São Paulo GP 2025 Debrief | Nail-biting closing laps

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Oh, look what a cat dragged in.

It's me, Greg James.

And welcome to the Fast and the Curious, the Formula One podcast.

Finally, Greg.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shut up.

I like it when daddy comes home.

Shut up, all of you.

The Formula One podcast that brings you all the latest previews and debriefs of this wonderful

sport that we love and laugh at, and laugh with, and examine, and enjoy.

We speak to some of the biggest names in the sport.

And do you know what?

The main thing is we have a bloody good time doing it, don't we?

So we're all back together.

It's me, the lesser-spotted Greg James, Christian Hugo, and Betty Glover, and so much

to go out from the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Jesus, H Christ.

I absolutely loved it.

I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

It had everything.

It was on the edge of your seat stuff.

I thought Max Verstappen was going to win the whole bloody thing.

It was it was ridiculous.

Christian.

Betty.

What did you think?

Of what, love?

The Grand Prix, babe.

Oh, the Grand Prix.

Yeah, that.

I had a lovely time.

Yeah, it was a really good race.

I liked there was different strategies going on.

So there was plenty of overtaking.

I love the track enables overtaking and you can sort of because it sweeps

into one compartment, one compartment like it's a box, one part of the track

to the next that you can sort of keep the move going.

It's a great track.

It had it all drama, controversy, talking points, and we'll cover them all

here on the Fast and the Curious.

And we also have a very special announcement, an important announcement.

So stick around for that as well.

It was a sprint weekend in Brazil.

We'll get to the main race in a second.

I want to talk about Oscar crashing out of the sprint to begin with,

obviously, a big story across the weekend.

What do you make of that, Christian Hugill?

I think it's a sort of racing adage as old as the hills that on a damp track,

there are areas of the track where water sort of formulates and curbs

and grass verges are one of those.

So it's the sort of mistake you can make in karting in Formula Two,

in Formula One.

If on a damp track you take too much curb, your race can be over like that.

It's why motorsport is so brutal.

And I think Oscar's discovering just how difficult it is to win

a Formula One World Championship and why so few so few people have done them

because he's made these mistakes when at times he's looked unflappable.

So it's extremely unfortunate, but it's it's an awful error to have made.

So, yeah, that'll have been hard.

I will say the way he recovered for the rest of the weekend,

his pace wasn't bad at all.

He probably has been closer in overall pace than he has been in recent weekend.

So he recovered from it really well, but it was a it was a poor mistake

to make while fighting for a World Championship.

There's no other way of looking at it.

What did you make of the banana skin comment, by the way, while we're here?

It was it was good trolling from George Russell, wasn't it?

It really was.

But, yes, throwing water onto the track in the way Lando did.

It's just unfortunate part of racing in the wet.

And it shows you that the two cars went off sort of straight after.

It's so, so tricky.

I do actually think Oscar put too much on the curb as opposed to just going off.

Yeah, but George's was an oversimplification of it.

He just took too much curb on the way in.

So it was a funny bit of trolling comment that shouldn't be taken too seriously.

But of course, we're in an era of F1 at the moment

where everybody takes everything seriously.

It gets very cross.

It will take it seriously.

Take it seriously.

You must get very cross about the cars and all the rest of it.

Oh, actually, just on that, when I started, we started the podcast

by saying, look what the cat dragged in.

That was a sort of nod to a really, really funny comment

that I laughed out loud at from Chris Novak on Spotify.

And by the way, it's great to have your comments on YouTube

and on Spotify when you listen to this on there.

A few days ago, Chris Novak says,

is Craig James still the team principal or has he quietly been horned?

Oh, I say there are no there are no allegations against me.

So there's nothing to refute.

It's just the fact that this they shut up.

This is this is very there's an allegation of bullying for me

telling Betty to shut up twice in an episode.

That's the only thing you can get me on.

But no, it's been this this podcast is as we've said before.

It's very much Betty and Christian leading the way with our

wonderful drivers and our wonderful guests.

And I I want to be here all the time.

But sadly, all all the other things and quite a loud

job in the UK that I do means that I can't be here the whole time.

But I love being here when I can be.

And I've been locked into the season.

I've been locked into all the episodes.

I love the Jenny Gao episode as well.

I love the preview just did of of the race this weekend.

And it got me really excited for the race.

And I was right to be excited because let's have a summary.

It was a sensational sensational race.

It was exactly what we want as we head towards the end of the season.

Isn't it, Christian?

Yeah, it was exactly what we wanted.

We obviously had I think a really crucial moment

because because in Brazil, you can overtake into the first corner

and Lando got ahead into the first corner.

And really, as much as it looked like Max Verstappen

coming from the back might be able to get in the story of the championship

was that Lando crucially stayed ahead into that first corner

and off into the distance.

And Jolien Palmer joked with him in the interviews at the end.

We said, you didn't have to work that hard, did you?

And Lando was like, oh, I did because he had been sweating

because Max, as Betty said at the start, Max looked like he could do it.

But he didn't.

Meanwhile, there was some chaos behind in Oscar Piatri's move

after the safety car restart that resulted in a penalty.

We'll talk about that.

There was lots of contact throughout.

There was lots of overtaking.

But the key thing for the race and the championship

was that Max couldn't quite overtake Lando, couldn't quite out strategise Lando

and Lando held on, well, he didn't really hold on.

He held the lead into the start.

And that was, I think, key to that race today.

Let's give you your top 10 in Sao Paulo before we continue.

