Las Vegas GP 2025 Debrief | HUGE Impact On The Title

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Oh, wow.

Hello.

Good morning.

Good evening.

Good night, everyone.

Wherever you are in the world, this is the Fast and the Curious podcast, the Formula One

podcast that previews and debriefs the races, as well as speaking to some of the biggest

names in the sport.

We have got to get on with it.

I am Betty Glover.

I am tired in the UK.

Christian Hughill is tired in a Las Vegas hotel room.

You're tired.

You tend to **** too in the morning.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

So, right.

We've had the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

We've then had this situation where we have just been waiting and waiting to find out

what is happening.

And we can now tell you that both McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri,

have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Christian, what's your reaction?

My reaction is I'm very tired and for those watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see

that I have given up and I am doing the podcast in bed.

So, this is in nearly three years of doing this podcast.

The first episode, the Fast and the Curious, have ever recorded from a bed.

And I've just been waiting for the results coming in bed, Betty.

I left the circuit at normal time, came back to the hotel to record the podcast.

Thank God for you, Betty Glover, not getting up to watch the race live because by

our normal timings, we'd have done the podcast and then we'd have ended up doing it again.

So thank goodness for you.

I'm still tired.

Can I just add?

Because I got up at 6.30.

Yeah.

She didn't get up early.

She didn't get up at 4.

Yeah.

So, I still want to talk about the race, but obviously, Betty, the reaction is, you

know, this is massive for the championship.

This is huge.

So, yeah, I still want to talk about the race in a moment, but Betty, my immediate

reaction is, you know, this is colossal news for the 2025 Formula One World

Championship.

There is now, you know, just under a race win between Lando and Iris leading the

championship and Oscar Piazza in second, only in second, by the way, on virtue of

more race wins for Max Verstappen, who's in third.

This now basically means we've got two races and a sprint race, don't forget.

This is anyone's.

We are in for a grandstand box office end to the season, you know, we'll get into

this properly in a moment.

Slightly sad it's happened on a technicality, but still, this changes everything, Betty.

This is absolutely insane.

I can't believe it.

When that race finished, I was like, all right, cool, Lando, he's going to do

it.

He's in a great position.

He's in a really strong position to finish this season.

This is just throwing it all up in the air.

So Max Verstappen and Oscar Piazza are 24 points behind Lando, Norris, two races

and a sprint to go.

Oh, my God, this is going to be a ridiculous end of the season, Christian.

Right.

It is because, let's explain what has happened because I think a lot of

people are a little bit confused.

They have been disqualified because of the thickness of the real most

skid of both cars was less than the required thickness.

What the hell does that mean?

Yes.

So underneath the car, there is what is informally known as a plank.

It's made from a special material.

It's a safety thing.

The plank protects the structural integrity of the car.

It runs along the circuit surface and you have to have that plank, a certain

thickness at the end of the Grand Prix.

If it has worn too much, don't forget we're in the ground effect area of Formula

One cars.

Running your car close to the floor helps you with performance.

But if you run your car too close to the floor and your plank is worn too

much, you can be disqualified off the top of my head.

I believe it's 10 centimetres.

You have to have 9 centimetres is the absolute minimum.

This decision, so to rewind a little bit, we obviously had the race.

I left the circuit to come back and do this podcast and I was waiting to

record and then we get this quite a long time after the result had happened.

And usually, Betty, as I say, you get that 9 centimetre measurement.

Usually it's quite cut and dry in terms of whether either the skid block

has been worn too much or it hasn't.

But clearly there was some discussion going on between McLaren and

between the FIA because we were waiting a long, long time for a decision.

I mean, the time now in Las Vegas, as I'm talking to you, is 1.56 in the morning.

We've only just had the decision and, you know, the race was finished at

sort of 10 p.m. ish.

So we've been waiting a long time for a decision.

Usually it's quite a quick decision as well, isn't it?

Because China, we've we found out pretty quickly.

This is this is dragged and as I say, as you just said, Betty,

this has happened a few times in in recent history.

This isn't a brand new thing.

People who aren't new to Formula One will have seen this.

So, yeah, in terms of how it could have happened,

you know, this is part of free practice running to determine

how long and how much you can, you know, run close to the floor.

McLaren had disrupted free practice running with some technical glitches

because everybody had disrupted free practice running because of the weather.

But listen, you know, all the other teams managed to, you know,

not have this problem.

So make no mistake, this is a McLaren mistake.

And this should be viewed as such.

They have run they have run their cars too low to the floor.

And we've seen this on other occasions where it's happened to teams

and they've held up their hands and gone, we've made a mistake here.

So listen, we're recording this minutes after the decision has been made.

I'm sure they will make a statement in due course.

We'll bring you more details on that in our Qatar preview later in the week.

And we'll go into it a bit more.

So they will come out with an explanation as to why it happened.

It is a McLaren area.

It could be a hugely costly McLaren area.

Lando, Norris and Oscar Piazzari will be absolutely gutted.

Particularly Lando.

But yeah, it's it's a it's a it's a big old mistake.

There's there's there's no denying that massive, massive error from McLaren.

