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Another week, another unlapped.
Hi, hello, welcome.
Except for this week, it's extra special because the gang's all here.
Last night, good to see you.
I'm feeling a little stressed today.
I know we're supposed to be talking about Formula One, but I did my fantasy football draft last night.
And I picked eight.
And I took Christian McCaffrey.
Oh, yeah, I mean...
You feel my pain, right?
Because I know you drafted this weekend, too.
Yeah, dreams and nightmares with McCaffrey.
I've had him, I think, I feel like I've had him every year.
He's been tipped to do well, and then he's got injured,
and I've been very sad about it.
So feel your pain.
I got stuck on Barclay in my first pick this year.
Oh, shut up.
Oh, God.
Pick in five.
We have an unusual situation where we have a league with football journalists,
sorry, F1 journalists, who don't know a huge amount about football.
And so in that kind of ranking, I reckon I'm probably lower half of knowledge,
but it means that some people take wild picks.
So Josh Allen went in the pick before mine, a number four from...
Whom?
Yeah.
It was, yeah, it was great.
And it was a guy that always, always picks Josh Allen first round.
And then because...
Where was Daniel Ricardo?
Well, so the funny thing with this league, and apologies,
anyone listening to this who doesn't like fantasy football,
you just have to listen to us for a little bit.
Just deal with it for 30 seconds.
We're good.
The original plan with this league was Zanvo in 2023.
We were going to have Daniel Ricardo and his manager, Blake, join.
And we were like, we're drafting in Zanvo.
We're going to make it a 12-man league.
It'll be really great.
And he was like, yeah, I'm up for it.
I've always wanted to do one.
And so we were talking about buy-ins and stuff,
and we're like, right, we'll draft on the Friday.
Yeah, sorry, the Friday afternoon.
In FP2 of that session, he crashes out and breaks his hand.
And he goes to the medical center.
We are drafting at Red Bull at the time,
because somebody from Red Bull was in the league.
And so we basically, on the fly, had to be like,
right, we found two other people who were like,
yeah, I'll come along.
But it was all...
So this league would have had Daniel Ricardo in it.
I always thought, I don't know how into it he would have been,
but it maybe would have been in the group chat and everything.
So yeah, so it could have, the legacy of it,
as a bunch of people joke about Ricardo.
Yeah, exactly.
So it was almost a league where Josh Allen almost certainly
anywhere would have gone first round,
because I think Daniel Ricardo picked him.
So yeah, so a funny kind of memory of that moment.
Obviously that kind of ruined Ricardo's comeback
that year a little bit.
This podcast is off the rails for the second we start.
Don't worry about it.
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We'll get to Formula One stuff now.
Remember, we are here all season long, all year long.
You can find us on the ESPN F1 YouTube channel.
So hit us up there.
Like, subscribe.
If you're listening somewhere else, cool.
Great to have you.
Just hit us up at the Five Star Review
wherever you get your podcasts.
And we'll be here to talk with you every single week.
Last week, not gonna lie, I watched the race from bed.
I was stricken with a lovely stomach bug.
I do think it was my kid's gift to me
after their first week at school.
Are they fine?
Yeah, totally fine.
Me, not so much.
So I watched the race from the comfort of my own bed.
And as I was watching all of this unfold,
I just kept watching Hajar.
Isaac Hajar, first career podium, broken trophy,
but first career podium.
He did everything he needed to do in that race.
And I continue to just be in awe of the season he's had.
Has it been perfect?
No.
But I think that's why I'm in all of him.
If you look at where he started in Australia
and just the emotions and not even taking the green flag
to now on the podium, however many races later,
this feels like a genuine star in the making.
We have to be careful with that.
But like this feels like he is a star in the making.
Yeah.
And it's crazy.
Because if you look back at the end of last year
and what Red Bull were going to do with their drivers,
well, if they'd honored Perez's two-year contract,
we probably wouldn't have had Hajar in.
I mean, maybe if Lawson had struggled at racing bulls early on,
they would have promoted him.
But, you know, he wasn't a dead cert to get into that racing bull
seat.
Yet this year of those three drivers that Red Bull have
under contract behind Max Verstappen,
Yuki Snowde, Liam Lawson being the other two,
he's been the star performer.
And I think some of that has come from the consistency
of being at the racing bulls team and racing bulls
having a car which seems to be ideal for rookies really
because regardless of the conditions, regardless of the circuit,
they seem to be able to find a pretty good set up window.
It's a very broad set up window.
So you have it in various different places,
yet the performance is still there.
But the driver still has to extract it.
So this is not taking anything away from Hajar.
And what was super impressive about this first podium
and, you know, it's rookie season with a midfield team,
that alone is incredible stuff.
I mean, the very end of, sorry,
the very other end of someone's career,
we talked about Hülkenberg getting a podium in Silverstein.
Hajar's done his rookie season and it wasn't fluke.
It wasn't one of those races where, you know,
I mean, a lot of stuff happened,
but he was the consistent one.
He had qualified fourth and then took third place
by virtue of Lando Norris having a failure in front of him.
But he was right up then.
He wasn't that far off Verstappen throughout that race.
There was a time actually in the first stint
where Verstappen was on soft tyres and he was on mediums.
And he was closing in and I was thinking,
wow, is Hajar going to pull a move on Max?
Because Max is on the weaker tyre.
So that was massively impressive for me.
And, you know, we, like I said,
we've seen flashes of brilliance throughout this year.
Monaco was another one, which was a very good performance,
but really deserved to put the podium together.
And the thing I like most about Hajar
is that he's been really tough on himself this year.
Everybody else has been saying, hey, you know,
you're having this great season.