And at number 10, it was Pierre Gasly, Nico Holkenberg at nine.

Isaac Hager takes racing bulls 10 points up from Aston Martin

and constructs us to six. That is at number eight.

We have Liam Lawson at seven.

Oli Bearman, four points, finishes in a row for big old Oli.

The big bear is climbing the rankings.

Five, we have Oscar Piatri.

Four is George Russell.

Max Verstappen battled his way through to a podium finish at three.

Antonelli with his best F1 result of his career

and a seventh point in 2025 for Lando Norris.

And there's your top 10.

That was delightful.

Any comments? I really enjoyed that.

No, I enjoyed that for those that missed this last time.

Greg mentioned his job for non UK listeners.

Greg is a radio DJ and used to host the official charts and will go.

And I know this knowing Greg outside of the podcast as well.

Any opportunity to do a sort of chart show countdown?

So I think we think that's that's going to happen.

Betty, how does that championship look?

Oh, wow, it looks like this.

Lando Norris is on three hundred and ninety points.

He leads Oscar by twenty four points.

Oscar's there on three hundred and sixty six.

And then Max Verstappen is forty nine points off Lando in third.

Now I'm looking at this thinking I don't see how Lando can't win it now.

No, we can't be saying stuff like that.

If we know we know how volatile this sport is.

We've got three grand prix left and one sprint to go.

It is looking very good for Lando.

I can't. Oscar, he's going to have to do something quite special.

Twenty four, I don't know, I don't know.

It's close. It's all doable.

This is exactly what we want.

And I know better you were talking about this on the podcast.

Actually, you both were.

You were talking about how much we love the sport more than a particular driver or team.

Yes, we have our moments where we're like really into a certain character.

We love that a team suddenly surges forward and suddenly McLaren are really having a great time.

Yes, obviously we are humans and we have emotions.

We like that kind of thing.

But really the thing that we love is a story.

And this is a great story, isn't it?

I disagree.

To me, I think the most important is I just love the British ones.

I think that's the most important thing.

You've got to be careful of your sarcasm, Christian,

because not everyone understands sarcasm, like stupid people.

But I find it.

Well, I had an American listener slide into my DMs recently after we said

on this podcast that Americans don't like sarcasm.

And she said, no, no, no, I'm American and I get sarcasm and I love it.

So, yeah, sure you do.

Now, look, let's look at that championship.

So Lando currently at one Oscar at two drop down Max now at three.

That one, two, three, that's how it's currently looking.

A reshuffle has just happened.

The reason that's happened is because of Oscar's penalty and also Lando winning.

But Oscar's penalty is the big talking point from this race.

There's the reason why there's a huge gap now, Christian,

is because Oscar had that penalty and he finished fifth.

So that penalty, should it have happened?

Why did it happen?

What's your take on it?

Yeah, as you say, that Lando was only leading by points going into this.

You know, as you say, Greg, it's been a big shift now.

It's quite a chunk.

To me, it was a penalty.

Now, I've got every sympathy with Oscar Piastri here and I'm going on the rules.

We ask the FIA a lot to be consistent with the stewarding.

That's been a thing we've asked for for years and they do publish

really quite clear guidelines on this.

And the FIA guidelines say that when overtaking on the inside of a corner,

the car must have its front axle at least alongside of the mirror

of the other car prior to the apex.

Now, you could say in the braking zone that Oscar did, you could say that.

But the crucial thing to me is I don't think Oscar was in control going into the corner.

So he locked up and to me, he locked up and therefore hit Kimmy Antonelli.

Is there an argument that Antonelli could have given him a bit more room?

Maybe, but I ultimately don't think he had to.

The rules say the car needs to be driven in a fully controlled manner,

particularly from entry to apex.

That is a long apex on that corner.

It's a long sweeping corner.

I don't think Oscar was in control.

I don't. I think the only reason he got up inside enough

was because he was going into hot and wasn't in control.

So I agree with the stewards.

I think it was a penalty. Yes.

Can I give you the other side of this, though?

Please do.

I think a lot of people are arguing.

Yeah, that.

He was under control going down the inside

and that he only locked up because he just didn't have the space.

No, well, then that isn't the case.

He didn't lock up because he didn't have the space.

He locked up because he wasn't in control for me.

I think if you watch the move, it wasn't a case of I'm trying to get out

of Kimmy Antonelli's way for me.

I think he locked up because he'd gone in really, really hot.

So I disagree with that.

One thing I would say on this, I think I tweeted at first

that it was a slam dunk straight away.

Now, my gut instinct, I looked at it and went penalty.

I rode back a bit.

I don't think it was slam dunk.

I totally appreciate that in sport, not everyone is going to judge decisions

like this, like in the same way.

And I do think that when Oscar went for the move,

Kimmy had left the door open, fair enough he went for it.

But two things can be true at the same time.

It can be totally fair to go for the move, but also not work out.

I don't think it was a simple case of I don't think on the

characteristics of that corner, it's fair to say that he only locked up

because he was trying to he was trying to get away from Kimmy.

I just I don't see that.

I don't think he was quite far enough at the inside on such a long apex.

It's a tricky one. It's a really hard.

I sympathise with Oscar.

But in my view, the stewards got that one right.

I've seen people like Alex Brundle, amazing racing driver,

been on this podcast, Alex disagrees with me.

It's not clear cut.

It's not clear cut, isn't it?

