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00:00:01
2025 Pre Season Show
32 Plays1 year ago
Eric gives Joy a run down the basics of the F1 Championship and major storylines heading into the season
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Formula One
00:00:01
Speaker
and we are live welcome everybody to a potentially as yet untitled formula one related podcast um i'm at this moment going with eric and joy's racing show because i don't really have a name for it yet i didn't really consider that part of the problem uh but it will be me uh and my co-host joyous
00:00:31
Speaker
And we're going to be watching Formula One this year and now I'm going to be attempting to explain to her what is going on if at any point she is confused as to what is happening.
00:00:42
Speaker
And by any point you mean most of the points. Some points, certain points, occasional points, but ideally, ah you're going to pick it up real quick. It's going to be fine.
00:00:55
Speaker
um No worries. So like ah starting off, what is your familiarity with ah ye olde racing?
00:01:11
Speaker
So I am old school. i don't even know if I should call it old school because I was going to say NASCAR. um And this is really going to... This is going to be really weird. But i think there was a racer.
00:01:29
Speaker
hi think her name is Danica Patrick. When I say thing, it's fuzzy. It's fuzzy, but I remember... um NASCAR, a female driver, um champagne um when they win, and a whole bunch of advertisements everywhere. And I feel like as a cumulative, that is what I have drawn from racing this far.
00:02:02
Speaker
Formula One, F1 is like a new a whole new world. Okay.
Comparing Formula One and NASCAR
00:02:09
Speaker
um So, I mean, that's all that's all fairly relevant. Danica Patrick was an IndyCar driver who then moved to NASCAR.
00:02:18
Speaker
um She didn't have as much success in ah NASCAR as she did in IndyCar. There's a lot of people who think she probably should have stayed in IndyCar and open wheel racing, which is what Formula One is. There's nothing around the wheels of the car, unlike...
00:02:33
Speaker
Stock car racing or closed wheel racing like a NASCAR. Very different, you know, potentially ways of driving. Obviously, Indy cars and NASCARs are much lower to the ground.
00:02:46
Speaker
There's a lot less around you. You're a lot more exposed as opposed to kind of NASCAR stock car racing where you have a very stripped down facsimile of a, um you know, purchasable car.
00:03:02
Speaker
You know, um you just said open wheel, enclosed wheel racing. And I have never thought about that.
00:03:14
Speaker
Like, I think what you mean is like some wheels look like the wheels on a car where you have the fender. It's not the fender. It's the, it might be a fender.
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah. You've got like on a wheel well and fender and all that kind of stuff around you. And then if you look at like a Formula One car, there's not all of that. The wheels are just all outside. Open wheel.
00:03:39
Speaker
Open wheel raiser. Oh, okay. My mind is blown. I didn't even know that was a terminology, but it makes sense now that you say
British Influence on Formula One
00:03:50
Speaker
it.
00:03:50
Speaker
I'm already learning. We're in here. We're out here. Also, Danica Patrick is...
00:04:00
Speaker
Uh, not persona non grata, just some people don't agree with some of her views after she started talking about, like, lizard people being among us.
00:04:13
Speaker
Oh, she crazy. Oh, she one of them, like, the girl on the plane that was like, he's on the plane! You know, the girl, the blonde chick. Yeah, yeah, that's, um... Oh, okay. That's...
00:04:25
Speaker
That's Danica at the moment. And so she's, um, uh, they just brought on a new, uh, woman commentator for, um, sky sports, I believe, um, coverage.
00:04:40
Speaker
Um, they're kind of the big English language, um, covers of formula one they also have low like broadcast contract for uh like great britain um at the very least i think the uk um and that feed is actually what uh like espn uses they don't like espn doesn't have its own full commentary team and all of that like they might for like a basketball game or something They just buy Sky Sports feed and they broadcast of their feed on their networks and channels, really.
00:05:21
Speaker
Okay. So they're kind of there're they're kind of the English language big dog. And because Formula One, the ownership group, I believe now is American. But a lot of the management is like,
00:05:35
Speaker
Italian, French, and English. And so, um, some people, especially some drivers feel like the British press has an outsized influence because all the English speaking world tends to go through the British press and they tend to be very focused on, uh, the success of, and some would say rooting for English drivers over others and maybe have a bit more bias, um,
00:06:03
Speaker
against, say, some of the non-British drivers.