Like this is going so well.
You're the top rookie.
And he's often at the end of a qualifying session
or at the end of a race,
picking apart the flaws in his race and his qualifying lap.
But what was lovely about this result
is that he was truly happy and finally admitted
that he had absolutely done his very best
both in qualifying and the race.
And I think that mentality actually will take him a long way.
I mean, any time you look at someone
who's hard on themselves though,
that is how you get better.
Because you were always your own worst critic.
So if you look at someone like Hajar,
who's like, I could have done something better here.
I could have done something better there.
But there's, I don't know, all season,
like literally from the way that he handled
the Australia situation.
Nate, you just like, you look at him and you see,
you see poise, you see maturity,
you see the ability to, like,
almost quite literally just roll with it.
And like, this is what it's gotten him.
Yeah, 100%.
And I mean, the funny thing with Hajar on that
is that one of the things I heard a lot
and wielded in the paddock last year
was that the one thing that there was a concern
with Hajar about was his temperament.
A lot of people wondered,
oh, is he actually that mentally strong at these points?
There's a famous clip of him crashing.
I think it's in Monza in a Formula 2 race
and he says, oh, I destroyed the car
and it's like this famous kind of meme of him
just shouting.
I heard from a lot of people at Red Bull saying,
oh, yeah, he's a bit of a hothead
and stuff like that.
He's 20.
Yeah, exactly.
He's a really good point.
He wouldn't have been 20 then.
Yeah, and sometimes these guys are just, you know,
they don't know how to show those emotions a lot of the time.
What I thought was really telling and impressive
was how Marko spoke to the media on Sunday evening
and he said he's dubbed Hajar for a long time,
mini-prost, which obviously referenced the four-time
champion, Alan Prost, very, very high praise indeed.
He said that Hajar had actually said to him
before qualifying, I'm going to qualify top five.
The pace in this car is, and what Marko said
was so impressive to him was he then went and did it.
So, you know, to exactly your point there, Nicole,
that he gets in and he delivers.
So I'm very impressed with that and he does,
he's also being helped by the fact that obviously
Lawson's not doing the same in the racing balls,
but that racing ball looks quicker on a lot of occasions
and Hajar in it is wonderfully quick.
So yeah, I'm really impressed with him as well
and I thought it's just such a nice,
it's always a nice moment when you get a new podium,
a new face on the podium, especially when it's a young guy
and you are so right to draw the parallel to Australia as well
because when he was walking down that paddock in Australia
and he was hugged by Lewis Hamilton's dad,
you know, I remember that at the time,
I was like, my God, this guy's not going to last very long
if this is how it starts.
This is Red Bull we're talking about.
Especially then because of what helmet Marko
then said afterwards.
So like, he looked at just not his performance,
but what Marko was saying about him
from race one to where we are now.
That's a whoop.
Is that where he said something along the lines
of it was embarrassing?
Wasn't it that he did that?
That's right. Yeah.
Also like Marko, that's a ridiculous take
and like welcome to 2025, please.
But yes.
But Marko does seem to be a big backer of his as well,
which I think is you has is quite telling now
you can see that Marko believed that there's
something special with this guy.
So does that make you feel though a little bit like,
oh, danger, danger.
Because it feel like if he is a big fan of his
and is like happy with his performance,
there is a chance that he could get moved
from baby bull to actually Red Bull.
And you look at that second seat and you look
at what Yuki's been able to do with it
or not do with it.
You look what happened with loss and you look
what happened with Sergio Perez.
It feels like, wait, hold up,
maybe do something stupid, Isaac,
just for the next week or something
derail your progress just for a minute.
Because don't you feel a little bit like
he runs the risk of being promoted to the big
seat too soon.
And that could just be like,
I actually think him being promoted next year
to Red Bull wouldn't be such a bad thing
because you have this big regulation change.
And therefore, rather than going into a situation
where there's a car that has developed with Max
in mind and what Max can do,
not necessarily around Max,
but just Max being able to get the maximum from it.
Going into 2026, you've got more of a blank sheet of paper.
So in a way, it would be a good time to move across.
Of course, there's all that pressure
and everything else that goes with it.
But actually, I think it could work for Hajar
in just his second year to make that move.
And then if you look at where Yuki's
Sonoda is right now,
I think if the final race of the season was Monza
and Red Bull had to make a decision at the end of that,
which way they would go,
I think they would definitely go Hajar.
But I think they're going to give Sonoda
a few more races to figure out.
But I actually don't think it would be
such a terrible thing for Hajar to make that move now
because if we're saying it's inevitable
he's going to do it a little bit down the line anyway,
why not get in on the ground floor
with this new regulation set
and help develop that car
and be a part of the development of that car
rather than being dropped into it in one year, two years time
once you're already changing from a racing bull
to a Red Bull under the 26 wrecks.
But what I would like to see if they do do that is,
and this may not happen because it's Red Bull,
but the Mercedes-Antonelli approach
to having a rookie or a very young driver
in your car that's at the front of the grid
and that's to say the first year
is absolutely a learning experience.
There's going to be mistakes.
We're going to support him throughout.
We're always going to say nice things
at the end of each race.
We're not going to put him under pressure about it
while he's in that first year.
So I mean, if that did happen,
if Hadjard did get that promotion,
I'd love to see it with two guaranteed years
at Red Bull.
And then I think it could work.
But of course, you know,
I do understand your concern that pushing the driver up
to Red Bull in just their second year.
We've seen it so many times with Red Bull
before and it hasn't worked.
And you do wonder whether the new face of Red Bull now,
you know, there's no corner there now.
He and Marco always clashed a lot over the driver decisions.