Is this why there were loads of sparks coming off Oscar Piazzari's car

because it looked like his car was really the only one that I saw all these.

Yeah, we both noticed this, Betty, didn't we?

We were we were talking as you were watching the race

and was unaware of what was happening.

But I caught up that when Oscar pulled out to make an overtaking manoeuvre,

you saw more sparks.

The simple I suspect that's got something to do with it.

The simple answer is we don't actually know at this point.

But yes, it was running close.

And at the end of the race, we saw

what the first inclination we got of this was a team radio message

to Max Verstappen saying Lando is nursing some sort of issue.

Lando's pace dropped off dramatically towards the end of the race.

So the thinking there was fuel.

And I actually tweeted at the end of the race.

Well, hang on a minute.

If Lando was having to save fuel that dramatically

at the end of the Grand Prix, will he have the minimum

required sample size?

Because at the end of the race, you have to give a fuel sample to the FIA.

And we have seen in the past that cars have ran too much,

you know, they used too much fuel in the race, have not been able to give

that sample size and they've been disqualified.

I did actually send a couple of texts out and didn't get a response,

which made me think interesting that that maybe we're not cut and dry here.

But was that to do with fuel or was it the team

realizing we are wearing our plank far too much?

Because there will be sensors on this.

There's so many sensors in the Formula One car.

At this stage, we don't know the details will come out in the wash.

But what we do know is, yeah, it is that plank.

It isn't the underside of the car.

It is a safety thing.

We've we've seen this in Formula One before and it is a mistake from McLaren

and it is cost them the it is cost them their results at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

OK, so here is your top ten in Las Vegas.

Then after all of that, Max Verstappen, P1.

George Russell takes P2.

Antonelli, third Leclerc goes up to fourth.

Carlos signs fifth.

Isaac Hajar takes sixth.

Hülkenberg, seventh Hamilton.

P8, Ocon, P9 and Oli Bearman gets the last of the points in P10.

Christian, just sum up the standings for us one more time.

We touched point at the start, but it now means Norris stays on 390.

Piatri is on 366.

If the title ended now, Piatri gets second

because he's got an extra race win to Max.

He's also on 366.

So it means don't forget 25 points for a race win

plus the sprint race of two.

We've got Katar and Abu Dhabi.

It's it's massive.

It literally throws the championship wide open.

I'm actually I actually think I'm in a state of shock.

Like, I can't quite believe this has happened at this stage

of the championship when it was looking so incredibly good for Landau.

Now it is all to play for in Katar.

Yeah, I mean, I mean the the debrief we were going to have

is that, you know, let's look at the story of the weekend away from this.

Landau Norris had such an impressive

qualifying where, yes, he ran last and that helped.

But you've got an ice cold track.

It was so cold and you've got full wet tires,

which is so unusual in Formula One.

And Landau still manages to

outqualify Max Verstappen in those conditions.

Amazing, absolutely amazing.

And then basically messes up the first corner.

It is brilliant interview with David Coulthard after the race.

Fully admit, in his words, I f***ed it up.

So he messes up the first corner.

He's overly aggressive.

He goes in too hot, but he has this great race

where he does pull it back.

He did well in the race to get George.

And it's like fair play for that.

And you're leaving the Grand Prix thinking, OK,

he might well have cost himself a race win here

by cocking it up into the first corner.

But he's leaving with the championship like, well, he's, you know, Max,

something mad has to happen for Max to be in it.

He's come second.

We're going into the final races, basically knowing that unless Landau

entirely messes it up, this is his championship

because Oscar's pace isn't there really.

It doesn't look like Oscar's got a title file left in him.

And that's where we're going.

That's the storyline going into Qatar.

It's like this is looking so likely to be Landau's championship.

And don't get me wrong, Betty.

It still is to an extent, but, you know, the variables,

there are so many more variables now.

Well, immediately after the race, before McLaren got disqualified,

Norris would have been on 408,

Piastri 378 and Verstappen all the way back in 366.

So really, you would probably be writing Verstappen out of it at that stage.

But it would. Yeah, it would have been like almost certainly,

you know, it would have taken two DNFs for Landau and Oscar's territory.

Yeah. But now this is a solid battle between three drivers, 24 points in it.

Landau still has the upper hand, but oh my gosh, are we going to be in

for a really good end of the season?

Christian, the end of the season is getting so incredibly close.

The championship battle has been insane.

We're all going to miss it so much

when that final race of the season comes around, aren't we?

I mean, I'm usually ready for a break at the end of the F1 season,

but you just kind of don't want this one to end, do you?

Like with so little in it with Landau and Oscar going between them.

But like the winter break is getting shorter and shorter.

So there's a saying we don't want this season to end,

but 2026 will literally be here before we know it.

I know, I think you need a holiday, to be honest.

I think we all need a holiday.

But our sports fans were so fickle, aren't we?

Because instantly there is going to be a whole load of new storylines

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Whole load of new drivers that we're going to get behind

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Welcome back, everybody.

By the way, fair play to anybody

that has stayed up from the early hours of the morning

to wait for this result.

All like Christian has stayed awake.

What time is it with you now, Christian?

Eight minutes past two.

