Max Verstappen is one of the best Formula 1 drivers. The hosts are saying his bad weekend could be a sign of bigger trouble for his relationship with his team.
The British Grand Prix is one of the big Formula 1 races. It’s usually held at Silverstone, and it’s a weekend where teams and drivers can make big progress—or have big problems.
Antonelli is a Formula 1 driver mentioned here as part of Mercedes’ weekend. The host says he did well in the sprint but had trouble later in the main race.
“Setup” means how the team adjusts the race car so it drives the way they want. It can include suspension and balance changes that affect handling and speed at a particular track.
“Energy delivery” is how the car feeds power to the wheels when you press the throttle. The team can change it so the car accelerates smoothly and predictably instead of feeling abrupt or inconsistent.
“Body language” is the visible physical cues a driver shows—posture, gestures, and reactions—that can reflect stress, frustration, or confidence. In racing coverage, it’s often used as indirect evidence of how the driver feels about the car and strategy.
Topic
what went wrong with his rear wing
They’re trying to figure out why the car suddenly lost grip. The idea is that the rear wing and airflow didn’t “catch up” fast enough when the car started turning, so the downforce and grip weren’t there.
Airflow reattachment means the air stops “peeling away” from a surface and starts flowing back along it. If that happens too slowly, the wing may not produce the downforce you expect, and the car can feel unstable or less grippy in the corner.
The underfloor is the bottom part of the car that’s shaped to help the air flow in a way that pushes the car down. In corners, it needs a moment to “settle” so it can keep producing downforce.
Term
damp force
The speaker is talking about downforce, which is what presses the car onto the track. If it doesn’t build quickly enough when you turn in, the tires can lose grip and the car won’t handle as well.
A floor stall is when the air under the car stops working the way it should. When that happens, the car suddenly loses downforce and grip, so it can feel like the tires “go dead” instantly.
Ride height is how low the car sits to the ground. In F1, running it very low can help the car stick to the track because the aerodynamics work better.
They talk about how safety cars work during a race and what happens when they’re about to restart. The discussion focuses on a confusing moment that sparked debate.
A safety car restart procedure is the official way F1 cars get going again after the safety car period. If drivers don’t follow the exact timing and positioning, it can be easy to get into trouble.
In F1, “unlapped” refers to a slower car being brought back to the same lap count as the leader (typically because the leader is slowed by the safety car). The rules can require cars to complete an additional lap after unlapping before certain race procedures (like ending the safety car period) can occur.
Race control is the group of officials who run the race behind the scenes. They decide things like when the safety car comes out and they send the official instructions to teams and drivers.
“Abu Dhabi 21” refers to the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a race remembered for controversy over how the safety car was handled near the end. The segment contrasts that earlier situation with the current one, emphasizing that the regulations were followed correctly this time.
A red flag is the signal that the race has to stop right away because something unsafe is happening on the track. After that, the race may restart, and that can completely change what teams do next.
A standing start restart means the cars restart from a stop, not while already rolling. How the restart happens can change who gets a good launch and gains positions right away.
Safety car regulations are the official rules for when the safety car comes out and how racing is controlled while it’s out. Those rules matter because they can change pit stops and the order of cars.
The pit lane speed limit is the maximum speed cars are allowed to drive in the pit area. If that limit changes, teams lose more or less time when they pit, which can affect who wins.
Chris Judd is the person the host says came up with the suggestion about changing pit lane rules during VSE. Here, he’s mentioned mainly as the origin of that idea.
Engine braking is when the car slows down because the engine is still resisting as you lift off the gas. In racing, that can change how stable the car feels when you’re slowing down and turning in.
The ground effect era is when F1 cars used the floor of the car to “suck” themselves toward the track for grip. The speaker is saying that those older rules made it harder to fine-tune how the car behaved in slow corners versus faster ones.
Understeer in slow corners means the front tires don’t grip enough, so the car tends to push wide instead of turning in. It’s one of the key handling problems drivers try to tune out.
Term
medium to fast speed instability of the rear
This means the back of the car doesn’t feel stable when you’re going faster through corners. Instead of tracking smoothly, it can feel like it wants to step out.
Car
Ferrari SF26
The Ferrari SF26 is Ferrari’s latest Formula 1 race car. In this discussion, the key point is that it’s easier to adjust so the driver can get the car to rotate and handle in a way that matches their style.
Term
throttle to aid rotation
This is about using the gas pedal while you’re turning so the car pivots into the corner the way the driver wants. The speaker is saying the new rules make that trickier to do in the same detailed way.
In hybrid race cars, there’s stored electrical energy in a battery. How you spend it during the lap affects how much boost you have later for faster acceleration.
Term
throttle through the corners
It’s about how much you press the gas while you’re still turning. In a race, that choice changes how well the car grips and how fast it can accelerate out of the corner.
Diff settings control how the car sends power to the wheels when turning. Adjusting it can change how stable and grippy the car feels, especially when you’re braking and turning at the same time.
Wing levels are how much aerodynamic “push” the wings create. More downforce helps the car stick in corners, but it can slow the car down on straights.
Sprint qualifying is a weekend format where a shorter race helps set the starting order for the main race. Teams often take different risks because the sprint is a big deal for grid position.
The entry phase is the moment you start turning into a corner. It’s important because it affects how well the car sets up for the rest of the turn.
Term
braking and cornering
This is when you’re slowing down and turning at the same time. The car has to manage grip for both tasks, so it’s a tricky part of driving where setup matters a lot.
Term
talky delivery of the electrics
“Talky delivery of the electrics” refers to an abrupt or uneven feel in how the hybrid/electric power is applied. If the power comes in harshly, it can upset balance during turn-in and corner entry, especially when combined with aggressive driving and differential settings.
Term
long, fast corners
These are corners you take for a long time at high speed. The car stays under cornering load, so setup choices and power delivery can have a bigger effect than in short corners.