Because Piazza is fully, it looked like Piazza was fully

alongside before breaking and then sort of Kimmy sort of shut that

door a bit and then Piastri locked up.

But he wasn't fully alongside on the apex because it's a long apex.

You have to bear in mind the characteristics of the circuit,

the characteristics of the corner and the stewards will have done that.

If you read the rules as red, I don't think he was fully in control.

And at the point of the apex, I don't think he was far enough up either.

I can totally see why the stewards have made the decision

based on the FIA rules, which we can see clearly written down in front of us.

They're all there for the public to go and look at.

And that's why I agree with this decision,

whether those rules are right in the first place, different arguments,

whether he was, you know, he has to go.

He has to go for the move.

You can debate whether the rules are right.

But as we sit here now with those rules written down,

I don't think I think you've got to view it based on the rules as they are.

And I think it was a penalty.

I totally do sympathize with Oscar.

It wasn't silly. It wasn't reckless.

He's got to go for the move.

I totally get it.

There were going to be people listening and watching this who disagree with me.

I totally get it. It's not clear cut.

And that sport, that is sport.

That is sport.

Yeah, it's imperfect.

Life is imperfect.

Therefore, sport is imperfect as well.

But I also disagree with you.

I'm I'm camp Oscar.

And I wanted him to go for that.

He's he's got he's got to go for it now.

That was that was it was bold.

It was him being like, oh, my God, I agree.

You know, it's cut your losses time.

I've got to am I going to win this championship or not?

And his intentions were, I'm just I'm not going to be recklessly

I'm going to go for it.

And I feel I feel sad for him.

And I thought, actually, it was kind of a it's kind of an amazingly brave move.

I mean, it didn't look great because it looked like pinball

because he you know, he clipped him.

Then he spun off into Shell Leclerre.

And that was kind of a mess.

And it was unfortunate that Shell's race was ended as well.

But anyway, it was a great bit of drama.

Really good driving, fast, brutal race racing as well around those corners.

It's it's we say we talk about, you know, we talk about locking up

and we talk about it being an error.

But and not being in control of the car is the thing.

It wasn't in control of the car.

But how often are they actually in control of the car?

It's like they're at 280 miles an hour.

It's free to the margins of, oh, yes, I'm in control of it.

Obviously, you're in control of it because it's on the circuit.

But like you guys are margins.

Ferrari definitely weren't in control of their cars to DNFs.

And I do have a this might be a really stupid question

and completely irrelevant, whatever.

But I'm going to say, anyway, if Charles Leclerre,

if it hadn't have ended his race,

do you still think it would have been the same result

even if you still think that would have? Yeah.

Yeah. And the FIA and the stewards

are under and the pressure to judge it to me.

I mean, I mean, but better the answer to your question is, who knows?

But if I were a steward, I'd be saying

he's made the contact with Kimmy.

The fact that Kimmy's then knocked into Charles

and Charles retired, it's sort of irrelevant.

Even if Kimmy had got away scot-free,

I still think I think you've got to judge those moves based on.

The move, even if it hadn't had ended Kimmy's race.

Betty, we don't actually know.

It's not a stupid question at all.

It's a really good point.

We don't actually know.

I would hope the stewards would judge it the same way

because I don't think we should be judging going.

We'll only give him a penalty

because it took Charles out the race.

I think you sort of have to judge it consistently.

How did Kimmy get away with that, by the way, on skate?

That car is like a tin can metal thing, like Jesus.

Yeah, look. It was mad.

But there's so much luck involved.

I mean, Oscar could easily have,

his wheel could have popped off as well.

There's luck in all of this sort of stuff, isn't there?

It's just it's a ridiculous,

ridiculously dangerous and mad sport.

Do you think overall, though,

there are some positives for Oscar this weekend

because going through all of that,

going through a twitchy time with the sprint race

and the last few races haven't been great for him

to finish fifth, to finish in the points, to finish

and be in amongst it just about.

It's it's still it's still a net positive for him this weekend.

It was fast, too.

Well, I agree with Betty disagree with Greg.

I don't think it's a net positive

because when you're in the heat of a title battle

to have made a mistake the size of the mistake

and with the consequences of the mistake from the sprint race,

that's that's not good.

The pace, I agree with Betty's point.

I briefly mentioned it at the top of the show.

We've seen in recent weeks

not only has Oscar not been able to beat Lando,

but he's sort of not been anywhere near

and he was way closer this weekend.

He was back up to a level

that you'd sort of expect him to be at.

So if you take the unfortunate mistake in the wet away

because mistakes in the wet do happen.

If you take the penalty, which could go another way.

If I'm Oscar team, I say, look,

you were way up there this weekend and you haven't been.

So it was a step in the right direction overall

pace wise for Oscar.

And I reemphasize, I can't say this enough.

I'm still not worried about Oscar long term.

Oscar will learn from this dip.

His levelling up from last season to this season is still huge.

No matter what happens, this has been all right.

You might not see it this way

because he thought he was in with a chance of the title

for so long. It's still a great season for Oscar Piazri.

He's still in his third season in F1, mounted a title challenge.

I've been so much better.

I'm still not worried for Oscar Piazri.

I still think I don't think Oscar will win one title.

I think he'll win several.

I still think he's a phenomenal future star of the sport.

He's a star already.

And it was a step back in the right direction.

I'm still not worried about Oscar Piazri.

And we're still excited for Lando, very excited

because he was a cut above this weekend, wasn't he?

Lando had the best weekend ever.

He got P1 in free practice.

