A “sprint weekend” is an F1 format where a shorter race (the sprint) is held on Saturday and affects the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. It adds an extra high-stakes session, so teams and drivers have to manage risk and performance across both days.
It means you keep trying harder, but each extra step gives you less benefit than the step before. In racing, that can happen when the car is already close to what it can do.
Tracks are split into sections, and each section is timed separately. Looking at the sectors shows where a driver is fast and where they’re having trouble.
VSC is a way for F1 to slow everyone down when there’s a hazard. It’s like a “virtual” speed limit, so teams have to manage their pace and strategy differently than under normal racing.
In F1, a “long run” is when a driver stays out for a longer stretch to see how fast the car stays over time. It helps teams understand race pace and tire behavior, not just one quick lap.
“Single lap” means how fast the car is for one quick lap. F1 teams look at that separately from race pace, because a car can feel great for one lap but not last as well over many laps.
“Toe” is how the wheels are angled relative to each other. Even small alignment changes can make the car grip better and feel more stable, which is why teams talk about it when discussing pace.
“Turn 18” is just the name of a specific corner on that circuit. Drivers mention it so you know exactly where they felt the car change—like grip or speed—during the race.
“Wings closed” means the rear wing is set to create less drag and less downforce. That usually makes the car faster on straights, but it can reduce grip in corners—so it matters a lot depending on wind and track position.
A “tire softener” is basically anything that makes the tires work better—grip sooner or feel less stiff. The goal is usually to help the car stay stable and allow closer racing.
The Safety Car is used when the track isn’t safe for full-speed racing. Everyone slows down and follows it until race control says it’s safe to race again.
A yellow flag means “something dangerous is ahead.” You have to slow down and drive carefully because cars might be stopped or moving slowly. If you ignore it, it can get you penalized.
A pit window is the best time in the race to come into the pits. If a slowdown period like VSC happens at the wrong time, your pit stop can cost you more time than you wanted.
Eau Rouge is a well-known fast corner at Spa. It’s uphill and tricky, so getting through it cleanly—especially on lap one—can be a big deal for avoiding damage or losing time.
Term
extra boost
“Extra boost” means the car is giving you more power to accelerate. In this context, it’s describing how much stronger the push was going downhill toward a major corner.
Silverstone is the famous Formula 1 track in the UK. Where something happens on that circuit matters a lot because it can change how easy it is to pass other cars afterward.
Place
Hangararing
This refers to a specific part of the Silverstone track. The point is that if something goes wrong there, it can be hard to pass the other car again soon because the track doesn’t give you many easy passing chances.
Track limits are the boundaries on the track you’re allowed to use. If you go over the line too much—like cutting corners—you can get a warning or a penalty.
The pit wall is where the team sits in the garage area and talks to the driver during the race. They watch what’s happening and help with strategy decisions.
Les Combes is a named corner at Spa. It’s a spot where braking and turning-in happen, so contact can occur if cars are side-by-side.
Topic
reset for Russell
They’re basically talking about whether Russell needs a fresh start—like, is this just a bad moment or does it point to a bigger issue that must be fixed.
A “racing incident” means the crash/contact was judged to be part of racing, not a clear rule break. So the officials may decide not to punish the drivers, or punish less than they would for a clear mistake.
Mitigating circumstances are reasons that make an incident seem less serious. If the stewards think the situation was understandable—like happening on lap one—they may give a smaller penalty.
A 10-second penalty means the driver effectively loses 10 seconds compared to their rivals because of an infraction. It’s a common way F1 punishes mistakes without needing to disqualify anyone.
The cooldown room is a post-session meeting area where the driver and team quickly talk through what went wrong or right. It’s basically the immediate debrief right after the run.
“Loss of deployment” means the car didn’t give the extra push it was supposed to at the right time. So instead of getting faster on the straight, the driver feels like the performance is missing.
F1 tracks are divided into a few timed sections called sectors. The “middle sector” is the part in between, and teams look at it to figure out where the car is slow or fast.
Term
Blanchement
Blanchimont is a well-known corner at Spa. Drivers and teams use it as a landmark to talk about where the car is behaving differently.
“Straight line speed” is how fast the car goes when the track is mostly straight. If a car is weak here, it often means it’s losing energy to things like air resistance or mechanical drag.
In 2026 F1, the car’s speed depends a lot on how it uses its limited energy. If the car wastes energy, it can’t use as much power later, so it feels slower at the end of the lap.
In F1, the power unit is the whole energy system that makes the car go. It’s more than the engine alone because it also includes parts that store and reuse energy.
The energy system is the hybrid setup that decides how energy is collected and reused. It’s a key part of how the car gets power, not just the engine itself.
Deployment issues mean the car isn’t delivering its extra hybrid power the way it should. That can make the car feel weaker when you need acceleration.
A straight-line issue is when the car struggles most on long straight sections. Since straights rely heavily on power and acceleration, it often points to a drivetrain or energy problem.
The gearbox is the part that helps the engine send power to the wheels. In racing, changing it can be a way to fix a problem with how the car accelerates or behaves.
The rear wing is the spoiler on the back of the F1 car. It helps press the car onto the track, and changing it can change how the car turns and sticks in corners.
They’re talking about the car’s front aero parts (like the front wing). Changing those can change how the car feels when you turn in and how well the front tires grip.
Data acquisition means the car is recording lots of measurements while it runs. If you have that data, it’s easier for the team to figure out what’s really causing the problem.
A “power-sensitive circuit” is a track where having strong engine power matters more. If the track has long straights, the faster top speed from more power can make a big difference.
“Double stacked” is when a team brings two cars into the pits very close together. It’s usually done when race conditions (like VSC) make that timing advantageous so the cars lose less time than they would otherwise.
Oversteer is when the back of the car wants to slide out more than the front. Drivers feel it as the car rotating or “turning itself” more than they expect, especially mid-corner.
A “switch back” is when the driver has to change the steering direction mid-corner—like going from turning one way to correcting back the other way. It can reveal whether the car feels stable or twitchy during that transition.
A five-second penalty means the driver gets extra time added to their race time. It’s a punishment for breaking race rules, and it can drop them down the order.
“Racing room” means the other driver should leave you enough space when you’re fighting for position. It’s about whether the move was fair when cars are side-by-side.
A “stern penalty” means the officials are handing out a pretty serious punishment for breaking the rules. In F1, that’s usually because the move was dangerous or clearly against the regulations.
The braking zone is the part of the track where drivers slow down to set up for the corner. F1 rules are strict here because it’s a common place for risky side-by-side contact.
Term
muscle-memored
In racing, “muscle memory” means your body learns the usual braking and turning actions from practice. So if another car is next to you, you might still do the normal moves you’ve done a hundred times.
Term
brake across the road
This means braking while moving sideways across the track. In F1, that’s risky because the other driver can’t easily predict where you’ll end up.
A chicane is a part of the track where you have to weave through a couple of turns to slow down. The “first chicane” is the first one you hit, and it’s a common spot for close racing and rule-related incidents.
Monza is a well-known Formula 1 track in Italy. It has tricky sections like chicanes, and the track surface near them can affect how drivers position their cars safely.
Kerbs are the raised edges on the sides of the track. Drivers use them to judge where the track limits are, but hitting or riding them can make the car bounce or lose grip.
The white line is a painted boundary on the track. If a driver is on the line during a risky maneuver, it can be a clue about whether they’re cutting the corner or causing an incident.
Concept
four or five tenths every lap
“Tenths” means fractions of a second. If it’s “four or five tenths every lap,” the car is going about 0.4–0.5 seconds slower each lap because of the damage.
