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Australia and China GPs
44 Plays4 months ago
Apologies for the late recap and the audio issues. We will do better for Japan but we fought through a lot to get this one out.
We recap the Offseason briefly before discussing the Australian and Chinese GPs and take brief look toward Japan.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Social Media
00:00:02
ayrryk
and we are live welcome to another episode of fast and neat with joy and eric i am your host at a y r r y k on blue sky and twitter eric no not blue sky and tiktok eric i'm joined today by my co-host joy joy where can the people find you on social media
00:00:12
Joy
Thank you.
Excitement for New F1 Season and Apple TV Access
00:00:26
Joy
The people can find me at Oh How Joyous across every platform. That is O-H-H-O-W-J-O-Y-O-U-S. I am excited to talk about this new season of Formula One. Let's go. I've been learning so much.
00:00:44
ayrryk
All right, we are recording now post the second race of the season. We had couple of technical issues and a few things pop up. So we were not able to get out as early as we would want.
00:00:59
ayrryk
Some fire alarms and family stuff came up, but we are now ready to recap Australia and China.
00:01:00
Joy
Thank
00:01:09
ayrryk
Joy, your your overall all first impressions having seen the first two races the changes to formula one post engine change and aero regulation changes plus the addition of a new team how are you feeling how did it feel high level
00:01:35
Joy
I think I like where everybody is going. I think this season is much clearer. So last season, I ain't know nothing. Okay. I was a ah ah golden retriever.
00:01:49
Joy
Thoughts and minds clear.
00:01:49
ayrryk
Yeah.
00:01:50
Joy
Okay. So now that I have a baseline of things and they have switched to Apple TV, which makes it much easier for me to like watch recap, catch up.
00:02:06
Joy
I think this season is an opportunity for me to really get like my bearings all the way. I like what I'm seeing. I do have questions. Um, I got a whole note in my phone. So yeah it it's looking good, but I have questions. Shout out to Cadillac. Okay. Cadillac coming into the fold, but I definitely have questions, but I think just the whole Apple TV move makes it much easier for me to like follow along. And it makes me question, did I miss some stuff last season or is this stuff new? So I'm excited to talk about that.
00:02:46
ayrryk
Yes, I would agree. While I was not necessarily the biggest fan of the move to Apple TV, just because it does take it off of broadcast TV, um part of them being with ESPN is that you did, when they were in kind of the Western Hemisphere, get those ABC broadcast episodes.
00:03:05
Joy
so
00:03:07
ayrryk
um The fact of that everything is in one place, you can get all the practices, you can get all the sprint races, you can get all everything right there. They have their own channels for everything.
00:03:20
ayrryk
now Because Apple TV already has experience with you know premiering high-level shows and movies, they were ready for the influx.
00:03:31
ayrryk
And so i don't necessarily love that it's gone entirely over to streaming, but I do appreciate the fact that, hey, it is all readily available. And um if you make an F1 TV account, you can link that account to your Apple TV, and that will let you log into F1 TV, which will also give you access to older races.
F1 Regulations and Team Dynamics Discussion
00:03:57
ayrryk
So if you want to go back and watch, you know,
00:04:00
ayrryk
what Senna was like to watch, what Elaine Frost was like to watch when they were racing, you do get access to all of those old races too. As much historiography, I think, as they were able to pack on, they also have there.
00:04:16
ayrryk
It looks like Apple TV is also making space for F1 Academy, which is the women's focused racing series. f one is you know formula the one is the top level they also have formula three and formula two which are different regulations each regulation is a formula that's why it's formula one that is the top set of regulations formula two is a slightly lower set of regulations formula three is slightly lower than that those are standardized races so all of the cars are standardized
00:04:57
ayrryk
They're all basically the same, just with different liveries. And then they race in all kinds of different styles. Well, not all kinds of different styles, but different ways than Formula One does.
00:05:09
Joy
Thank you.
00:05:10
ayrryk
Formula One is the only one where the cars are bespoke at that level, where every team has a different car with different behaviors and different development.
00:05:21
ayrryk
That is one of the things that drivers have to adjust to when they get to F1
00:05:28
ayrryk
Hey, previous to this, all the cars were the same. They all had the same top performance. They all had the same aero. You were all in the same machinery. And now you're moving to where your car has very distinct characteristics based off of how your team developed it.
00:05:48
ayrryk
And you need to give feedback to help the engineers develop the car in whatever direction they need to go. And that is one of the things that challenges a lot of young drivers is giving that feedback, helping develop the car, helping match the simulator to the car so that they know and understand what the behaviors
Cadillac's Entry into F1 and Car Development Challenges
00:06:14
ayrryk
are what is happening.
00:06:15
ayrryk
That is why, shout out to Cadillac, the Cadillac has brought in Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Chico Perez because they are Experienced drivers who have helped develop cars over years who have been in championship winning cars who have been in developing cars and can give the kind of feedback they will need to really be able to craft their Car for the future and develop their engineers their wind tunnel all of those things for the long term That's part of why they brought in these very experienced drivers But overall like I said
00:06:55
ayrryk
I'm happy with the move to Apple TV.
00:06:56
Joy
Thank you.
00:06:57
ayrryk
It does standardize a lot of things.
00:07:02
ayrryk
ah have mixed feelings on the regulations. I like how much action it does create, even if it is a little artificial. I understand people who feel like it feels a little too artificial that, you know, when they get to the end of a straight or they run out of battery, then they just get repassed.
00:07:23
ayrryk
and that it you know that it's artificially creating that, but let's be honest, DRS was artificial, that the person behind gets to open up their rear wing the person in front doesn't.
00:07:32
Joy
Thank you.
00:07:38
ayrryk
The tires have a fall-off clip is artificial. Pirelli is told, make it so that the cars can't last the entire race. It's not as though Pirelli can't make a tire that is that fast.
00:07:50
ayrryk
and also goes the entire race distance, of course they can. The sport is artificial, that's why it's a sport.
00:08:01
ayrryk
There are plenty of basketball players who could probably shoot from points that are off of the actual court. You have to stay on the court and shoot, and you have to be contested by another person. Sports are artificial, it is an artificial kind that's That's part of what we're doing here, right?
