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Complaining and Qatar
Complaining and Qatar
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About this episode
The hosts dive deep into the Qatar F1 weekend, discussing McLaren's strategic sprint race teamwork, Max Verstappen's controversial qualifying penalty, and the chaotic race with inconsistent stewarding and safety car decisions. They highlight Lando Norris's gesture to teammate Oscar Piastri, the struggles and penalties faced by Lewis Hamilton, and the surprising driver changes at Alpine. The episode critiques FIA's inconsistent rulings and the treatment of drivers as disposable assets, while sharing personal anecdotes and insights into race dynamics and team politics.
Topics:
qatar grand prix
sprint race strategy
max verstappen penalty
f1 stewarding controversies
lando norris and oscar piastri dynamics
lewis hamilton race struggles
alpine driver changes
fia race control
team politics
race safety car decisions
Cars:
Lancia Flavia
We got an email telling us to stop complaining, so naturally we complain about that. Plus, we discus the controversial officiating in the Qatar race.
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Lancia Flavia
".... This is the guy that fixed a race back in 2008, Flavia Bri tore. Um, there's, there's a couple different..."
Select text to request an explanation
This is off track. What's up?
TNA, Uh, what?
TNA Thursday. I got nothing. Oh,
I am bringing, I am bringing some, um, energy to this episode, episode Make, I was trying figure out what else you could have meant, like, Like makeup. Oh, clearly. He
Doesn't mean that , but I do.
Um, to make up for last week. So anyways. Hi guys.
Um, I'm so, so happy to be here, .
Um, I just, I, I love the opportunity that I get every week to talk to you guys and really just connect with our fan base and our audience and just really, Alex Embrace everything that we do as a group.
Um, it's so, it's such a, it's something I look forward to and I just, I, I pretend that I don't because that's my kind of thing, but in reality, I just, ah, You look forward to it every morning at five 30 when you get up to ride your bike before your meetings.
Oh, I do. I do.
Um, and I, I actually, I don't have to get up early to do anything, but I, no, I <inaudible> choose to.
'cause I am, I like to eat hot chicken 'cause it's painful and I just, I, I pinch myself a lot.
Um, and you know, I, I only talk about it 'cause I'm insecure about the fact that I ride bikes and I wear the spandex and stuff and it's a little weird.
But, you know, it's just, it's coping mechanisms. It's,
That's all it is, bro.
You look, you look at, you look adorable in your spandex.
Don't worry. Thank you. Appreciate.
It's, don't be, appreciate it. Don't be insecure. Thank you.
You look great. Yeah. Thanks man.
You know, you've got powerful legs, I think Good Thighs Goods according to your What's that?
What's that? What's your, your KPG, your MLN your,
Your close.
F-T-P-E-L-T.
That's the one. Your FTP? Yes. Yeah.
Mm-hmm . Uh, is always improving and I'm so proud of
You that, and my CCP 20 is, uh, strong af and my, uh, uh, max watts per kilo is elite, so, you know. Good,
Good.
Yeah. For you. That's great. Yeah. Anyways, um, yeah.
So, uh, uh, Cadillac's in F1 America's back bald eagles are soaring.
Like, everything's great. Everything's good. It's all good.
So anyways, um, you are, you're in, you're still over in the Middle East. Yeah. Um,
Yeah.
So when stuff did we last talk?
We last talked before Cutter.
Before Cutter after Ves. Yes.
Right? So, yes. Yes. So I flew to Qatar
Cutter.
I flew, actually, wait, when did we talk?
If you're gonna spell with a Q and not fall with a U I'm gonna pronounce it however I want.
It's cutter. Yeah. It's, it's,
It's Qatar.
Not my book. It's guitar for me. I'm going guitar. It's
Anything Cutter.
Cutter. Um, clo Alex is closest to how they say in Arabic.
That's true. Um, wait, did we do the show?
We did the Thanksgiving one. You did?
When I was in, I was indie. Yeah.
Were in, I flew back in Indie. Yep, yep, yep.
I remember this now. And, uh,
Makes sense why you don't remember To be honest, dude. I that it's not even
An like, that's Yeah, no, It's not like I, this whole Stretch is up Like, Hey guys, be careful if we complain about being tired or anything schedulewise, we're gonna get another email.
That's true. My bad. .
Yeah, James, you're lucky to do it.
You're not allowed to complain about anything. Yeah.
'cause other people have stuff worse than you.
You've lost touch with reality. James, how dare you
If we lose Mark, the show dies.
Okay. I don't want to stress this enough.
I thought we agreed we weren't gonna talk about this anyway.
So we're I thought we did Too, but Alex started it.
No, you, me, an email and the guy's name. We weren't
Gonna be bad on social media, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna bitch about it.
This is my show. I can talk about whatever I want.
I didn't wanna respond on social media.
I wonder to respond to his email Doesn't, anyways.
It doesn't matter. Anyways.
Talk about, talk about what you did, James.
You flew from what I say to Indiana to Cutter Back to Indy and then to Qatar.
And I thought I was like, I was like, sweet.
I'm the lucky one because I get to go home for 48 hours.
Everyone else just went straight onto Qatar.
In hindsight, I don't know if that was actually better for my sleep program.
I'm surprised you didn't just go straight there and like used the very nice resort pools to adjust.
Well, I, but I like, I like my home and my wife and my dogs.
Yeah. But you were, you were home
for two nights wife. Okay.
Yeah. Still better than, I mean,
three weeks straight gone is a long time.
That's fair. And also,
and like Vegas was cold as <inaudible>.
And here it's like the actual desert.
So like, getting to drop all my jackets off at all.
Great point. Repack just like normal clothes
Was good.
And like, as, as the crow flies, not that many are going from Vegas to Qatar.