Stewards are the race officials who watch incidents and decide if someone broke the rules. They can review video from many angles and onboard cameras before deciding on penalties.
On-boards are cameras mounted on the car that show what the driver sees and how the car behaves. They’re useful for figuring out what happened in an incident.
Charles Leclerc is one of Ferrari’s Formula 1 drivers. Here, they’re saying he did a good job controlling the race and defending when another driver tried to pass.
Lewis is Lewis Hamilton, one of the most successful drivers in F1 history. They’re saying he usually races cleanly, but this time he got pulled into a situation.
An unsafe release is when a team sends a car out of the pits at the wrong moment. If another car is too close, it can cause a near-miss or even a crash.
The front wing is the big wing on the front of an F1 car that helps it stick to the track. If it’s missing or not the right setup, the car can feel like it won’t turn properly.
The pit lane is the area next to the track where teams pull in to work on the car. It’s where pit stops happen, and cars have to rejoin carefully so they don’t cause problems.
The radio is how the driver and the team talk to each other during the race. The driver can report problems, and the team can give instructions right away.
“Cascade effects” means one mistake or bad moment can lead to more problems right after it. In a race team, that can affect decisions, communication, and how the driver performs next.
An undercut is a strategy where you pit earlier than the car you’re trying to beat. The goal is to get out on newer tires and go faster so you come out ahead on the track.
“Macarena wing” is a nickname for a rear wing setup that moves/adjusts in a noticeable way. In this moment, the hosts are saying the team removed it and put the old one back.
A performance deficit is the loss of speed or efficiency compared to what the car should be delivering. In F1, changing aerodynamic parts like a rear wing can create a temporary deficit until the car is back to its intended configuration.
A “tow” is when one car drives really close behind another. The air resistance is lower for the car in back, so it can go faster and catch up more easily.
Isaac Hadjar is a race driver. In this clip, they’re talking about how well he helped another car by driving close behind it, and whether he made it too easy for them.
Slipstream is the disturbed air left behind a car. If you follow closely, you get less air resistance, so you can pick up speed and close the gap.
Term
straight mode closure
This is about how fast a car catches the one ahead on a straight. It depends on things like how the car is set up and how well it’s using the air behind the leading car.
“Hard” is the name of a tire type in F1. It usually lasts longer than softer tires, but it doesn’t grip as well, so teams use it when they’re planning a longer stint.
The medium tyre is the middle option: it grips better than the hard tyre but wears out faster. Teams decide if it can last long enough to finish the race or cover the next strategy window.
A slow stop means the pit crew took longer than expected to change the tyres. In F1, that lost time can drop you back because other cars may be pitting at the same time.
LIVE
Today was so mature and measured from Kimi Antonelli that I think he turned yet another corner.
This is, you feel, the beginning of a Kimi Antonelli era.
Are we being robbed slightly of a true comparison given the issues that are going on with George?
Second in the Javidjim! Mace comes out with third in the Javidjim and Russell is in the gravel!
We're watching in real time a lifelong childhood dream slowly moving further and further away from him.
The winner of the Belgian Grand Prix is joining us now in the Mercedes motorhome.
Charlotte, at the end of the race, she came to me and I was like, were you also quicker when you were behind me?
I was like, yeah, I mean, it was a bit easier for sure.
Nice tow from Isaac Hadjar. It's a little bit like doing the washing up that you want to do it well, but you don't want to do it that well.
Welcome everyone to F1 Nation's review of the Belgian Grand Prix.
I'm Tom Clarkson and joining me in the paddock here at Spa-Francorchamps is the dynamic duo from F1 TV
lead presenter Laura Winter and two-time Le Mans podium finisher Alex Brandel.
Very warm welcome to you both. Headlines, please after that Grand Prix.
Well, thank you so much for having us and my goodness, headlines are, well, firstly, Kimmy Antonelli does it again.
Win number six, pole number six. He staved off the pressure from Charlotte Claire behind him.
We asked before would track limits going to be one of his biggest nemeses today.
He got two strikes no more. He kept it within the white lines after that.
Reliability on his side today is extended his lead to 45 points over Lewis.
50 points over his teammate George Russell. He is the winner of the day.
I think for me it's very measured victory from Kimmy Antonelli.
He did what he needed to do in all circumstances, but it's a demonstration of how impressive he is in that Mercedes car that actually,
even with a much cheaper pit stop for both Ferraris, despite Hamilton's issues
and everybody else challenging him, he still had the full race in hand.
And you could see that from behind the steering wheel.
My question is what would have happened if for Stappen had got a free stop instead of Leclerc?
I have two more questions. What would have happened if George hadn't been punted out the race in lap one?
And what would have happened if Landon Norris had started P3?
That's the magic of Formula One. Right there, folks, but what a difference.
Let's talk about Kimmy Antonelli a little bit more and what a difference 12 months makes.
Let's cast our minds back to the Belgian Grand Prix last year.
Qualifies 19th for the Sunday race. It was a sprint weekend, but qualifies 19th, finishes 16th.
It was a massive struggle. Fast forward to this weekend and he's the dominant guy.
I appreciate he's got a very brilliant racing car, but there's more to it, Alex, isn't there?
We talk a lot in this sport about diminishing returns.
And I think when you look at a driver who came into Formula One relatively recently,
he's still on the sharp upward trajectory of his understanding of how to deliver race victories
and how to get the most out of the car. He's always been quick.
He was quick the first time he jumped in a Formula One car in Monza,
all the way through the first two sectors until he ended up in the barrier in the third.
And wasn't that indicative of the road he needed to travel to actually convert all of that natural pace
and natural ability into the complete, almost complete driver that he's become
with fantastic machinery underneath him.
Today was so mature, I've said it already, so mature and measured from Kimmy Antonelli
that I think he turned yet another corner in his pursuit of the world championship.
I think that came off the back of a very mature performance in the sprint race at Silverstone
where he was really patient in when he overtook Lewis Hamilton.
And then his response, because let's not forget, he's had two DNFs in the last three races before this weekend.
He's 19 years old. That's surely got to get into your head, especially when, as you said, Tom,
you look back 12 months and go, oh, no, is this the beginning of an unraveling here?
Because I think once we saw Kimmy going on a run this year, we thought,
well, eventually, surely the wheels will come off at some point because he's so young,
because he's on this very sharp upward trajectory, which is quite frightening for the rest of the paddock
if he is on this upward trajectory and this is already his level.
But it's just not unraveling for him in any sense, and he's got such a mature head on his shoulders.
And I think that horrible period he had last year, three points in nine races,
a number of DNFs through the European period, not least poor performances,
both in Italy as well, which will have really hurt him.
That, I think, has done wonders for who he is now, the driver we see today.
And also the way Mercedes have not wrapped him in cotton wool,
but nurtured him from the minute he stepped into the paddock as a rookie in Australia last year
to now they have pushed him where they needed to.
They have protected him when they needed to.
And I think we're seeing the sum of that work now.
The winner of the Belgian Grand Prix is joining us now in the Mercedes motorhome.
Kimmy, that looked amazing.
Just how good do you feel now?
What are we, two hours after the end of the race?
Are you still on the high?
I'm very happy, satisfied with the win.
It was a hard fought one, not straightforward at all.
And this weekend we brought a package, a lower downforce package.
We tried it in FP1, we were scratching a little bit our heads after FP1.
We came back slightly, not fully.
We changed, obviously, we came back on rear wing,
but the other bits were still on the new package and it worked nicely.
It was a good combination and the team did a great job on that.
It was a good race.
I know they were fortuitous with the timing of the VSC,
but how surprised were you perhaps with the pace of Charlotte Clair certainly in the Ferrari?