It seemed a lot of the two-ing and throwing
as much as it was down to performance.
There was almost like a performative element there
between the two of them.
You know, when Nick DeVries was promoted to the junior team,
for example, a few years ago,
it was this is Helmut Marco's guy.
When he didn't succeed,
Horner was very gleefully able to say,
well, he's failed, we're putting Danny Rick in
and he's my guy.
And Danny Rick didn't do so well.
Marco wasn't too...
So there's a lot of that as well going on.
I think now that that element is out of the way,
and also the fact that Laura Meckies has worked with Hajar.
I mean, he's worked with all three of those guys,
other than Max, you know, now, as Racing Bull's team boss.
I could actually, I completely agree with what Lawrence said.
And if you look back to all the examples before,
Gasly, Albon, not so much Perez,
but even Perez, it was kind of,
there was a slightly different situation,
but then you look at Lawson,
there was never that guarantee that Lawrence mentioned.
It was never, you're going to be here for two years.
It was, hey kid, don't mess this up.
This is your big chance.
And so I think, I think, yeah, if they're going to do it,
they have to do it the right way.
I think they will.
You do?
I think they will just,
I think they will because they've got Limblad to come up,
the junior from F2.
But that's still, but that's not a,
but I think that's part of my problem.
That's not giving him the guarantee
because you're still bringing him up.
You're still bringing him in and being like,
well, if you don't work,
we got this other guy breathing down your neck.
That is not an environment that like,
last was just talking about like,
Mercedes is doing with Kimmy and giving him the support
and letting him make the mistakes and stuff like that.
Like that's, that's not, that's not it.
Yeah.
And the way it would work is if they did announce
it's two years for all of those guys, you know,
do you actually see them doing that?
I don't know.
It depends.
I mean, when Marco very rarely speaks as glowingly
about the young drivers as he did on Sunday
about, about, about Hajar.
So I think there is a real feeling
that they have someone quite special with Hajar
and Limblad, I think they do also feel that.
But if they, there's also,
there's also a telling thing in Red Bull is they know
better than anyone that they've messed up the driver pipeline
that they had for a long time now.
And I think that for Marco as well,
especially as he approaches the end of his career,
I think there's a big desire on his side to be like,
let's get, let's make the Red Bull driver program
mean what it used to mean again.
And part of doing that is probably taking the foot
off the gas a little bit and saying,
right, we're going to give this guy time at the top team.
And we got that Limblad, you know,
let's not forget here.
They may well be losing Max again in a year's time from now.
So I think they're also wary of that fact.
And it's like, let's not burn through all of these young guys
because if Max does have another exit clause
and he can trigger that 12 months down the line from now,
you don't want to have already burned through Hajar
because you're like, well,
now we need to find someone to go with Hajar as well.
So I think there is a change of mindset in the background,
but I think your skepticism is totally fair as well,
Nicole, because this is a team that historically
has not done it the right way.
I just hope they do because if they would blow this talent,
I think it would be, yeah,
just be a real shame because he clearly has something
that a few others before him have not had.
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What was the most disappointing part of the weekend?
One, two, three, land-o.
For me, it was land-o.
Because that has really set the tone for the rest of the season.
There's a way this championship's going.
I'll explain why I didn't say land-o, but yeah, you go.
British bias?
Well, I picked a Brit, another British situation, but yeah.
You know, now Ray does much feel like it's...
And Nate wrote this in his piece on Sunday night,
that it's oscopiastries to lose.
And yeah, you can see a situation
when it was the points gap was at nine points
or even if it extended to 16,
which is a way it would have gone if land-o had finished.
Well, you can see a situation where that could come back around.
But now you're really thinking,
okay, this is probably going to rely on something going wrong
for Oscar along the way.
And yeah, that's the first time we've had that
in this championship.
And you know what, if the roles were reversed
and it was Oscar who was that far behind land-o,
you'd look back to Australia and the lost points there
and how he did manage to over,
not quite as big a points gap,
but he did manage to overhaul that and you'd think,
well, yeah, maybe there's a possibility there.
But with land-o, it's going to be tough
and he's going to have to come out and push really hard.
It's going to have to be aggressive.
Take a lot of chances, yeah, take a lot of risks.
And in doing that, that could just compound
the disappointment and the misery
and the issues along the way
and potentially the DNFs.
And that's the risk that we're in.
So in terms of just disappointments,
that was my main one.
I'll probably be accused of British bias for that,
but more because I was so hopeful
that we would get a championship
that goes right down to the Y.
It may still go down to the final race
if land-o can find nine points over Oscar,
over eight races, that sounds doable.
But then, you know, even though you get into the final race
and Oscar will probably need just a handful of points to win.
So yeah, that was a big disappointment for me season.
Me too. Yeah, me too.
Because I think we were just talking about it two weeks ago.
Like we selfishly wanted to go down to the last race,
you know, last lap of the season.
Like that is the ideal situation.
The only thing I think that makes me feel better about it,
given what happened, is that it wasn't a mistake
that was made by land-o.
Yes, he was not in the lead.
Like maybe he could have done things differently
at various points throughout the weekend or whatever.
But like this was, this was a Mercedes issue.
This was an engine failure.
The same thing, because there have been some reliability issues.
And I'll be honest, I don't know what this one was.
I don't know how this one compares to some of the other ones
we've seen throughout the season for both,
you know, Williams and Mercedes.
But this was an engine failure.
It was not driver doing.
So there is always the chance that this happens to Oscar.
I think I would have been far more disappointed
if this was like a land-o mistake,
where he ran into the back of someone,
where he took himself out.
He was basically doing everything he needed to do
to chase down Oscar.