He's hanging on in there, everybody.

He's hanging on in there.

Hang on, but awake since 7 a.m.

By dear life, for dear life.

You're hanging on for dear life.

Right, we've talked about the fact

that Norris is 24 points clear from Oscar Piazzari

and Max Verstappen because of this McLaren disqualification.

We haven't really talked about Oscar.

Let's chat about him because it feels like

he is just not getting any luck at all whatsoever,

but also would you say this disqualification

sort of works in his favor in a way?

I think there's a few things there.

I think it's less, I don't think it's luck.

I think he's not on the pace.

So Lando, other than the turn one mistake

has had a very good weekend.

Oscar, it's not like he's had a shocker.

It's not like we've seen the mistakes

like a Brazil or a Baku.

It's just he's not on the pace.

It's like he's almost gone back to the Oscar

of when he was the newer teammate.

And he just, you know, 80% of the time

wasn't keeping up with Lando.

So it was just a weekend where Oscar just pace wise,

just sheer wasn't on it.

Something you do have to bear in mind is he's, you know,

he's done a lot less running on tracks

at the back end of the season.

So I still, I'm still saying on every podcast

at the moment, I do think Oscar will recover from this.

I think he needs the winter break now.

I think he needs a reset.

I think, and now I'm going to go on to your final point.

You said there, Betty,

I don't think he's in the title contention

because I don't think he's showing the pace at the moment.

I think he'll get that pace back,

but probably not this season.

I still think Oscar Piazza will win world championships.

I still think he's special,

but I think he needs a reset now

to move on from the season to get that pace back.

But Betty, to your final point,

I almost, I do think if it's a mental thing with Oscar,

it's quite a good reset point, isn't it?

Because as you say, with them,

it's almost like Oscar can go,

forget all the lack of pace,

forget the previous few weeks,

and now less than a race win behind

with two races to go, like Max's,

and everyone will be saying Max is in the championship.

So just maybe he can use it as that little reset point.

It's like, okay, I've got away with something here.

Lando was going to take a chunk away from me.

That's now not happened.

Maybe, just maybe he will have that reset point.

And Betty, he's gone well in Qatar in the past.

Yeah, he has.

He likes Qatar.

As I just said, we're at the point of the season

where he's not done as much running on tracks

towards the end of the season

as he has in his previous,

you know, junior series crew, et cetera,

but Qatar isn't one of those.

He likes Qatar.

So who knows?

There's, on the one hand,

I think I don't seem having the pace overall

to be in this championship fight anymore.

On the other hand, just maybe this has flipped everything.

Who knows?

It's one of the many variables

we're going to have to see in Qatar

because anything could happen.

I like the fact that it sort of

could be a clean slate for him.

But also, if you think about it,

if they hadn't have got disqualified,

Oscar would have been 30 points behind Nando.

Well, that's what I mean.

And so now he's only 24 points.

Yes.

But he's got the pressure of the fact

that he's now level on points with Max Verstappen.

So now Max Verstappen has entered the chat.

If it is already.

He's never fully left the chat,

but he's now, you know, well in the chat, yeah.

I would say he was straddling the exit of the chat.

And he's now in the chat.

Oh, Greg!

Hi!

Hello, Greg James.

I'm sorry for my lateness.

And I apologise to a very tired Christian Hugel as well.

I had a tired Christian Hugel on one hand

and a dog that was going to

**** himself on the other.

And I had to choose between between the two just then.

So what are you OK, Christian?

I'm here mainly to do a sort of health check on you.

I am tired.

I am tired, but it's drama, isn't it?

It's great drama.

And I know that it's frustrating

that this sport is entirely insane.

I mean, it's almost from top to bottom.

From every single area of it is mad and unpredictable.

And it's one of the reasons we love it.

And it's also one of the reasons we despair

and hate it sometimes because it's just so slow.

As it keeps you waiting for hours on end.

Yeah, and also, but there's always these inconsistencies

with, you know, following these rules

and those, but what it does do is it makes the last two races

absolutely unbelievable, doesn't it?

It's fascinating.

We've just literally, we've just been saying it is.

We are now wide open, wide open for the final two races.

It's admissible.

Can you guys imagine?

Sorry, can you imagine if Max Verstappen

ends up stealing this title of Lando Norris?

Yes, I can.

I can I can absolutely imagine it.

And actually it will be it will be so well deserved.

Is that a mad thing to say?

No, no, it wouldn't be a mad thing to say at all, Greg.

He only Max would have kept himself in it in a car

that's not been horrific, but has not been on McLaren's level.

Yeah, no, it would be it would it would be his best title.

Yeah, wouldn't it?

I mean, I mean, 2021 was almost a different it's a different chat.

But yeah, it would be it would be insane.

It would be it would be incredible.

Because as much as I

Oh, sorry, Betty, but as much as I love Lando and Oscar as humans,

we always say to the point of tedium, the story is whatever the story is.

And if the story ends up being Max Verstappen steals this victory,

actually steals is probably the wrong word

because he would have he would have earned it.

But if he does, oh, my God, it would be one of the all time great seasons.

Yeah, it would be a huge.