How wary are you of them going forward to Hungary
where we're expecting them to be that bit closer again?
Yeah, for sure.
Well, we knew their long run would have been, their long run was strong.
Already in FP1, FP2, they were strong.
They lacked, obviously, a bit more in single lap, but in the long run they were there.
So we expected them to be up there.
Then of course with the VSC and everything, it meant that it was close.
But yeah, it was not easy at all also because the toe was very strong.
So when I went ahead, it was hard to break away
and then also a lot of deployment differences between me and Ferrari.
So we had to make quite a few sweet changes in order to try and break away from the overtake.
When you had made the move, we thought you'd disappear off the road from Charlotte.
Is that just because the overtake was really strong
or was that you managing the car to the end of the race?
No, I mean the overtake was very strong, plus the toe was very powerful.
Going into turn 18 with the headwind, you could feel it massively.
Especially with, you know, you were spending quite a lot of time with the wings closed.
So it was very powerful there, the toe.
So it was a mix of things.
That's why also Charlotte at the end of the race, he came to me and I was like,
were you also quicker when you were behind me?
I was like, yeah, I mean it was a bit easier for sure.
So yeah, just also because these cars, at least for now, it's quite easy to follow.
So you don't lose so much in corners.
Definitely you don't lose as much as last year.
It's much easier to follow.
Tire softener is a bit less from it, so it just allows you to stay closer.
It's been an amazing day.
Who's the most famous Italian now?
You or Yannick Sinner, by the way?
I don't know, I don't know.
I still think Charlotte Clark is the most famous one, along with the Lewis Simons.
Thank you so much for coming to join us.
It's an amazing day, really, really well done from all of us.
Thank you so much.
He's so cool now.
He missed out on the VSC again here, like he did in Austria.
Yeah, no ranting on the radio.
I even asked him about it in the press conference afterwards,
and he just said, well, some you win, some you lose.
You know, I got lucky in Japan with the safety car, and okay, I missed out here.
It's kind of so balanced, so measured.
You say he's, I think Alex, did you say earlier, he's almost the complete package.
I think there's a very strong argument to say he's already there.
Potentially so, although, you know, there are still some moments,
I would point, for example, at the yellow flag issue back at the Austrian Grand Prix,
where George read the situation perfectly, sometimes off the star.
There are a few starts where he doesn't manage the situation perfectly.
Don't get me wrong, you know, outside Formula One in the grand scheme of motorsport,
you're talking about a brilliant, complete competitor driving against 21 other brilliant, complete competitors.
But in the level of Formula One, you know, he's still relatively early in his career,
which should be terrifying for everyone else, shouldn't it?
Are we being robbed slightly of a true comparison,
given the issues that are going on across the garage with George, maybe?
But I think that that is helping with Kimi Antonelli's confidence and the calmness that you relate to, Tom.
I mean, in comparison, for example, to Lando Norris, who painted the radio channels blue when the VSC didn't fall into his pit window,
you know, it's really interesting to hear that mindset and an idea of how comfortable he is within the team.
Last time I was on the pod, you were asking, is he a generational talent, is he a generational driver?
I think we all sort of unanimously said, yes, I think he is actually.
I think we can now quite more vehemently say, yeah, this is, you feel the beginning of a Kimi Antonelli era.
The one thing I'd say today is he very nearly absolutely punted it into the pit wall, didn't he?
The pit lane wall, and that could have been really quite costly, but he didn't, so there you go.
Exactly what I was going to say, that's the point.
And even actually, that run down to Eau Rouge on lap one, where, you know, Max gave it a whole load of extra boost going down the hill.
And Kimi got out of it in time, didn't fight it.
Yeah, I mean, those moments are easier to manage when you know you're going to be three tenths quicker for the rest of the Grand Prix.
And so in a way that the speed is everything, particularly the circuit like this, particularly the circuit like Silverstone,
if that moment happened into turn three in Hangararing, when you know you're not going to be able to pass the guy for another 30 laps,
then it might have been a bit of a different story.
So in many ways, you know, not to detract at all from, I mean, the brilliance of a 19 year old racing driver who could keep his head down to Eau Rouge
with crowd leaning over the track, waiting for this magic moment in a dominant Formula One car.
But having a car which can deliver dominant pace at will certainly helps, doesn't it?
I'll make one final point on it as well. I think Kimi Antonelli is so ably supported by Bono on the radio.
The calmness with which Bono delivers, OK, that's two track limits. We don't want any more.
I think that that partnership is one that has grown, is growing.
And I think the level-headedness we see in the car is reflected from what we get from the pit wall as well.
There's so much trust between those two already, so early on in their relationship.
Let's explore what Alex was saying earlier about. Are we being robbed of one of those brilliant championship battles?
Because of what's going on on the other side of the garage, let's start with just on track lap one here at Spa today.
Russell didn't finish the race after contact with Hamilton on lap one, and here's his take on what happened.
Well, it all started from the build-up. I came out of turn one for whatever reason.
I was 30 to 40% down on my battery, and I just got totally swamped up by three cars.
Incident with Lewis, I've not really seen it. I thought probably a race in incident, but I'm not going to blame Lewis.
If things were normal, I wouldn't have been even battling with Lewis. I'd have been battling with Kimmy and Max ahead.
Touched on the frustrations yesterday that you're feeling. Where do you go from here, George?
It's one thing after another, another. Not good enough on all regards.
So try and reset again, done it enough times this season and see what we can do.
Racing drivers' view, first of all, is there anything more George could have done to avoid that contact with Hamilton?
Obviously he could have gone left a bit more, but do you think he left him enough room?
I think that George is trying to open up the second apex, which he's entirely entitled to do.
It's definitely not George's fault. I agree with George's assessment that it's probably a racing incident,
which is head in the pen afterwards. It's clearly, for me, a racing incident.
I don't agree with the stewards' take on it on this particular occasion.
Just because it's the first lap, George has come from behind trying to go around the outside of Lewis.
Lewis is making his best attempt to stay right, but has essentially already committed to his breaking point for Les Combes.
It's definitely not George's fault, but I also think it's not really on Lewis either.
I would call that one a racing incident.
The stewards say that there were mitigating circumstances in that it was the first lap.
The rules stipulate that should be a 10-second penalty, but because it's lap one,
we're only going to give him five is what they said in their explanation.
Yeah, I know, but I think the reality of the scenario is that kind of thing will happen on first laps again in the future
and won't be penalised. I think any other lap than that, if you run Hamilton into the side of Russell,
then it's a penalty. But on that lap, especially with the way that the deployment was playing out,
you had the drivers talking about it in the cooldown room, how crazy it is for the drivers
when suddenly they get a burst of straight line speed in the middle of the run to Les Combes.
Suddenly you've got a driver on the outside of you.
You've committed to your braking point. You've given him as much racing room as possible
and then effectively slide into the side of him or make contact on the apex.
I still see it as a racing incident.
OK, right. That's the contact. But what about where George says, you know,
I was swamped by three cars. What have we learnt about his problems with the car this weekend?
I think that's it. George's gripe post-race, gripes to kind of word for I think how he must be feeling,
was actually why was I in the position in the first place in the dominant Mercedes
to be swamped by cars and then to have to be that close to make contact with Lewis Hamilton.
Unexpected loss of deployment is the line from the team. George Russell said yesterday
he has an astronomical lack of straight line speed. They thought it was driving style.
He changed some things. That hasn't made a difference. The team are then scratching their heads.
They are then searching and scrabbling for what it could be.
And George was listing a number of things in the pen. Wasn't he, he did then say today
there is a fix for Hungary, but it seems the team is still scrabbling for an answer
as to why the car is so different to the car on the hands of Kimi Antonelli.