But if it were to, I mean, Indiana's kind of on the way. .
I don't even know what way you would take . Yeah. I don't even,
You Go West, dude.
I don't even know which direction I flew.
You might go north. I don't even know. Well,
You definitely go north for a bit.
I I, no, Because when you, when you fly from, I do know this, but maybe this, you push over the edge.
Abu Dhabi, are you using the Globe or are we using the real flatter?
You go, you go ab you go Abu Dhabi to Chicago and you go west.
But Vegas is another three hours west.
So maybe you would go west from Vegas to Qatar. Maybe you wouldn't go east.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
It's a, regardless, it's Longway way. Yeah.
A longwe way. So back the crow would've
Gotten lost as well.
The crow would not have crow it. The crow.
The crow did that. Crow did not make it
Like that. Crow
The crow's family put his faces on milk cartons. That crow ain't coming home.
Yeah. . Um, I would love to know what the like,
success rate is from faces on milk cartons to finding the people.
You know what? No, I wouldn't.
Let's not, let's stop. It's not, let's stop
There. Depress doing it.
Let's stop. It's gonna depress
me. Stop there. Yep. It wasn't,
So anyway, successful campaign.
Yeah. So got to Qatar, I, I think,
and it was weirdly colder than I thought it was gonna be that day, the guitar weekend, which we'll get to.
And then, um, flew to Abu Dhabi and decided to drive for like, so we basically had two days off.
Um, so I drove to Dubai and spent a couple days with our buddy slash teammate Marvin Kersh Hoffer, who had been Oh, Did you bike?
Did you put on some spandex and go ride a bike?
No, we ran, we ran every day.
Uh, we drove dune buggies, which was fun as hell.
We're gonna have to get some of those and also some sand. Uh,
Remember when we did Race of Champions and we said we were gonna buy the little rock buggies?
We didn't do that. No, but we're gonna do that.
Like, we're now definitely gonna do that. Okay. 'cause okay.
We just need to find the trails for them.
I feel like that's the hardest part.
I mean, you have two lots. We could make a small track.
We could make a little track.
It wouldn't be and be a lot of trees to hit, but We Make a little track's.
What? That's what the bourbon
is for Make I know of the field.
Oh, the impact field less. Oh, you do have a lot of land.
That is true. . Um, is it cool if we're not utilizing it
for like, farming or anything anymore? Or just for
Destruction?
Children's fitness activities?
I mean, Larry loves you guys. You
Know, God I love Larry.
Um, so yeah, so take him Do a couple horse races and you can do whatever you want back there.
Perfect. Uh, so yeah, so there's also
Like a track track.
We could like get some qualifying setups on the things We could figure it out.
Yeah. We should just take it to the fairgrounds
and run of the dirt track there. That could
Kind of fun.
Or that place where we took the RC cars .
That's actually also where my head went. Oh
Man.
Anyways, okay. So you, you hung out, you did some fun games,
Did some fun and games.
Did the deep dive Dubai, where they've literally, like, they've bought the largest, the deepest pool on earth that's 60 meters.
Oh. And they, it's like a sunken city.
It's a really, it's hard to explain. It's, yeah. Yeah.
It's fake. But like, so
You scuba dive down there.
Yeah. You scuba dive down there and you can, like, I go in
and out of too long rooms and play pinball.
We played pool, sat on some motorcycles, Sat in a car.
Could you imagine if like, if like the Atlantis in Dubai was actually built on Atlantis and you were scuba diving to Atlantis .
Do we know that? It's not,
We don't, In that there is no Atlantis. That's,
And if there was Anymore be in the Atlantic Ocean, You don't know that.
Did Plato say that? There was,
It was a parable about well, what can destroy his society? First of
Society.
You're terrible. Anyway,
That's not what I said. Okay.
I hate that he knows so many things.
. Nobody cares what you said. That's the point.
Okay. All
Right.
Uh, so yeah. So I was gonna drive back to Abu Dhabi.
It's about an hour away. I was gonna
drive back in the morning.
I was gonna wake up early, talk to you guys and then drive back.
But this worked out better.
So I drove back tonight and it's now 1126 here.
And fair warning, there's gonna be a knock at that door in a minute.
And room service. Room service is coming. Nice.
Uh, to keep up with the eating on the show routine.
It is not Panera, unfortunately. Um,
You know what, I'll check with Mark if he has a problem with that.
'cause I don't wanna Yeah.
I don't Get another email.
Well, he is not a, he's not a, I don't think he's a Panera guy. He's
How dare how dare you order room service.
He's a McAllisters guy. So, yeah.
So that's what I've been up to. And we'll get to the race.
But what, what was, how was your, what, what, how, what do you think, how would you, what do you feel about how you think?
No, I think we've got plenty to talk about, James.
Um, let's just get straight into F1 stuff.
'cause ultimately that's all that really happened on the Tuesday episode.
Um, which you missed understandably. That's not a dig.
Um, Tim and I kind of went over Thanksgiving and what we did and non racing related stuff. Oh, that's
Right.
We've already cut. Let's un let's unpack, um,
let's unpack Qatar because there's a lot that happened. I think
There was, uh, yeah.
Uh, there was a lot that happened and, all right.
I don't even know where to start.
Um, so championships locked up.
Yep. Going into it,
the whole talk is about the constructors battle, uh, Ferrari verse, McLaren.
And this was supposed to be a McLaren track. Mm-hmm . Well,
And it, it started out as one Kind of, I mean, I mean, in practice it was a Ferrari track.
Sorry, I'm talking about, I'm talking about sessions that matter.
And because it was a sprint weekend, there was a <inaudible> ton of them, so, Right.
Yes. Right. So, uh, they did well in sprint qualifying
Very well.