Term
Grumbury Qualifying
This is the qualifying session where drivers set their best times to determine starting positions. The speaker is saying the car felt better after the tweak and the time improved.
A simulator is a computer setup that tries to copy how the race car behaves. Teams use it to help drivers learn and try changes, but it can be imperfect compared to the real car on track.
Term
26 power units
In F1, the “power unit” is the engine-and-energy system. The rules limit how many of these you can use in a season, so teams have to manage both speed and how hard they’re stressing the system.
Term
throttle and the brakes
On a race car, how you press the gas and the brakes affects more than just speed—it changes how the car grips and how the engine/energy system is working. That’s why setup can feel different from track to track.
Grip level means how much the tires can stick to the road. If the track is slippery, the car behaves differently, and even the same setup can feel totally different.
“Rear grip” means how well the back tires stick to the road. If the back tires have good grip, the car is easier to control in corners and you can usually go faster.
A “baseline setting” is the starting setup the team uses for the car—before making further adjustments during practice or qualifying. It’s typically a compromise that aims to be predictable across different conditions, then refined based on driver feedback.
A “flow state” is when driving feels effortless and automatic. Instead of thinking about every input, you react quickly because the car is behaving the way you expect.
“Inputs” are the things the driver does with the controls, like turning the wheel, braking, and pressing the gas. The point is that in a good driving state, those actions become automatic.
“Torque delivery” is how the engine’s pulling power shows up—how fast it comes on and how smooth it feels. If it’s less instant, the car might accelerate differently and the tires may grip differently too.
A “compromised corner” means the car didn’t go through the turn in the best way. That usually makes it harder to accelerate cleanly and can slow the lap down.
Term
valuable energy
In F1, the car has limited energy it can deploy. If you waste it in the wrong place, you can’t use it to accelerate as well on the straight.
Lap time is simply how long it takes to do one full lap. Faster lap times usually mean the car is working better and the driver is getting more out of it.
This is Charles Leclerc, one of Ferrari’s drivers. The host is talking about how he describes feeling like he’s fighting the car when it doesn’t behave the way he expects.
Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time Formula 1 World Champion who drives for Mercedes. In this segment, he’s referenced as part of a competitive group that can fight for race wins.
That phrase means the car suddenly has a lot more shove because of the hybrid system. It’s the kind of extra acceleration that can make an overtake possible on the next stretch.
Place
Wellington Straight
A “straight” is the part of the track where cars accelerate. Hughes is pointing to a specific straight that sets up where overtakes become possible.
Hangar Straight is a long acceleration section of the track. Hughes is saying the extra hybrid power shows up here, making it easier to get alongside and pass.
“Balance” in F1 refers to how the car behaves at the limit—how stable it is and how it distributes grip between front and rear. Hughes uses it to explain why one driver could be faster and maintain competitiveness compared with another during stints.
Toto Wolf is the top leader for Mercedes’ Formula 1 team. The host is asking what he should focus on if Mercedes is facing stronger competition from Ferrari.
In F1, the “power unit” is the car’s main engine setup, including both the fuel engine and the electric parts. “Power unit issues” just means something in that engine system isn’t working right.
“Late braking” means you wait longer before you start slowing down for a corner. That can change how the car rotates and how the rear feels as you turn in.
“Initial rotation” is the car’s first big “turning in” moment at the start of a corner. How you brake and steer affects how quickly and how sharply the car starts to rotate.
In F1 hybrid systems, “regeneration” is the process of recovering energy during braking. The car converts some of the car’s kinetic energy into electrical energy to recharge the battery, which can then be used for acceleration.
“Mercedes” is the Formula 1 team the speaker is talking about. They’re discussing how well their car and driver are doing in the championship.
Person
Kim Yantanelli
Kim Yantanelli is the driver being discussed in the championship standings. The host is talking about how it affects his mindset when a big points lead slips away.
The nose cone is the front aerodynamic bodywork on an F1 car, designed to shape airflow for downforce and stability. In this segment, Mercedes swapped the nose cone as part of troubleshooting, implying the team initially suspected an aerodynamic or front-end-related cause.
“Load” here is about how much grip the car gets from the air pushing it down. If that drops suddenly, the tires don’t bite as well, especially at the front, so the car won’t turn properly.
Onboards are recordings from cameras on the car (and sometimes related data). Teams use them to see exactly what the car was doing and spot problems they can’t tell just from the initial symptoms.
A brake duct is a shaped opening that funnels air to cool the brakes. If the duct design changes, it can affect both cooling and airflow around the front of the car, which is why it matters when diagnosing a fault.
Carbon fibre is a strong, very light material used a lot in race cars. Here, a small carbon-fibre part was added to the brake duct area, and that change turned out to be important for what went wrong.
Aerodynamic loads are the forces from the air pushing down on the car (and other aerodynamic effects). If damage reduces them, the car can feel less planted and harder to control.
Term
ludicrous penalty
A penalty is a punishment for breaking race rules. The host is saying this one seems unfair because the driver didn’t really benefit from what happened.
A low grip surface is a track where the tires don’t stick as well. The car can feel less predictable, so drivers may need more time to adjust.
Term
pace of development
This means how quickly an F1 team can keep improving the car with new parts. If they’re changing things too fast, they may not have time to fully check that everything works perfectly, which can lead to failures.
“New parts” refers to the upgraded components teams introduce during the season—often aerodynamic pieces, cooling elements, or power-unit related hardware. In F1, reliability can suffer when parts are introduced before they’ve been fully stress-tested in race-like conditions.
Stress testing means pushing a part hard in controlled ways to see if it breaks or behaves badly. If a team can’t do enough of that before racing, the part is riskier.
The “battery thing” is the car’s energy storage system that helps the engine use extra electrical power. If it has problems, the car can lose power or become unreliable.