I actually end up feeling a little bit bad about it from a broadcast perspective
because you look through the data that comes out of the car from George
and it seems so clear that as he makes his way through the middle sector here at Spa,
he arrives at the final sector and then Kimi has more deployment.
And you naturally, and that's been the difference throughout the whole weekend.
It's a couple of tents, you know, through Blanchement.
There have been some other bits and bobs depending on which session it is,
but that's really been the difference.
But then, you know, you talk to the team and you say, well, yeah, that would, they say,
well, that would have been a perfectly acceptable explanation.
But we promise you George has tried the things that we're asking him to do.
And yeah, there are some things that he can improve with his driving as with all the drivers
and no doubt and some ways that he can look at the way that Kimi is driving the car.
But there is also a fundamental problem with the car which is affecting his straight line speed.
That, as I believe he's alluded to earlier on in the weekend, is so multifaceted.
And the reason it's multifaceted is straight line speed is energy in 2026 Formula One.
So wherever you're bleeding energy into, if it's the air in terms of drag,
if it's the bearings in terms of the rotational drag,
if it's the engine not performing and not charging the battery,
it's only ever going to look like a bit of deployment that you don't have at the end of the lap.
And so actually it's easy to lay that at George's door and I think that's what the team did first.
But then you eventually look at it and you think, well, yeah, that could be coming from anywhere.
And I think the team have been very benevolent and honest in saying, look,
we've got a problem with the car, we've done all it is yet.
You know how teams do often, though, say, look, there might be an issue with the chassis,
let's change the chassis, so much of it actually is psychological,
helping the driver saying, you know, I mean, Kimmy had a new power unit this weekend,
could that be the difference? I'm kind of just agreeing with you saying there are so many different areas.
Yeah, power unit's just the generator as well that charges the battery so a new generator can't hurt, right?
And you, as I said on there before the race, in days of old in a situation like this,
what you do is throw the lot away and build them a new car, right?
You'd literally go, right, can't find the issue, make a new one.
But obviously we live in a four power unit, three energy system,
cost cap of, you know, just over 200 million era Formula One,
where you can't just fire a load of budget into throwing the lot away and building a new one.
So they've got to actually chase down the realistic issue and try and sort it with this car, which is a problem.
Hungry next weekend is going to be fascinating for George,
because there isn't going to be the deployment issues that we've seen both here at Spa and at Silverstone.
So if there is still the straight line issue next weekend,
then I suppose it opens up another can of worms for the team as they search elsewhere for the problem.
I think that could also be more of a headache for him,
because as we were saying in our post race show, it actually leaves the race far more wide open
as to who could possibly win.
I think Ferrari are going to be right up there.
I think Red Bull could be right up there.
The team certainly were looking forward to that race and looking forward on to Zanvo as well.
So it's no longer a case of, oh, it's going to be Kimmy or George.
You now bring the Ferrari, I mean, the Ferrari's was strong here.
They were strong in Silverstone.
You bring other teams into the mix as well.
So it's not going to be as clear cut for George that, right, it's P1 or P2.
It also kicks the ball down the road, Tom, because what he really needs is a two-day test at Spa.
That's what he really needs.
With Kimmy on the other side of the garage to go, right, you know, let's change the gearbox and see if it's dragging that.
Right, let's change the rear wing, let's change the front.
What he's going to get is a full Grand Prix weekend with all of its turbulence and a round hangar at ring.
And if he gets a good result in hungaring, then great, that's some points.
That's nice, gets a trophy, takes it home.
But, you know, what happens when he turns up to Baku?
And the problem is still there, but it's just been masked by the layout.
Alex, isn't it fascinating why in the clock back 20 years would these problems for George Russell be behind him?
Because they would have just gone and done a three-day test and changed everything.
No budget cap or is it more fundamental than that?
I think that, well, firstly, if you're going to go back 20 years, it wouldn't have had nearly the data.
So actually, you know, there's a certain point at which you go off a cliff of, you know,
where whoever your team boss is, where Ken Tyrell goes, you need to pull your socks up, mate, it sends you, right?
There's a certain element of that.
So he can be thankful that they actually have got the data acquisition to understand the issue.
Then there's a middle ground where you would have, but they'd have changed everything and gone testing and sorted it.
A sort of, you know, Juan Pablo Montoya, maybe Jacques Villeneuve era of Formula One.
I mentioned them because they're the two former Grand Prix winners and champions we've been on this weekend with.
So, yeah, I mean, there's definitely an era in time where it's just like, yeah, change everything.
We believe in the guy, send him with a new car and see.
But neither here nor there issues are so often the case in racing anyway.
Do you think it's as simple as the guy needs a break, bring on the August break for George Russell, go and sit on a beach.
Try and forget about Formula One for a while.
Don't overanalyze data for once.
Just go and chill out and he'll come back stronger in Zanvo.
Yeah, I listened to the preview pod.
I'm not just saying that because I'm one.
I genuinely do every week. I really enjoy it.
And it was interesting, the parallels we can draw to last year,
albeit the gap in Zanvo was only 34 points for Lando Norris to Oscar Piastri.
But yes, with that summer break and then Piastri falling away and Lando Norris coming up the floor.
And obviously then the Dany Moin in Abu Dhabi, which was what it was.
But yeah, does George just need a reset?
You feel that the last break we had actually, where the Middle East races should have been,
did that give him too much time to think?
Did that actually give him a chance to overthink his driving?
He's already said to us, I'm thinking about driving rather than just driving.
And I think we can all kind of relate to that sentiment in something we do
where you're consciously thinking of something and therefore your output is never as good.
The fundamental difference with this break is that he can't be in the factory
because everyone's on holiday.
He has to go to the beach.
And I just wonder, I wonder whether that will help.
Is he going to the beach?
George Russell, sentence to the beach.
Yeah, you make a very good point.
Yeah, you exactly.
And these drivers have done a number of off seasons and a number of summer shutdowns
where they will have trained their minds to shut down from Formula One.
The reset, it can't do him any harm, can it, at this point?
Kisi's got to reset himself within three days now to go to the Hangara ring.
And as you said, rightly, Alex, yes, that may sort of paper over the cracks somewhat
because it's a different track, a different circuit.
But the problems may still lie within the car.
And I don't know, it's tough to get into George's mind,
but I think that was the most dejected I've seen him in the media pen.
He was kind of at a loss for words at one point with a question about resetting and bouncing back.
I don't know whether there was a motion.
I couldn't quite see sort of the eyes from where I was sitting watching,
but you felt that the weight on his shoulders was enormous.
When you see drivers show emotion in that kind of media environment,
I mean, it obviously depends character by character.
I mean, we're talking tip of the iceberg stuff.
A driver for whom you can see emotion in their face in the media pen
is punching the walls of their room back in the team bus.
Well, that's how it used to be for me anyway.
You know, it's a strong front.
You know what you need to say, you know what's required,
and you're definitely not going to see as much emotion as there is.
There are times, of course, when it breaks through,
and you'll know very well, Tom, and many journalists have told me in the past,
the moment you need to be talking to the drivers is straight out of the car in Park Fermat
because that's when you get the real story.
But yeah, there is intense disappointment, I think,
and upset in how this season is going for George.
And I think frustration because, you know,
rightly or wrongly, whatever's wrong with the performance of the car or something,
I think he earnestly believes that there's a problem with the car
and the team earnestly believe that too.
We're watching in real time a lifelong childhood dream he has had
slowly moving further and further away from him.
That must be, it's painful to watch,
and it must be unbelievably painful within George,
especially if, as we're seeing, there are factors like reliability
and like perennial underlying issues with the car that are so out of his control.