Yes, they did well in the sprint race, which very well.
All right, so let's talk about the sprint race. Let's talk
About that.
Yep. Uh, Lando starts on pole.
Ptri started third, but got into second and they ran around 1 2 19 laps.
Yep. Russell was in third very quick. Mm-hmm .
And Lando had to keep back to keep Ptro within DRS range, which is one second.
So that way he could have DRS and be harder to pass.
Um, very good teamwork.
It like, kind of sucks for the fans, but it's within the rules and it's good thinking.
So mm-hmm . Cool.
Uh, but then on the last lap, on the last corner.
Last corner, yeah.
Against team recommendations mm-hmm.
Or without being asked mm-hmm .
Uh, Lando decided to pull over to let Oscar win the sprint as a bit of a repayment for Brazil.
Now his ability to, yeah, I Was wondering what you guys thought about that, His ability to do that with all three cars running like within less than a second of each other and not lose, first of all, to let Oscar buy without letting George buy.
Very impressive or lucky.
I don't know which one it was, but he pulled it off.
He finished, he crossed the line one 10th behind Oscar and three tenths ahead of George.
Like pretty <inaudible> slim margins to make that work.
Very impressive. Uh, Alex, thoughts, comments, concerns?
How do you feel about him doing that of his own accord?
I feel good about it and I feel like that was probably, you know, I was, it was clear that Lando had the upper hand from a pace standpoint.
You know, I know that clean air is worth a lot there, but I think he just was the faster car all weekend.
He showed that in qualifying, um, and could definitely stretch his legs.
But obviously because the title's now wrapped up, there's a lot of focus on the construction championship.
It was important in a sprint race to get a one, two, if you can, from the point standpoint.
So I think that was obviously incentive number one.
But I would say a very close second would've been that in the back of his head, he wanted Lando to be close enough to where he could do the old switcheroo, um, and kind of control that He wanted Oscar to be Close enough.
No, sorry. He Lando wanted Oscar to be close enough. Yeah.
So that he could do the switch.
Not that I've ever had it happen to me, but like, you know, that you're gonna be teammates for the foreseeable future.
There's obviously been a little bit of animosity, I think that's built throughout the year with Budapest, with obviously Brazil and, you know, McLaren prioritizing, or not prioritizing, but there being conversations about prioritizing him over Oscar Landover Oscar.
So I think Oscar felt that he, Orlando felt that he owed Oscar one.
And as a teammate, Knowing that you're not fighting for anything at this point other than the greater team.
Good. You wanna keep that relationship good.
So I think that that was important for Lando to kind of like bury that hatchet, if you will.
I don't know if there was a hatchet, but to kind of just, okay, we're, even now you gave me one, I give you one.
Let's not talk about it anymore and let's move on and try and finish what we started here with winning the construction championship.
So I think that that was very cool.
And if I was in that position, I think I would've done the same thing. I
Agree with 100% of what you said.
Let me throw out an alternate possibility.
Okay. It's not really an alternate possibility.
Sorry, let me rephrase that.
I agree with everything that you said.
Do you think it is possible though, that Oscar almost didn't appreciate or like it in the sense that he switched because he had to in Brazil, Lando was going for, you know, still going for the driver's championship.
He needed every point. It was like a team thing.
It wasn't like him doing Lando a solid on a personal sense.
And this was like, no driver likes being gifted a win, right?
Mm-hmm . So like, Lando wouldn't have wanted
to win the sprint race in Brazil like that.
And so Oscar would've, and like Oscar's not a tight battle for any position in the championship.
Like, is it a little bit like, do you think Oscar, 'cause I talked to Oscar after the race, he didn't seem super thrilled by it.
And it wasn't like a, ah, thanks buddy, pal.
Hey, we're even high fives. He looked kind of pissed.
Um, I think that you're onto something if it was a real race.
I don't think anyone cares about a sprint race, Honestly, but that's just it.
Yeah. But that, but he's like, so why even do it?
Why even do it? Because it looks like,
Well, James, okay, I'm not a, I'm not a, I'm not a psychiatrist.
I'm not gonna claim to be, but like, what, when people are, when people are guilty, right?
They carry that guilt and some people want to get that guilt and burden off their shoulders.
So I mean, it could have very much had nothing to do with making Oscar happy.
Lando just didn't want to hear about it anymore.
From Twitter, from the internet, from his own inside voices conscience and just be like, listen, I gave it back.
It's over. Stop talking about it. Or even, I don't know.
That could have been the driving force, right?
Yeah. It could have been. I mean, the fact that
the team told him not to do it, yes.
My room service is here. Um, and he did it anyway.
Kind of makes it seem a little bit like that might have been the case, right?
And listen, like it was successful.
So like the team's not gonna be mad about it.
Oscar shouldn't be mad about it.
I mean, him being mad about being gifted a sprint race win is equivalent to a podcast host complaining about waking up early to go to the gym and then having to record a podcast.
Like, it's just ridiculous.
So it's totally Legitimate there.
So it's so out of touch with reality. Totally
Legitimate.
Got it. Okay. Yeah, no, that's fair.
I just thought it was interesting, like maybe in an attempt to do something nice, he almost maybe made it worse.
I don't think so. Maybe not made it
worse, but whatever. I think,
I think honestly Oscar was probably more pissed off that throughout the entire weekend, up until this point, his ass was being kicked by Lando. Right?
He was just Upset. He was probably more annoyed, right?
He was probably more annoyed that he needed Land's help to keep George behind him.
That Lando had to slow up to keep him in DS range.
He was just pissed. They, he didn't have the pace.
That actually makes a lot of sense.
Yeah. I don't think
it had anything to do with the end result.
'cause Sprint results don't matter. No one kicked.