I just worry a little bit in terms of like
the long-term how he races.
I agree with you, Laz.
If this had happened to Oscar,
there are just two different personalities.
And I don't know if land-o has the same sort of like
effort mentality to just go and do it
and be aggressive and put it all on the line
week in and week out to like make up the difference now.
Yeah, and I think there's a lot to that.
I think it'll be interesting to see what land-o means
when he says, you know,
I'm just going to go for it now and race,
because I think there have been,
you've both mentioned it, there's been moments
when I think he's been found lacking in that.
But what I will say with this is that,
I mean, yeah, from the title race perspective,
a bit of a disaster.
But I think it does overshadow the fact that to me,
even before that engine failure,
I was thinking to myself,
I think Piastri is the guy that's going to win this championship.
I felt that for a while.
That weekend was the most perfect Piastri weekend
we've seen so far.
If you look at through practice,
it looked like land-o had the edge.
Lawrence and I actually sat down with Zach Brown
just to have a coffee on Saturday just before qualifying.
And he said, land-o's looked really strong,
like I think land-o's going to put it together.
Actually, sometimes he's done this, this season,
where it's almost like he builds up to Q3, nails pole,
and then land-o got stuck in that fight.
I mean, Max was amazing off the line.
I thought it was so entertaining watching Max fight.
But as soon as that happened,
it was like Piastri's going to win this race.
So there's two elements to this that are disappointing.
One is, it does look like
it's handed the initiative to Piastri,
but it's also handed the initiative, in my opinion,
to the wrong guy to make it a fun championship.
If that failure to be on Piastri's car,
I feel like to that exact point that you made,
he's the guy that you could see kind of coming back
and overhauling that.
It would have been slightly less deficit as well.
And I just, yeah,
I just think Piastri's in such a good groove
coming out of Zandvo.
And he's going to now to two races
where he was super strong last year,
Monza and then Baku.
He obviously should have won,
should have won Monza, did win Baku.
If he wins both of those races,
it doesn't matter where Norris finishes.
As far as I'm concerned,
that's pretty much game over.
Barring, like you said, something crazy.
So, you know, I think we do,
we should still give Piastri the credit,
you know, as much as,
as much as that was very sad to see on the Norris side of things,
it already felt like quite statement drive from Piastri.
And I think it almost got lost a little bit
because Norris went out, but, you know,
he was, he'd been chasing him.
There had been three restarts.
Piastri had managed them all the same.
I don't think he would have got past Zandvo.
So, yeah, it did feel a little bit.
I was actually down in the media pen,
so I had no sound
because I'd gone down to talk to Lewis.
And basically if a driver retires early,
you've got to go down to the pen early
because they get there before anyone else.
And so we were watching it.
And obviously as the chaos unfolded,
we were kind of, but you could hear the noise
before we saw Lando slow down
because obviously it elevated Max up to second.
And it, all of us in the pen just kind of winced.
Like, oh, and I've got to say,
even the non-English journalist winced as well
before he started saying
he was a bunch of view English guys down there.
I was the only Englishman down there
and everyone else was like,
ah, no, that sucks.
So, you know, it does show you
that people do want this type of fight to go to the end.
And it just felt, yeah,
it did feel like that was probably the moment
that means it doesn't.
So tell me, why did your British bias then say
Lewis was the biggest disappointment
of the weekend?
Because I, going to Monza as well,
he's got himself a five-second penalty,
a five-place grid penalty, which we'll talk about.
But I just, I thought that was,
the Lando thing was a reliability failure.
It's like, okay, that's a shame.
It happens, right?
Lewis crashing out like that.
It was kind of, it was a pretty,
I mean, for a seven-time or champion
to make that mistake.
It was like a pedestrian sort of mistake.
Yeah, that's the thing.
I thought it was so goat-like,
you know, if you want to call Lewis that.
I was just like, come on, man, you're better than that.
You should not be doing that at this level.
So that's what I meant about disappointment.
For me seeing that, I just thought,
you know, that's not what Ferrari signed.
That's not the Lewis Hamilton they wanted.
And he did say he felt better
generally around the weekend.
But yeah, I just, seeing it, it was like,
come on, that's not, that's not what you should be.
So that's what I mean about this disappointment factor.
I was more like, ah, come on,
that's, that's not what Lewis Hamilton is about.
The, the land of disappointment was more wide of,
we're not going to get the touch of flight we hoped
we would get in the second half of the season.
Um, can we just take a second here?
Alex Alban's start to the race.
I just saw this.
That was special.
Yeah.
It was incredible.
Um, and while we're on Williams,
there was one moment of the race that I, um,
I tried to look at it a couple of different ways.
I do not understand how signs was given the penalty
he was given for the, the contact with Liam Lawson.
I tried to look at it through the perspective of like,
who owns the corner, but also I just kept going back
to that felt a little more like a racing incident.
It was not like the Kimi Antonelli, uh,
LeClaire incident, which we'll get to in a second.
I just don't, because I,
when Antonelli got the penalty for the exact same thing,
I was like, that's not the exact same,
that's not the exact issue that wasn't that.
I just, am I the only one?
Like I just don't, I don't get it.
I don't understand it.
So this is a perfect example of,
of the mess F1's got in with, uh,
it's stewarding situation at the moment.
It's not really the stewards fault.
I wouldn't say it's because there's this, uh,
guidance now, this, um,
this driving guidelines that they have to make decisions by
and they're very clear.
And actually, if you look at that,
science didn't have his front axle alongside Lawson,
which is what he needed to have to be therefore given space
on the exit.