Also, what I was going to say is bearing in mind,

Max Verstappen has spent majority of this season

saying he is completely out of the title race,

because he was really mathematically.

You look at it and think, no, no chance, but it's Max Verstappen.

And we said the only way Max Verstappen was going to end up winning

this title or have a chance of it is if something massive happened

to McLaren and it's happened.

Yeah, that this is the thing

where with the disqualification and the shuffling of the pack,

that means that there was a double Mercedes podium.

That's really good news for Mercedes.

So what are the big stories?

Betty, do you want to do a dramatic reading of Lewis Hamilton, please?

Yeah, we definitely need to talk about Mercedes and George Russell

because George was so, so, so good.

But I think I mean, everyone is

if you think Lando Norris is pretty depressed

about his disqualification and Oscar Piastri and McLaren,

I think Lewis Hamilton is even more depressed than either of those two.

He's come out afterwards saying that he feels terrible.

It's been the worst season ever.

He said, no matter how much I try, it just keeps getting worse.

And he also said to Five Live that he's not looking forward to next season.

So, I mean, it's been a horrific weekend for Lewis Hamilton.

I'm sorry, you've got to spin the bow tie a bit more than that.

You can't tell your competitors

that you're not looking forward to next season.

I'm a huge advocate for wearing your heart and your sleeve

and asking for help when you need some help.

But there's a little bit of there's a little bit of gameplay

that needs to happen publicly, which is just to say,

this is all not gone so well, but I'm I'm going to try my best next year.

But there's there's honesty and then I think there's being a bit too honest

because that feels that feels quite like he's already sort of thrown in the tower

for next season given up.

Can I say why I agree with Greg there?

Because again, go back to again, go back to qualifying.

Lewis is the first Ferrari driver to qualify last in a session on

on, you know, without a disqualification or something.

Since Giancarlo Fisichella, we're talking a couple of decades ago

and there was lots of reaction after qualifying, which was like,

are we seeing the end of Lewis Hamilton?

And ultimately, the reason he qualified last and didn't, you know,

do his final run was because he

and this was brilliantly spotted by Anthony Davidson on Sky Sports

like before the world had spotted that he ran over a bollard

and the bollards stayed under the car through the lap.

And it's like, OK, right, running over a bollard is a silly error

that you wouldn't expect from Lewis Hamilton.

But still, like it happened, right?

Drivers do hit the bollards.

It's unlucky that it wedged under.

It wasn't like he just had a normal clean run and he,

you know, was miles off.

He there was a reason that he had the problem.

And then in the race, right, he did battle up to 10th.

And it's like it wasn't too long ago that we were saying,

Lewis's qualifying gap to Charles is much less.

I just think the sort of the demise of Lewis Hamilton

has been greatly exaggerated here.

And, Greg, to your point, partly by Lewis Hamilton,

I just don't think it's as bad as it is.

It is he's making it out to be.

That's that is a very that's a very good point, Christian,

is that we're all going, no, no, that's that's glimmers.

You know, he's he's he's driving fast at times

and he won a sprint race and it's not it's not like he's nearly

had a podium a couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago.

And when did he finish today? Was he 10th today?

Well, he 10th slash eighth because disqualifications.

And and if they'd got the strategy, right, Greg,

if they'd done a better strategy, it had been higher than that.

He might have finished eighth on merit.

So yeah, this is this is when right.

This is when I as if I was his friend,

this is what I do to my friends.

I will intervene as they're spiraling

and I would take him to the pub

and just have a really lovely fun chat with him.

I need to go to the part of this, Hamilton.

Well, it doesn't matter what it doesn't matter.

I don't think he even drinks necessarily, but I would probably know.

I would get him a nice pint of Guinness Zero.

Kombucha, Kombucha, a green tea.

And I would I'd sit him down

and just say, don't worry, mate, you Lewis Hamilton,

you're you're brilliant.

You're one of the greatest people

that's ever set foot in a car.

You're on the planet on the planet ever

in the in the history of this dumb sport.

You are the one of the greatest ever.

Just don't worry about it.

Enjoy this. Enjoy the money.

Enjoy the money, Jane. I hope it makes you very happy.

No, that was coming.

It is that it is that come down to me moment of being like,

enjoy the money, Jane, you're having a time of your life.

You're driving for Ferrari, you're Lewis Hamilton, nothing to lose.

Just no great.

But that's not what that's not what these sports people are like.

That's not why they're doing it.

If that was his attitude, he would have retired ages ago.

He would have. He would have retired after 2021.

He is he's in it.

He's in it. He wants podiums with Ferrari.

He wants to win.

Also, did you see he's.

He can't be bothered next season.

He's saying that he's rubbish already.

It's a mental thing.

Yeah, we wish him well.

We want him to have a great season.

Is he maybe this is what he needs, Betty, to your point,

if we need this is the fuel he needs to take himself

to the lowest of the low to get that redemptive arc.

Maybe that's what he's motivated.

Yeah, he's motivating himself.

This is his comeback.

This is what's happening, guys.

It's his comeback. Did you see his race start, by the way?

Well, yeah.

And so that was some great instinctive driving to avoid the chaos.