They don't.
That was you what Land said afterwards, he was like, I'm not here to win sprint races.
Right? So, okay, let's, before we,
before we go on, let's talk about that.
In Sprint qualifying, uh, someone who did not feature was good Old Max for Stepin.
Um, he featured more than Sergio who went out in Q1 again.
Um, but I think Max just, you know, he lost a couple spots to the start and then he drove around in seventh or eighth.
Um, and just the Red Bull wasn't, wasn't good, wasn't fast.
And uh, they didn't really have anything for Ferrari, McLaren, or Mercedes.
But then Saturday happened, or Saturday afternoon happened.
And this is what's cool. So if there's one redeeming
feature about sprint races, and I do mean one, it is that with only one practice, qualifying is sometimes a bit up in the air.
And because the cars are in Park Fair may after qual sprint qualifying for the sprint race.
So you cannot adjust the setup or for very, very minor changes to like front wing and tire pressures and stuff.
Your car, it's your best guess.
You've done one session and it's your best guess, right?
And sometimes you get it wrong.
But then after the sprint race, you can change whatever you want on the car.
And now you've got a sprint qualifying and a sprint race of data to go on top of your one practice session.
You make changes for Grand Prix qualifying and the Grand Prix race.
And so it doesn't necessarily like dictate the pace anymore and like help predict what's gonna happen in either Grand Prix qualifying or in the Grand Prix itself.
So that's the only redeeming feature is that it does kind of mix up the days and lo and behold, that's what happened because the guy that qualified six and finish eight did what he does and just pulled an incredible, incredible lap on Saturday to be on pole.
Unbelievable. Mm. Team made the car better.
Yeah. I mean, just spanked everyone. Um, but,
But heres what's crazy.
He wasn't on poll, was he?
Well, hold on, hold on. We'll get to that.
Yeah. ,
Because that starts the, the beginning of the next topic of, so we looked at the data from the qualifying for Max v George.
So the Mercedes is faster on the straight, but the cars are almost identical in all the corners, right?
They're the same in corner one, same in turn two, same in turn, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 3 0.8, 15, 16.
Notice I left a couple out.
Max just owned them in four and five, which is like, it's two corners, but it's kind of like, almost like a double apex right-Hander that he was like a 10th and a half over, a 10th and a half faster just in that section.
Russell closed all the gap like every other corner.
It's a hundred through two to 100th through two to the other.
And then Russell just closes the gap on the straits.
'cause the Mercedes is quicker in a straight line.
And so you look at all the other corners and it's, they're so close to being identical that like the cars are almost identical, but Max just beat him in four and five by a 10th and a half and then loses it on the straits and beats him by a half a 10th.
Max made the difference, like this is what we've been talking about all these years, right?
The cars are the same in the corners and the Red Bull is slower on the straight, but just in one corner he just sacked up and did a better job and got enough of a buffer to make up for what he was losing on the straights.
And that's what got a pole. And it's unbelievable. Okay.
That's the kind of in the moment like clutch play that Max is so good at.
And uh, and it earned him a poll position that he probably shouldn't have had or did it.
I mean, I think he earned the poll.
Um, it got taken away from him because I don't, I didn't watch enough of like the analysis to really form an appropriate opinion.
And I'm biased because we all know how I feel about old Georgie boy.
Um, but it had to do with Max being too slow on a recharge lap or a cool down lap or something of the sort.
And that posed a safety risk because George wasn't on a, on a fast lap, right?
So George just accelerated up to his bumper and made it look like it was a, uh, I don't know, a dangerous situation that Max put him in.
But in reality, George had full control over the situation because he was the one from behind.
Like is that kind of what happened? Yes.
Because it wasn't that George was on a hot lap.
He didn't, was not a hot lap. He hit
him on a qualifying lap.
No, he was speeding up to start a hot lap.
He came across Max and turned 13.
There are 16 turns on the track.
He had 20 seconds of racetrack left to get around Max who was going very slowly.
And George just happened to catch him not on a push lap at the apex of a corner.
Now was Max going slow in a fast corner? Yes.
Was he on the racing line? Yes.
Did he go out of his way to get outta the way?
No, because George was not on a push lap.
And the two cars in front of Max had also slowed down significantly and were going the same speed Max was going.
It was not a blind corner.
Qatar is the second flattest country on earth. Yeah. Okay.
You can see the entire track from one place. Mm.
George could see the cars.
He had no excuse to drive up on them that fast.
And the FIA decided to give max a penalty that has never been issued, which was impeding a car that wasn't on a fast lap.
Mm-hmm . And the penalty
for set infraction was one position when every other impeding penalty is three.
And the excuse for that was because it wasn't on a fast lab.
Well if it wasn't on a fast lab, why is he getting a penalty?
Why is it impeding? You're, what are you impeding?
Yeah. You're impeding him also not going fast.
Right? How dare you.
It was, it was so asinine. And you know what man?
Like I Max made this comment a couple of weeks ago about how he's got the wrong passport for this paddock.
Mm. Which was like, you know, it was cheeky
and a shot at the FIA and whatever, but dude, this was bullshit.
Like this was such a weird thing.
And like he's like, he goes, I'm so over this year. But
Okay, But then they also hated on the Brits pretty Hard.
Yeah. They overcorrected pretty hard the next like
day. Right? Um,
There were four Brits in the field and three of them got ties. .
Right. So all I'm gonna say
and give George maybe a, a a small bit of credit is this in IndyCar we are often told that if you are held up, and this is clearly, this is not clearly, this is only specifically in qualifying.
If you are impeded by a driver who is gapping on an out lap, on an in lap whatever and doesn't let you buy, doesn't pull offline, make it blatantly obvious to the stewards by being like up their gearbox under their rear wing, like what the <inaudible> was, that sort of thing.