Reliability here means whether the race car can keep working and finish races without breaking. The idea is that new upgrades can introduce problems if they weren’t tested enough.
Honda is a company that has supplied engines to Formula 1 teams. In this segment, they’re talking about whether Honda has helped teams succeed consistently over the years.
Matte paint is the non-shiny finish you see on some cars. Beyond looks, the surface can be slightly rougher, and that can affect how air flows over the car.
LIVE
We had the collapse of Max Verstappen's weekend in the race and just not a happy boy at all.
Red Buller got real reason to be worried about whether he continues with them beyond the season.
He'd just come off the back of a very competitive Austria who wanted at that time
to be convinced that they had it in them to give them that.
Level of competitiveness going forward and Söderstamm didn't give him that, quite the opposite.
If you looked at the pattern from the domination of 23 to a really unsuccessful first half of 26,
you'd said that the trend's not going the right way.
If you went to McLaren, would it be better? Yeah, it might be.
Well, Mark, we had the British Grand Prix at the weekend.
It was a lively one, wasn't it? Was it lively for good reasons or bad reasons or your thoughts?
I thought it was interesting, but yeah, the negatives were the
the way that the racing came out a little bit like Melbourne was that the artificiality of
the passes and the repasses and it was a bit worse than I was expecting in terms of that.
But it was interesting in a competitive sense.
We had the resurgence of Ferrari. It looked a lot more like the Ferrari of two races ago,
rather than the Ferrari we saw in Austria and the reasons for that became
clearer during the Silverstone weekend, just while it struggled so much in Austria.
And even though it was a much more competitive car than even they were expecting around Silverstone,
it was still lagging a little bit behind Mercedes, almost specifically Antonelli's Mercedes,
because George Russell was struggling this weekend, struggling to put it all together.
And he got a lucky second place, really, you've got to say.
So yeah, in terms of performance, this was Antonelli. I don't know, he painted all over it,
but all he came away with was the points for winning the sprint race because of the problem
that he had in the late in the Grand Prix when he was about to relieve Leclerc of the lead on
much newer tyres. So yeah, I think a troubling time for George. A breakthrough for Charles Leclerc,
really was very quick from Grand Prix qualifying onwards, less so at the first part of the weekend,
but they found something in the setup in terms of what he was doing in terms of the energy
delivery and the diff settings that finally give him back after, sort of the feeling in the car
after he swung the big missing for the last four races. And yeah, so we got two quick Ferraris
and Antonelli, and it panned out in Leclerc's favour. So yeah, it was very interesting,
competitively, and then we had the collapse of Max Verstappen's weekend, late in the race, and
just not a happy boy at all. And Red Bull got a real reason to be worried about whether he
continues with him beyond this season. So that's the end of this episode then, and you can change
that's a lot of the talking points, actually, that I want to come to. I want to talk about Ferrari,
I want to talk about about what's going on with Mercedes, George Russell, he's been quite open
and honest, saying that if he wants to win a title, he has to drive and produce better, better
performances. And what's going on with Red Bull and Max Verstappen, what is very, very clear is,
is Max Verstappen's tone, how exasperated he's now sounding. I mean, he said, happening once,
kind of, you can forgive it, but it's dangerous. This is dangerous for him.
Should we read anything into, into his body language, into his tone? And we've been talking
about, about Max this season, a fair bit. Is he really at the end of his tether? And let me
further that question as well. If Max Verstappen leaves Formula One, how big a loss is that for
the sport? I said going into the weekend, they did a column for motorsport on the Friday before
the Grand Prix, that at that point, he'd just come off the back of a very competitive Austria
and had made a big upgrade with the car and it looked like it had really worked. It was, you
know, he's pushing, pushing for the victory all the way. I think he wants, or he wanted at that time
to be convinced that they had it in them to give them that level of competitiveness going forward,
given the season that he's had, he's got his doubts whether that's possible. So I think he
needed further convincing and Silverstone didn't give him that, quite the opposite. So I think
there's, yes, there's some immediate despondency in the disappointment of that in his body language
and what he was saying. But I think there's also some truth in it.
Do you think that Red Bull are maybe letting Max Verstappen down here and would he have
more success or success if he went elsewhere? And I don't mean leaving the sport, I mean going to
a different team. Well, you never know. And from the wonder you never know how quickly the things
can change. What seems like the norm can go on for a long time and then just suddenly switch
competitively. But definitely, if you look at it disproportionately, if you look at the pattern
from the domination of 23 to the bit of a mad scrabble at the end of 24 to a difficult 25
to a really unsuccessful first half of 26, it said that the trend's not going in the right
way. And you wonder is that connected to key people leaving very high level senior people?
Are those two things connected or is it just about the change of formula and, you know,
changing it to be coming into the PU manufacturer? Although the PU seems pretty good.
I don't know. A lot of questions to answer there. So it's always a gamble if you went
to McLaren, would it be better? Yeah, it might be. Could just be that McLaren stays about where it is
and Red Bull make a breakthrough. That seems unlikely in the present. But yeah, I think that
the norm, what's accepted as the norm, can change so certainly. I really would like to call it.
I don't know. What went wrong with his rear wing? The wing was physically closed just as it had been
in qualifying in Austria. As he turns in, the wing is closed. There's no question about that.
The question is whether the airflow had reattached and you can't see that it's not visible.
So when you go from straight line mode to cornering mode, especially with the
Macarena wing, the airflow doesn't just switch on instantly after you ask it to do something else.
Once you ask it to do something else, it has to have time to come through the whole
the underfloor that effuses up to the rear wing. And what's called the boundary layer,
the bit of slow moving air that stays near the surface has to change. And there is delay in that.
And it could be that delay was just a little bit too long and the grip just wasn't there.
The damp force just wasn't there as he lends into the corners, same as in Austria.