The Prestige of Formula One
00:06:09
Speaker
You're, you know, Max Verstappens, you're Fernando Alonso's, you know, world champions and great drivers who are maybe not, you know, Brits.
00:06:20
Speaker
I mean, that's how I go. you they they Everybody put their people first. Most people. Yeah. I mean, there's a degree of that, too. But, yeah, so that's that's kind of the big, yeah,
00:06:33
Speaker
Big concept. It's open wheel racing. It is um the fastest form of car racing, generally speaking.
00:06:46
Speaker
um you know You can get into debates about what do we mean by the fastest, and IndyCar would probably bring that debate to you, but it is considered, they often bill themselves the pinnacle of motorsport.
00:07:00
Speaker
I agree. ah the fastest cars, um huge budgets, traveling all over the world. i believe there'll be 24 races this year.
00:07:13
Speaker
And just, you know, the biggest contracts, the fastest cars, the glitz, the glamour, ah the prestige, um Formula One. that's That's really kind of what they are selling to everybody.
00:07:27
Speaker
um And um because this will probably come up later, It's not super important, but while we're kind of on the subject of the generalized sport, there's kind of two bodies that control Formula One.
Formula One Brand vs. FIA Regulations
00:07:41
Speaker
and Okay. There is Formula One. which is the like company owned by, ah believe, Liberty Media.
00:07:52
Speaker
And they are are the owners of like Formula One. They're the ones who put on the Grand Prixs. They're the ones that handle- Yes, they're the brand.
00:08:04
Speaker
They're the brand. Because legally, they had to separate ah the two entities, I believe, primarily because of like British, but maybe EU law as well. And then there is the FIA, which is the governing a body of the sport of like international racing.
00:08:26
Speaker
And they manage kind of the rules and regulations of Formula One. um And then the step down from that Formula Two, the step down from that Formula Three, as well as I believe like World Endurance Racing and some other rally I think is under them as well. And so they have...
00:08:44
Speaker
a bunch of different motor sports that they're in charge of kind of making the rules and the regulations for them. And that those decisions are kind of supposed to be separate from the brand decisions that, you know, may be more financially influenced than say, ah competitive, uh, competition influenced or safety influenced. Right.
00:09:09
Speaker
Okay, they are the, I was going to call them the gatekeepers, but that's not true. They're like, oh.
00:09:21
Speaker
They're like the regulators. Okay, all right, the regulators for various sport clubs, are we calling them? Um, I think they would probably term them like championships.
00:09:35
Speaker
Um, and this kind of leads into our next part is each sport has its own, ah championship. And that's kind of what, um, the FIA is really kind of in charge of is what are the rules for this sport?
00:09:53
Speaker
What are the regulations that you have to abide by? What are the safety requirements you have to meet? um What are the safety requirements and such that at each track that gets used um or is available for use has to meet?
00:10:06
Speaker
um And then how are like points handed out um as a result of the, you know, finishing order? How are penalties handled?
00:10:19
Speaker
If, you know, someone violates those rules, um all of that is kind of, you know, how how are disputes adjudicated between the teams? And a lot of that is managed through the FIA to kind of keep it separate from, ah you know, the Formula One brand's interest, which might not always be the same interest as safety or fair competition.
00:10:46
Speaker
And so in theory, they separate those to keep them ah independent from each other. ah how well that always works, some would question.
00:11:00
Speaker
I feel like they're the they're the parents of the whole thing. Like, okay, everybody, you know, play nice as you can. And yes, you can go to the movies.
00:11:11
Speaker
No, you got to stay home with your brother. And hey, man, put that down. We're not doing it. They're like the parents. They are, but more like maybe like an uncle.
00:11:27
Speaker
Okay, we love a fun uncle. A fun uncle. Sometimes they're a fun uncle. Sometimes they're an arbitrary or drunk uncle. ah Sometimes they're a capricious uncle.