George took that to an extreme and maybe there was some conversation in a driver's meeting. Go ahead James.
But he wasn't on a push lap.
I know, I know. Hold on though.
We have no idea what is discussed offline.
We know that we have a lot of conversations in driver's meetings about gapping and how ridiculous it is and how slow people go.
And like F1 has been made an example by a lot of different series of how ridiculous it is with their push cool push with recharging the batteries, how bad to do it.
Right? So we have no idea if people were like, Hey,
let's like not do that as much this weekend.
George knew that they might be watching for it and made kind of a, a very big situation out.
Something that shouldn't have been a big situation but maybe poked at the, the stewards and and forced them to call something.
'cause it has been talked about. And that's something
that's a page outta Max's book.
You know, he, he reads between the lines of the rules, he knows the rules to the letter that the letter of the law, right.
And uses that to his advantage at all times.
We don't know that George didn't do something similar.
I'm not, I I here's where the bull is, like there shouldn't have been a penalty because there is no, they, they changed the, the penalty outcome because it was something they never penalized before.
So that's where it gets a little bit lost in translation.
If there was a new rule that they had discussed. Right.
There should have been an update that everyone was aware of that if you do this on cool down laps, 'cause we're trying to keep the speed differential down as a one, a one spot penalty versus a three.
So that's where it's a little bit suspicious.
But I would just want to give George a very small benefit a doubt here.
I mean I always kind of think about when you see when you're watching football and like it's very clear that somebody you know, caught the ball and then went out.
Obviously the defenders are gonna say incomplete pass and try and they're gonna try and do everything to get an advantage.
It would be on the ref for for calling it in an incomplete pass.
Correct. When it's a complete pass. So of course he's gonna
try like it would be correct, it would be <inaudible> not to almost .
I just, again, in none of the post interviews did anybody say anything about a conversation in a driver's meeting?
No, you're right. Or a new rule. So I don't,
You're probably right and George is a <inaudible> head, but like whatever I will, I'm gonna give George credit and say he drove really well this weekend, but yeah.
Yeah. It was just, I don't, I don't blame George.
I still blame the the stewards.
It was a very bizarre thing which set the stage nicely for.
So anyway, so yeah, so Max is essentially gets away and that's the thing.
If it's, if one of those two drivers isn't one of the two guys in the front row, like if George came up on Checo or if if Lands came up on Max, would they have done the same thing a one position penalty?
Right? Because it just so happened
to be the two guys in the front row.
Great point. And one position penalty happens to,
it's just the whole thing just seems too contrived.
Yes, you're right. That
doesn't even get to the worst of it.
It sure doesn't. So let's go to race day.
Um, max just blitzes George off his dart and off He goes because he was probably furious for 12 hours because of this whole Situation just seating.
He probably didn't even sleep. He just sat awake looking at
his wall with s the FI Stewart throwing darts at them.
No, I guarantee you didn't do that.
I guarantee you for nine hours he was on a sim doing practice starts maybe. Maybe.
Yeah. Um,
and then, oh man, it's okay. So,
Alright, so Max had control of the race, like it was a, it was a parade.
Terrible race that track.
Let's be honest, it's awesome to watch so I can qualify in like the change of direction and like the corner speed is Awesome and the drivers love to Drive it.
Yeah, yeah. But the racing it's terrible, terrible race.
Right? Um, there's only 1D RS zone
and it's into like a pretty condensed breaking zone 'cause turn wasn't one isn't that slow anyways, that's 50 or corner. Yeah.
Right. So, um, it was a parade
and then Alex Alban's mirror flew off and so it flew off on the front street and it was not on the racing line but it was adjacent to the racing line.
And like if someone were to go to pass a car, they would for example Hit it and the only DRS thus passing zone on Track, passing zone, right?
Right. And for like three laps, maybe four laps,
there was a local yellow in the only passing zone on the track and everyone being commentators teams were like prepping to be in pit lane, all this sort of thing to take advantage of a VSC or a safety cart expecting it to go full course in some capacity because it was taking away the only passing zone on the track and it didn't.
No. And so then what happened, James,
because a lot of things happened as a result of this.
Okay, we're gonna cover a couple different things here, right?
First we're gonna cover Max Tappin's ability to be better than everybody at all things while seemingly not even trying, right?
So there's a yellow flag on the front strait in the rules.
You have to, you have to slow down for a yellow flag now because there was no immediate danger.
There was no car stopped on or off the track.
There was no safety personnel, there was no safety equipment.
It was literally a mirror offline.
I guess the acceptable amount of slowing down is literally any like a 10% lift for one second.
Cool. What's not slowing down is
zero and staying flat out the whole way through it.
So Max is in such control of this race that he notices that Lando catches him by like almost a second on one lap and he's like, well hang on a minute.
I didn't make any mistakes. I'm max for stepin.
How did Lando go a second quicker than me on that lap?
Considering we all have to slow down through that yellow zone.
Hey wait, maybe Lando didn't slow down through the yellow zone key radio.
Hey guys, uh, real quick there's a yellow flag on the front.
Stray Lando caught me by a lot. Not sure he lifted.
Could you go ahead be a doll and just look at the data and see if maybe, or maybe he didn't lift.
That'd be, that'd be super swell. Thanks.
By whilst leading the grum pri such as his capacity to process the gap closing theorize why I radio that back to the, to the team, which for all we know is what started the investigation in Orlando's behavior.
Anyway. I don't actually think it was it,
'cause I think he set a fastest lap while that was out.
So that's probably a little bit, or at least the fastest sector.
Anyway, it doesn't matter. The fact Max even thought about
it and communicated, it just shows again he's so far above everyone else.