Laura, you've worked in many sports, not just in Formula One.
If you were managing George Russell right now...
I've worked as a broadcaster to be very clear,
not necessarily as a manager.
If you were managing George Russell, what would you...
Try your best, George.
What would you say to him about the championship?
Would you just say, mate, write it off?
Forget about the world championship.
All that's doing is burying your mind in something that is confusing
and it's just exacerbating all of the problems.
Forget about the championship. It's gone.
It's gone. Look at your teammate.
Forget about it.
And then do you think from when you watch other sports people in other sports,
do you think that's the bottom of the trough and then they can bounce back?
Very good question, TC.
I think what I've learnt from interviewing a number of different athletes
in a number of different sports is that they so rarely say
they are thinking about the very end results.
Yes, of course they'll be thinking about it,
but the world championship is one thing.
George Russell's got to get to FP1 in Hungary.
And so I think the advice that I would give,
and I think it's incredibly hard advice to follow when you are in a hole
in the way he currently is,
is to take it minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day,
focus on the process and the results ultimately you would hope
will take care of itself.
Do your processes, everyone, whether that's training at home,
whether that's your nutrition, your sleep,
whatever element of your life, keep it the same.
Do what you do, focus on the process,
and ideally the result therefore takes care of itself.
Control the controllables is the ultimate cliche, isn't it?
But a cliche, because it's true, that's all he can do at the moment.
He will be working super hard on and off track.
That's all he can do.
So I think that's the advice I would give him.
I don't know, as an athlete, and as a person who carries emotion,
whether that would be advice that I could follow
when you're lying awake at night trying to get to sleep at 2am.
I think your mind wanders elsewhere.
It's funny, because with the phrase,
think performance, not result, I'm transported back.
Sorry.
I'm transported back to visiting,
and it's a pleasant transport, but only just,
because I'm transported back to visiting hints of performance
who were the utterly brilliant McLaren Associated Performance School
where a young Alex Brundle was sent to be bullied on a cross-country ski slope
by a very, very non-consideratory gentleman called Petri
who used to like to read my VO2 Max score back to me daily.
But they basically had it written on the walls.
Think performance, not result, was everything,
and you're absolutely right.
He's got to control what he can control,
and the challenge of that, unfortunately, is us.
We are the challenge of that, because we keep on making noises
about what's going on, and everyone's got a theory.
He has to turn up and answer the questions about everybody else's theories.
So there's a little switch that has to go on on the side of his brain,
and he just needs to go glassy-eyed,
answer the questions as best he can at the beginning and end of the race weekend,
and then drive the car.
My advice to him, and you touched on it at the end there,
is I would go full Mickahacken in terms of don't say anything.
Just don't say anything, because anything he says right now
will get blown up by people like us.
Less is more.
Yeah, and again, the other piece of advice is
the media is like a pond.
Every time you touch it, you make a ripple.
You try and smooth out your ripple.
You make two more ripples, and so every time you touch the surface,
exactly to your point, Tom,
you add yet another story, yet another narrative
that interweaves with the others.
I think Hungry was going to be a better event for him.
I think he can put that aside,
but what he needs to not do is allow any complacency whatsoever
within, I'm sure there won't be, but within his engineering team,
if the Hungry result is better,
to prevent them working on this issue for him.
I was going to say, as a broadcast and not necessarily a manager,
when I'm asking the questions about, you know,
you're now 50 points away from the world title, for example,
I'm so often met with what I've just,
the advice I would give George Russell, which is,
yes, but I'm just taking it each day as it comes,
and you get that across the board in all sports,
and that is Sports Psychology 101,
and it frustrates me so much because I want them to be drawn into the emotion
and the hyperbole like I am.
Here are 35 words, so you'll go away.
Precisely, exactly that.
Now, what of Ferrari?
They came into this weekend, a bit like they did Silverstone,
saying, no, no, we're going to be well off here.
We're going to be well off, and there's Charle-Claire
finishing pretty, pretty close to Kimmy Antony.
Yes, he was helped by the VSC,
but the pace of the Ferrari this weekend, surprise me,
I don't know about you guys.
It surprised us in Silverstone as well, didn't it?
And then we thought they might struggle a bit more in Spa
because it's such a much more power-sensitive circuit.
The straights are just a longer,
and you were saying that Fred Versailles was worried about the race pace
through the weekend as well.
They were brilliant today.
Their pace surprised me,
and we often do, you know, we point fingers at Ferrari's strategy.
Sometimes rightly so when they get things wrong,
and it's inexplicable,
and Ferrari fans out there are sort of infuriated by it,
but that VSC, calling them both in, bam, bam, double stacked,
very, I mean, obviously for Hamilton, a tougher day,
but for Leclerc, that worked perfectly.
It fell for them, didn't it?
Fell for some others as well.
I think Piastri took that VSC.
A few other drivers gained from it.
It was in their window.
They made the right call to take it.
It would have been a pretty mad call not to take it
if you put your reverse glasses on.
What impressed me was the pace.
It was only about three tenths that Leclerc was sort of behind Antonelli,
and then with the benefit of the overtake, Leclerc could stay in touch relatively well.
A little bit cooler, seems to help.
I think we've uncovered a bit of a car tendency with Ferrari in the warmer races.
They tend to struggle in general.
It's got a little bit of oversteer and the switch back in the mid-corner.
They're really happy, as Fred said, after the race with the chassis side of things.
Get off the line well, it's got a lot of strengths.
In Hungary and, for example, Sao Paulo, which would come up and so on and so forth,
it'll be a strong car.
We saw glimpses of their race pace in practice as well.
It was pretty warm, wasn't it, back on Friday?
Ferrari had another good weekend, and they're going to be mega in Hungary as well,
because the chassis is so good.
But then you eventually had Hamilton dropping it in free practice
with an oversteer moment from the mid-corner onwards.
I think that that is indicative of a Ferrari which they can do something with when it's cool
in a little bit warmer temperatures, struggling a little bit more.
That being said, they've had a way better weekend than they could have dreamed of.
I think assisted by the fact Verstappen pits early to try to challenge Antonelli
and then doesn't get the VSC, because I think Verstappen would have probably finished
at least up there with Leclerc, if not in front of him.
But yeah, they've had a strong weekend.
Both Ferrari drivers had incidents that were taken up to the stewards.
Hamilton's one with George Russell.
We've just discussed the five-second penalty.
Can we talk about Lap 8, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri?
He wasn't penalised by the stewards for it.
You called the Hamilton incident was a racing incident.
As far as you're concerned, Alex, what did you make of the Piastri Leclerc one?
Yeah, I didn't agree again with the stewards.
I think Leclerc needs to leave racing room.
So the rule is if there's overlap on the outside at all,
you need to leave racing room on the way to a corner.
We've seen big aerial accidents like that.
I don't think it's a stern penalty for Leclerc,
or even necessarily a penalty that meets with seconds or so on and so forth.
But I think at least you're talking reprimand from the stewards to say,
hey, when you're going down into a braking zone and you're side-by-side,
we've all done it, so what you do as the driver,
and it's like a famous Austria incident between Lando Nauris and Max Verstappen
that we remember up at turn three.
What you do, going down into the braking zone,
because you're offline, you've got a driver outside you,
you're so muscle-memored into taking the line which opens up the corner to the maximum.
You then brake across the road in an almost natural way
because you're now a bit like when somebody turns into a junction,
they naturally swing out to go the other way.
But you've just got pure muscle memory.
You're trying to go over there.
You know you normally turn in from the extreme edge of the track.
Drivers do it naturally. on the first lap of a new track ever.
They don't have to learn that.