He was on pole for the sprint, led every lap of the sprint,

fastest lap of the sprint, sprint winner, pole for the race,

race winner.

And he's now extended the championship by 24 points.

He was flawless.

The guy didn't put a foot wrong.

I don't think many expected,

given the dipping form in the middle of the season,

and really, from towards the start of the season,

post-Australia, you could say,

I think given how long it looked like, Oscar had the edge.

Given that over the course of the first two thirds of the season,

Oscar was more consistently quick on a regular basis.

There was outlier weekends like Monaco,

but it looked like Oscar had the edge.

I don't think many people thought Lando had it in him

to pull it back the way he's done and reassert that dominance,

the way we expected him to be this season,

given he's got more experience, and he has.

I think he has proven to some people this season

and is continuing to do so that his ceiling as a driver

is higher than many people thought it was.

He's unlocked a level of performance to not only pull it back,

but then to pull back the form

and then sort of break through the glass ceiling

of unlock more form than I think people expected.

Lando Norris is a bigger championship contender

than the title fighter than many people gave him credit for.

I think he's incredibly impressive.

And I will be the first to admit when I've got things wrong,

but I've sort of consistently said all season,

don't ride him off, don't ride him off.

I think he is capable of more than this, and he's shown it.

He's been very, very impressive.

And I think it's very exciting for the sport going forward.

I hope McLaren continue to have a car

that can fight for the title

because these two will keep pushing each other to make them better.

We should be very excited as Formula One fans

for watching Lando and Oscar battle for many seasons to come.

Because as I've just said before, Oscar's incredible

and so much younger.

These two battling is a massive advantage for Formula One

trying to retain its level of popularity

that it has at the moment going forward.

They're mega stars and it's brilliant to see them battling.

I also just love how chilled Lando seems.

He was asked, have you done anything different?

Like what are you doing?

What's the mindset?

And he's just like, just ignore everyone

who talks crap about you and smiled.

He just seems so relaxed, doesn't he?

And he wasn't like this at the start of the season.

He was very much in his own head.

He was calling himself bad at driving

and constantly being critical about himself.

And now he just seems so relaxed.

And he's in a hard position.

Only went into this with a one point lead,

24 point lead now.

It's not a massive lead,

but it would be his to lose obviously, wouldn't it?

And I sort of think that the next three races

and the one sprint is a battle in his head

rather than a battle with anyone else.

You're spot on, Betty.

And I really love Christian's point about it

being a great season for Oscar regardless

of whether he wins the championship or not.

It's actually, you could extend that

to Lando and Max as well.

You go, it's been whatever happens, whoever wins.

It's been a really great season for all three of them

for very different reasons.

And it's made some great stories.

It's been great comebacks.

It's been great dips in form

and then finding that resolve and coming back.

And yeah, and what you're talking about with Lando

is so spot on.

I mean, this guy, it's all they've, all of them,

it's all they've all done for their whole lives.

They know how to drive cars very fast.

They know how to do that.

But this watching them go through the fatigue

that they have and then the pressure

that's put on them and the car letting them down

and all those sorts of variables.

It's been so interesting.

And they've all become better drivers

and better public, public sports people.

They've become better public figures because of it

and more interesting humans because of it.

Cause they're going through these sorts of things.

So I found that part of the season

really interesting as well.

Cause we've seen Lando low

and now we've seen him sort of level out and go,

do you know what, I believe this now.

I believe I can do this.

It's been very interesting, I think.

I think he genuinely believes he can do it.

I think he's gone almost like full circle

of sort of, I don't know, not believing in himself.

And now I think he does 100% believe in himself.

I saw a quote from him that he has lessened the weaknesses.

This was either a quote or an opinion piece.

Sorry, I can't remember which one it was.

Forgive me.

It was a quote.

Yeah, and that's a really good point he has.

I think he's always believed he can do it.

But I also think he sort of knows he's not,

I don't want to do him down,

but I think most people know that ultimately Max

is operating at the higher level.

And I think he's probably realized like I'm not Max,

but I'm really capable of doing this.

And as a sort of the glass ceiling analogy I use,

he's been able to step up.

And yeah, somebody said it earlier.

I can't remember.

I think it was yourself, Betty.

He is the hot favorite for this title now

because really he's sort of leaning towards

only really needing to come second.

And I think the approach now has just got

to be take it session by session

and just try and forget about you in a title fight.

Lando Norris knows he's capable of going out

and sticking it on the front row in Qatar,

in Vegas, in Abu Dhabi.

That's all he needs to worry about.

Forget the title fight.

Don't do anything differently.

Just go and stick it on the front row

and be there where they're about

and he'll win the championship.

You know your point, Greg,

on Oscar and Max can walk away from this

and still be happy even if they don't win.

I can't, well, yeah, no, they won't be happy

but they've learned from it.

They can take positives, whatever.

I can't help but think

because of the way this sport works,

it's all down to, you know, is your car performing?

I can't help but think

this could have been Oscar's only chance.

This could be Oscar's only chance to win a championship.

You just don't know.

And that's the thing that I think

so brutal about this sport

is that you could be the best driver ever

but you could have a crap car.

And at the moment, McLaren have the best car, so...

Yeah, you don't know.

But also that's not how anyone should live their life

and it's definitely not how those people

live their lives, I don't think.

I don't think they're thinking that's the opportunity.

They are, I mean, Fernando Alonso's still driving.

He's like, it's going to happen one day.

You still have to have that belief,

like, it's going to happen one day.