The way he operates, um, leads to a penalty for Orlando because the data does show that he in fact stayed flat out through a yellow flag zone.
I would be very interested to know, like did he improve that sector? Like I don't, I mean
The, the sector, I dunno if you know that his best sector of the race I believe up to that Point.
So, so a lot of people, people on the, on the internet focus on the fact that, you know, Lando stayed flat past the yellow flag, whereas Max knowing the rules and being all in control of everything lifted to 90% for 0.9 seconds and then continued on.
I think, I think if Lando had not gone the fastest of anyone at that point in the race, in that sector, but still stayed flat pass yellow flag, it would've been a non-issue.
It wasn't that Max lifted this and gave up four hundredths of a second.
It's that Lando completely ignored it for the entire 29 second sector, right?
So it's not, it's not that Max is that much smarter, it's that Max is just, he, again, he knew the rule, right?
Even though there was no car, even though there was no personnel, he saw Yellow Flag and was like, all right, just don't improve the sector.
Lando should know better ultimately, but it was, it was, it was a, it was a four corner process for Lando and for all we know Lando could have gone slow through turn one, but with fuel coming off the car and negative dag and all this sort of thing just pushed too hard through 2, 3, 4, 5 and improved sensor.
But it's, it's, it's not even, it's not even uh, the whole sector, right?
As you know, you just have to go from the yellow flag sign like the, the lightboard that's yellow to the next three. So
They may, they may, they may have, they may have changed it, but when I was there they made it very black and white.
It was that it was the Entire Sector, the sector you couldn't improve. And they, they did that.
Oh yeah, okay. That makes sense. That makes sense.
Yeah. And it kind of, it was kind of 'cause like in drying
sessions and stuff, it was like, well how, right, how am I supposed to, and that was, they were just like, well figure it out. And
That's just it.
What if he just broke deeper into turn one and made up the time.
But again, he, he didn't lift so it doesn't matter.
Um, it made them look at the data one way or the other and he didn't lift.
Right. Before we get to the actual penalty,
I would like to bring up a very good point of, well two points.
One of 'em is a very good point raised by Andrea Stella, who's the team principal.
McLaren. The, the first point is why not get rid of it?
To your point, Alex, you've got it sitting off the racing line, but on the passing line, on the only passing place on the track, which is now also yellow because it's mm-hmm .
You know, you can't, so you can't pass.
So why immediately aren't they like, we should probably throw a safety car for this because Right.
So what happened was Orlando goes through 'cause it stays out for a couple laps and then the yellow just disappears.
And the point that Andrea brought up that I hadn't thought of up until then was, so at one point it was worthy of a yellow, nothing changed and then it was no longer worthy of a yellow.
When, when consistency is the number one thing that everybody asks for from a race control, that is such an unbelievable, like let's ignore what they did in qualifying.
That is such an unbelievable inconsistent event within the same occurrence.
Like the same situation was a yellow flag and then wasn't a yellow flag despite nothing changing, right?
Mm-hmm. Whatever. It's their right. So they issue a penalty.
Well it became a yellow flag when two cars proceeded to get punctures once it was green again and people started racing Right?
Before we get to that, oh, okay.
The, the penalty that was given to Lando was a ten second stop and go penalty, which is the most severe penalty you can give to a car in a race.
Okay? He could have dive bombed,
somebody pushed them off the track and ended their day and maybe he would've got a plus 10 seconds on his race time or you know, plus 10 seconds added to his, uh, pit stop.
But an entire trip down pa it's not even a drive through.
A ten second stop and go hasn't been used first of all in F1 for I think at least a decade.
And it's the harshest penalty.
You can offer four car going through a yellow flag zone on a straight with no car stopped, no personnel and no safety equipment.
You've left no room to escalate this penalty.
If somebody goes through a yellow flag zone where there's a car stopped, there's personnel and there's safety equipment.
I am the number one supporter for an advocate for being very harsh and stern and strict on any infraction that compromises safety.
But you also need common sense and there was a distinct lack of that because if in qualifying they're gonna rewrite the rules and the penalties applied based on situational circumstances, how are you not doing that?
In this case, a five second penalty added to his time would've been more than adequate given the scenario.
But no, they did the most insane thing ever, which was given the biggest penalty you can short of black flagging him, which apparently isn't even legal anyway. Goes back green
Goes back green and uh, Lewis and Carlos signs, um, immediately drive through there and get left front punctures. Um, because
Goes back green.
Someone Val had hits Someone.
Yeah, right. Someone had touched the mirror, boned apart
two cars following, uh, GI punctures and now were yellow.
Um, in this process of Louis having to come to pit lane, uh, due to a cleanup on the front straight as well as needing a new left front tire, he speeds in pit lane.
Hold on. You're even missing another part.
Oh shoot. Okay.
Lewis's left front blows. Yes.
Could be a 30 seconds after this.
Not a coincidence of carbon is exploded uphill.
Not a coincidence, but plausible deniability, five seconds later another car's tire blows.
Right? No longer a coincidence.
It stayed green for like another lap and a half.
It was an unbelievable amount of time before the safety car was called in that time.
McLaren, McLaren the hell out of themselves and pulled Pia before there was the inevitable safety car, which is insane.
So cost him a ton of time, but they just, they waited so long.
The second you see the second tire fail, it's gotta be a safety car.
Even just, even if you're wrong, you just have to figure out what it was that's done that.
'cause that's not a coincidence, right? Mm-hmm .
And they waited a lap and a half or whatever it was.
Luckily no one else got a cut tire.
Then, uh, safety car comes out and dude, your so, so he, so all right, Hamilton's pitted, everybody comes in under safety car fine except p ashery. 'cause he already had,
Right Now the safety car's got the field, but there's all this crap being cleaned up on the front strait.