Again, it's sort of like he's not lost it.

The point I think make the point I keep making on the podcast

over and over again at the moment, and I will keep making it is

this isn't doesn't matter.

He's in a car that's really difficult to drive

that Leclerc had so much more time in.

And Leclerc came out after qualifying

and gave a fascinating interview.

He was really open and honest in the pen where he said,

we've had Carlos before.

Now we've got Lewis.

This car is so difficult to drive,

particularly in low grip conditions.

We've tried to improve and we haven't been able to improve it.

Real insight from Leclerc in the pen.

And so, again, it's sort of if next year, right?

If next year with reset of rules, reset of car,

Leclerc has driven it some amount of time.

He has if he's well behind Leclerc, then you're thinking,

all right, now I get it.

Now we are in trouble, Lewis fans.

But I just I don't.

Maybe I'm wrong.

I don't quite think it's as apocalyptic

as he's making out and some others are making out.

Anyway, I agree.

He also gave Beyonce a hot lap.

So, you know, it's all that bad, Lewis, is it?

Well, that's the other thing is that he needs to remember his star power

and his and his draw and people watch the race still.

They watch the race because of Lewis Hamilton

and he's got such value and so much more to give.

We I just I just know he has.

He's he's too great to just throw in a towel.

Do I think that almost makes it harder for him, though, Greg?

I think that makes it harder

because he's got this massive legacy on his shoulders, doesn't he?

That it adds more pressure.

And then when it's going badly, it's going really badly.

Everyone's talking about it in his head.

And I guess we are talking about it,

but we're talking about it in a positive way, which is,

we don't think it's as bad as you think it is, Lewis, please.

Just you're fine.

You're doing well, sweetie.

You're Lewis Hamilton.

Just before we go on to Mercedes Christian,

can I ask you a question of an existential question

about Las Vegas?

So I know you're very tired of sort of beaten down by it,

but something you just mentioned then low grip conditions.

And I was watching Ted's notebook yesterday

and he was talking about how the strip is difficult to drive on

even just during the day, during rush hour.

What is the Las Vegas Grand Prix?

A, worth doing and B, working as a as an entity.

I'm really glad you've asked me this, actually.

Yeah, I like it, you know,

I really do like it.

I think I like that it is such an outlier.

I like that it's like these we never get cold running.

All right, we get Silverstone where it's chilly,

Spa where it's chilly and we put a coat on.

But the fact it's cold running that we got

such a different qualifying session yesterday

with them having to use the wet tires that they almost never use.

There is, as Ted Kravitz was saying to your point, Greg,

such a unique challenge because, you know,

it's a tarmac that isn't easy to run on.

Crucially, they've made a track where you can overtake.

So you we've had three Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Now they've all been good racers and Greg.

I actually did a little bit of I was so I was walking out.

I mentioned earlier, Greg, that I left straight after the race.

I was walking out the fans and I did a bit of a pop quiz to some fans.

And I just was like, have you found it?

And every one of them I spoke to had had the best weekend.

So and it is a unique, you know, the lights.

Seeing the car under the lights is amazing anyway.

But I think that what's really helped is moving it earlier.

I think last year it's still,

even though it was earlier than the first year,

last year it probably still all felt a bit too late.

And people were running out of energy towards the end,

but they're moving it two hours earlier still.

It makes it more bleak for people in Europe watching.

But now I think it is working.

I think it's a really it's grown on me a lot.

I've been I was very impressed with it this weekend.

Well, that's good because I guess the one

well, I could have guessed that the fan experience would be good

because that is what Las Vegas was created for,

was created for people to have a nice time in the desert.

But I wondered from a racing point of view,

do the drivers like it?

Do the teams like it?

Is it fun for them to drive?

Is it a real challenge?

Have they actually have they nailed it in terms of a circuit?

Oli Behrman said he didn't like it, didn't he?

Oli Behrman didn't like it.

Yeah, but I don't care what they think.

They've got loads of tracks that they love driving

into Lagos and Suzuka and Silverstone.

We also need to test them.

We also need it to be entertaining for the people watching.

You know, the drivers will come and go

as Formula One fans are in it for life.

So we need it to test them.

So look, is it the most enjoyable event

for the teams to work in terms of working later?

How was in the cold? No, it isn't.

But Greg, you said in terms of entertainment,

it is providing really solid entertainment.

So I yeah, I might not be the easiest

the most fun track to drive.

It's not going to be as fun as Silverstone,

but with 24 races in a season,

they're not all going to be great fun for you to drive.

We want to be entertained, you know,

because this sports about the fans.

So yeah, sorry, Oli.

I think, you know, enjoy Spa while you can, mate.

And actually, it's a good test of your skill.

Enjoy Spa, mate.

I love tired Christian.

This is fantastic.

It's good.

I also really I was interested to hear Ted talking about

the fact that there were tickets available yesterday.

And one of those it was it looks sold out.

And I said only only in terms of it was relatively

easy to get some final tickets.

Not that it was not massively

not that it undersold, it was just like, oh, you could rock up

and get a last minute few.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could and the hotels were saying

that they want to sell their hotel rooms quite cheaply

because they want to fill the hotel last minute.