00:08:21
ayrryk
And so I understand. i don't disagree. I just think that it is generating interesting racing. um My wonderful mother-in-law actually, I believe, watched the China Grand Prix and was texting my wife about how much she was enjoying the excitement of them passing each other back and forth and them battling.
00:08:46
ayrryk
um In particular, Lewis and Charles battling um as they were kind of in that middle stint. And that feels like it's good for Formula One in general.
00:08:58
ayrryk
So I am also pretty happy with where things are at at the moment, aside from Mercedes and Benz.
Mercedes vs Ferrari Rivalry and Driver Focus
00:09:08
Joy
You got it. I feel like, okay, so obviously, what so Australia and China are the two races that have gone down. And I will say the back and forth between Mercedes and Ferrari, especially um Ferrari's two players, Lewis and his teammate, what's his name?
00:09:36
Joy
Look, It's not LEC.
00:09:39
ayrryk
Charles Leclerc or Charles Leclerc or Charles E.
00:09:41
Joy
LeClerc.
00:09:45
ayrryk
Clair depending on there's a whole bunch of like it's actually kind of political how you pronounce his name because he is Monagast he's from Monaco and so whether you are Grinch and think Monaco shouldn't be its own separate principality or not.
00:10:07
ayrryk
Whether he is Charles Leclerc, Charles Leclerc, or Charles Leclerc is like... It's a little bit, how do you want to say it? It's a little bit actually vaguely political. How you say his name, but he seems to not really care.
00:10:27
Joy
OK. OK. okay um
00:10:31
ayrryk
Charles.
00:10:33
Joy
Listen, the back and forth between him and Lewis during the Chinese. I said, now, wait a minute. Are they on the same team or not? But I get it. Everybody's trying to place.
00:10:45
Joy
I think this has been the best driving I've seen from Lewis only because I came in last season. And I think Lewis didn't really care last season because he was changing teams anyway.
00:10:55
ayrryk
He did not like those cars.
00:10:59
Joy
Like last season, he drove for... his Was it his last season?
00:11:03
ayrryk
Ferrari.
00:11:04
Joy
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
00:11:05
ayrryk
No, that was his first season with Ferrari, but with the old Rex.
00:11:07
Joy
But he knew that they were going to change.
00:11:09
ayrryk
Yeah.
00:11:10
Joy
Got it. And so this is my, I feel like this is my first time really seeing Lewis drive. And I said, okay, we in here. We in here with the big leagues. And that back and forth, I said, oh, are are they teammates or not? But it ain't a team race.
00:11:28
Joy
So I got it.
00:11:28
ayrryk
Yes.
00:11:29
Joy
I understood, like, you're trying to place.
00:11:31
ayrryk
Fred Vasseur, the team principal, the president of the team. Well, you can't say president of the team because all the teams are corporations and so also they have CEOs and presidents and such. But the team principal, who's kind of like the head coach, Fred Vasseur, said in interviews later, it would have been unfair to call off the fight.
00:11:59
ayrryk
Like, they both have a chance. They both can go at it. I'm going to let them race. We don't have anything on the line right now.
00:12:10
ayrryk
We're probably not goingnna catch for heart we probably not going to catch Mercedes. So we're going to let them race. We're gonna let them see who can come out ahead. And, you know, I feel like it made it mean a little bit more to Lewis to, after a year of not getting a podium, to get back onto it.
00:12:29
ayrryk
knowing that they let them race, that he, on the merits, beat Charles. He, on the merits, got where he did in the qualifying and was able to put it in third.
00:12:42
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:12:44
ayrryk
I think it made it mean more than if they had done team orders and told Charles, hey, back off, so Lewis can have fresh tires or have a little bit more rubber so he can maybe challenge George later.
00:12:59
ayrryk
I understand why as a team game you might do that, but I do appreciate Fred Vassure saying, no I'm going let him go at it I'm going to let him fight. And however it ends up, it ends
00:13:14
Joy
Well, it was, I mean, it made for a really good race. It made for a really good race. I did enjoy them in Melbourne, but I feel like China, I said, oh, we really getting into it.
00:13:27
ayrryk
Yeah.
00:13:28
Joy
Yeah.
00:13:28
ayrryk
All right, let's we'll jump back a little bit. I don't want to dwell on this, but we're going to hit preseason testing really quickly. ah They go to Bahrain, they break out the cars, and it's pretty clear Mercedes has an engine advantage everyone can touch.
00:13:50
Joy
what Yeah, Mercedes is is um
00:13:56
Joy
Russell and what's the new kids name?
00:13:58
ayrryk
Antonelli.
00:14:00
Joy
Antonelli. I think they they they dominated the whole book.
00:14:02
ayrryk
Kimi Antonelli.
00:14:05
Joy
I mean, the whole time.
00:14:07
ayrryk
Yes. um
00:14:08
Joy
The whole time.
00:14:09
ayrryk
Russell was Lewis's teammate two years ago.
00:14:15
Joy
Oh.
00:14:15
ayrryk
And a couple of years before, and a year before that as well. Kimi Antonelli is why Mercedes didn't want to give Lewis the deal Lewis wanted like brass tacks.
00:14:29
ayrryk
They knew they had him and they didn't want to spend so much time or commit so heavily to Lewis that Kimmy's contract would run out run out and he would leave.
00:14:37
Joy
oh
00:14:46
ayrryk
They knew got this kid coming and we're not going to risk him and his development. So we're only signing you to one year, two year deals.
00:15:01
ayrryk
And we're not going to overcommit because we know have this kid coming up and he looks like the real deal.
00:15:11
Joy
I mean, you know, his drive improved it in on the on the China race.
00:15:18
ayrryk
Yes, and he is. He's definitely the real deal. um I mean, the real thing that for a lot of people is the question is the fact that What Lewis seems to have really wanted or one of the things that he really wanted was an ambassadorship deal, which is to bring it be a brand ambassador after he's done racing.
00:15:35
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:15:39
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:15:41
ayrryk
And then financial commitments to his Mission 44 charity that works to develop underrepresented people in Formula One on the engineering side and driving side.
00:15:56
ayrryk
And that Mercedes brass was not willing to commit financially to that.
00:15:56
Joy
Oh, gotcha.
00:16:05
ayrryk
And Ferrari said, sure, how much do you want?
00:16:05
Joy
Because... Probably say, come on over. We love a winner. Mm-hmm.