So you brake, you start looking and your body starts naturally opening the corner.
And if you're not clear that there's a driver outside you
and force yourself to brake in a straight line,
you so often crowd that driver off the road.
It's why they have those extra little bits of tarmac down near the first chicane in Monza,
for example, because so many drivers have been off there by being squeezed left
that eventually they just put a bit of tarmac there to keep them out of trouble.
In this instance, there's kerbs relatively big on the way in
and you can't really stop on it otherwise you're going to go straight.
Piastri puts his car on the white line and Leclerc moves across the road enough to make contact.
There is a victim in it because Piastri then carries damage for the rest of the race.
So that's four or five tenths every lap then for the rest of Piastri's race.
And I think the stewards should have done something to say, don't do that.
Do you think Piastri remains straight or do you think he started to lean on Leclerc a bit?
It looks to me like he's on the white line.
But yeah, I'm happy to have another look at it if you insist.
My call in the moment, I've seen it twice.
My call in the moment is Piastri's on the white line.
But yeah, I mean look, the stewards have more angles than us and they have the on-boards
and they have time and resource to do it.
I'm sitting there with my telly and Laura Winter to help
and I basically, I didn't agree on that on that instance.
OK, what about performance, Laura?
Charles said after his win at Silverstone, I'm just taking it one race at a time.
There you go, and that's what they all say, isn't it?
We get back to that old adage that they, that cliche, they fob us off with Tom.
But do you think he'll be coming out a spar going,
yeah, OK, I've turned the corner with this car?
I hope so.
He said, didn't he, I've made a philosophical change with how I am interacting with this car
and you could see what the other side of the garage was doing.
I think to then go P1 and P2, yes, with caveats of well drivers were out of position
and George Russell was, you know, out of the race and so on and they were lucky with the VSC.
Still a great drive.
It's still a great drive.
You cannot take anything away from the fact that Charles Leclerc got the job done
and when Antonelli overtook him, we went, OK, bye-bye, bye-bye, Kimmy.
No, no, 1.9 seconds over the line.
He hung on in there and he kept it within that second for a number of laps.
He put Kimmy under so much pressure, he was violating track limits
and was told, you've got to back it off.
So I think, yeah, I think, yes, of course he'll be taking it one race at a time,
but I think, yeah, for Charles Leclerc, the pain that he was in earlier in the season is past him
and I think proving the pudding perhaps at the Hangara ring,
where we are expecting them to go really well,
but it's obviously a very different circuit to the two we've just been at, so we'll see them.
He was on pole there last year, do you remember?
Exactly.
That extraordinary race.
Look, what about Lewis then?
He's always been such a clean racing driver
and yet somehow he finds himself getting dragged into things.
Now, Alex has already said that the George Russell incident on that one wasn't,
he doesn't think it was Lewis' fault,
but just suddenly you find yourself going, OK, oh no, there was the incident with the pit lane.
It seems to go either brilliantly for Lewis at the minute and I point this all to Spain
or there just seems to be a sort of spiral effect.
Yeah, the unsafe release, obviously then he hit the mechanic, all OK there,
but that then obviously will be playing in your mind surely
and then he asks, well, did you have front wing?
And they said, no, we didn't get a chance to.
And so suddenly he's saying, well, now I can't turn the car
and then at the end you heard, I've done all I can with the wing that I had.
So yeah, it seems, you're right, that sometimes the races can sort of spiral away from him a little bit.
I was certainly feeling that last year as well in Ferrari with a car that he did not like
and he did not enjoy driving.
Now that he's much more comfortable, he's at the pointy end,
that means that he finishes P4, not P11, but yes.
Lewis has been outstanding at some points throughout this year
and he's silenced critics who've said it's almost time for him to go from Formula One.
He's demonstrated he's still fast.
I think within the environment he's in at Ferrari,
the question I would ask is, does that aggro help?
Which is when you say, well, the wing's not right now and all of that kind of stuff.
What I've seen in teams in the past is you've got human beings on the pit wall, human beings in the pit lane.
And yes, drivers, I also have a distaste for drivers being held aggressively to account
for things they say when they're adrenaline-fueled in the car as well.
But what that does do is add an element of pressure to everybody
because nobody wants to be the person in the pit lane who fumbled Lewis's front wing
and then he will call out over the radio that that was his limitation in this race
and you imagine an individual there sitting in the garage who's made the decision that
with the penalty plus the stop they didn't have the time
or the mechanic who's not been able to do it for whatever reason.
That individual is then under significant pressure
and that pressure I don't think is positive in a group like a Formula One team.
And I wonder if these kind of cascade effects that he gets in the races are because of that pressure.
You've got an intense group of people, nobody wants to be the person who drops the ball for Lewis.
He's an icon in the sport, he's come to Ferrari, it's a huge move,
there's massive pressure still on making that move work.
And I think that intensity that follows Lewis around as such a big name that transcends Formula One
actually might be causing those cascades to happen in some way when it doesn't go right.
He'd already complained, hadn't he, about the strategy as well saying
he obviously wanted to be brought in earlier, right, Ferrari left them out long
and ultimately it worked out because there was the gratuitous VSC that they could pit under
but he was already angry about that after the collision.
That's before he knew he had to serve a five second penalty
and then it was another one was the reaction on the radio.
It's difficult, isn't it?
Because you're a driver with immense experience, immense success and tremendous gravitas.
You know exactly how a Formula One team should run.
And then you've got to make a decision about what you tell them.
And don't get me wrong, the resurgence of Lewis Hamilton has been one of my absolute shining lights of this year.
I absolutely agree on that.
It's been incredible.
But I think Michael Schumacher wrote the book on how to win with Ferrari
and one of the things he never did was criticise anyone on the team
whether it's the guy, the mechanic on the front wing or Ross Braun, the technical director.
He never publicly criticised anyone.
Sure, and also what's important to understand is Lewis is not necessarily wrong.
I mean he's often not wrong and he's usually right with the things he's saying.
The question is, does he need to say that then?
Publicly.
Publicly and how it's managed.
And I think that actually that could still be something that Lewis with Ferrari
could lead to more performance for him to understand that.
Ferrari is a culture, isn't it?
As much as it's a Formula One team or a car manufacturer.
It goes back to a question I think we all had when he signed for Ferrari
which is, who is the biggest star here?
Is it Lewis Hamilton or is it Ferrari?
The most winning driver with the most winning team.
Is that a match made in heaven?
Certainly in terms of the fairy tale, if he does indeed get the eighth title in red
and it's incredible that we're even talking about that this season.
Or is that a point of conflict at times?
What's interesting is if you look across the garage to Leclerc,
Leclerc is not devoid of complaint either.
He'll tell him, but I think it's something to do with an awareness of his own gravitas
and the force of his own words.
The aura of Lewis Hamilton.
And the aura of him and how it affects a team around him.
Which is a really hard thing I imagine for him to grasp when he's the individual.
When he walks in the door and everybody stops, turns, looks
and puts their hand behind their back and goes,
Lewis is here.
That has an effect on a team and it's a pressure and a stress.
I think McLaren, there is a point to this story.
McLaren did very well to get GP Lambiassi
because if he was ripe for the picking to leave Red Bull,
I think GP would have been the perfect person at Ferrari.
Fluent in Italian, a brilliant engineer, completely fluent in English.
Imagine if he was the person talking to Lewis Hamilton
and was able to be the buffer between what we're discussing now,
the gravitas of Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the team.
I'm really surprised.
If GP was looking for something else to do,
I'm really surprised Ferrari didn't go and get him.