So if you were if you were last minute being, you know,

sitting in your casino and go, oh, just pop over there

and watch the greatest racing drivers ever.

Yeah, which is which is quite a nice thing.

And also it's good that the city can swallow F1 in terms of

yeah, there are hotel spaces and things.

And I spoke to a list of my other podcast

who had made a really last minute decision to come last week.

And we spoke to him and he was saying that like his his

his wife had made a decision and basically packed him off

to go to the race last week.

So yeah, listen, it's it's it's like gone off you go.

You'll enjoy it.

Go and he did and he had the best time.

So like, yeah, it's it's that's not it's a nice point.

But yeah, and I think you've seen that with the American races

that OK, they don't like sell out instantly, but it does me

in some ways that makes it more accessible.

So yes, it's a good thing.

If I'm going to make a vow now,

if we're all free next Las Vegas Grand Prix last minute,

I'll I'll take us all over there for a laugh.

You'll you will take us.

Yeah, as a treat.

Let's let right we need to cut this clip.

This we're saving this.

I'm holding you to this graph.

Just just for a laugh.

Well, I mean, I mean, professionally speaking,

my calendar is wide open next year at the moment.

So yeah, I'm in to tell you I'm in.

I'm in. Fantastic.

I'll get rid of everything.

Let's do it. Yeah, let's let's have a nice time in Vegas.

Why not do so? We'll clip it up.

Yeah, we'll get this up.

On that note, let's take a very quick break when we're back.

We're going to talk all about Mercedes and we've got radio radar.

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Welcome back to an increasingly tired episode of The Fast and the Curious

where just in case you were wondering, it's now 2.32 in the morning here.

Before we get into any other business and I go to sleep,

we've got some of our own business to tell you about

and this might feel ages away, I mean for me at the moment tomorrow feels ages away,

but still we've already been making plans for Silverstone 2026, haven't we Betty Glover?

Because we are so organized and it is no secret everybody that we love Silverstone

and we've even had listeners there during the Vegas race running Silverstone half marathon as well

which is insane, well done to them.

We always have the best time when we go to Silverstone, don't we guys?

The atmosphere is ridiculously good, we do a couple of live shows over the weekend

and we get to spend the weekend with thousands and thousands of Formula One fans

at one of the world's most iconic circuits

and that's not just us being biased because we're British, by the way,

it is a banger of a circuit, isn't it Greg?

It is because also they essentially, I've described it as this quite often,

Glastonbury for Cars, they also put on a huge musical line up,

they have unbelievable people performing over the years they've had.

David Getter, Stormzy, Getter, Sam Fender, they have Ray,

they have, I mean it's just a brilliant, brilliant line up as well.

So they do Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night loads of essentially festival headliners

plus all the fan areas and all the rest of it, it's a really, it's a fun thing.

They've absolutely made the best of an airfield in Northamptonshire,

let me just tell you that, that they really make the best of it.

And you want to be at the heart of it, you want to be involved in all of that

and you know us, we'll do anything for a decent breakfast and a decent place to sleep during a

busy race weekend, I mean sleep, chance to be a fine thing, but still.

So we're very excited to be teaming up with the Pop-Up Hotel for the British Grand Prix 2026,

apparently they're letting us in as their digital partners, which is exciting,

I've never had a digital partner before.

That is so 2025, 2026.

Digital partners, lovely.

That, you have by the way, same digital partners, you have never sounded older

and yet are you 10 years younger than me?

I'm 34.

Oh okay, not 10, but it's very exciting to partner up with them because we love doing

stuff with Silverstone and the Pop-Up Hotel is a really fun thing to do because as I was

mentioning about the Glastonbury for Cars, the idea of camping and staying on site

and unzipping your tent or in this case opening your Pop-Up Hotel door

and just being in front of arguably the most famous race circuit in the world

is very, very exciting and if you're an F1 nerd, why wouldn't you want to do that?

Yeah, so basically we're going to be there across the weekend, including a live podcast

record on the Thursday, we're going to be hosting some panels and generally just

using the Pop-Up Hotel as our Fast and Curious HQ all weekend, which is just

ridiculously cool. It looks unreal guys, I actually saw it from a distance at Silverstone

this year and I just thought, oh how do we get in there?

You know, it's just, there's so many good options to stay in, but you know,

this is trackside, we've got a restaurant, viewing platforms, we've got a bar,

this is like sleeping inside Christian's brain for the weekend, it doesn't get cooler.

Well listen, it might feel way too early to be talking about Silverstone in July 2026,

but F1 fans like to plan, we know this, so you can start looking at all the options now

at thepopuphotel.com and as if Silverstone wasn't enough, there'll also be a Monaco this year with

Villas and another swimming pool, this time on the actual Monaco chicane. So that's the Pop-Up

Hotel, I mean it can't, the Pop-Up Hotel, all lowercase, all one words, .com to start planning

2026 and I'm pleased to be their digital partners.

Yeah, me too. I'd like to be, as a digital partner, I would like to just say I want to

go to Monaco and you know on this episode, we've just recording, I said that we'll go to Las Vegas,

I've changed my mind, we're going to Monaco, thank you. Yeah, yeah, I'm up for that.