And that meant from that point onwards in the corner,
according to the guidelines,
if there was a collision and there was,
it would be on,
on sites to take responsibility because he didn't have his car
far along enough side as they went into the corner.
It doesn't mean he can't attempt the overtake.
So allowed to attempt the overtake,
but, um, yeah,
if you end up with a situation where there is contact
and in, and in that incident, uh,
it actually ruined both drivers races because they got punctures.
Then, uh, the blame is with science.
Now I think science summed up quite well after the race where he said
Zandvoort term one is a corner where you see two cars go side by side.
A lot of the time there's grip on the inside, there's grip on the outside.
It's slightly banked.
It's, you know, good radius for that, for that kind of racing.
And that to me, uh, just explains everything.
That's the problem with having these guidelines that, uh,
a one rule fits all across 24 races a year.
And with, you know, race tracks that typically have somewhere
between kind of 10 and 20 odd corners.
Um, you can't just have one rule that plays out the whole way around.
So I would agree with you was, I think it was a racing incident.
Obviously it was very different to the Antonelli one, which was,
um, also overtaken on the inside.
So different rules apply,
or at least was an attempt to overtake on the inside.
It never really going to happen.
Uh, the only one, which I took some, uh,
some kind of at least a positive from was that there was no penalty
applied to, uh, Charlotte clerk for his move on George Russell.
Um, uh, you know, a move that I thought was fantastic to watch.
Uh, was right on the borderline, but, um, but was,
was what we want.
It was entertainment and actually both drivers afterwards,
they were called to the stewards and the stewards made a decision
after the race about that one, which could have led to a
grip penalty for Charlotte clerk in Monza as well.
But both drivers went and they said, no, this was a racing
incident. You know, it clearly was. Um, and I do wonder whether,
if you had Lawson and science in there afterwards,
maybe they would have also agreed on it being a,
being a racing incident,
but they made a decision in the race on that one.
And actually afterwards Lawson said that, you know,
science deserve the penalty because of the rules they have.
And, you know, he said that he's been caught out by these
rules as well as share.
But just another example where I take the racing out of it.
Yeah.
I think actually you need to have more trust in the stewards
to make a decision based on every individual example.
But then you get leveled with inconsistencies because
somebody else will say, well, you know, a similar incident,
a completely different track on a completely different corner
didn't result in the same penalty.
So the stewards are just trying to be consistent.
But by doing that,
that handcuffed into giving penalties like the one science
got.
Yeah.
I do wonder if, um, if the plug had finished the race,
if that would have been different.
Um, so I mean, it shouldn't be like,
how they do it then absolutely shouldn't be.
Yeah.
I know I totally, I totally know it shouldn't be,
but sometimes you do wonder, you're like, you know,
this, this, if they're getting a lot of, you know,
I don't know how much because obviously everyone on social
media was saying, if that's a, you know,
if that's an overtake, including myself, you know,
then what are we doing?
I always wonder how much of that.
And were those stewards really going to be in a position
of like, let's give two Ferrari drivers,
two grid penalties for Monza.
I do wonder if that was in the back of their minds,
but I'm glad they didn't give them a penalty
because I think it would have been such a stinker
of a decision to do it.
I just, just had to table a mini conspiracy
theory for you.
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slash unlapped.
It was abysmal,
awful, horrendous,
tragic.
But I don't know, fill in your word.
Ferrari just had their third double DNF
in the last four years.
So it was Zambort last weekend,
the Canadian Grand Prix in 2024,
obviously different driver lineup
and Azerbaijan back in
2022.
When you're looking at a signing
fault for the rough weekend,
how much of it is
driver, how much of it is bad luck
and how do you assign the fault?
I guess it's a mix, isn't it,
for both drivers as well.
One chunk of it has to be that
fundamentally, Ferrari's car was not there a weekend.
That kind of started out the disappointment,
the fact they were just way off the pace,
I mean down sixth and seventh.
But yeah, I think you've got to,
on the Lewis side, you've got to place
a fairly big chunk on him.
You've also got to place a fairly big chunk
sadly, which is Kimmy Antonelli
taking Charles out of the race.
Because yeah, I think Charles
looked like he was in a decent spot.
I don't know whether he would have caught up with Hadja
or not on the way the race panned out,
but certainly Charles is probably
the only one who leaves without any real blame
attached to him because I thought
out of everyone he was just doing his race, right?
But maybe I'm being
harsh or
too fair one way, Lawrence, what do you reckon?
No, Lewis was
to blame for his instant, his father could tell
nothing's come out since to suggest otherwise.
I mean the performance of the Ferrari
was pretty disappointing considering
the
potential it showed in Hungary,
not the end result it showed in Hungary,
but the potential it showed with Leclerc
in pole position and leading the McLarens
early in that race.