00:11:41
Speaker
um Especially with the... There's been a lot of conflict with the current head of the FIA. um Ben Sulyaman. Mohammed Ben Sulyaman, I believe. um He has wanted to really...
00:11:56
Speaker
exert his influence on the sport um really making sure people are sticking to a lot of the safety regulations around jewelry around um wearing fire retardant clothing um he just recently started pushing um basically to start penalizing people if they're swearing on the um oh team radios like like made maybe a little like too much involvement yeah take it back he's he is no longer the fun uncle ah they yeah are just a principal okay we'll leave it at that yeah a principal okay yes
00:12:42
Speaker
And so that's kind of the the the separation of powers.
Understanding F1 Championships
00:12:49
Speaker
Now, I say that the FIA manages the championship because our championships because Formula One has two championships that run at the same time.
00:13:01
Speaker
Formula One has two championships that run at the same time. Okay. Yes. So there is the Formula One World Driver Championship.
00:13:12
Speaker
and the Formula One World Constructors Championship. Oh, okay. What does that mean? It's easier to understand.
00:13:24
Speaker
um So for ah every race, um well, we'll stick to the simplest case because there's sprint races that add some extra points, but the same principle is basically the same.
00:13:39
Speaker
For every race or sprint, based off of the order you finish in, you will receive a certain number of points if you finish above the threshold.
00:13:53
Speaker
So for a regular race, that's 10th place and up. You get points. 10th place is one point. First place, I believe, is 25 points. 24 points, something like that. ah is this This is going to be weird. Is this all in the same... yeah Is this all in the same race?
00:14:10
Speaker
No, like... Yes, so every race, um everyone goes out. They go around the track. um Eventually, they you know hit the number of laps they're supposed to do.
00:14:24
Speaker
Whoever, you know, they wave the checkered flag. Whoever crosses the line first after the checkered flag is ah the winner. and Okay. Everyone who crosses after that in descending order based in part off of what lap they're on.
00:14:39
Speaker
um you know finishes behind them, and eventually you know um you get all 20 finished. um There's, again, caveats to some of this, but basically you know everybody crosses the line. You finish in an order.
00:14:53
Speaker
Got it. um You apply any penalties um because you can get certain penalties that say add 5 seconds to your time or add 10 seconds to your time.
00:15:05
Speaker
And those get added on Then based off of those times, a final order is created. Right?
00:15:17
Speaker
That is, you know, the fastest person and then each subsequent person. Okay. How many people do they go to? There are, yes, there's 20 drivers right now.
00:15:28
Speaker
The top 10 will all receive points based off of the order they finish in. Okay. Okay. We're not going to go through all the numbers right now, but the first person receives the most points at like 24, 25.
00:15:41
Speaker
Second is, I think, 18. And then it kind of descends from there.
00:15:47
Speaker
ah Down to 10th place, which gets one point. two Oh, that's rough. Okay. 11 through 20 gets zero. eleven through twenty get zero
00:15:59
Speaker
you Imagine being 10. You just 10 other people. You get to be like, but I didn't get zero. ah bet I bet I got one. bet I got something. ah For midfielders, this is a big thing because, um again, those two championships. So there's first the driver championship. That's the most easiest to understand.
00:16:21
Speaker
Whoever has the most points by the end of the season wins. You're the world driver champion. okay for the last i think four years now that has been max of air stopping um a dutch driver um he is i think still the youngest driver um the youngest driver like who started their formula one career he's been in the
00:16:52
Speaker
um Formula One for several years now. So he's not the youngest anymore, but at the start of his career, he was the youngest driver, um I believe, ever. Okay. And so he drives for...
00:17:07
Speaker
I said a wee tot, a baby. How how young is yeah like how young? I believe he started at like 16. Oh, snap. Driver's license fresh off the road? Oh, yeah. No, they added some rules that you basically have to be ok like about 18 now.
00:17:26
Speaker
um I believe they bumped him up at like 16 to 17. was quite young. quite young Okay. Dang. He just... Okay. I mean, yeah it's amazing to trust.
00:17:40
Speaker
I wouldn't trust a kid with a car. Is he somebody's son? ah He is. ah His father is Joss Verstappen, who was a Formula One driver.