There's possibility also that of course the floor stall, as you can get these depending on how
small ride height you've chosen to run and the lower the better at the front.
It can be that you can stall it out, which is possible may have happened.
But the idea that it was just a driver error, twice in a row,
exactly the same type of accident. So going from straight line mode to medium speed corner
just seems ludicrous, especially given that it's max for stable. If it had happened to
a rookie, it would just seem unlikely. And the way that the car goes on both occasions,
not just a snap, it's like a total loss of grip immediately. So it's not recoverable.
So that doesn't it doesn't stack up that it's driver error just just even begin to stack up.
So we got to be looking somewhere else. So I think it's definitely a valid question.
Did the airflow reattach in time? Or was there something else which caused the airflow to
stall out? Well, not but something happened. Red Bull admits there has been a problem with
the rear wing. So it wasn't fight the same at Silverstone as it was in Austria, but isn't
being specific about all that problem is. But there clearly is a technical problem around the rear
wing somewhere. Yeah. So does that mean it needs to have a redesign and how difficult is it to
get around this plot problem? It depends what it feels. I mean, and it depends how well they
understand it. And is it something that they can look at in the wind to go, ah, there it is,
right, found it. Then yeah, it might be really simple, but if might just be one of those ghosts
in the machine things that only comes up every now and again, then yeah, it could be problematical.
Let's just talk safety cars. Get this one dealt with quite a lot of emails, quite a lot of the
messages in about safety cars. The story is that there was a safety car at the end of the race,
and it flashed up on the screen safety car was going to go in, the safety car didn't go in,
and the internet went crazy. So we've had some questions, Mark. I'm just going to put these two
to you, and then we'll move on to the teams themselves. So this is first one's from Martin.
He says, read the safety car restart procedure. Would it not be better to simply bring the safety
car in as soon as the track is clear? It would get racing started sooner and increase jeopardy
for drivers who try to get a cheap pit stop. If they stopped in normal running, they'd have to
repass the slower cars who did not stop, albeit with the help of blue flags. Why is a safety car
stop different? That's from Martin. I think with the current rules, they're trying to
not negatively impact too much. It's trying not to throw as random an element in, although the
safety car is by nature random. But yeah, they're just trying to, I guess, make it a little bit
fairer than it would otherwise be. It depends where you want it. Do you want it as random as
possible, or do you want it to try and be as competitively fair as possible? I don't have
an answer to that, really. Yeah, and I guess the main issue really was it flashed up on the screen
so everyone was expecting the car to go in. But the regulations are pretty clear, aren't they,
that once their cars have unlapped, you still have to go for one more lap. So actually,
I'm surprised in commentary they didn't pick up on that.
Now, what was, they played absolutely correctly. What threw the confusion
into the mix was that erroneous message that safety car in this lap, which was immediately
replaced by another one saying safety car deployed, which was meant to cancel. That was put there
because it was cancelling the safety car in this lap message, which it turns out hadn't been manually
input. It was on the software, it was triggered somehow. So there was some fault on the software
that put that up. And as soon as someone saw it, someone in race control saw it, they had to,
you know, say, no, safety car deployed. And in other words, they were saying, no, safety car is
still out. This is still under the safety car. And they played it absolutely by the regulations.
It was clear that it was just over five laps to go and Verstappenwindorf created the safety car.
It was clear that it might not be cleared up. There might not be enough time to go through the
whole procedure after that was cleared up. Very similar to Abu Dhabi 21. But in this case,
the regulations were correctly followed, unlike on that occasion. And so it just played out behind
the safety car, which was always the risk when you get a safety car that late. The alternative
of a course that was open to risk control was that you could just red flag it and you could
restart it for a lap or two laps or whatever it would have been. That's always an option,
which, you know, they chose not to use. If you'd done that, and especially if you had a standing
start restart, it would have been more exciting for sure. From a sporting perspective,
it put a victory that had been heart ford and heart won by Leclerc at risk to something random.
But again, you could just say that was just part of the game. So yeah, I don't have any
particular strong feelings. I was relieved to see that the safety car regulations were
followed to the regulation this time, unlike in Abu Dhabi all those years ago.
The Baku one, wasn't it Baku same year when Max had the big blowouts and they had the red flag,
and we all know what happened with Lewis Hamilton. If you don't know what happened to Lewis Hamilton,
the restart, go back and watch it on Tinder there and you'll see what happened. That also
contributed to Lewis Hamilton not winning the 2021 World Championship, just putting that out there.
Another question for you, Mark, on the topic of safety cars, given the time of VSE slash
safety cars can significantly influence the outcome of races, should F1 look to address
this potential source of inequity? For example, by reducing the pit lane speed limit during VSE,
so the time loss would be closer to a regular pit stop, that's from Chris Judd. So I guess if
you're going to do that, you've got to limit the speed, the pit lane speed limit to what,
10 kilometers per hour or something like that? Yeah, it would have to be, it would have to be
absolute crawl, wouldn't it, to get those extra 10 seconds to add up. But yeah, you could do it
that way, which would look a bit odd. But yeah, I suppose we'd get used to it. But yes, it's one
way of doing it. I'm not sure it would be any more fast-factory than what we have. It's just an
awkward situation all around. Somebody said, why don't we have, I'd make the cars carry an extra
five laps of fuel just in case, so they can run, you know, the extra five laps after the safety car
at the end. All that would happen then is most people would gamble that there wasn't going to be
a safety car in those last five laps because they usually isn't. And they would use all that fuel
to go faster and then would run out. So yeah, that is, I don't think there's an ideal solution.