00:16:14
ayrryk
We love a win. We love money. Do you know how much merch we're going to sell if Lewis Hamilton is wearing Ferrari?
00:16:17
Joy
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:16:22
ayrryk
Ferrari is already the most storied, most colorful, most recognized brand in Formula One. And if we add the winningest driver in Formula One history, Lewis Hamilton, that's just making a machine that prints money.
00:16:39
Joy
Yeah, I could see that.
00:16:41
ayrryk
And so, we're gonna print money.
00:16:46
Joy
i could see that. Okay. That makes sense. that I mean, the kid is good. The kid is really good, but business moves.
00:16:52
ayrryk
He is And for context, after the China race, Valtteri Bottas, who was all Lewis's teammate for years, who is now at Cadillac, posted a picture thanking Toto Wolff for a lift home.
00:17:09
Joy
Got it.
00:17:13
ayrryk
That was Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton, and oh George Russell on Total Wolf's plane flying back to Monaco together.
00:17:31
ayrryk
lewis' old year team ma Louis' Louis' last teammate, and Louis' old boss all flying together back home.
Mercedes' Engine Technology and Advantages
00:17:41
ayrryk
By all accounts, if Total Wolf had his way, he would never have let go of Louis and Valtteri, but He is one third of the decision making at Mercedes f one And the other two thirds you need to look at the future.
00:18:03
ayrryk
And not who you're friends with and who you're close to.
00:18:03
Joy
All right.
00:18:08
Joy
And the kid is the future for them.
00:18:11
ayrryk
And that kid is the future. And so, but jumping back. We're at Bahrain. Mercedes seems to have it together. um and people start asking questions, and it pretty quickly becomes clear, hey, Mercedes engine seems like it has a higher compression than it's supposed to.
00:18:40
ayrryk
Basically, when you inject fuel into the cells that the actual torque and force.
00:18:53
ayrryk
um The higher compression you can get, then the more energy you can generate for the amount of fuel. And so, you know, you have in a v four you have four chambers of V6, you have six chambers and a v eight you have eight chambers.
00:19:10
ayrryk
And so into each of those chambers, you inject fuel, light a spark, that spark causes a miniature explosion. BAM! Pushes the thing piston down. That piston helps rotate the drive shaft and that propels the car forward.
00:19:29
ayrryk
The greater pressure you can generate in there, the more force you can generate in so the faster you can make the car go. There are rules about how much compression you can have in there.
00:19:41
ayrryk
But those rules are tested on a cold engine. You take a cold engine in plug it in, you hook all the sensors up, you start the engine up, you run it for a period of time, and it measures.
00:19:56
Joy
What they testing on a cold engine for?
00:19:59
ayrryk
Because that's how the test is designed.
00:20:03
Joy
Okay. Okay.
00:20:04
ayrryk
And Mercedes noted that. And they designed their engine with specific materials and in a specific way.
00:20:15
ayrryk
so that when the temperature rises, it generates greater compression in there, and therefore more speed at higher temperatures.
00:20:30
Joy
You telling me everybody else didn't know that it was a cold engine thing? OK, so this brings me to one of my first questions. OK, on Apple TV, now that we're watching the boost and overtake.
00:20:43
ayrryk
Yes.
00:20:44
Joy
ah Meters or I'm watching the batteries, I'm like, oh, God, did I just not pay attention last season or is this new? But it got to be new.
00:20:53
ayrryk
That's new. Yeah.
00:20:54
Joy
And that has to do with this compression rate, right?
00:20:59
ayrryk
Well, that's part two.
00:21:00
Joy
Kind of.
00:21:03
ayrryk
They're potentially connected.
00:21:03
Joy
Okay.
00:21:04
ayrryk
So that is the first part. Is that Mercedes engine may generate. Mercedes says it's worth wine one one to ten horsepower.
00:21:19
ayrryk
Max Verstappen has said it's worth closer to like 10 to 20 horsepower.
00:21:26
Joy
Okay.
00:21:27
ayrryk
The other thing that seems to be true is that Mercedes figured out for their engine and their layout how to regenerate energy better and more efficiently around a track.
00:21:43
ayrryk
So that over the course of a lap as because they as part of the regulation changes they
00:21:44
Joy
okay
00:21:53
ayrryk
changed how you also regenerate energy. The old cars also had this, where you would regenerate energy for the battery from braking, from your braking energy, from clipping, and those types of things that that would regenerate your battery. The same as your streetcar.
00:22:20
ayrryk
What
00:22:20
Joy
Okay.
00:22:23
ayrryk
One of the changes is that in the old cars they used to also regather heat energy from the exhaust, I believe.
00:22:35
ayrryk
And they used to use that to also gather energy to recharge the battery. They got rid of that.
00:22:42
Joy
Okay.
00:22:42
ayrryk
Because that's not a thing that you really do in street cars. It's very expensive. It's very finicky. It was causing a lot of issues.
00:22:53
ayrryk
So now basically all of the energy that you get is regenerated mechanically from braking or running the engine in certain modes that creates more friction to pull energy and regenerate the battery.
Ferrari's Technological Innovations
00:23:11
ayrryk
The other thing is that Mercedes seems to have figured out how to do this more efficiently than everybody.
00:23:22
ayrryk
And not just more efficiently than the other engine makers, more efficiently than the other people using their engines.
00:23:22
Joy
It's
00:23:27
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:23:34
Joy
Okay.
00:23:35
ayrryk
Because McLaren uses Mercedes engine and they can't do this. Williams uses Mercedes engine and they can't do this.
00:23:46
ayrryk
They did the math. And now they get access to the engine earlier because they developed it. They have more intimate intimate knowledge of because they make it. But they did the math and they figured out how to regenerate energy more efficiently.
00:24:05
ayrryk
And people began to really notice that during testing. The other thing that they really noticed that has not actually come into races yet.
00:24:16
ayrryk
The big thing is Ferrari's what Fred Vassure has called the Macarena wing.
00:24:24
Joy
What?
00:24:26
ayrryk
So Ferrari, so as you've seen during the race, one of the rule changes also is that active aero is allowed now.
00:24:31
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:24:35
ayrryk
So when they go down the straights, you can see the front wings in front of the car where the fender would be open up. You can see the rear wing open
00:24:47
ayrryk
That used to only be if you were within a second of another card for you to try and pass them, but now that can open up every turn. That's just active arrow. You can do that all the time.