00:17:52
Speaker
um Not ever a world champion. um He had kind of the misfortune of coming into Formula One Um, at the same time as a little guy named Michael Schumacher, who won seven world driver championships and is, was for a long time alone and is now tied for the most ever.
00:18:17
Speaker
Okay. Uh, he's, he is, um, pretty undisputably considered one of the greatest drivers in Formula One history. And Joss Verstappen had the unfortunate um
00:18:32
Speaker
bad luck of, I believe, being his teammate his first year. Before people really knew that Michael Schumacher was Michael Schumacher, Joss was his teammate. And it impacted his career because it took a while for people to figure out, oh, but this guy's just built different Joss wasn't actually that bad, but you don't get that long to sort yourself out in Formula One.
00:18:55
Speaker
So he he had a decent career, but he, you know, he wasn't Schumacher. um And it's largely believed that he, you know, handled it about as well as you might think someone would handle that and then put all of his hopes, dreams, ideas, and insane amounts of pressure onto to his son to be a great driver instead.
00:19:19
Speaker
Okay. Joss is also a bit of a persona non grata. He has been pretty um credibly, um don't even know if accused is the right word. There's plenty of stories of him being ah very cruel with Max as a child, um a few divorces, and some allegations of domestic strife as a result of him.
00:19:47
Speaker
okay Okay. And so he, but yes, his father was a F1 driver. and And like said, they identified Max as like a really great talent fairly early on and pushed him into the sport as fast as they could.
00:20:05
Speaker
ah So that's that's the driver's championship. The other part is the constructor's championship. um So every team in Formula 1, there's currently 10.
00:20:20
Speaker
Next year, ah Cadillac is going to be fielding their own Formula 1 team. And so there will be 11. But currently, there's 10 teams. Yes, Cadillac F1. All right.
00:20:33
Speaker
It was a whole saga. Mario Andretti was trying to start a team, but then he robbed some people the wrong way. And he had to sell the team to Cadillac. And he's still on the board, but he doesn't get to run it anymore.
00:20:45
Speaker
Long story short, Cadillac and now owns the team and they are going to join Formula One next year. I got an idea of what I would want a Cadillac racer to look like.
00:21:00
Speaker
old black man leaned back a little bit with an open cup driving really slow. And I know that's not what this is, but in my mind, Cadillac? That is yeah definitely not what it's going to be. It's not what to be.
00:21:14
Speaker
We will get there. and But so there are 10 teams. Every team fields two drivers. Okay. ah And those drivers go out on the track, you know, vroom, vroom, go around, however many laps they finish.
00:21:36
Speaker
Based off of your driver's points, they add up all of your driver's points. And then the team with the most points wins the Constructors' Championship.
00:21:55
Speaker
As the builders of the best car, theoretically. What? Yes. Okay. And so, you can have a situation like last year, where Max Verstappen of Red Bull won the World Drivers' Championship,
00:22:15
Speaker
But McLaren won the World Constructors Championship. And the Constructors is the team point? Yes, that is the team.
00:22:27
Speaker
ok Okay, okay. Because their drivers, ah Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, consistently finished higher than the combined finish of Max Verstappen and his former teammate, Sergio Perez.
00:22:45
Speaker
Sergio is no longer with the team, in part because of his performance last year um and the fact that they, as a result of it, did not win ah the Constructors' Championship. god okay The Constructors' Championship is important because that is how prize money is handed out.
00:23:08
Speaker
ah For the drivers, when you win a race, you get a trophy. um You do the whole, you know, champagne shower thing. um i think you get some like other stuff, like you get maybe another award or two and all that.
00:23:22
Speaker
um But primarily, whatever you get is part of your contract with your team. So for every first place finish, your team may give you a bonus for every you know Top three finish, you may get a bonus. For every point, you may get you know an extra $1, $10, $5, $20, $50,000.
00:23:40
Speaker
one ten five twenty fifty thousand dollars and And that's how the drivers are kind of compensated. The teams, who for at the end of the year, they receive prize money.