I actually thought that they would be
the next best team behind the McLarens
this weekend and that didn't come to pass,
so clearly there's still issues
with the car, the crop
up on different circuit types
in different corners, so
you could probably put a little bit of blame
at Ferrari's door for not having
the car sorted at this stage of season,
but with that sign sound like a broken record
with that one because we've been talking about that since
the first race. The teams keep saying
there's no huge benefit from doing the old
thing of we're abandoning this year now
and looking to 26, but
there must be a point with a team like Ferrari
now where you're like let's, as much as we
can affect next year, whether it is updating
this car and learning things
I do wonder whether now at this point in the season
you know you're just like look
there's like like how much of the focus now
is going into this new rules
change that you know once you're past
Monza that's the real one that Ferrari
this year like let's just not mess this one up
you do start to wonder don't you
like how much maybe
it's a very simplistic way to look at it but I do
I think it's 100% for pretty much every team
right now in terms of development I don't think we're
going to see a huge amount of development come to the car
you can see whether Ferrari have something very specific
for Monza because they've done that in previous
years often they've said it's not
just because it's the home race I think it probably
the famous super engine
but you know and
I think all teams are up that and that doesn't
mean you can't then achieve and you can't find
things trackside because you know the trackside
engineering team is not the same engineers that are working
on the 2026 car in the wind tunnel
it's different groups so it doesn't
mean you still can't improve and you can't learn
things going forward but I'd be surprised
if any team is really still focusing
on 2025
I also think that Ferrari is walking
a fine line with like if you watch
the Lewis Hamilton mood from the beginning
of the season to where he is now
it's a very fine line of
they need to bring him back
they need to get him in a position where
he is not
I don't know how would you describe what you're seeing
from him like personality wise
mood wise they need to get him
back from that to get to give him
a reason
to not be down
and out so
I'm not saying stop focusing
like you know stop focusing on 2026
I just think that they
they have to write the ship
mentally with
with Hamilton otherwise
you're going into a 2026
season where the ball
is sort of heading in the wrong direction
and you just like
I feel like if any team can't give up on 2025
it's actually them more than almost anyone
else
what one of the things that
Lewis said on Thursday ahead of the
Zambol weekend was that he
hadn't enjoyed the first half of the season
which is insanity
and you think of all the excitement
there was going into the year including
himself and he said
there was pressure there's lots of things going on around
and you know I haven't enjoyed
as much as I should have and he said
his main target for the second half of the year
is to rediscover that
enjoyment but I agree
that is
it might not seem like the most important
thing in a sport that's so technical
but I think that is really important to getting the best out of Lewis
you know getting Lewis
in the right frame of mind
and we saw that in Mercedes as well
when he's in the right mood he is
unstoppable when he's not
things can
go wrong quite quickly
and so I don't know exactly what that
will mean but it does seem like there's
still work to be done just in terms of
making him happy with the engineering
team, making him happy with the direction they're taking
all of those things
need to be
in place for him to perform his best
in 2026 but
I'm sort of wondering you know whether
Ferrari
if they look at this season they may think well
they're performing and if Charles is happy with the way
things are going
maybe he's the guy that's going to
lead them into 2026 as well so
it is a fine line because I think they need to
get Lewis in a better frame of mind
in the second half of the year but
they also need to make sure that
they're not completely dominated by what Lewis
wants if there's better opportunities
to be found with Charles
a fine balancing act but I think
it was quite
reassuring to hear Lewis
say that in a way on Thursday because he was
so down in Hungary
that it really did sound like
you know at one point he was asked
would you be back in Zandvoort those were the kind
of vibes he was giving that maybe he wouldn't
of course he did come back and so
it was reassuring to hear him directly say no
I'm just going to go out and enjoy this second half of the year that's my
priority and despite
the weekend not going really to plan
I mean qualifying was slightly better but the race wasn't
he was more upbeat throughout I mean that you
were in the pen on Sunday after
the incident I understand even then he wasn't
that down on himself despite
it being his error yeah he was chipper
especially considering what
had happened to him there
and I mean
you can tell Lewis is trying to
he was trying to put a brave face on it he did feel more
confident about how the week had gone one thing that was interesting
it's in the Dutch press
Toto Wolf spoke to the Dutch press basically to I think to explain to them
you know
the story about the Max Verstappen pursuit that obviously didn't
didn't come off he was asked about
Lewis saying yeah what do you think of that
and it's on motorsport.com and a few other places
he said he actually told Lewis that night
in Hungary he said you never
heard Michael Jordan talk like that you never
heard the goat of basketball say
I'm useless they should change me
even if he had a bad game he would say no I need to be
better so you do wonder if people
close him and saying like look Lewis you can't come out
and say that stuff because I know for a fact a lot
of people at Ferrari were quite shocked to hear
him say that in Hungary we certainly were in the
media like Lauren said I think
as much as he was in a good a better mood
on Sunday it did also
feel like he was kind of
thinking about everything he was saying in a
sense of let's try and keep this as
positive as I can
for a guy who's just crashed out of the race so
um yeah because I think if I'd given another
one of those quotes pre Monza
just would have been you know rough from a
PR perspective you know yeah
there are people on this
zoom here who so boldly predicted
that Lewis Hamilton would go into
and win
yeah yeah I think that person is
hand in his F1 journalism card
not pointing at fingers or anything but when you
look ahead to Monza which is this
coming weekend a few days away
what are realistic
expectations for Ferrari
while also keeping in mind home race
the fact that they did win this race last year
um and the situation
where they're in now
I think the target this weekend
is the same as it is
again for Ferrari right now which is to be
the next team behind McLaren
you can't remove McLaren from the equation
you can't ignore the fact that McLaren have got
a big advantage to everyone else
but the car is there or there about
to be the next team
behind them so
