastri will win and it will be normal.
I'm okay with that.
I also will be fine.
Number one on my list.
The track I'm looking forward to seeing the most for the rest of this year is Monza.
You've gone home.
You've gone...
I've gone to the place I wish was my home.
And that is literally the Monza circuit, not even just Italy.
Firstly, just to get this out of the way.
Could be an absolute disaster.
It could be atrocious.
We don't know how these regulations are going to work at Monza.
Since the beginning of last year, there have been questions.
What if the cars just run out of everything down the street?
I think we've probably mitigated that.
But I'm seeing, even if we do get that.
Barbie's intrigued.
I really don't know what we're going to get.
Assuming that doesn't actually happen,
this is going to be a real test of battery.
This is going to be a real test of ICE.
And it's going to be a question of which actually matters more out of the two.
And I don't know the answer to that question, which I like.
Ferrari, of course, have a very legitimate chance, we think,
based on what they've just done, at a home win.
Leclerc has won here twice for Ferrari.
Hamilton hasn't actually won here at all since 2018.
And of course, it would be his opportunity to win a home Grand Prix.
So you imagine the Tifosi going to be pretty crazy.
The other thing I'm thinking about, and Liam on Patreon actually raised this exact point,
and with great minds think alike, because I was thinking the same way,
how the crowd will treat Antonelli in that I think it will be mostly positive in that
they haven't had a good Italian driver to root for since Yarno Trulli.
And if I'm being more serious, they haven't for many decades.
I was going to say, really?
I love me some Yarno Trulli, but yeah, come on.
But of course, we know that the team has the Tifosi, like the Ferrari is so big there.
What happens if Antonelli winning this race actually takes Ferrari closer out of a championship
battle? Well, I don't know how they'll react.
So I'm a staunch Monza supporter.
I love me some Monza.
It's got my favorite corner in Formula One on it, of course, the Oscari chicane.
I was incredibly intrigued by what we see at Monza.
But for the first time in a long time, excited isn't the word.
I am nervous about it.
I'm a bit worried about it.
I'm anxious that actually it will really cause some issues for Formula One
in one of the heartlands of motorsport, of what we do here.
It's really important that Monza goes well.
I don't know either.
I'm really nervous.
I'm really nervous that it's going to be a disaster.
And so I am so intrigued.
Maybe more than any other racetrack, I'm so intrigued.
I can't say I'm excited, but I always love me some Monza.
I am excited.
I love Monza.
And I'll be honest, one reason I didn't say it's really gray here today.
And I just looked out the window and just thought of the Monza sunshine.
I was like, you know what?
That's going straight to number one.
That's what they say.
Look into the clouds and dream of Monza.
It's plenty of clouds to look at at the moment in the UK.
Go on, mate.
Go on.
I can see them in your eyes now.
Before we go too much into weather chat, shall we wrap things up here?
Sam, you're not going to be on Sunday's episode, sadly.
But what?
But why?
You can't do a show alone, Ben.
No, I can't, can I?
What does that mean?
I'm not going to be here.
Are you two of you?
How does that work?
Don't know what we can say right now.
Thanks for subscribing.
Late breaking everywhere.
Patrons available.
We'll see you soon.
In the meantime, my name's Samuel Sarge.
And I've been Ben Hawking.
And remember, keep breaking late.
About this episode
Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s 2026 title chances get weighed with a mix of math, form, and technical uncertainty. The hosts quantify the gaps—Hamilton trailing Antonelli by 41 points and Ferrari 72 behind Mercedes—then argue it’s still “mathematically possible.” They debate whether Ferrari’s Barcelona step and compression-ratio progress are repeatable, while pointing to cost-cap limits, engine development, and Hamilton’s comfort with new regs. Reliability, braking confidence, and even FIA penalty mechanics also shape how realistic the contenders look.
Fresh from Hamilton’s win in Spain, Ben and Sam discuss whether Hamilton and Ferrari are genuine 2026 title contenders. Plus, the implications of Gasly’s reinstated Monaco P3, and the five races not to miss for the remainder of the season.