That would either really work immediately
or really not work immediately in my opinion
because when you look at the culture of Red Bull
and the way the drivers are brought through
and the way that they hone the drivers through the genus series
and bring them up through the ranks,
it's very much along the lines of,
the driver is told what's required of them.
Excellence is expected and they move forward
and then of course you get to the level that Max is at
and you gain a certain autonomy.
But GP, even with the way that Max delivers
and the way that Max operates, still doesn't mind going,
it's childish Max, I don't like him over the radio.
I cannot imagine Lewis Hamilton tolerating that on the radio.
I think he would change what was around him
if that was the communication too.
But I think GP's bright enough to work out
how to get the best out of whoever it is,
whether it's Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton
or Lando Norris at McLaren
or Max Verstappen at McLaren for that matter.
It's part of the game.
It's part of the game.
They all call themselves half psychologist,
staying there and it's so true.
It's your best mate for the year, the person that you lean on.
I'd love to see it. It would be fascinating.
Now, we mentioned Max Verstappen, P3 today.
Pretty quiet race.
Actually, Alex, you said you thought maybe
there could have been more for Max today
if the cards had fallen a bit different.
Yeah, I mean, look, he's trying to put
an undercut potential on Antonelli at the start
or was it lap 18, wasn't it?
I think Max pitted off the top of my head.
And then how do they know at the time, right?
So then there's a virtual safety car and he could have fallen.
So easily have fallen into the group that pitted.
That being said, I think that would have also
not forced the pit stop from Antonelli
and therefore Antonelli would have taken a virtual safety car
and you might have been status quo.
But what that would have done, I think,
is put Max still ahead of Leclerc.
Unpredictable car, that one, isn't it?
When you think of where they were at Silverstone,
they then had to take off the rotating rear wing,
the Macarena wing, come here.
That didn't seem to, by the way, slow them down much,
putting the old wing on.
We are, didn't we?
That's going to be a performance deficit.
He said, I'm trying to remember the pre-race show.
He said, yes, it might be, didn't he?
Yeah, I mean, it certainly didn't seem to hurt them.
Did they? It did it too much.
Again, a red bull kept him out of the wall.
Yeah, again, a red bull on a knife edge, though, isn't it?
On a knife edge, turn up, Max Verstappen happy, yeah.
You know, a nice tow from Isaac Hadjar,
who did a brilliant job of it.
Again, I said before the race,
it's a little bit like doing the washing up that.
You want to do it well, but you don't want to do it that well, do you?
You can't have your mask on you again.
And I think he's better than that, to be honest.
I think, you know, he doesn't need to be there.
Isaac said after qualifying, he said, I'm like Deliveroo.
That's what he said.
Deliveroo, nowhere near that accurate.
Do you know, actually, just about that tow,
I mean, he really, again, I don't know what the numbers were
exactly in terms of what a Max game.
0.2, I think two tenths, three tenths, Max gained on the tow.
Mike, I don't know.
It looked to me like Isaac had actually done bad washing up
and that he'd let him get too close.
They laced it, because actually, I believe,
I've looked at it a couple of times,
I think he's working the systems of the car.
So I think he's, you know, you've got the straight mode closure
that comes before Blanchermont.
Obviously, with the straight mode closed,
the car makes a bigger hole in the air, right?
Because you're dragging the wing through.
And then, you know, he actually uses a bit of energy, I think,
through Blanchermont to give the perfect.
It was genuinely a really impressive piece
of precision driving.
And I asked Laurent Meckys, who was naturally a little bit coy
about it before the Grand Prix,
how much of that did you orchestrate
or did you just leave it to them?
I think they sorted it out themselves,
but, I mean, it was nose box to gearbox, wasn't it,
through Blanchermont there.
And Max said in their press conference after qualifying,
if he had been too close, I would have just pushed him.
For fear of jumping the gun,
can we just talk about Isaac Hajar's performance today as well?
I found it amazing that he...
But it is so Isaac's character.
He says that it's been instilled in him
from his younger racing days with his father
that nothing's ever quite enough.
So P21 to P6.
He saw the one stop and thought,
no way, I'm going to do three of those, actually.
A three stop, great strategy from Red Bull.
And he still wanted a bit more.
He thought more was on the table for him.
Well, and you say the car is on a knife edge.
Well, hang on, Hajar is able to get a tune out of it now.
So it can't be that difficult to drive.
Yeah, but not every weekend.
So some weekends we'll turn up.
Max will be immediately complaining about the balance.
Some weekends we'll turn up and Isaac will be massively struggling.
So when I say knife edge,
I'm talking about the setup of the car for the weekend.
This weekend we turned up in FP1
and by the end of FP2, Max is standing in the pen going,
I'm happy with the balance of the car.
And lo and behold, we get a nice performance out of them.
In qualifying, Max benefiting a little bit
from the fact that Hajar's sort of out of the running
and therefore in a position to give him a tow like days of old.
But yeah, I think it is still a tough car to set up.
Quick word before we go on McLaren.
Laura, you said earlier,
what would have happened if Landau Norris had started third?
I like asking the impossible questions.
Captain hindsight everywhere.
That's why we have a simulation team, Laura.
Well, excellent, yeah.
They will do, almost certainly.
I had just intrigued.
I think he had brilliant pace.
He was getting the job done.
The McLaren had very good pace.
He'd already put in one of the best laps he's ever done
in qualifying to stick it P3.
So clearly he had a lot of confidence and comfort within that car.
I just think it would have been a fascinating fight.
We know that he can start.
We saw that in Silverstone.
I'm questioning whether he'd have taken the lead on that one?
Yeah, I mean, I think the interesting thing from McLaren
is that is a totally elective change to the battery
that they've obviously not completely binning the race for Norris
because otherwise they'd have taken full sense of electronics,
power units, everything,
giving him a massive penalty and had him right at the back of the field.
So they obviously wanted some kind of a result out of him.
Then they started him on the hard,
but Norris realistically is still in the hunt.
It's almost like they underestimated the pace that he would have from there.
And actually starting on the hard was realistically his downfall
because then it put him out of the window for the VSC.
Again, how could they have known, but even still, you know,
that's a big roll of the dice from the gun for a driver in a quick car
who's going to start, yes, 13th, but it's just at the edge of the top 10.
Why didn't they stop him during the VSC?
They probably thought it was a bit too far away
to get the medium tyre to the end of the race and it was out of his window.
They discussed it over the radio
and the original instruction to Lando was
if the VSC doesn't end your box, then they cancelled it,
to which his response is,
yes, we appear to be disadvantaged at this stage.
Not the word you use.
My good man.
And I shan't proclaim that I'm too happy about it.
And that's what he said at the base of O'Reach, word by word.
I think he was capable of more than P7 today.
He also had the slow stop, didn't he, when he did ultimately pit.
He lost a lot of time on the ailing hards and then pit it
and it was a slow stop.
And yeah, it just all kind of sort of tailed away from him.
But I think up to that point, he was having a very, very good race.
I'm fascinated by the gap between him and Oscar Piestri as well.
Me too.
Andrea Stella, team principal, said on Saturday evening
that Oscar's driving style is almost too clean for these 2026 cars,
which I thought was interesting.
It's weird the way that you have to drive them
and all of the drivers have said that.
You know, charging into the apexes
because then you have this immense delivery of immediate power out.
But then, for example, the drivers, you really get the hang out of it.
The hang out of it, the hang of it.
Recognizing that, for example, in Puant, in the middle of Spa,
you have effectively 550, 600 horsepower.
So then they're moving driving style to be driving a car
that effectively has more grip than power,
which is entirely alien for Formula One cars of a modern era.
You have to be so open-minded with the way you drive the car.
You have to be so flexible with your technique
that some drivers have taken to it and some haven't.