00:25:02
ayrryk
One of the things that Ferrari developed is called Macarena Wing, where instead of their wing just opening, we it flips all the way over.
00:25:19
Joy
Is that what I saw?
00:25:19
ayrryk
the
00:25:21
Joy
Okay. Okay. ok I might have noticed that.
00:25:24
ayrryk
uh i'm not yeah i'm not sure if it's been running a race yet but the thought is that either it allows them to open up the space wider allowing more air through letting them move faster or that it allows them to actually generate some degree of a lift uh
00:25:39
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:25:49
ayrryk
What happens when you have that rear wing is generates downforce which pushes the car into the ground making the tires make better contact giving the driver more control.
00:26:03
ayrryk
The thought is that if it is generating lift then it is raising those tires up to the surface which makes it faster but wears the tires out quicker.
00:26:16
Joy
Okay, so you pit sooner.
00:26:19
ayrryk
ah potentially, but if it's only on the straight, then you're kind of getting the benefit of both, where in the corners, you get all of the stick to the ground, all of the control, and in the straights, you get all of the greatest straight-line speed the car can generate.
00:26:36
Joy
Okay.
00:26:39
ayrryk
That is one of the things. that The other thing that was noticed with Ferrari is when these regulations were made, One of the other things that they did when they got rid of all the extra electrical stuff is they made some rules around how much electrical energy you can deploy when.
00:26:58
ayrryk
So at start, you have a limited amount of electrical energy until you get up to a certain speed. And Fred Vassure, team principal of Ferrari, put his hand up and said, hey guys, if we do these rules, you know, the turbo,
00:27:16
ayrryk
is the other thing that forces air into all of these cylinders.
00:27:23
ayrryk
That's going to take a while to spin up. And get up to you know speed and temperature and everything to force the right amount of air in. So that could cause some real issues at the start.
00:27:35
ayrryk
If you use a really big turbo.
00:27:40
ayrryk
And everyone said, quiet Fred. We're not worried about that.
00:27:43
Joy
you
00:27:46
ayrryk
And Fred said, okay, maybe I'm going. And so Ferrari built their engine with little bit smaller turbo that spins up faster.
00:27:55
Joy
Thank you.
00:28:01
ayrryk
And so the Ferrari shoots off the line like a bullet at every start.
00:28:12
ayrryk
And all the other teams thought that and went, oh no. Hey, FIA, we can't, this seems dangerous. You know, if cars are too slow getting off the line, it could be dangerous and we really need to change this.
00:28:27
ayrryk
And so they adjusted it so that you now have, ah you see all the cars come up and you see that blue box come up and all the cars start revving and it waits for like five seconds and then the countdown sequence starts.
00:28:42
Joy
Yeah. What?
00:28:44
ayrryk
That is because of that turbo issue. And then the Ferraris shoot off the line.
00:28:53
ayrryk
Ahead of everybody. Because they have a smaller turbo which allows their engine to spin up quicker. And they shoe past everyone. And everyone went, oh That's also a problem.
00:29:07
ayrryk
To the point where George Russell has been complaining to the FIA saying They need to change the start procedure more to address this issue.
00:29:18
Joy
They told him to shut up, man.
00:29:21
ayrryk
Fred Vesior has already responded saying, look, we've changed it enough already. I raised this issue over a year ago and you all told me we'll just design the engine around it.
00:29:35
ayrryk
So what are we doing here? Everyone else decided not to. So now, where are the ones who are supposed to suffer because everyone else decided to ignore it?
Red Bull's Challenges and Management Changes
00:29:46
Joy
right.
00:29:46
ayrryk
Or, at what point are the rules the rules?
00:29:53
ayrryk
And so those are kind of the big things that came for everybody out of testing, in addition to the fact that the Aston Martin was a bad car.
00:30:03
Joy
And the Aston Martin had a, I ain't seen no talk about the Aston Martin. None of it. Everybody's,
00:30:13
Joy
I think it's, it.
00:30:13
ayrryk
you saw them stop their cars before the end of the race.
00:30:17
Joy
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:30:20
ayrryk
um In part because there's some issue between the engine or the engine and the aerodynamics that makes the car shake to the point where the driver's like, we lose feelings in our feeling in our hands.
00:30:35
Joy
Sheesh. Okay. I mean, in my notes, I wrote down the Ashton, not Ashton Martin, Red Bull was trash. ah Literally, in my note, red Red Bull must be trash this season.
00:30:44
ayrryk
Oh.
00:30:47
Joy
Ha ha ha. In my notes. But Ashton Martin sound like they're doing worse than Red Bull.
00:30:53
ayrryk
yeah I mean, they are behind them. Red Bull is having its own issues.
00:30:57
Joy
Yeah.
00:31:00
ayrryk
Their new team principal replacing Christian Horner after multiple issues, including his...
00:31:11
ayrryk
infidelity scandal with a member of the team. What is believed to be a kind of team politics issue that basically he tried. so
00:31:25
ayrryk
Red Bull is divided effectively into two sides. It's European side and it's Thai side. The the former CEO of Red Bull was a German or Austrian man, I believe German, who traveled to Thailand, discovered this energy drink, went, talked to the CEO, and was like, what is this? That thing that all of these workers are drinking to get their energy up, and they're like, oh, it's this soft drink I made called Red Bull that has guarana, it gives them a bunch of energy, and he was like, I would like to start a company with you and sell it in Europe.
00:32:06
ayrryk
um I will give you 49% of the company. I will take 49% of the company. and will give the other 2% to your son if you let me run the company.
00:32:25
ayrryk
And the guy said, okay, sure. And so they did. And he took Red Bull and made it the international brand that it is today.
00:32:35
Joy
I did not know that's how Red Bull came about.
00:32:36
ayrryk
And then that is Dietrich Mateschitz. And he died three years ago. Give or take. And so then there was a big fight between the German family and the Thai family and all of the divisions in between over what the direction of the company would be, who would be in charge.
00:33:01
ayrryk
And that's, I mean, Red Bull. proper and then also what would happen with Red Bull Racing. That seems to have settled down and Christian Horner seems to have lost out and was pushed out of the company.
00:33:21
Joy
Cool.