Okay, yeah, I mean, I'm fine with that as well, that's, yes, that's, and it's sunny, it's warmer,

yeah, fine. And closer, yeah, yeah. It's closer, yeah, lovely. Brilliant weekend for Mercedes,

they will absolutely take that. George Russell looked so good, I thought, well,

obviously he ended up in P2, but I thought he was in the real standing straight after the race,

I thought he was going to hang on to P2, Lando obviously overtook him, but he can be proud of

that, can't he Christian? He can, yes, very good George. I've said many times this year, George

can fight for titles if Mercedes give him the car, yeah, well done George, George was good

this weekend. I'm less bothered about George, I want to talk about Kimmy, because I like George,

I like George, he did a wonderful job this weekend, he was also incredibly funny in that

Cadillac with your man, what's his name, Terry, what's his name, Betty, help me,

Terry, Terry Venomals, Terry Crews, thank you for being so well, Terry Crews, where,

Terry Crews, but yeah, no, George is great, I believe George will be a title contender

next year if Mercedes give him the car, but I think the way Antonelli had his mid-season dip

and looked way off it at one point, the way he's rallied, he's had a couple of weekends recently

where he's just looked so good, and this was another one with Kimmy, where his pace was

absolutely great, Crofty said on the Sky commentary that Crofty thought it was his

best weekend, yeah, I can't really disagree with that, his overall pace across the weekend

was great, on a track, well Greg, go back to what we were saying a minute ago about,

but Vegas been bloody difficult for Kimmy to come on and have at the best weekend of his career today,

or certainly one of them in Vegas, absolutely brilliant, and yes, he made that, he did make

the tiniest little mistake in creeping forward before the lights went out and he got himself

that penalty, but it didn't matter, which again is testament to him, so I'm just,

I'm excited for Kimmy, I think he really is, it's taken maybe longer than some people

were imagining, but I'm excited for Kimmy, and I just feel like all that doom and gloom we were

talking about Ferrari, if you're a Mercedes fan going into 2026, I just think it feels a little bit

more positive, and Betty Glover, one of their junior drivers, won F1 Academy as well.

Yeah, go on Dorianne Pan, she's the new F1 Academy champion, finished fifth in the

season finale, but she took the crown, Christian, you watched loads of it, didn't you? Did you

also see that video, by the way, of George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli going through all of the emotions

as they were watching that race? Yeah, it was really was, I mean Dorianne is part of the Mercedes

Junior Driver Academy, she's great, I interviewed her earlier in the season, she's very dry,

sense of humour, very funny, very chilled, I really like her, she's a very deserved winner,

she's been consistent across the season, she's done really really well, so listen,

it's been a great season for F1 Academy, it feels like it's got bigger, we were talking to

Susie Wolfe about the bigger brands that have been attached to it, you can feel when I'm at Grand Prix,

like the excitement of the fans, who are loving having it as part of the F1 Circus,

and it's been very entertaining to watch, so it's been a really good weekend,

I just want to do a slight negative here, if that's okay, because to me there was also

an example of why we need F1 Academy this weekend, with some blatant sexism,

so it's been so entertaining, it's been such good value to watch, but in race one we saw

Maya Virg crash on the formation lap, and the internet immediately went into, oh I thought

this was supposed to be a serious race series, blah blah blah, it's literal sexism, right,

is what it is, 2018 Roman Grosjean in Formula One crashes behind the safety car, 2020 George Russell

in Formula One crashes behind the safety car, we've seen drivers make contact behind the

safety car in Formula One, the pinnacle of all motorsports, I am ranting here, I'm fully aware,

but this is a junior series, right, they are racing Formula Four cars, if you watch Formula

Three, all the, which is again, lads, you see carnage, right, because they're children, because

they're kids, that is what happens in junior racing series, so if you're one of these people that

talks to Twitter to go, oh well, you know, it's supposed to be a series, that's why we need F1

Academy, because actually that's not because it's female racing drivers, it's because it's

young racing drivers driving in bloody tricky conditions, so F1 Academy, great season for F1

Academy this year, and you know, the biggest thing it's doing is making the, you know, I see so

many women at these events that I never used to see when I was going to Silverstone as a kid,

and it's making the young girls going with their mum and dads, go look, there's women racing,

I can do that when I'm older, it's not just inspiring the future generations,

it's brilliant, so it's been a great season for F1 Academy.

It's net positive, certainly, I mean, you've always got to annoy the right people,

and if you're annoying sexists, if you're annoying racists, if you're annoying homophobes,

you're doing the right thing, so well said Christian Hugh Gill, but also the other thing is

that, they were mentioning on the telly that the heart, I know it sounds like a small thing,

but it's not a small thing, it's what you're talking about as it's got more prominent,

the hub, the F1 Academy hub was right in the centre of the paddock this time at Las Vegas,

whereas it used to be shoved out miles away and it was right front and centre.