So they decide to go through pit lane with the safety car in the field while behind the safety car under full course caution.
Hamilton accidentally doesn't hit the PLC button and speeds the pit lane. Correct.
Which is not a, not a time gain of any sorts.
It's a, it's not an advantage.
He, he literally, he actually brake checked.
I think it, I don't remember who was land it Lando because he was trying to get under the speed limit to bring his average down.
It was under safety car, so it was in a controlled environment and they still gave him a pit speed penalty.
Even though that's, that's equivalent to giving you a pit speed penalty.
I don't even know what it's equivalent to.
It's the most insane thing I've ever heard of.
Because it's like, it Why does that matter? I understand.
Doesn't matter. I understand a fine,
you get a fine in practice if you speed in pit lane, I would even understand like a a, I guess you could tolerate a five second penalty 'cause they like to throw those out all the time and give him a chance to like build a gap to the car he is racing or whatever.
Like yeah, you've, you sped it's an official race we have to do something.
But to make him do a drive through, A drive through is You don't, with like, with like 14 laps left so's basically you don't ending his day.
Yeah, it's a 20, it's a 22nd penalty basically.
You don't even get a drive through when you speed in pit lane under green.
Like normally they just get like a plus five or plus, I don't know what it is, but it's not a <inaudible> drive through.
Right. I don't know who pissed in the steward's cornflakes
that morning, but they were just on a war path and they were throwing out the harshest penalties. They could,
They got rid of Tim Mayer who was the chief steward.
Was he, was he like out of action this weekend because like yes, he got, he got fired a week and a half ago or whatever, right?
He was not there this weekend.
So, so it was a new chief steward who decided that he was gonna have a Napoleon complex and just swing his around and give out as many big penalties as he could.
Like is that what it was like making a name for himself? Because
No Idea. It doesn't make any sense. It's a,
It's a panel though, right?
It's not one steward. There's like three stewards I
Think, I think, I think they only vote on, like, it comes down to a vote when it's a driver contact racing incident sort of thing.
When it's like an actual, he violated rule speeding rule 71 B, right?
Right. There's no like jury black
And white.
There's, there's just a chief steward guy.
Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
But so then just the chief steward also then decides the penalty because I thought Well no, because they've given, they Given would've severity is tied to a given.
No. So there's, there is the maximum penalty
that they can give for an incident.
If you want to degrade that penalty, you're allowed to do that.
But there's an assigned, like you can't go more than this for this situation, right?
So this guy just went to the bottom of the list for seemingly everything. .
I mean I feel like if there had been avoidable contact, somebody would've been sent to the guillotine as the next form of punishment.
Like that's, that was the like stoned to death, which Alex Would've been really against unless it was George Russell Stoned to death in a public forum, I think was the next thing I I for, you know, passing under yellow.
I don't know man. Yeah, it was absolutely insane.
There were other penalties too, but those were the ones that were just Outta control. Like
The, the absolutely outta control.
The director flopped big time on throwing the safety car.
The stewards flopped several times between Saturday and Sunday.
And once again, the FIA made themselves the story when it's not, it shouldn't be about that.
Right? Like you hate watching a football game
where the story on Monday is, man, how about the rests in that game, right?
Mm-hmm not, how about the passing, how about the receiving?
How about the, you know, so it's, it's, it was, it was tough man.
It was a weird thing to watch, um, unfold.
Couple interesting, you know, developments.
Pierre had a great race, super impressive run, which have now put Alpine even further in front for sixth, which is wild.
Yes. Um, Magnuson did a great job. Uh,
Johan Zoo or whatever, I don't know how to say his name.
Great job. First points
For On you for uh, s Yeah.
And for him, Fauci got boned.
He got run off the road by Lawson early. Mm.
He was the guy that hit the mirror.
He, he was a lap down, he got his lap back 'cause of the safety car and then still drove his way up to 11th one one outta the points and nearly got both cars in the points.
So I want to talk, I want to talk about two things and then we're out of time.
Um, and we can recap Abu Dhabi balloons, we can recap Abu DHA and do a little bit of a preview if we need to next week.
Um, what is happening ? Number one?
Number one, is there balloons for one or just two?
I think it's like a piece. Anyways. Sound worth it.
Um, during this whole situation with Lewis, so Lewis was getting drilled all weekend by George.
He came out after Sprint qualifying and being was just demoralized and was like, I'm not fast anymore.
I don't have any answers to your questions.
It was a good lap. I'm four tenths off, I'm slow. Right.
And you know, Lewis is a, I think he's, he, he's very, um, aware of his inward psyche and emotions and he is very connected to all that sort of thing.
So like that didn't really surprise me.
It was, it was strange to hear a competitor of his magnitude kind of admit that.
But like, I think he's a sensitive guy and would wants to be honest with people.
Um, I think that, you know, he showed in Vegas his capability and his pace is still there.
Um, and I think that, you know, he had a pretty good turnaround Sunday.
Like he was a 10th and a half, two tenths off George, like George was strong, George was fighting for polls and Lewis was in the, in, in the ballpark, but he was pretty bad in the race at one point.
He asked, he was stuck behind Sergio at one point he asked the team like, what are the leaders doing?
And they gave him the, the lap times and Lewis was like, that's over a second man.
Like you could just hear in his voice, he was dejected and so then all this stuff happens with the penalty and the speedy and pit lane and he comes on the radio and he is like, I'm gonna park the car.
Like I'm just gonna come in, turn it off.
And his engineer was like, no, you're not.
And he was like, yeah, I am man.
He was like, well not unless you want a five second penalty in Abu Dhabi.
So he does the drive through, carries on and then I think he ultimately did retire the car.