Even if no one else is believing it,

they still will believe until the very moment

they're sort of, you know, prized out of a car with a crowbar.

So I don't think there's a confidence issue

with any F1 drivers.

I think that's not for the debate.

Speaking of confident drivers,

should we have a little break

and then talk about Max Verstappen?

I think we should do, but, Greg,

but only after these messages.

Christian, the end of the season

is getting so incredibly close.

The championship battle has been insane.

We are 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 Lando 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, we're so fickle.

Aren't we? Because instantly,

there is going to be a whole load of new storylines

that we're just going to get carried away with,

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

and say that they're going to win the championship,

and there's also going to be brand new cars

for everyone to get used to as well in 2026,

and a whole new flipping team joining the grid as well.

There is so much drama.

I just love it. I love it.

So much drama.

But that means now is actually a good time

to start plotting out which races

you might want to get to next season,

because with F1 only getting bigger

and better and more exciting, tickets for Grand Prix,

they get snapped up so fast.

And that, Christian Hugel,

is where our good friends at Gulliver's come in.

We've spoken about them a fair bit this season,

but if you haven't heard of them,

they're basically a cheat code

for getting you to your dream race weekend.

And what's been so lovely

is the amount of you who've been in touch

saying you've used Gulliver's

and you've either gone or are going to a Grand Prix.

You guys are actually getting in touch with Gulliver's

and it's absolutely brilliant.

You guys are telling us how brilliant they are,

because as we all know by now,

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Well, those are fantastic messages, weren't they?

Welcome back to the Fast and the Curious.

Who knew you could spend your money like that?

Yeah, why?

Yeah, and money well spent, I would like to add.

Christian, explain to me and those that don't know

why Max went from being all over the shop

in qualifying his first Q1 exit since 2021

when this podcast didn't even exist.

It was that long ago.

No, this was all failed.

And to being an absolute demon,

hellraiser in the race.

It shows you how difficult Formula One is.

Honestly, to use a technical sporting analogy,

it's well hard.

And I shall tell you for why.

You can still have made brilliant strides forward

in your car like Red Bull have.

But if you go out and you set up up,

set up up all the ups, if you go and do that,

you can still find yourself having a nightmare horror

show of a session.

And that's the changes they made from Sprint

to qualifying did not work.

After qualifying, Park Fermi reopens.

After the Sprint race, I should say, Park Fermi reopens.

You can make all the changes going into main race qualifying.

They made changes.

Absolute disaster.

Didn't work.

Max gets knocked out in Q1.

So he makes the very clever decision to go, right, forget it.

I'll start from the pit lane, make changes to the car.

We'll break the Park Fermi rules.

We'll take the punishment to start from the pit lane.

Because if we're 16, we might as well start from the pit lane.

Sod it. Why not?

And that was a master stroke of a move

because they took the car from handling like a shopping trolley

to handling like a luscious new Renault 5.

It was so much better.

And therefore, you know if you get the setup right,

what do you need?

You need good setup and you need a good peddler.

And Max Verstappen is, again,

to use my sporting analogy and stay with me here.

Well good at Formula One.

You know if you've got the car, he will fly through the order.

And that's exactly what he did.

Wasn't quite enough to win the race

for even the superhuman Max Verstappen.

It was vintage Verstappen.

It really was.

There's also a little bit of the keep them all guessing

from Max Verstappen, isn't there?

That's the confidence we're talking about of like,

I'm just going to do this now.

And I think it'll probably work.

So, see ya.

Good luck everyone else.

It's an amazing quality that he possesses

of just being so single-minded and so sure

of what's about to happen in his life.

It's sort of, it's scary how much belief he has.

But that's why he's one of the greatest of all time.

I also love that at the end of the race,

he was like, well we at least tried it, you know?

Like he's just so chilled.

And I love the fact.

I love this Max Verstappen

that's sort of in this underdog role.

I just love it.

He thrives in it.

Whereas obviously when he was winning everything,

he was so far ahead.

Nothing to lose there.

Yeah, but he just thrives in this position.

Where do you think this race ranks in his career?

Because I don't think this race gets much better.

It was surely one of his finest races ever.

He was absolutely sensational.

Oh, it's up there.

And we just, before the commercial messages,

we spoke about Lando Norris.

And we said, all you've got to do

is go into session after session,

block out the noise.

Max makes that look really easy.

He's always able to, well, 90% of the time

he's able to block out the noise.

You do see him occasionally

or you're certainly used to get a bit hot-headed.

Do the daff thing like he did to George Russell in Barcelona.

So he's not impeccable with this.

But 90% of the time he just blocks everything out,

does his thing, is really, really good at it,

is ludicrously fast.

And he makes the mental game look easy most of the time.

And this was a great example of that.

I'd like to ask you a question, please, boldly.

Greg James, Max Verstappen still in the title race?

Yeah, I don't think it's a question

we even need to spend much time on.

I think judging by what we've just seen moments ago,

yes, he, of course he is.

And you would be a brave man to put a bet against him,

I'd say, at this stage.

And just on what you were saying about,

I'm really interested in that mentality of his,

where you said that he behaved badly.

He has behaved badly in the past, obviously.

He's been a bit, he has been, he's been petulant.

He is, that George Russell incident,

he's set in Barcelona, lots of little incidents like that.

I don't think that he ever worries about those.

I don't think that he get,

I don't think he ever gets home and goes,

oh, I misbehaved a bit there.