Fair enough, fair enough. Let's talk about Ferrari then. This is the topic of your latest column,
the MPH column. It's a really good read. It talks about Lewis Hamilton. It talks about
Charles Leclerc. It talks about setup as well. And you were alluding to that earlier on. So in the
last two races, or for the last two races, we've been assuming, or I've been assuming and certain
people have been assuming that Ferrari was last year having a car that suited Charles Leclerc,
whereas this year they threw all their weight behind Lewis Hamilton and created a car that
designed or now designs his own driving style. But Mark, in your MPH column, you're saying that it's
not quite as simplistic as that? Yeah, I think Lewis did contribute a lot to how this car has
ended up just because he spent most of last year saying, no, these brakes aren't aggressive enough.
I don't like the feel of the pedal. I know I hate this engine braking that you've
built into the car over the years. So next year's car, I don't want either of those things. I want
proper hard brake pedal with really aggressive stopping power. And I want no engine brake
in effect at all. So that's quite a big job for an engineering team to normally to,
you know, to create a car so different in its traits. But they were helped because it was a
regulation, we say anyway. So you were starting from scratch on with everyone else. So that helped.
And also these regulations helped because one of Hampton's problems in the ground
effect era was that you couldn't really get a very good range of balance between your slow corner
understeer and medium to fast speed instability of the rear. Whereas these cars give you a much
greater range and a much more amenable to individual drivers setting them up.
But the point I was making is that the basic car, the SF26, very good car, much better car
than last year's car. The parameters in which it works, it's got a very wide setup window
because these cars have, doesn't intrinsically disadvantage Charles Leclerc.
What Charles has struggled a little bit with these new regulations are that he's no longer
being able to use a very, very intricate way of using the throttle to aid rotation into a corner
because that's very inefficient in terms of your battery usage because it, however much you use
the throttle through the corners is it takes away from being able to use it on the straights. And
there's more lap time on the straight. So the regulations have taken something away from him,
but that's just a little matter of fine chute and then we establish how he's driving that particular
bit. What he's struggled with the last three or four races has been the the brakes as he's made
the same change that Lewis made four races earlier. He's sort of adapted to that. But he,
for Silverstone, he went with a baseline setup. So that's the setup you arrive at at the circuit
ready to hit the track and FP1, which was guided by the simulator at the factory and Lewis, as we
know, distrust the simulator and he'd arrived at a different baseline setup. And as the went
through the practice and towards sprint qualifying, Leclerc realized that Hamlin's was probably a
better direction to go in and he migrated over towards Hamlin's setup in terms of wing levels
and diff settings and things like that. Not the same though, just more towards it. And then on
Friday evening, Leclerc and his engineers saw something in the data that explained why he
might be having such difficulty with that entry phase where you're combining the braking and the
cornering, which is traditionally where he's made up so much time, is because the very sudden and
talky delivery of the the electrics on his cars combined with the way he drives,
and the way he had the diff, he was thinking this was probably giving them problems, especially
through long, fast corners like Silverstone has. So his way of driving is naturally very,
very effective on slow, short corners, very quick direction change. On long, constant radius corners
like you find there, it's less effective and you've been having some difficulty. They found
something in the data and said, what if we just tweaked that and made that a bit less vicious
the way it comes in and the way the diff responds? And that was it, that cracked it. And he was
half a second quicker on Grumbury Qualifying than he'd been the previous day. And he was on
front row, still quite a way off Antonelli's pole, but it was quick again. So he was back,
he's back to how he's been pre-Canada sort of thing. And I was just really making the point
and the collar on that it's not a narrative of Hamilton's made this car that Leclerc doesn't
like. This car is perfectly okay for both of them. And the differences are just in the preferences
on how they're setting it up, not on the basics of the car. The car's fine for them, but...
I'm really interested about this way of setting a car up. Lewis Hamilton, as you say in your
column and say just there doesn't trust simulators, Charlotte Clair seems to be all in for the
simulators. What are the benefits? What's the consensus of thought? Is there a right way of
doing it? Why does Lewis not get the same information out of his sim that Charlotte
Clair does? And why can't Charlotte Clair go the same route as Lewis Hamilton?
I mean, the simulator is, as described on the tune, it only simulates what's really happening
is it's an attempted simulating what's really happening. And if it's been developed as it has
been around what one driver is doing, when another driver comes in and does something
different, it'll take some time to learn that. And the thing is, especially with these cars with
the 26 power units, how everything is so much more interconnected and how you're using the
throttle and the brakes and the corners and what impact that has on the power unit and how that
varies from one track to another, one grip level to another, or the same track even,
that it's suddenly become exponentially more complicated. And it's just, that's not given
very good answers for Lewis. So, you know, quite early in the season, he's just up and I'm not
gonna bother with that. He never has been a big fan of simulators, to be honest. He went for a long
time not using the Mercedes one. I think he just feels that with his experience, he knows what he
wants better than he doesn't need to go on a simulator to find out what the ultimate is because
it never very rarely gives you the ultimate, you know, because it's so variable. I don't think the
technology is quite caught up with the reality, although they're massively more capable than it
used to be. But you know, these things that take about once they've been built, that take three
or four years to actually get them to a reasonable level of accuracy. So, it's learning all the time,
but it's probably just not a very good level for these cars, given that this is the first year
of this formula. So, yeah, I think Lewis, he prioritized, right, long fast corners,
I want lots of rear grip above all else. And that's what he went for on his baseline setting,
and that was that was the way to go. Yeah, he has said for years, isn't he? He doesn't do
Sims. He isn't like Sims because he doesn't have the sensation and he's worried that he'd be numbed.
His senses would be numbed or something. I seem to remember him saying that a few years ago,
didn't he? Stay with Charles Clair, then, because he's talked about finding that feeling in inverted
commas with the car. For those who haven't had any single seat racing experience, I know you have,
what does he mean by that? Is it all about confidence? Is it about trusting and being able
to push the car to the limit and confident in what you're going to get from it? Is it about
sensations that you get from the car? Or is it about maybe reaching a level where you get,
you know, a sense of how to react and when to react? You need to be getting to the level where
all your inputs are automatic. You're just in like a, what's called a flow state. And to get that,
the car needs to be doing what you expect it to do. And once you've sort of settled into that,
and the car has given you all the messages that you feel you need to exploit it, then you've got
a better chance of getting into that flow state where all the inputs are just subconscious really,
and you're just pushing yourself forward. That's what everybody's trying to get to.