00:33:22
ayrryk
Word is that he is currently part of, I believe, a group trying to bid on ownership of Alpine.
00:33:22
Joy
Okay.
00:33:34
ayrryk
Because he, as a long-time team principal for Red Bull, what he was really trying to get is what Total Wolf has. Where Total Wolf is not only the team principal for the Mercedes AMG F1 racing team, he also is an owner of that team.
00:33:53
ayrryk
He owns in the neighborhood of like 30%. That is what Christian Horner wants. He wants to be a part owner and team principal. Where you can't just force him out and where he gets a portion of the profits of the team not just a salaried employee just but uh that seems to be what he wanted and that seems to be ultimately trying to secure that uh and not succeeding seems to be part of what cost him ultimately his job that and again having an affair with a subordinate um in a deeply inappropriate relationship
00:34:37
Joy
Okay.
00:34:39
Joy
Well, Red Bull got a way bigger fish to fry, I suppose, because from what I have seen in the race is not the best.
00:34:43
ayrryk
Yes, and uh...
Preseason Testing Insights and Team Strategies
00:34:50
ayrryk
No. And what Red Bull also lost is their Aerodynamics Guru, who left and became the Aerodynamics Guru and Team Principal for Aston Martin.
00:35:03
Joy
Oh.
00:35:05
ayrryk
Though Aston Martin's primary issues seem to be engine, but you've got to get it all the
00:35:05
Joy
Okay.
00:35:14
ayrryk
I mean, these are a lot of the storylines coming into here. Is Adrian Newey, a recognized guru, a man who has helped create the aerodynamics for multiple championship winning cars, is in his first time as a team principal, and it's not necessarily going great, but a lot of the issue seems to be with the engines of fire.
00:35:39
ayrryk
You know, Cadillac isn't tearing up the charts, but they're a brand new team, stood up from the ground up, and they do, you know, they're doing about as well as people expected.
00:35:50
ayrryk
Audi has taken over a team and seems to have really pushed their way to the top of that kind of midfield along with Haas and seems to be performing well. McLaren seems to have taken a step back with the new engine and aero regulations, though they took a step back a and So it seems like they're really trying to wrap their arms and their heads around what's going on and get back into that fight.
00:36:21
ayrryk
Williams, their car is overweight. They aren't able to extract everything from the engine Mercedes is. And cars come into the season overweight.
00:36:32
ayrryk
Red Bull was overweight a year or two ago. And once they got the weight down, was able to really start tearing it up. And so that there's i mean there's known issues.
00:36:43
ayrryk
There's known development curve. There's stuff people got to work through to get there. But these that this was a lot, of again, of what was noticed in preseason testing.
00:36:53
ayrryk
And then we all picked up and went to Australia. And as Christian Horner famously said, qualifying in Australia is when everyone drops trowel and you see what you've got.
00:37:12
Joy
Well, i'll show you mercedes yeah yeah Australia,
00:37:13
ayrryk
A true wordsmith, a man.
00:37:18
Joy
I mean, I feel like Mercedes really blew them out of the water. Ferrari was like, hey, also, don't forget about us. Which was fantastic.
00:37:28
ayrryk
Yeah.
00:37:30
Joy
and I was like, OK, I was just happy to see. Well, in the first race. what Cadillac went out, but then China, they stayed in. I said, okay, that's good for them.
00:37:41
ayrryk
Yeah.
00:37:41
Joy
um
00:37:44
Joy
And like, don't know, there was a really, specifically China, was I feel like was a really good race, and but Australia, yeah, I feel like people were like, all right, we set the tone, we getting out here.
00:38:00
ayrryk
Yes.
00:38:00
Joy
Also, Verstappen, Let's talk about Verstappen really quick because I feel like Verstappen was... He had a good season last season.
00:38:15
ayrryk
good.
00:38:16
Joy
And Verstappen right now, I said, Verstappen, speed up.
00:38:16
ayrryk
Started a little slow, but recovered very well.
00:38:24
Joy
Pass him. Do something. um i was i was disappointed. I was like, oh, it's a name that I remember, obviously. But he not racing like he raced last season.
00:38:38
ayrryk
No. um So this is due to a couple of changes. One is the engine changes, how you have to spin up, how you have to regather energy.
00:38:49
ayrryk
Also the aero changes and how they combine with each other. There's been some discussion about how different drivers would like it more or less. Alex Albin, who used race on the same team as Verstappen, said, I think Lewis Hamilton really regulations. I think his style of driving is a very compatible with what you need to do to have success with these cars.
00:39:18
Joy
Thank you.
00:39:18
ayrryk
And Verstappen was having a lot of success with the old regulations. So there's a little bit of bias there.
00:39:29
ayrryk
One. Two, these regulations create a different kind of artificialness. It's about generating battery power and preserving it and when to deploy it and not running out before the end. And that is artificial in a way.
00:39:44
ayrryk
And I think Verstappen is a victim of the combination of it's a style of driving that doesn't necessarily suit him as much and isn't how he likes to drive.
00:39:52
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:39:58
ayrryk
And then his team's car is just not up to par with everyone, which just makes it worse because now I don't like how I have to drive this car and I'm not having success on the track and that's not going to work for you well.
00:40:24
Joy
Got it. Okay. That explains why Verstappen ain't stopping nothing. I said, oh, Verstappen, you just in the back doing the bare minimum. When I saw him at 10, I said, well, speed up. I don't know what you can do, but i don't think I don't think you can do anything. And that proved to be kind of like the same thing in both races.
00:40:49
Joy
I mean, he moved from 10, but at the same time, I was just like, okay, I'm used to you being a powerhouse. But these um different regulations, okay, have proven to, I don't know if it's making everything a ah different playing field, but it's it has definitely shook some stuff up.
00:41:10
ayrryk
Yes.
00:41:10
Joy
which is great.
00:41:11
ayrryk
Yeah.
00:41:11
Joy
I mean, which is, high it makes, to me, it makes for a better watch. People can kind of understand it better. I was trying to follow the recharging and overtaking and all that other stuff.
00:41:24
Joy
um So me, it makes it simpler. It dumbs it down. I think besides
00:41:32
ayrryk
Yeah, and we're it again, we're in the beginning of a new regulation set, and so that makes it... Everyone is learning.