I think he is so instinctive that whatever he,

and so single-minded, because you have to be,

to be a mad world champion,

that whatever is needed in that moment, he will do.

And whatever, sometimes that will fire him up,

being a bit ruthless on a, or reckless on a track,

that fires him up.

Sometimes being the cool, calm customer, that fires him up.

Being the sort of silent assassin,

that sometimes fires him up.

So he knows exactly how to press his own buttons,

if that makes sense.

And I don't think he ever worries about it.

And just goes, no, no, that worked for me.

I'm gonna get angry today,

because that's what I need to fuel me for the next race.

I think that's how, that's partly what his process is.

That's such a good way of putting it, Greg.

He knows what buttons he needs to push

to get the most out of himself.

That's what all the best sports people

in the world can do, though.

And you're so right, he does that,

but I do really feel like he just thrives

in the position he's in at the moment,

just being like, let me see what I can do.

I'm gonna try my absolute best.

Yeah, I'm not putting a bet on Max's lap

not winning the championship.

You'd be mad to be like, no, no one is sitting here

being like, it's not a dead sir.

Oh, I'll put my mortgage on that.

You just wouldn't, there's no way.

Do you not think that, Christian?

No, I completely agree with you.

I think the thing is, we've still got three races left.

We've still got ample opportunity

for somebody to accidentally take Landon Orris out

or him to have another engine failure

like he had earlier in the season

or something silly to happen.

And if that does happen, I think it'd need that,

but if that does happen,

the pace that Max showed in that race today

he could win the remaining three Grand Prix

and the remaining sprint race.

He just could.

So yeah, feel the same, Betty?

I do.

49 points is a lot.

So you're gonna, Landon Orris is gonna have to make a mistake

or something's gonna have to happen to him.

Twice really.

Twice, yeah, in two races,

but three races and a sprint.

It's possible.

Oh, that's Max, isn't it?

It's just Max, he's incredible.

Look how twitchy everyone's getting.

That race was pretty twitchy today.

Everyone's, the nerves are really twitchy.

I was twitchy.

Yeah, we're all twitchy.

You know, all it takes is for a little mistake

on a corner or a bad start or you clip a wheel

and suddenly, you know, it's all over.

Someone to throw a banana on the track.

If Mario can't.

Okay, we need to do an exciting announcement now

before we go to the radio radar, if that's okay.

We've got some really exciting,

fast and curious end of season news.

Am I leaving?

You're not leaving.

You're definitely not leaving.

I've signed you both up.

For, what did they say?

For 2026 and beyond.

Oh, that's what they say.

I thought you might be announcing

an exciting new presenter or something.

No, no, no.

I don't know, Johnny Herbert.

You're a bloody Herbert.

No, we're, yeah, that's what Ferrari says, isn't it?

They go, yes, we're Lewis for 2026

and 2027 and beyond or like at least 2026.

A multi-year contract.

Yeah, I'm gonna offering you a multi-year,

which could be two, could be 10.

So, we're inviting everyone listening right now

to come and hang out in person

to watch The Fast and the Curious.

They can get to see Christian's cubby hole live.

I will show you my cubby hole live.

It's nice, isn't it?

I don't know about that.

So, would you like to elaborate

until everyone exactly what's happening?

Yes, you can join me, Greg James and Betty Glover

and some very special guests

in central London for a live episode

of The Fast and the Curious

for our end of season debrief.

Can I request that we stop this voice

that everyone is doing?

No, I like the voice.

It's the chart voice.

You should reserve it for the chart only, really.

It was more to announce a voice

and I was doing an announcement.

How come Greg gets to do a voice and I can't?

You can do it in the chart

but not for an announcement.

I'm a Radio 1 DJ.

That's, you know, that's like...

Don't we all know it, Greg?

That's my thing.

So, I've spent years learning those skills.

Please, they're all useless skills.

Please, let me use them at some point.

Anyway, Betty, a normal voice.

Can you tell everyone what's happening?

Yeah, we've done a few of these before

and they are always so much fun

and we love it when you guys come along and watch us.

It's always great to hang out with all of you, lot

and just talk about Formula One for a couple of hours

and, oh my God, after this season

there is going to be so much Formula One to chat about, isn't there?

So on Thursday, the 11th of December,

a couple of days after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

as Abu Dhabi done,

we'll be recording our final episode of the season live

and it's not just going to be us, is it, Christian?

It's not. We wanted to have some warmly nostalgic memories

and the first one of these we ever did in our first season,

we had the best night.

It was so lovely and we did so in the company

of Sky Sports F1 legend Karun Chandak

and the ridiculously talented musical legend Sam Ryder

and they are back to join us for this show.

Karun and Sam, the dream team back together,

which Greg, it's a massive line up, isn't it?

For any podcast, let alone us.

It's a massive line up

and Karun, a friend of the podcast for a long time,

Sam Ryder, also the same.

But as I think you pointed out on The Group Christian,

we've inadvertently booked Jesus Christ

for a Christmas show.

He's doing Jesus Christ Superstar, isn't he, Sam?

Yeah, just announced.

He looks like Jesus, too.

He does look like the baby Jesus.

Not the baby Jesus, he looks like full baby Jesus.

No, no, just the adult Jesus.

No, it doesn't look like baby Jesus.

No, he looks like the baby Jesus.

Baby Jesus is a baby.

Yeah, you look more like baby Jesus.

Thank you.

No, he looks more like the donkey that carried them.

That was uncalled for.

That wasn't nice.