Even though in the previous generation of car,
Norris was always a maestro with the energy system.
I remember him, you know, taking a podium, for example, in Austria
by managing the energy systems of the car
to deliver the fastest lap of the race for it at the end.
He's been brilliant with attack and defend in that way.
And so his sort of PlayStation generation mindset
towards managing the power unit and playing it like a flute
is sort of given him, I think, an edge in this era.
Well, guys, what a weekend at one of, well, certainly my favourite racetracks.
I think it's my favourite.
There's something magical about this.
You must have done many laps around here, Alec.
We tried for a short period of time, otherwise it just gets boring.
We tried to quantify how many hours.
Obviously, I've done Spa 24 hours a couple of times, so that helps.
I asked him in a break or an interview during one of our shows.
He said, how many hours of racing have you done around here?
I think I undershot it by a lot. I think it's approaching 500 hours.
We were doing some ludicrously quick mathematics and arithmetic.
Our producer was counting us down to being back on air.
And I said, I'll just say 300, OK, wouldn't you?
That's just how professional we are.
Yeah, and that's how much prep we put into our shows.
Well, look, what about Driver of the Day?
Now, Haja.
You've stolen my driver.
I thought, they're going to say some of the top three,
so I'm going to say Isaac Haja, and you've stolen it from me.
Right, well, you said it first, Alex.
Why Isaac Haja for you?
Why more than Antonelli?
Why more than Charlotte Claire? Why more than Arvid Lindblad?
I just think it was a really impressive drive.
Yeah, it fell for him.
But, you know, there's a bit of two-and-fro
that has to go on with the team to understand if the tyres can do
what you're asking them to do.
He had a great start as well.
Haja, on a great first in.
And then brave strategy that no doubt he will have been involved with
and just plain driving the car from the back
where I saw him on the grid walk up to sixth position
is an impressive effort in my book.
Gabriel Bortoletto.
Oh, good shout.
He ate in an Audi.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Not Gabriel Bortoletto's birthday, by the way.
Happy birthday to you.
I'm not sure we told them where we're sitting now,
which is going to be very confusing for the listener.
Kimmy's just thrown the cake at, I think, one of his mechanics.
I don't think it's his dad from yesterday, anyway.
I was wondering if it was a happy birthday for his dad,
but it must be another one of the team members.
And there is cake everywhere.
They are running through the paddock.
Kimmy's just raced out and he's now been chased by two people on the paddock.
They're going up the staircase to the trucks at the top of the spa paddock.
And here comes Marco Antonelli, Kimmy's dad laughing.
So we can confirm that the cake did not go in Marco's face.
I thought as hire a journalist in the corner, we might get caked there.
So I was ready to go and move.
Now, before we were interrupted, you made a really good point, Laura.
A great interruption, though. I'll take it.
Bortoletto, brilliant.
Brilliant performance in an Audi.
We've been saying the last few races, they've got to start scoring points again.
They're going to get outdeveloped.
The race in the midfield was seeing Alpine and Racing Bulls at the forefront.
They don't want to be in this no man's land or slip behind your Williams and your Hass
and ultimately you're asking in Cadillac.
And I think great performance from him.
Look, teammate Holkenberg down in P13, not scored a point all year.
He has had a lot of bad luck, a lot of unreliability.
But for Gabby, I think it was a brilliant performance from a brilliant qualifying.
Now, Kimmy Antonelli's back in the Mercedes Moto.
I think they got him.
Kimmy Antonelli has been caked.
He's been caked. He's got his back to us at the minute.
So we can't see how much cake is on his front, but he's holding his arms up.
And there's definitely been...
Armpit. It was an armpit.
Cake in the armpit for Kimmy Antonelli.
Well, we're still on Driver of the Day.
You guys are going to be right.
I was going to throw in Arvid Lindblad because...
Yes.
I mean, I'm going to cheat a bit and say Driver of the Weekend.
I thought Arvid has been amazing this weekend.
More cheering and I think...
Say what you see, Tom. That's commentary, isn't it?
Is this as easy as that?
He's taking one driver to identify, which is...
That's Kimmy saying thanks, everyone, and he's off to the airport.
He has a rucksack on his back with the winning Pirelli hat that he wore on the podium.
He's also got the Moe bottle that he sprayed on the podium.
A giant bottle of Moe.
And a lot of bags in his left hand.
But Kimmy Antonelli has left the building.
It is confirmed.
Shall I just quickly finish on Arvid Lindblad?
What a guy. What a weekend.
He had a little update that his teammate didn't, that Liam Lawson didn't,
but actually the difference between the two cars on the cooling system
was worth about half a tenth, I was told.
So negligible and Lindblad just delivering time and time again.
Well done to Arvid.
I feel we could keep going all night, the manner which we've been talking.
But one point on Racing Bulls and Lindblad.
I said it in our post-show.
I don't feel that was a battle for P9, P8.
They've got Solov waiting in the wings, cleaning up in F2, haven't they?
And he's already been mentioned in Alan Permaine's terms as the next in line,
whether that's next year or in years to come.
That threat looming will be closing in on one of those two drivers.
So I think there is more at play when you see them battling wheel-to-wheel on track there.
And that one up at Lake Homme, side by side, heart in mouth.
And that's a brilliant segue, by the way, Laura,
because Alan Permaine, the team principal of Racing Bulls,
is my guest on this week's episode of F1 Beyond the Grid.
He shares great insight into both Liam Lawson and Lindblad.
So that's out on Wednesday,
and you can watch our chat on the F1 YouTube channel as well.
Well, is it time for us to do a Kimmy Antonelli and leave the building, guys?
I almost sang.
To say goodbye.
No cake for me and no more singing, I'm done.
Guys, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Great chat, and for more reaction and analysis from Belgium,
please go to f1.com, the F1 app, and at F1 on social media.
And below this episode on the F1 Nation Feed,
Carlos Sainzend, Batman, Gabriel Bortoletto,
joined Christian Hugo on F1 Explains to answer your questions about the sport.
But for now, thank you very much for listening.
We're heading straight to the next round
with the final race before the summer break taking place in Budapest this coming weekend.
And we'll be back on Thursday to preview the Hungarian Grand Prix.
So speak to you then.
F1 Nation is produced by Formula One and AudioBoom Studios.
About this episode
Kimi Antonelli’s Belgian GP win is framed as a “very measured victory,” with strategy, track limits, and setup changes all playing their part. The hosts dig into how VSC timing, long-run pace, and details like toe and rear-wing adjustments shaped the Ferrari challenge. Elsewhere, George Russell’s Spa lap-one collision and the resulting penalty lead into a wider discussion about energy deployment, testing, and whether he needs a summer-break reset to stop overthinking. The show closes by looking ahead to Budapest.
Tom Clarkson is joined by race-winner Kimi Antonelli, F1TV lead presenter Laura Winter and two-time Le Mans podium finisher Alex Brundle to review the Belgian Grand Prix.
Kimi converted pole to secure his sixth win of the season and move 45 points clear at the top of the World Championship. 12 months on from last year’s Belgian Grand Prix, one of his most challenging weekends of the 2025 season, how has the 19-year-old made such an incredible transformation?
Kimi joins us in the Mercedes motorhome to reflect on his victory and a close fight with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
You’ll also hear reaction from George Russell, whose DNF after a collision with Lewis Hamilton on lap 1 leaves him 50 points adrift of Antonelli. What do the guys make of that incident, the comments George has made about his car’s problems and where he goes from here?
Tom, Laura and Alex also discuss how surprised they were by Ferrari’s pace, Max Verstappen’s third podium of the season, and whether Lando Norris could have won without his grid penalty.