00:41:43
ayrryk
Mercedes is learning, Ferrari is learning. These cars are completely bespoke. So the cars do not exist, no car exists, until testing in Bahrain, and then one of them exists, and they don't have two until Australia.
00:42:02
ayrryk
And Australia is the first time two cars exist for each driver to drive.
Track Dynamics and Circuit Comparisons
00:42:09
ayrryk
And so the teams are learning about these cars. They've designed them in wind tunnels. They've designed them in simulation.
00:42:15
ayrryk
They have a lot of ideas. They have a lot of testing. But they don't really know how they work on a track until you wheel them out.
00:42:28
ayrryk
And the first testing or the first run.
00:42:33
ayrryk
um who does it really
00:42:37
Joy
Okay, have a question. Speaking of the track, now I feel like that China track, it has some tight ass turns. Okay, I said, oh y'all trying to get by each other in these tight ass turns.
00:42:44
ayrryk
Yes.
00:42:49
Joy
Vroom, vroom, vroom. Where's the best place? If you're a spectator, like, okay, two questions. Do they ever change the track? Right. So if we doing China 2026, is there a China different track 2027? And then also, especially for a place like Monaco, where they're just like closing off the streets. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's the same street every time. And then um second question, where is the best place do you think to sit on a track or, you know, to to watch a race if you're a spectator?
00:43:28
ayrryk
So some tracks do change.
00:43:34
ayrryk
They will, Abu Dhabi, reprofiled its final turn to be a little bit different. And I believe added what they call a chicane.
00:43:44
ayrryk
That's where you have that quick series of turns where it's not like a hard turn, but they kind of veer left and veer right.
00:43:49
Joy
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:43:55
ayrryk
That kind of slows them down. That's called a chicane. And they will... They reprofiled that. And then they will open up or tighten sometimes. It really... it's
00:44:12
ayrryk
Formula One has like moderate control over that. I mean, this is part of what comes in with like the whole spectacle and traveling circus. Is that each country...
00:44:28
ayrryk
or each city creates a track that gets certified and then pays Formula One to host ah for the rights to host a Grand Prix during the season.
00:44:46
ayrryk
And so Miami buys the rights to be a part of the Formula One season and they create a track and that track is certified.
00:44:59
ayrryk
And so well, not really as a city because it's one billionaire who owns the Miami Dolphins who helped decide, well, this is going to be the track in our parking lot.
00:45:16
ayrryk
That's not even a joke. That is that race was run in the parking lot of the Miami Dolphins.
00:45:21
Joy
Oh, okay.
00:45:24
ayrryk
The city of Miami didn't want them to run through the streets because all the people who paid millions of dollars for high-rises down on Miami Beach didn't want Formula One cars making noise and fucking up the streets.
00:45:43
ayrryk
So they do it in Miami Garden
00:45:48
ayrryk
at the Miami Dolphin Stadium where black and brown people couldn't afford to fight to keep them from doing it. So that's where they run that race.
00:46:00
ayrryk
Whereas Las Vegas went all in and was like, no, you can use the strip.
00:46:06
Joy
right
00:46:08
ayrryk
Because it's just what group of people get together to create a track and buy in. And so, yeah, tracks change.
00:46:18
ayrryk
Some of them change a little bit. every year, every few years that redesign or reprofile. Some are designed by professional track designers come and design a track course and we run various races here.
00:46:39
ayrryk
That's gonna be your old French GP, the British GP, China I believe. Those are run on actual courses.
00:46:51
ayrryk
And then you have your street races where they close off certain streets and they run on the streets of a city. And those are generally considered by fans often worse races to watch.
00:47:08
ayrryk
Since F1, I mean, the this generation might be better. The previous generation of F1 cars, the wheelbase size it was the same size as the SUV.
00:47:24
ayrryk
And so imagine a Nissan Armada going 200 miles down the road and then having to make a tight turn.
00:47:34
ayrryk
And then imagine two of them doing it side by side on the street. And you can see why there's not a lot of passing.
00:47:38
Joy
Yeah.
00:47:43
ayrryk
Since the two major places you're going to see passing is going to be either on a major street or into a certain type of breaking corners.
00:48:00
ayrryk
That's where you're going to see passing, where there's enough room where you can take an inside line or an outside line. You can carry speed in, outbrake someone, bring it around, and then come out of it with enough speed to beat them down the next straight.
00:48:22
ayrryk
And so any place on a track that has that, that's going to be one of the places you're going to for a lot of places For a lot of tracks, that's going to be down the main straights or the first corner.
00:48:38
ayrryk
For certain ones, it's going to be maybe the last corner or a corner on kind of like the back side where there may be like a straightaway that has enough distance for someone to build a speed and pass.
00:48:50
ayrryk
and then a hard breaking zone where you can out break someone and then use that and then carry that momentum around somebody.
00:48:51
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:48:59
ayrryk
And that's, those are kind of the major places. If you're just kind of generically like, where do I want to be at? The other answer is, um you know, anywhere on an F1 track in whatever bracket you're comfortable being in. it If you want to be in the stands,
00:49:20
ayrryk
then anywhere that you can get a stand seat on an f1 track is gonna be pretty nice if you want to be in the suites then anywhere you can afford a thousand to three thousand dollar suite is gonna be pretty cool like that's kind of the other part is just like what what what can you afford what experience do you want um
00:49:39
Joy
yeah what can you afford
00:49:48
ayrryk
You know, I've been told that 24 hours of Le Mans is incredible because you can come out and, you know, they start the race in kind of the morning, afternoon, and you watch them go around, and you can kind of come back and watch them as they continue to go around throughout the day. If you're up late at night, you can watch them.
00:50:10
ayrryk
You go home, you go back to your tent or to your RV, you go to sleep, you wake up early in the morning, and the sun is cresting over the hills, you come out and you see these cars still going around, and you watch the sun rise, and the mist clear, and these cars zooming around the track.
00:50:29
ayrryk
And it's primarily people who just love racing and race cars, and you just get to hang out for an entire day watching them run. And so part of it is also just like, look, if you can go to a race, you
00:50:47
Joy
Okay. I'm here for that. I just noticed like all of the the actions was was it was happening on turns. The action was happening on the stretch.
00:50:58
Joy
I said, I don't know where I would sit to view this whole phenomenal experience. That was definitely a note in my phone, the perfect place to see it.