I look like a wise man,

but my coffee machine did recently revive

like Jesus on Easter Monday.

Right, yeah.

I mean, I talk about being on radio too much.

He's talking about his coffee machine too much.

That's getting too much airtime.

As is, by the way, you're fueling the flames.

You're fueling the online chat, you are.

I know what you're going to say here.

Where I don't think that I,

just because I'm not on this, I don't listen.

I'm listening when you're being like,

oh yeah, I'm bloody Oscar Priestry.

He's on this podcast more than Greg James is.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, live show.

Live show.

Don't give us off track.

Live show.

Karun Chandak.

Sam Ryder.

We're going to have a great catch up with them.

We'll look back at the season

and we'll look back at how close our predictions have been as well.

We'll also do a live round of Beat the Christian

because it's Christmas.

Oh, I hate that so much.

Well, I've all that.

We'll have the Fast and Curious gang down there as well

because it's not just us three idiots that do this.

We'll have loads of all our pals that work on the show as well.

And we like to keep it deliberately small as well.

We want to keep it nice and cozy.

We don't want to do anything that's too mad.

It's close to Christmas.

Everyone's busy.

And Christian, how many tickets are available?

You've got to be so hot on this.

50 tickets.

It's an intimate venue, like the best music gigs.

It's 50 tickets.

So when we announce when these tickets are on sale,

you've got to act fast.

Set your alarm on your phone, set post-it notes around the house,

paint a message onto your dog, anything.

You've got to be quick.

The thing is about this is that we want to do,

at some point, we will do some bigger shows.

Our plan is definitely to do some theater shows

or some nice small venue shows.

And I actually do that properly.

Arena shows.

Arena shows eventually.

But what we want to do is celebrate this amazing season.

All of us get together and you can experience the podcast

as you hear it, really.

That's the main thing.

Because when you do a bigger show,

you have to sort of change it a little bit

and do mad, bigger things.

But actually, we wanted to do a proper episode of the podcast

with the mega fans, I guess, on Thursday 11th of December.

There you go.

Yeah.

And it is at.

So, of course, the key question here is where is it?

Before the lights in London.

Greg, this is where you go to the gym, isn't it,

with famous people?

Yeah.

It's a funny one this.

I'm letting people into my safe space.

But it's a really amazing place, dead central in London.

And Sam Ryder also insists that we have a sauna on site as well.

So he'll be having a sauna right up until the moment

we start recording.

And we're going to get the tickets all sorted.

Ticket details, Betty, what do people need to know?

So, it's going to be at before the lights in central London

between 6 and 9pm Thursday 11th of December.

If you want to come, the tickets will be on sale

on Tuesday 11th of November at 10am.

That is UK time, everybody.

I'll be amazed if anyone comes that's outside of the UK.

But just in case.

Yeah, 10am UK time Tuesday 11th of November.

We're recording this on the 9th after the Grand Prix,

so you don't have long guys.

A couple of days.

Yeah, we'll put the link to tickets in the description

of this episode.

The link will also be in our bio on Instagram.

All the details you need will be on Instagram,

TikTok, Twitter and Facebook.

So make sure you're following at Fast Curious Pod

so you don't miss any updates.

Hopefully we'll see you there.

And hopefully we'll see you on the other side

of these advertising messages when we'll talk more

about Formula One.

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Welcome back to the Fast and the Curious

for this really fun episode today.

Debriefing the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Oh, quick question about the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Paulistas.

That's a new one on me.

That's people who are from Sao Paulo.

So Gabriel Bortoletto is a Paulista.

Oh, poor Gabby.

No, much like Monogast as well as another one

that I've only known about through Formula One.

You know, Charles Leclerc being from Monaco

so Gabriel Bortoletto, what a s*** weekend for him.

Yeah, I just want to say, I spoke to him in Austin

for the first time I had a proper sit-down chat

with him for an extended period of time

and I mentioned Brazil coming up.

His little eyes lit up

and it was so horrible to see him have a bad weekend.

He's had a great season.

He'll get many more Brazilian Grand Prixs, Sao Paulo Grand Prixs.

Before we're going to talk about Kimi Antonelli, Betty,

you wanted to go back to Max Verstappen briefly, didn't you?

Yes, so this is a question that I was thinking about

for ages and forgot to ask it,

but why did Max pit when he was in the lead?

Just why?

Because surely he could have just tried it.

He had, what was it, seven lap?

Yeah, no, the advantage that Lando had on him,

he was catching him at a rate of knots.

It wouldn't have even been close.

He'd have swept around the outside into turn one.

Even if Max had gone on the defensive,

Lando would have just gone on the outside.

The tyre advantage Lando had was huge.

Red Bull had data to say that if we go on to the softs,

it is a faster route to the end of the race

and Lando was taking a second and a half out of him.

Yes, track position is important,

but it wouldn't have even been close.

Lando would have just swept past.

He could have gone P2 though,

but anyway, I'm glad I got this off my chest

because that was something that I was thinking about.

I was like, why?

No, I saw people ask that.

It's a good question.

I'm glad you asked it.

Let's talk about Kimmy and Talanna, shall we?

Yes, lovely Kimmy.

Super impressive weekend.

You're just impressed with him in general, aren't you?

Quite similar to Lando, really.

I didn't see him after the really impressive start,

the difficult middle of the season.

I didn't see him at this age pulling it back the way he had.