Um, oh, he didn't? Okay. So it
Was just, no, that's the best part. Then the
Team said, now you can, Then the team said, box to retire the car and he was like, nah, let's finish this .
Right. So he's clearly having a complete
and total like mind meltdown.
Um, so there was some rumors and the commentators I think spoke incorrectly and kind of disrespectfully and they were like, man, we're really questioning whether or not Lewis is gonna make it to Abu Dhabi.
Obviously Mercedes isn't firing Lewis Hamilton obviously Lewis is gonna finish out what he started and the legacy he's gonna leave with Mercedes-Benz.
But super wild that, um, Alpine is replacing Esteban who gave the team their first win in Budapest, who has been, you know, the part of the, the heartbeat of this team since kind of the beginning.
And they're not even letting him finish out the journey and they're replacing him with the guy who's gonna drive the car in 2025.
And I just think that's really messed up because apparently he found out about this three hours before the racing guitar and wasn't really given an option.
The option was you can do Abu Dhabi, but we're not then gonna release you to test with Haass, who's the team he's driving for in 2025 the week after the Abu Dhabi race.
And it just is not, I'm not okay with that.
You know, we've talked often in this, in this board about how, you know, there's, there's contracts that aren't honored and there's commitments that aren't honored and all this sort of thing.
And a lot of it, you know, is usually, um, money related on this side of the pond.
You know, people aren't necessarily maybe paying their bills or it's performance related and all this sort of thing.
But in this situation, what does Alpine have to gain from this?
You're, you're just robbing the guy of finishing out his journey with the team.
You're robbing the mechanics of having one last hurrah with him and it just, it seems super disrespectful and uncalled for.
Yeah, so, um, I'm just gonna come out and say it this whole thing.
I believe it is believed to be orchestrated by the guy that had a lifetime ban from the Formula One paddock that somehow got revoked.
This is the guy that fixed a race back in 2008, Flavia Bri tore.
Um, there's, there's a couple different layers to this. Yes.
This relationship between Esteban and the team had deteriorated greatly.
We all knew he was leaving. We all knew he wasn't gonna be
leaving under great terms, but let it, like, let it be known that that is with the management right?
In Esteban's post that he, he put out today or yesterday or something, you know, he specifically thanked every member that works on the car, every, every engineer, every mechanic, every traveling person, everyone back at the factory in end stone, every back in the factory at Veri.
All the people he worked with on the team he had a great relationship with.
And I, and I know some of those mechanics and engineers and they have nothing but good things to say about him.
Him and management didn't get along.
Maybe him and Pierre didn't get along, whatever it was, uh, the, the the, the whole thing was just, you know, it was a very unfortunate kind of thing.
Esteban had found his new home and, and has, he had had that deal signed fine.
And to, to kick a guy out with one race to go after he is been with you for five years is such a scumbag move when, Well it's not like there was any, like, it's not like he was shunting cars every weekend.
There was no like, no major thing that has happened that's like some like, oh my God. Like he's
So the checked out, the only the, the only conspiracy theory that I heard in Qatar and I didn't, I didn't, it wasn't from anybody with any, I I don't know where it came from, but it sounds very like flat earth to me is that they were accusing him because the last couple races, Pierre has been qualifying in Q3 in the top 10 and Esteban has been struggling to get outta Q1.
Um, they're, they were, the theory I heard was that the team was accusing him of sabotaging their constructors' position 'cause they're racing Haas for P six, which is his next team.
So I mean, like it's a pretty ballsy move, right?
If that's, there's any true to it, but dude, I just don't, I just don't think that's how it works.
And I know guys that work on his car, I just, that's just not what's happening.
It's, it's, it's a really cool like thing and you know, again, the moon landing did happen.
Sorry. So I just don't, I just don't buy it.
You don't buy a moon landing Shut up so much.
But the, the, the only, the only other thing that has come out, which is much more in line with like the kind of savage that Flavi Bri tore is the Jack Dein deal who is signed to replace, uh, Esteban for next year, F two driver.
He's been the reserve driver at Alpine for a couple years.
Um, that was done before Flavio was part of the team.
And now that Franco Kop Pinto is available, potentially allegedly flas got a bit of a thing for, for Klip Pinto.
So the theory now is that they wanted to give Deon a race weekend to see how he stacked up against Pierre.
And if he doesn't cut the mustard, they're gonna release him having done one Grand Prix six months earlier than he should have and try and get K Pinto in the car.
Like, I don't know what's happened to Motorsport, but like every series is just like, like drivers are disposable.
Yes. The the most, I'm sorry,
the single most important element of racing are the drivers.
It's not the cars, it's not the tracks, it's not the promoters, it's nothing.
It's the <inaudible> drivers.
Those are the stars of the series.
Those are what, those are the reason people tune in to watch and drivers universally are being treated like dog <inaudible> and it's, it's sickening.
And I, yes, I'm biased, but I'm also right.
Sorry, and, And humble about his opinion.
And also you're a TV guy now, so you're not biased.
I'm gonna, I'm not gonna say I don't carry some bias for my former career, uh, but, but yes, I'm trying to be objective as this.
But, but the amount of, of Bull that's been floating around the last couple years in IndyCar in F1, I'm sure in NASCAR to a certain extent.
This, this just sums it up perfectly.
This just sums it up perfectly though.
And we're gonna end on this.
Let's, uh, say <inaudible> you to the guy that's given five years to the team and us, his first win to evaluate someone that we might <inaudible> in five months, I mean in five days.
Nice, nice. Like he's literally got nice,
he's got three days in the car to, to make an impression.
Yeah. This guy means nothing to us
to see if this next guy also means nothing to us.
It's wild. Awesome. He said it bud. Anyway.
Anyway, can we complain about that? Mark ,
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