00:51:07
ayrryk
Yes. Straights, you're probably going to see more passes that are obviously faster cars passing slower cars.
00:51:18
Joy
Mm-hmm.
00:51:20
ayrryk
So a lot of the like what they talk about blue flags, the track is only so long. Eventually, the front runners may catch up to the back runners and have to pass them. And those are going to be down a lot of streets where, you know,
00:51:38
ayrryk
Aston Martin or Cadillac is gonna have to let the front runners through. So you'll see those there. For more competitive, those kind of hard from a straight or from a high-speed area into like a harder braking zone or a moderate braking zone is where you're probably gonna see more passing as you know different drivers decide what line to take and how aggressive to be and and whether they think they can make it. And so for like competitive race position passes, you're probably going to be more into those hard to moderate braking zones.
00:52:18
Joy
Got it. Okay. All right. That answers that. Next up, we got... What's the next race? Japan. Japan.
Upcoming Races and Strategic Developments
00:52:28
ayrryk
Yes, the next race is the Japanese Grand Prix, which is another track
00:52:37
ayrryk
track Grand Prix China and Japan are on tracks Australia he is technically a street circuit
00:52:55
ayrryk
If you go to Australia you can drive on parts of the tracks that they use in Australia but
00:53:06
Joy
okay
00:53:07
ayrryk
It is a combination because it is part of it is a park that you cannot really drive on or drive on like that.
00:53:15
Joy
what
00:53:19
ayrryk
And so part of it is a park, and then part of it is city streets that they then block off. And so it has this kind of nice combination of boats.
00:53:33
ayrryk
I believe, what is that, Circuit de Paul Ricard? No. The Canadian GP, I think, uses a similar format where portions of the track are part of a park and so people can't just drive their regular street cars and it doesn't have the same regular street traffic and then parts of it are street track. I think that's true for Canada as well.
00:54:00
ayrryk
But that makes Australia kind of unique where like If you went to Australia, you could take your rental car and you could drive on portions of the track and then I think you can walk on some other parts are I don't remember the exact relationship there, but it's not all regular surface streets in that way.
00:54:25
ayrryk
It is at least partially a park where they are either not used as much or where they're able to kind of you know design the streets a little bit more for F1 because it's a park.
00:54:43
ayrryk
And then the surface streets can be designed for regular
00:54:49
Joy
hey Oh, okay. See, the tracks get trickier. Well, not trickier, but like um like more creative. I don't know who the people are that are responsible for being like, this is where our track is going to be.
00:55:03
Joy
This is how we're going to do it. I wonder, I mean, that's a whole different episode. I feel like you could talk to somebody all day simply about tracks.
00:55:15
ayrryk
yeah.
00:55:15
Joy
Between how they lay them out, what turns they decide or whatever, and then how they have to submit them to get them approved and all the other stuff. And then let alone laying down the track itself.
00:55:32
Joy
Like, yeah.
00:55:32
ayrryk
yeah.
00:55:34
Joy
Yeah.
00:55:36
ayrryk
They can I mean it can vary. So. But yes, the. Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka Circuit.
00:55:52
ayrryk
It seems like it'll be under interesting. ah There's been some discussion around the Macarena wing from Ferrari potentially coming to an actual race this race.
00:56:08
ayrryk
This is in part because of a move-up plan
00:56:15
ayrryk
The rumors are that Ferrari didn't expect to introduce the wing this soon, but that a combination kind of of Mercedes dominance and the fact that we've already, I believe, had two races canceled.
00:56:31
Joy
Oh.
00:56:33
ayrryk
Um, the... where are they at? Uh,
00:56:43
ayrryk
are they not on here? Round three, Japan. Round four, Miami, Canada, Monaco, Barcelona, Catalonia, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium.
00:56:56
ayrryk
Oh, they already removed them the site? I think they did. Okay. um So there were Grand Prix in, I believe, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
00:57:15
ayrryk
Those will not be run at this time.
00:57:22
ayrryk
Oh yeah, there it is. So the 27th and 29th of March, through 29th of March is Japan, and then the 1st through the 3rd of May.
00:57:36
ayrryk
You might notice that the month of April was not mentioned there.
00:57:36
Joy
No. Mm-hmm.
00:57:43
ayrryk
That's because in April, they were supposed to be at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and whatever track was in Bahrain that I don't remember.
00:57:59
ayrryk
They're not going to run those because someone decided to pick a fight with Iran and Iran has been bombing other people in response and so they're not going to race there.
00:58:16
Joy
yeah This is upsetting. Okay. I mean, it makes sense, but also upsetting.
00:58:20
ayrryk
Yes.
00:58:23
ayrryk
So the week after next in Japan and then a month long break
00:58:34
ayrryk
and then May 1st to the 3rd in Mayan.
00:58:40
Joy
Okay, we'll just look forward to Japan for right now.
00:58:44
ayrryk
Yes, the Suzuka service should... ah Generate some interest in racing. But that is also why Ferrari was able to feel comfortable bringing forward some of their development.
00:58:59
ayrryk
This is another part of Formula One, especially since the introduction of the cost cap, is that you have to plan out not only your development and how much money you can put into it,
00:59:16
ayrryk
but also when you can afford to fabricate and output new parts.
00:59:27
ayrryk
And so two races being removed that you don't have to ship components to, don't have to send people to, don't have to pay everybody to be at, means that, well, maybe we can afford to push development up, create these new parts,
00:59:46
ayrryk
fabricate them and ship them early.
00:59:51
Joy
Okay.
00:59:58
ayrryk
Any other questions, comments, concerns?
01:00:02
Joy
Not really. I'm interested to see if anybody else performs other than Mercedes and Ferrari in Japan.
01:00:11
ayrryk
Yes, it has definitely been two groups or three groups, I mean, there's always kind of a the frontrunners and the best of the rest.
01:00:23
ayrryk
I think it's on Reddit if you go, there's a Formula 1.5,
01:00:28
Joy
Mm-hmm.
01:00:30
ayrryk
which basically they wait until a few races in and then they drop the drivers from the top teams.
01:00:42
ayrryk
And so the top two, top three, top four teams get dropped and they just post to the results and follow the other teams.
01:00:42
Joy
Mm-hmm.
01:00:56
ayrryk
And so if you go on Formula 1.5, it would be like, oh, hey, you know, Haas won this race. because they ignore everybody else.