To get back to the level he was operating at,

of being around fifth or sixth,

but again, he pushed through the glass ceiling

and taken it a step further,

and this is the first weekend in his Formula One career

where across the weekend it's just like,

oh, you're quicker than George, which I'm worried about.

If I'm George Russell, Kimmy was on it this weekend.

So by far his best weekend in Formula One,

even more impressive considering what he's had

to battle back from.

I think a little...

The people I think have maybe put too much expectation

on Kimmy Antonelli considering he is only

nine and a half years of age,

but this weekend was, I just think, really impressive.

He's younger than baby Jesus.

And because of Ferrari's awful weekend,

it's a big moment for Mercedes as well.

I mean, Ferrari have just had a bad season

because everybody expected them to be fighting for the title.

There have obviously been nowhere near fighting for the title

because Red Bull are basically running the season

with one car.

Everybody, it looked a slam dunk

that Ferrari were going to get second in the championship.

Obviously, they've had a shocker of a weekend.

Lewis had a messy start.

Lewis...

They never got the run times quite right

in either qualifying session.

Lewis wasn't quite on the pace.

Horrible weekend for Lewis Hamilton,

which is a shame because he'd been better in recent weeks.

So he retired from the race having played bumper cars

for the first, you know, five or six laps.

Charles, unfortunate for Charles,

that he got bumper car out because of Oscar's

moving to Kimmy and to him.

But whatever, awful weekend for Ferrari

means Mercedes take a step forward

and a big chunk out of their

Constructor Championship lead for second.

If Mercedes end up beating Ferrari

to P2 in the Constructors,

Ferrari's seasonal have just gone from bad

to absolutely awful.

So, yeah, Ferrari are under pressure

for the final three races.

At least get P2 in the championship

because, goodness me, if they don't do that,

it's been absolutely bloody awful.

Betty Glover, can we cross live to your Radio Radar, please?

What did you enjoy this weekend on the radios?

Radio Radar was lacking

a little bit this weekend.

I'm going to be honest, there wasn't anything

that majorly stood out.

But the best one was Isaac Hajar.

His engineer went,

Isaac, head down, we have much better tyres.

And he replied, don't shout at me.

Thank you.

Well, this is it, though.

As I said, everyone's a bit twitchy

and it's also because

they're locked in real battles

so they haven't got time to be f***ing around

on the radio, perhaps.

He does have time.

He does have time, though, to be polite.

Yeah.

What else do we have?

Somebody wrote,

the Red Bull engineer went,

Max, you are now leading the Grand Prix

and he just replied, not bad.

Coming from the pit lane,

not bad.

I love it.

One of the greatest sporting trolls ever

is Max Verstappen.

I do mean that as a huge compliment.

To be that good and also that sassy

is just a great combination.

So what have we missed then, Christian?

What went under the radar today?

What have we missed here?

The Alpine is a tractor

in Formula One terms.

They've had an awful, awful,

awful season

so anyone who scores even close

to a point in an Alpine has done well.

So well done to Pierre Gasly for getting into P10.

An excellent weekend

from RB.

There's a lot of talk about the seats

and I really hope Liam Lawson

stays.

Another good weekend from him, P7.

Hadgerate, they deserve credit for that.

But just to sign that Liam I think deserves to be in Formula One.

I hope RB

would stick with him.

But the person I really want to highlight

and we spoke about him in the preview show

about his links to Ferrari,

Oli Bearman's impressive

back third of the season

just continues.

The last weekend where he's just looked

to cut above Esteban Ocon,

he is really, really impressive.

And I sort of thought we maybe

get a dip at some point from Oli

where it was just every weekend at the moment.

He had four points finishes in a row.

That's massive.

We've spoken so many times with this podcast

about the importance of the Constructors' championship

at that back half

of the championship.

Especially as Williams have struggled

in the last couple of Grand Prix as well.

He's taken advantage and scored some points.

I'm really impressed with Oli Bearman at the moment.

He's been brilliant.

So well done, Oli.

Yeah, good lad.

And that is the end of today's episode

of The Fast and the Curious.

A really fun debrief of a really fun race.

And a reminder, tickets for The Fast and the Curious

live at Christmas will be

coming out on Tuesday.

If you're listening to this on a Monday

or late on Sunday evening,

that's this Tuesday.

The link will be on our Instagram, our TikTok,

our Twitter and Facebook pages

as well as the show notes as well.

So make sure you're following Fast and Curious

pod on there. We'll be back in just over

a week's time to preview the Las Vegas, baby

Grand Prix.

Christian, you're going to be there in Vegas as well.

I will be there in Vegas

where this year

my overwhelming aim of the weekend

will be to not catch tonsillitis

because if you remember

when I came back from Vegas,

we were in the old studio

and you

worried I was disappearing

in front of your eyes. I got the most ear-live

ever been last year and got tonsillitis

and looked like Casper the Friendly Ghost

when I returned to the podcast.

So stay tuned to see if I stay

alive over the course of the weekend.

I am dreading that, by the way,

that race because it's 4am UK time.

Oh, forget it.

Forget it. Yeah, but

you can't avoid spoilers nowadays.

Well, I mean, do you know what? It might actually be up

because it's the ashes as well at the same time.

You can double screen it 4am in the morning.

You can double screen it, yeah.

We'll see.

Anyway, thanks for listening. Enjoy Vegas

and thank you for your continued support, everybody.

We're having the best time ever on the Fast and the Curious.

Thanks for watching on...

We'll be back very, very soon. Bye!

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São Paulo GP 2025 Debrief | Nail-biting closing laps

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