that would be certainly an acceptable
result but I think
coming off of Zanvore it's just not
a complete another disaster
weekend like they had in Zanvore
so I
feel like the performance is there
they'll probably get it together
the only other interesting thing is actually
whether Monza because it's such an outlier track
so different to so many other circuits
on the calendar whether there might
actually be an opportunity
for all those chasing back to kind of get in amongst
the McLarens a bit like Canada
earlier this year you know remember
race the Mercedes one in the end
Mercedes are very competitive
whether Monza just presents that opportunity
and if that opportunity is there
Ferrari have to make sure they're in a position to be able to take it
yeah I agree with that
I would say with
my prediction Nicole I mean that grid penalty
has ruined it right so I've got a free out
Hamilton grid penalty
no it's invalidated
I think
there is something about Ferrari at Monza
they always you know there's that magic
factor there a little bit so
I'm not going there
thinking they can win but I would be stunned
if it's as bad a weekend
as and or just from a performance perspective obviously
a double DNF would be a nightmare
you are going there thinking they can win
because if I go back two weeks that is
literally what you said
I mean I've got a Ferrari
book and a Michael Schumacher helmet
over my shoulder here so you can see
there's a lot of Ferrari
desire here to see to see
Ferrari win so maybe that's just clouding my judgment
but it's that British bias
yeah exactly but
also I would say seeing
Ferrari win at Monza being there
is one of the most special things you can see in sports
you know we've both been really fortunate
I think I've seen I think I've seen it
once as a fan twice
twice or three no three times a journalist
I think Lawrence has probably seen a couple more
but it is just it's just unreal
it's a thing this weekend imagine if Lewis
in qualifying gets it all together someone goes
on for us he sticks it on pole
Nate's prediction looks like it's going to come true
of course there's a five-place penalty and he starts fear for then the race
unravels I will we bring that up
that's my new prediction for Monza
we will never hear the end of it
exactly all right we've talked about how this
track is an outlier
it's an incredibly special place
from the
the track perspective only Lawrence
what is it about Monza
it is insanely fast
so it's the
it has the record I think for the fastest
qualifying lap in Formula 1 which was
in 2020 set by Lewis Hamilton
around 100 and I will double check this
actually because I didn't make a note before
164 miles per hour
lap that's an average speed
and so yeah it's
insanely fast and that's because they really
trim back the winds to reduce
the drag as much as possible
and therefore the cars are
you know getting close to 220
miles per hour at the end of the street
so it's um yeah it's a very
different challenge to to everywhere else
last year we saw that
we had quite good race didn't we because there was
a divide between going two stop and one stop
the McLarens went for a two stop
probably should have won the race but Charlotte
made it work on a one stop
that was partly down to a resurfacing
of the track for that race
and therefore there was kind of a lot of
draining early in the race with the tyres
and that coached teams into two stops
Paredi are actually already saying that they're expecting
every team to go for one stop
this year so we might not have that
strategic variation that we enjoyed last year
but still we'll be interested
who's willing to you know
push that bit harder there
maybe roll the dice on a different strategy
and take a bunch of it
but yeah I think it's just
more than the track layout itself
Monza is about the environment
the fans, the tofosi
and I think what's
hopefully going to
add to Lewis Hamilton's enjoyment
and all of Ferrari's enjoyment is that
is that special
feeling they get from this weekend
and Charlotte Clerk talked about it a bit
in Zambo already that
you can kind of imagine what it might be like
of course they went to Imola earlier this year
another race in Italy but Monza is that little bit
extra and it sounds like
Ferrari have a bunch of celebrations
around Nicci Lauda's title in 1975
lined up so
that should be fun for them as well
and I think there's going to be a few retro
Ferrari shirts and overalls
going around as well which will look cool
because I feel like at this point
we just
expect them to be there
which team
does this track most suit
and again McLaren cannot be your answer
yeah
Williams have always gone quite well here haven't they
I remember they've always had a
pretty quick car, Albon I think last year was
top 10
wait wouldn't you all die if my prediction came true
yeah well I was just thinking that Nicole
I was like I remember that was your ball prediction
if that came true instead
I wouldn't hold my breath
yeah there's been about three seasons
now where the Williams has always come to
Monza feeling really good about their chances
and maybe haven't
delivered on what they thought they could but they certainly
thought that they could be there but I was also
going to say that any car
with Maxine is going to be good but I'm
really curious to see how Hadjard does this weekend
again in that racing ball I think it could be
a bit of a rocket ship for him
yeah and then if you look at
Canada is probably the closest example
of a race track that you know
it has similarities to Monza
there are some big differences as well but
if you look there again just as I mentioned
earlier it was the Mercedes that
emerged as the fastest car there
probably they'd need
a cooler weekend I haven't looked at the forecast
but a cooler weekend to make it really work
but that would be interesting as well
if all of a sudden the Mercedes
is a contender but
yeah I mean you said we can't mention McLaren
but you know realistically I think
every race we go to right now
it's not really going to be a cooler weekend
it looks like it's
I'm going to do this in Fahrenheit
80
with the chance of rain on Friday
although I don't know what time
Saturday 79
Sunday 79 the rain chance
on Friday
it's not during like practice time
so just green track
yeah it looks like it's going to be a pretty warm one
but on the Mercedes
I know we haven't talked about it too much
but I really hope they have a competitive car
just so we can get
some good feelings back for Kimmy
because I think this is where it will start
for him 12 months ago with that practice crash
he's not been in the great place
I think he's going to get a pretty warm welcome there
obviously from the home crowd wouldn't it be a great story
if he kind of kickstarted his career
with a podium or something like that here
I'm not sure
it doesn't seem like he's in the right place to do that
but who knows it might be spurred on by
that Monza magic I talked about
just with a different car color underneath him
I like that Monza magic
it is like it's a very cool
it's a very cool place
I'm trying to think of all the
circuits I've been to
which obviously is not as much as yours
I love the
I love the outside of Imola
like the old town
but like Monza is just
so cool
for US fans