That's the state that every driver is trying to achieve through the weekend. And sometimes you
get there and sometimes you don't. So that's what they're looking for. And each driver,
because we're all physiologically wired up differently, each driver needs a different
thing to feel that from the car. So that's where your differing setups come in and the
different car traits come in. Just converting that physiology into a technical engineering.
There's been some technical engineering in that angle then. There's been some talk,
isn't there, that the torque delivery has been reduced on the car. So it's not so instant.
Now, wouldn't that just reduce acceleration? If that's the case, how come Charle-Claire's quicker
with that parameter change? Well, it depends how the torque is being used. If it's coming
into suddenly the wrong part of the corner, you're going to end up having to not go through
the corners quickly, despite the certain torque delivery. So you've got the worst of both wheels,
you've got a compromised corner and you've used up some valuable energy that could have been put
to better use from the straight. So it's just about getting the delivery better and getting the
torque in the right places through the lap where that gives you the better lap time.
Charle-Claire has said that the battle with his car might not be over. Is this a normal way for
a driver to talk about a car that they feel, as they describe, they feel confident in?
Yeah, I think Charle was quite, I think he was trying to give a good answer to,
you know, I think it was an earnest attempt at really explaining what it is, that process that
we've just been talking about. So, you know, it's his second language, so maybe battle isn't
right, but yeah, there's probably an element of it when the car's not giving you what you want,
you probably do feel you're fighting this thing because it's not doing the things that you wanted
to do, whereas suddenly it was from Saturday afternoon onwards, but obviously he's a bit wary
because earlier on it wasn't doing those things, so he's on a path and he's on a direction, he's
hoping it's going to keep going, but he's naturally wary that, you know, he might have to
fight his natural reactions again. It's good for the sport though, isn't it? It's his first win
since 2024, can't believe it's been so long since his last victory, but to have a firing Charle
Claire, a firing Lewis Hamilton, you know, both Mercedes Siemens V doing okay, you know, Kimmy
Antoni needs to finish a race, but he's looking good when he's able to, Max Verstappen is able
to get results, having five, potentially six drivers battling it out on track, that's a great
thing for the sport. It is, yeah, and it's still open, I think, not the championship so much, but
although that's open, but not between all six, I don't think, but competitively from one race
to the next, I think we could still expect something from, you know, all six of the,
well, the two Mercs, definitely the two Ferraris Verstappen's Red Bull, I think, you know, they're
all, it wouldn't be a shock if any of them won races, so yeah, I think that is going to be
quite, you know, quite entertaining as we arrive at the different tracks and the different
strengths and weaknesses of the cars are exposed, so yeah, but it is, it's poised quite nicely.
Staying with the Clare's win though, how much do you think his win was, say, paced versus
circumstance? Does it go down as a statement win, a lucky win, or does it fall in the crack
between the two? Yeah, I mean, it's a statement win in terms of he's back in terms of his personal
performance, he got everything out of the car like I did give, he wasn't going to win it in the
straight running of the race because Antonelli was going way quicker and had only a small gap to
close down and quite a few laps left, so you'd have to say Antonelli was probably easily going
to win it, especially given how easy it was to force somebody to use up their battery in defense
and then down the Wellington Straight and into Cops and then just breeze by them with twice the power
down the Hangar Straight, that was just on the cards, that's the way it was going to be, that's
how he got past Hamilton in the sprint race and it wasn't very satisfying the aspect of the weekend
but that's what was going to happen, so yeah, he was going to be an honourable second in the
straight running of the race but he was back, he was back in terms of the, he was neck and neck
with Hamilton, found a better setup for the race than Hamilton did and so had a better balance
than that first stint which was where Lewis lost all the time really, so yeah he was back, so it
was a statement win but it owed something to Antonelli's misfortune obviously. Ferrari had one
driver that was able to go for victories in Lewis Hamilton, now they've got two drivers that are able
to go for victories in both Leclerc and Hamilton, you said a few weeks ago now, a few episodes
that Toto Wolf should be concerned about Lewis Hamilton, should he now be concerned about both
Ferrari and what should Toto Wolf do about it? I think he can do really, I think, you know,
the way things are, he doesn't need to do anything, he just needs to ensure that they've got a reliable
car, I think that's got to be the biggest worry for Mercedes at the moment, reliability because
the pace is just every race, it's there, the pace is there, you know, so it's just a case of
getting improved reliability but yeah he's definitely got to worry about both the Ferrari
drivers. Yeah if it's not power unit issues it seems to be component failure which is very
frustrating, now as I said before you can read all about that in the latest MPH column and
motorsportmagazine.com, it goes into a lot of detail, that's a really nice quote from
Charles Leclerc, it does beg the question for me actually, we were talking about brakes and
you've mentioned it again this time, let's just quickly talk about brakes for a moment. Lewis
Hamilton's style, being very hard on the brakes, very late braking, do you generate more energy
if you brake harder and if that's the case, does Lewis Hamilton's driving style play
into the hands of these new regulations or am I completely way off topic there?
There is a trade-off between how long you're braking and how hard you're braking.
One was not definitely better than the other but the way that Lewis tends to do it is to brake
late and hard and then use a lot of steering to get the initial rotation, quite an aggressive
steering to get the initial rotation and that's why he's always chasing a very strong rear end
because the initial turning is very sharp whereas Leclerc tends to brake a bit earlier for longer
so in terms of regeneration it's probably not much, that different,
it's just the effect it has on the the aerobalance of the car really, that's a more significance.