01:01:08
ayrryk
So they just put, okay, well, i'm the fourth place driver or the sixth place driver was from Haas. And so they're the winner and they do all the point calculations and all the championship stuff, but just ignoring the top two, top three, top four teams.
01:01:28
ayrryk
Um... And it's the beauty of Formula 1 that you can watch it and pay your attention and go, you know what? I want to see how Cadillac does this year. I want to see if they can develop their car and develop their pace and get back into the fight.
01:01:42
ayrryk
And if they can finish eleven Because if they could, I mean, if Cadillac finished 10th this year, that would be a major coup.
01:01:53
Joy
I'm rooting for them.
01:01:55
ayrryk
Just for them to push up into, you know, a place. If they you know finish and you know if you can see a team that usually has been languishing in the back, push up to the middle.
01:02:09
ayrryk
And so that is part of what can also be valuable.
F1 Season Expectations and Driver Updates
01:02:13
ayrryk
Formula 1 is that there's priority all up and down the levels, but it will be very interesting to see if Ferrari is able to close the gap if the FIA steps in.
01:02:27
ayrryk
This is part of what I mean about Mercedes sandbagging is one of the rules in Formula One is basically that if anyone is too far ahead their like engine development then other teams start being allowed to bring in new engine development and Mercedes doesn't want that because we have the best engines
01:02:51
Joy
Mm-hmm.
01:03:01
ayrryk
So it's in our interest to turn the engine down a little bit so that everyone stays a little close so that it doesn't look too bad so then they don't let people bring in extra engine updates that we're not allowed to.
01:03:23
ayrryk
That would actually make them competitive because we can just keep tuning our engine to be a little ahead of
01:03:31
ayrryk
And so this is kind of Mercedes' biggest concern at the moment is keeping their engine tuned so that they still beat everybody, but not by so much of a margin that the FIA says, fine, everyone else is allowed to bring engine updates so that they can compete with you for real.
01:03:43
Joy
Mm-hmm.
01:03:58
ayrryk
And That is believed to be the other reason that teams are looking a little more competitive during the races is that Mercedes is turning the engine down so they don't win by too much so that they don't hit the rules and regulations that would let other people bring in development and bring in updates or give them tokens to bring updates and changes that would actually put them in danger of losing.
01:04:35
Joy
All right. Well, I don't know. I guess we just got to watch and see. Yeah.
01:04:43
ayrryk
Yes.
01:04:44
Joy
I feel like we just got to watch and see what's the deal.
01:04:46
ayrryk
I think those are all of the major things. Your boy Charles LeClaire, he got married over the break.
01:04:56
Joy
Oh.
01:04:59
ayrryk
Yeah, he got married.
01:04:59
Joy
Which break? Between seasons?
01:05:01
ayrryk
This last one, yes, between seasons.
01:05:03
Joy
Oh, nice.
01:05:04
ayrryk
He recently got married.
01:05:09
ayrryk
Lovely wife. I think his dog like a best man or something. Lewis has said that he did not send a gift. he's But he always doesn't send a gift. He tends to wait like six months so so that he can send something more thoughtful.
01:05:26
Joy
the Okay.
01:05:28
ayrryk
Charles said that he would like Lewis to gift him a world championship. But if he could, I don't think he would.
01:05:34
Joy
and That's funny, okay.
01:05:41
ayrryk
If we were competitive, I don't think he would give it to me.
01:05:46
ayrryk
Yeah, probably not.
01:05:46
Joy
Okay. Hmm. 19. It was just crazy.
01:05:50
ayrryk
And Antonelli got his first win, a youngest pole center, I believe, in F1 history at 19.
01:05:55
Joy
nineteen which is crazy
01:06:00
ayrryk
And now race winner. He went up with Bono. Bonington, Lewis's former race engineer,
01:06:14
ayrryk
which is why many people thought it was fitting. bon Bono also, formerly Michael Schumacher's race engineer. Michael Schumacher is who Lewis Hamilton is tied with for the most world championships ever.
01:06:32
Joy
Oh.
01:06:34
ayrryk
And so it is... The other thing that people are noting is, as far as Mercedes developing Kimi Antonelli, his race engineer, the person coaching him through every race, coached Michael Schumacher through races, that was his race engineer, coached Lewis Hamilton through races, that was his race engineer, and is a now coaching Kimi Antonelli, and is his race engineer.
01:07:07
ayrryk
And so there's a lot of auto of hope and expectation put into Kimmy. Though, as I think his father said during the post-race, look, it's too early to get into. Can he win a world championship? He's young.
01:07:24
ayrryk
It's a long season. He needs to develop. He's going to have disappointment. It's wonderful that this happened, but we need to just take it day by day, race by day.
01:07:39
Joy
And that's exactly what we're going to do. But sheesh.
01:07:42
ayrryk
yes, great to see Lewis back on the podium.
01:07:44
Joy
Mm-hmm.
01:07:46
ayrryk
Hopefully many more would love to see number eight for Lewis. Good result for Russell. Good result for Charles staying in the fight.
01:07:57
Joy
I'm going to call it Louis Got Japan.
01:08:02
Joy
That's a lot to say, but...
01:08:02
ayrryk
I mean, I would love to see. That is a lot to say. That's really calling your shot.
01:08:08
Joy
Lou's got Japan.
01:08:12
ayrryk
Lewis in Japan.
01:08:17
ayrryk
I would go as far as Lewis podium in Japan. I don't know if I'm willing to call the top spot, but I think we could see
01:08:24
Joy
I mean, at least one or two. and that Right now, three. He's at three. At least one or two.
01:08:36
ayrryk
But definitely looking forward to it. We will be putting out another episode
01:08:50
ayrryk
The week of the 30th. I think we're going to aim for the 30th. It might slip into April 1st or 2nd. But there's not another race until May. So what are you going to do?
01:09:03
ayrryk
Nothing, that's what.
01:09:04
Joy
that nothing just wait like everybody else
01:09:08
ayrryk
Wait like the rest of us. Thank you so much, George, for joining me for this. Thank you, whoever you are, wherever you are, for listening. We deeply appreciate it.
01:09:23
ayrryk
And we will see you all after round three in Japan for the Formula One Aramco Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka Circuit.
01:09:37
Joy
Peace.