I think the closest you come
to when you go to the Indianapolis
motor speedway and the aura of that place
Monza and Monaco
have that
the only two circuits that have that when you're there
you're like special things have happened here
over history there's something about this place
that is I mean like literally
same with Indianapolis they do say don't they
the most of Monza
there's been a lot of tragic accidents there
there's been great racing moments there
it's just one of those it feels
like a special place that
almost has an undescribable quality to it
it's a fantastic place to go
and yeah I think
the great thing as well as you can see the old
banks track as well
we talked about the Zandvoort bank track earlier
there was that used to be one of those
at Monza too so
just a really cool kind of I was going to say
that's the wrong that's the wrong word but a real cool
kind of antique of the past
that still is relevant today and
I'm excited I think it always produces
a really fun race
Speaking of special things that have happened
you guys check out the podium predictions
from last week
Yeah I did because I was
right towards the end of the race Nicole I was thinking to myself
I'm going to text the group and say finally
after all of debating about
my terrible season which I have had
I was about to nail it and then
I was about to like nail it
I was about to nail it with the damn trifecta
Oscar Lando Max I was like here we go
and then suddenly Lando's
smelling the smoke in his cockpit and I was like
oh great here we go because that then goes from
3 right to 1 that's the thing that was
that was almost 6 points
You would have had 6 points after going
weeks with that scoring a point
So if anything it was more disappointing
for my title chances than Lando's
that's probably why I wasn't as disappointed I was
selfishly thinking what a different chances
than the predictions league but no
You did have Oscar right? Yeah
and so did you so because you had Max 2nd as well
I had yeah
the only person on this call who did not
score points is Lawrence what happened
Yeah I had my faith in Lando
Yeah what can I say
You know but again
there's lots of tips and buts here
but 0.012 second
is what separated Oscar
and Lando in qualifying
and yeah we talked about how great a weekend
it was for Oscar but it was small margins
of course the failure probably would have
happened anyway on Lando's car
but still yeah
a reminder of just how close it is
between those two so that's my defence
for Lando Oscar Char
2 points for me
1 point for Nate no points for Lawrence
not that we're keeping track
we're totally keeping track
I have a 3
point lead in our championship
it is 16-13
Nate you're also playing
with Ake
I've been right there underneath Lazz now
I would have been on 12 right I think
with that
No I'd have been level
Yeah you would have been in the mix
Yeah I understand
So let's get to our predictions for this week
Nate since you bring up the rear
you can go first
I'm gonna stick with
my theme of magic at Monza
I'm gonna
also think back to last year
I don't know if I was gonna win but I think
I'm gonna
I'm gonna say
Lando third
Leclerc second
Piastri wins the race
I just think
yeah I think Charles can get himself in that mix
and I don't know I just got a feeling that
Piastri's
taking that step that he needs to take
and I'm not sure Norris's
head's gonna be in the right place for the weekend
Okay all right Lawrence
I'm gonna go
chasing points and go with
Max third
Lando second Oscar win
We are all
different
That's fun
I'm gonna still chase points but
it's not necessarily that I'm
chasing points it's just genuine belief
Oscar wins Max
a second and then Monza magic
Leclerc
on the podium and third
Wow so what do you think Lando gets a double dose
of reliability issues that's
pretty bad luck
No I don't think he gets a double dose of it
I just think
maybe
he doesn't have the appropriate
amount of aggression
I think that's fair as well so
before we left Amsterdam
on Monday Lawrence and
we're talking about this and I actually think
it's gonna
I love that
we got the train back so we
avoided Chipotle which is one of the worst
airports in the world just if anyone's
ever planning to go there
I don't hate it
it's dreadful but I think
that Lando point you just make Nicole is
an absolutely great one to make because
one person I think is gonna relish fighting
Lando even more now knowing that he has
to beat him is gonna be
Max I think Max enjoys
seeing the way he can kind of toy with Lando
a bit and I think you're to your prediction
you know if he's in that
position now Max is gonna be like well come on kid
you know what you got
he knows now Lando I mean Lando's always had to
beat him on track but now it absolutely is
essential he does that
and so I can see a bit you know if there's a cat and mouse
then going on there I think Max will have a lot of fun
with it and yet I don't think Lando will
potentially price that occasion
like he should
The other interesting thing to keep an eye on being Monza is
of course what happened last year where Oscar got ahead
of Lando and then they
I think at least lost one position to the
clock or they lose both positions I can't quite remember
but anyway at that second chicane
and that was in a situation
where Lando was the one chasing
the championship chasing down Max
coming off a zandvoort victory and it's
starting to look perhaps possible and then of course
Oscar went and did that to him so it's a little bit of roles
reversed now because yeah Lando has less to
lose so I think
I kind of agree with Unicoll that I'm not
sure if he's quite
got what it takes to pull off the decisive move
when he needs it
but it would be interesting if he tries
because right now in that kind of situation
if it's similar going into
the first or second chicane on the opening
lap Lando's probably just going to stick
it down the inside or around the outside
and make Oscar make a decision on what
happens because he's got less to lose
I do think we will
learn a lot about Lando this weekend
I do think
if he goes out and just
no holds bar
and just does it I think we will learn a lot
about his headspace and where he is actually
willing to go but if he
is out there and cautious I think that says
something else about him
we shall find out also fantasy football
predictions coming your way next week
safe travels
I can't wait to find out how all
of our predictions go wait who are your
quarterbacks I ended up with Baker Mayfield
I'm not saying I love it but that's
who I have
I ended up with Jared Goff which I'm not
particularly happy with but under a dome
he throws it a lot so I'll take him
who did I pick mate I've already
forgotten this is again
you picked Drake May
which is brave
but I liked it it's a vibe
I was reading some stuff on ESPN actually that's
what made me go that way I also left my
quarterback pick very late
you went right towards the end yeah
everything had gone by that point so
I didn't pick up a defense yeah
you can do that you can do that mate
it's about strategy captain
alright
I'll pick up one eventually
thank you for watching and listening
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guys until next week bye
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