Mercedes, let's talk Mercedes, Kim Yantanelli left Monaco with a whopping 66 point lead in the
championship mark, three races on, he's now 25 points ahead of George Russell and others are
closing quickly as we know, how big, and I know you're into psychology a bit with the driver's
mindsets but how big is this psychological blow on Antony given his age as well on losing such a
big championship lead largely through no fault of his own as well? Well I think that last point
that you made through no fault of his own, I think that will allow him to just disregard the doubts
because in terms of performance, he's the man at the moment isn't he, him and that car together
are the gold standard of performance so he knows that, that hasn't changed all its changes, some
things haven't gone right for him in a way that they did before when he won those five races
consecutively, so you know he's still a whole race victory clear of anybody else
and he's the fastest combination out there so I don't think he's got that much to worry about
and I don't think that it will be playing on him in odd Julie you know sorting the reliability out
isn't his problem, he doesn't need to worry about it, he just needs to you know make sure that
it is being attended to which this total will be totally on top of that so now I don't think
psychologically the difficult place to be is where George Russel is at at the moment
so he came away with a second place points for second place but in a normal way that that race
played out he's a very distant fourth beaten not only by his teammate but by two slower
Ferraris, I mean the Ferraris were better than anyone expected Silverstone but they weren't as
quick as the Sadies and yet he was going to finish behind them both and he left there saying well I
haven't done any answers I'm still struggling to understand and he said I came away from Montreal
haven't not scored any points but at least I was in the lead when I retired so I wasn't concerned
and I think that's lack of performance is always a lot more troubling than the actual finishing
position you know which if it's determined by events outside your control and I think
he caught a second place rather than a fourth by events outside his control so tamed into his
favour but I don't think you'd be taken much solace from that his main focus will be where's
that lap time and I suppose Kimmy Arsene has the benefit of youthful exuberance as well so
so how's that confidence of youth do we know any more about what happened to the Mercedes issue you
know how it occurred how it could have been handled maybe more differently and also why did it take
Mercedes so long to understand what had happened because they they pulled Kimmy Antonelli into
the pits they changed the nose cone in the tyres and sent it back out again before they
realised that actually that wasn't the problem yeah all they could see was a massive reduction in
load and Kimmy saying I got the car won't turn I've got no front end at all so it was only when
they were looking at the onboards and they saw that bit sticking up on the left hand side that
they realised what it was it was that since Montreal the way that they've designed the brake
duct has now got a an upright carbon fibre piece to separate the flow to the inside of the of the
wheel into the duct and it was that which just vibrated loose as he went over a curb on the exit
of cops I think it was and yeah so it took two goes to understand what it was in the meantime
they've done a pit stop and in case because the assumption is that something could do with the
wing when you've got no front end and the the aerodynamic loads which you can see from the
readings drastically reduced but yeah it turned out that attended to the wrong thing
and of course you've got a ludicrous penalty I mean I don't know what your thoughts are on that
but you've got a penalty for track limits when there was no advantage gained and it was clearly
an obvious knock on effect from from the damage to the car what are your thoughts on that briefly
because it seems to be ridiculous that that can be an outcome it it's just ludicrous it's
sometimes feels like penalties are applied just because they can be just because the wording is
there but I think the the stewards shouldn't be obliged to apply just because the words would
allow them to I think you know there's a bit of consense needed that yeah as you say it was ludicrous
it was it was no advantage being gained maybe we need to get a certain political leader to make
a phone call and get these penalties turned around again or is that is that too close to
to the bone just staying with with the race though if Leclerc solved his pace issues with
setup change could George Russell do the same absolutely the answer will be in the data somewhere
yes Kimmy is fantastically gifted and he doesn't seem to have a care in the world and is just
quick everywhere George is better on high grip circuits than he is on low grip surface where
he needs a bit of time to to get the feel of it rather than just committing to the very high grip
he's very good at doing but why why that is happening why he's not getting that sensation on
lower grip however that will be in the data somewhere and there will be a way around it that
minimizes the disadvantage of that and you'll just have to you know work at it and find it but
and then the confidence spirals upwards again and everything
writes itself a similar processor we've just seen with Leclerc so yeah I would expect it to come back
but whether it comes back in time who knows that he needs to have confidence in the car doesn't he
now has Mercedes just been unlucky with their recent failures or do you think there's something
a bit more fundamental going on there I think with the pace of development there's a lot of
new parts going on that car and on the Ferrari Ripple there's maybe not time to stress
test everything to the maximum you know I think in the early in the very early days of this new
formula the the development rate is very high and so there's lots of new parts being made
all the time and these as I said the the part that failed at Silverstone that would that had only
been introduced to the car at Montreal so yeah probably not the same rigorous testing stress
testing available in the time I think if you're looking for any reasons why that the reliability
is not so good this year it'd be somewhere in there and the battery thing also
now as always if you want to stay up to date with all the happenings in Formula One go to
motorsportmagazine.com subscribe to the F1 newsletter it'll land in your email inbox
and you can stay all across the news as it happens now I've got a couple of audience questions for
you Mark I'm only going to give you two though because we had those two earlier on it's the first
one's from Nicholas Bins and he says it's quite fiery on by the way but he says has Honda been a
consistent negative in F1 since 1983 they've dumped on Spirit Williams, McLaren, Braun and Red Bull
guessing he's not a fan whilst Renault Ferrari and Mercedes have supplied the grid Honda have
contributed nothing to F1 and taken much. Discuss. I think that's a bit unfair I think
Honda's provided a lot and has established some fantastic partnerships with a wide variety of
teams you know some championships with McLaren, race victories with Lotus and Senna Williams
titles are a name on to the run of success with Red Bull so yeah they've like most automotive
manufacturers they come in and out but those things are dictated by economics and board
groups decisions with us to deal with the financials so I don't think they can be
criticised for you know not always being able to be such a fantastic presence as there sometimes
have been I think we would be lucky to have them as much as we have you know manufacturers come and
go that's just the nature of it and I think they've been one of the best one most consistent
supporters of F1 and it brought some fantastic technology to it so no I disagree with that.