Yes, Greg, you're right, and it looked so damn cool and there was people queuing to go in it,

it feels like, you're right Greg, it is significant because it feels like it's at the

heart of the sport and it will only continue to grow, what it's not going to do is produce a

female or champion or female Formula One driver next season or the year after, but it will

inspire people to get involved in motorsport who are women, we're talking for years,

decades, generations and it's getting bigger and bigger and feeling like part of the sport

and for the first time in almost forever, it makes women feel like we are involved at the

very heart of this sport, we're part of this sport, we're part of this community, it gives

female drivers track time, I'm so passionate about it as a thing, so yeah, it's, and yeah,

reactions like that on the internet sort of shows why it's needed, so yeah, a great

season for F1 Academy. They're just idiots on their keyboard sat at home, aren't they,

like you can't listen to it, but it's just getting better and better, next season F1

Academy is going to be even better, it's growing, this is what we need, so yeah,

really well said, and shall we get s**t, yes, thanks Greg, they are s**t.

Two final things to chat to you about that which I noticed, the first thing being with their

hub HQ being in the centre of the panel, it just means it might feel like a small thing,

but the idea that all the drivers can chat to each other and they all feel that they're part

of the same thing is surely fantastic, so you've got George Russell could just pop in and be like

good race guys, see ya. He's literally next door, yeah. They bump into each other, that

will certainly make everyone feel much more comfortable, so that's, you feel part of a

big thing, you therefore feel like oh my god, I can, I'm part of the, I'm part of the gang,

and the other thing, people having to go at carnage, I've only just seen a replay of the

start of the F1 race. What the f**k happened there? Yeah. You've probably discussed this

already when I missed it at the start, but it's very difficult to drive these cars very fast,

and they can't do it at this level sometimes, so you've got to give everyone a break,

because it looked like an absolute nightmare. Well, loads of people made contact at a

shock horror at a street circuit in the cold, so yeah, absolutely. Could also think about

the race at the start of the season, Melbourne, or apparently any of the rookies even made it

to the race. That feels like 25 years ago, that, doesn't it? I know. Should we do your radio radar?

Let's do radio radar. One person on it, Charles Leclerc, just goes, I am pushing like an animal.

Brilliant. And also, Alex Albon, he had no radio. Christian, he had no radio.

Imagine a life without radio. No, we're thinking about it, isn't it? Oh, God.

I spoke to Gabriel Bortoletto about this the other week, and asked him a listener question about,

on the other part, about why do you still have the pit boards? And Gabriel went,

oh yeah, well, a lot of it is in case the radio breaks, but the radio's never break.

And I said to her, I was like, well, it does happen. It'll probably happen at some

point in your career. And he was like, oh, don't say that. And I was sort of saying to him,

like, no, it, it's a thing. It does happen. And then, sure enough, a couple of weeks later,

it was Alex Paul that said, it's why they still have the good old-fashioned pit boards that

they use to have in the war, you know, to communicate with the drivers because,

you know, you can't always rely on the radio. Jensen Button described it as,

he's going old school. Yeah, nice. I bet there's something quite freeing about that

if you're a driver. I mean, terrifying for a bit, but there must be a moment where you

think, let's do what I like here. And no one's going to tell me off. I'm going to just try my best.

Well, yeah. But again, you mentioned Jensen. I think it was Jensen. It might have been

Crofty. One of the two of them on Sky said. Very similar.

To be similar, man. Crofty, I think Crofty would be pleased with that comparison.

That's like, they have to do so much manual changing of stuff on the dashboard now

that it's actually so difficult to drive a modern Formula One car without,

you know, the radio, because you do need to change so much stuff. So in the old days,

you could use an old-fashioned pit board because really it was just giving you information.

But the amount of stuff you've got to change, Alex had to retire the car in the end,

but that won't have been helped by the fact he hadn't got the radio to talk

back to the team on. And as he was coming into the pits, you could see him pointing

towards the front end of the car being like, look, something's going on there. So,

yeah, it's so difficult to drive these modern F1 cars without it.

It is indeed. Shall we leave it there then, guys?

I'll do another half hour if you like. I'm in no rush.

You need to go to bed urgently.

You need to go to bed. Yeah.

This is an intervention. You need to get to sleep now.

I mean, he's in bed anyway. He's lying there under the duvet.

It is 10 to 3.

Get out of here. Get out of here, you.

But thank you for your service, Betty. Lovely to see you.

And thank you, dear listeners.

We're very excited to be back for the final two races of the season.

Plus, at the end of the season, we've got our live show, which we're going to do.

So, all those lovely tickets went very, very quickly,

and we're very excited to see some of our listeners in a couple of weeks' time.

But we'll be back. When are we going to be back? I guess there's Katar.

We're going to preview the Katar Grand Prix with the potential of two guests.

We might just have one guest, or we might have no guest.

But we are going to be there previewing the Katar Grand Prix.

There are two names that we could have with us, both of which are like,

yes, we want to, but because it's a bit chaotic, we don't know.

So, yeah, possibly two guests, possibly one guest, possibly no guest at all.

So that helps. Come back for any of those options.

But regardless, the episode will be here, even if it's just one of us.

Anyway, thanks, everyone. Enjoy the weekend. Goodbye.

Bye.

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Las Vegas GP 2025 Debrief | HUGE Impact On The Title

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