Well we'd like a bit of controversy don't we from time to time next question Mark is from Peter he
says Mark since 2019 teams have increasingly used matte paints on their cars the reason I mostly see
given is one of saving a few grams of weight however as I learned during a course on aerodynamics
a few years ago a slight rough surface even at an almost microscopic level bonds the boundary
layer closer to the surface over which the air flows could this be closer to the actual reason
for the use of matte finishes yes I think that's that that is the main advantage of the matte
finishes I don't think it is to do with weight I think when you see the cars without any payments
urban just bear carbon fiber that's weight but when they're using matte finishes it's to do with
you know microscopic surface area and it's just yeah it is aerodynamic so yeah I think you actually
spot on with that one. Great question there Peter now Mark we're going to finish on the very simple
topic of regulations because there's been talk of maybe the FIA taking steps backwards with the
new set of regulations and the FIA President Mohammed Ben Salah and even hinting that they'd
look to limit the number of teams manufacturers can supply engines to limiting it just to one team
and the other teams then using an engine or power unit supplied by the FIA much in the same way that
Toka do with British touring car. Yes it sounds on the surface you know a very equitable way of
trying to arrange things if you were cynical you'd also say it gives the FIA more power relative to
Formula One but the the commercial half of Formula One so I'm a cynic by nature in terms of that so
I think yeah I mean yes he's saying why can't we recreate a bit of history when like when
Cosworth used to supply all the teams apart from Ferrari and the odd manufacturer but basically
70 or 80 percent of the grid and then there's no question that everybody has a competitive
engine and everything's great but I question whether it would be feasible for an independent
supplier to have the same level of resource as the factory and you may end up with the independent
the independence having a power disadvantage where at the moment they don't have you know if
they're with the right manufacturer so yeah the pros and cons of I don't think it's guaranteed
way of making it fairer but I think it would be a guaranteed way of giving the FIA more power than
relative to F1 and the economy cars I do worry though if they do that then manufacturers might
lose interest in Formula One because if they lose the revenue stream of being able to supply
engines to other teams that might be a big big hole in their wallet what about the idea of
bringing refueling back to Formula One and is this the right direction would it improve the racing
it would be a way of bringing the weight of the cars down so you know rather than having
100 kilos of fuel in if you only got like 30 or 40 kilos in it's obviously better the cars are
going to be more agile but in terms of the type of racing you would get I'm not sure you know
this this series of flat-out sprints now they may not it may not be television friendly
um I don't know I think that's a solution necessarily but it would be a way of making
the cars more agile well there you go mark we made it through another episode next time out
there's the build up to the Belgian Grand Prix so I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about that before
you go though who asked the best question was it Nicholas and the Honda topic was it Peter
and the paint or was it those two about the safety cars and the vsc
Peter's on the paint Peter the paint well done to you and thank you to you as always mark
okay thank you thank you all thanks very much there to mark and thank you to you as well for
tuning in don't forget to like and subscribe set those notifications so you never miss an episode
and tell your friends about the f1 show the multiple f1 show mark you've spread the word
more viewers more questions and you can get your questions in for next time by going to
motorsportmagazine.com or by leaving them on the comment section of the youtube video now the
latest issue of the magazine is available in the shops it's an absolute corker it covers Russell
and Antonelli Norris and Piastri Hamilton and Leclerc do you think we'll be talking about these
in the same breakfast formula one's greatest teammates we count down to the best f1 pairings
in history in the august issue of motorsports Frost and Senna, Fangio and Moss, Schumacher and
Barrichello but you'll have to read it for the full list plus there's two iconic moments from
racing history the wild beginnings of Kanam 60 years ago and there's Ford's World Cup winning
touring car as I say plenty to get your teeth into and available in the shops or at motorsportmagazine.com
as always thanks so much for tuning in we'll see you next time
About this episode
Silverstone delivered a mixed bag: Ferrari’s resurgence looked real, with Charles Leclerc finding pace from qualifying onward thanks to setup tweaks around energy delivery and diff settings, while Mercedes struggled—George Russell couldn’t consistently convert speed into results despite a lucky sprint win for Antonelli. The biggest storyline was Red Bull’s late-race crash for Max Verstappen, raising fears about his mindset and the team’s technical reliability. The rear-wing issue and airflow/ground-effect timing were debated, alongside a safety-car confusion that sparked online outrage but was ultimately handled per the rules.
Max Verstappen arrived at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on a high after an upswing in his Red Bull's performance. But after crashing out of the Formula 1 race, after a rear wing issue, the four-time champion sounded despondent
Red Bull must now face the possibility that he will leave the team, or even Formula 1, at the end of the season, says Mark Hughes in the latest episode of the Motor Sport F1 Show.
He and host Bryn Lucas examine what Verstappen's options are, and what went wrong last weekend.
At the opposite end of the scale, Charles Leclerc's fortunes changed for the better; after struggling in this year's Ferrari, which was designed with Lewis Hamilton's influence, it all clicked for Leclerc who raced to victory. What changed, and did Ferrari let Hamilton have too much influence? All is not as simple as it seems,
Mark and Bryn also talk about the discontent over the race ending under the safety car; why reliability is becoming a Mercedes bugbear; and whether F1 should reintroduce refuelling.
Plus, Mark answers your questions on matte paint, Honda's F1 record, and solutions to the safety car problem.
Subscribe now for every weekly episode and tell us what you want to know from Mark. Send us a message on social media or find this podcast at https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4wvTMdI and drop your questions in the comments. He'll answer a selection of the best every week.
Read Mark's column every Wednesday at https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4wvTMdI