00:23:55
Speaker
And that prize money, um I want to say they said last year's when the lowest team got in the neighborhood of like $40 million. dollars ah The top teams, it can be like $120 million. dollars and Okay.
00:24:14
Speaker
To help pay. A lot of money. Yeah. And so that's kind of what um for smaller teams especially can determine how how much of a budget do you have for next year?
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah. And so ah that is why for those lower, you know, kind of mid tier teams. Yeah. Get in 10th place and one extra point could bump you up above another team that isn't getting as many 10th and ninth places.
00:24:48
Speaker
And so you may not be getting a lot of points, but if you're picking those points up, then that could be a $10 million, $20 million dollars difference in your budget for next year. Good grief.
00:25:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:05
Speaker
And so those those are the two championships. There's Constructors, which is... the combination of how both drivers did and then the one that's kind of the more prestigious which is the drivers which is the individual achievement award basically you know think constructors is kind of the team uh award and the drivers championship is kind of the individual award ah got it okay
00:25:36
Speaker
This obviously becomes a big source of conflict at certain points because it means that what might be better for, say, the team, like two drivers who are in first and second place, holding position and just finishing the race, just get over the line, might not be what's best for the individual driver because if that guy in second passes his teammate, that could mean several thousand to million more dollars in bonuses to me and my contract and a chance to win the driver's championship complicated see what you mean like everybody's a little motivation
00:26:18
Speaker
yes they have cross motivations at times yes and the um the heads of each team the team principal um it's their job to kind of manage
Role of Team Principals in F1
00:26:31
Speaker
that.
00:26:31
Speaker
The team principal is kind of a like combination had coach CEO. ah And it's their job generally to manage the team and the races.
00:26:49
Speaker
um It can kind of vary how much control they have over that. At a place like Mercedes, where Toto Vuf, the team principal, also is an owner of like 30% the team. Oh, man.
00:27:05
Speaker
oh And so he has an incredible amount of control. he you know He is a business partner and shareholder in addition to being the team principal as opposed to um some other ah team principals like a um Fred Vassure, the team principal for Ferrari where the Ferrari family owns Ferrari and they empower Fred to make decisions but He's got to go through the Ferraris for certain things like you. You don't get to just make all the business decisions yourself.
00:27:45
Speaker
You you contribute. You play a big part. But we own this team. I mean, it sounds very you can do what you want, though.
00:27:57
Speaker
um It can vary based on, I mean, like you can have an owner like Mark Cuban or you can have an owner like Jerry Jones or you can have an owner like Jim Ursa or you can have an owner like, you know, like. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Never mind. Like how involved does your owner want to be is a big determinant of how involved they are and how much do they trust you to kind of make the decisions, right?
00:28:26
Speaker
um
00:28:29
Speaker
So that that's kind of the overarching thing.
00:28:36
Speaker
So
00:28:39
Speaker
this may or may not matter. Did one come before another? The driver race versus the conductor?
00:28:51
Speaker
Constructor. Constructor? That is a bit more history I don't necessarily know. i would assume, oh well, it's tough. um Formula One has changed a lot over the years. They formulaized it formalized it a lot more.
00:29:07
Speaker
Like, every Grand Prix wasn't necessarily part of the championship, and every team and every driver didn't necessarily participate in every race. Mm-hmm.
00:29:18
Speaker
So historically, it's been a lot looser um than it is today where you have, you know, there is 10 teams. They field two drivers every race unless a car crashes at such an inopportune time that they cannot put it out on the track in time.
00:29:38
Speaker
um Then generally, all the same drivers compete. And all of the teams compete. So it's it's just different now as it's become a much more formalized sport.
00:29:51
Speaker
Got it. um So ah quickly, as we can, we're going to run down kind of the team standings and that will hopefully also kind of give you an idea about how the sport works and kind of what the storylines coming in are.
McLaren's Comeback Strategy
00:30:10
Speaker
Got it. Ready. um So the top finisher last year in constructors with 666 points it was McLaren Mercedes.
00:30:26
Speaker
ah They are headed up by Zach Brown, an American um who is kind of the the CEO. and Okay. Who has been part of a years long rebuilding project. He came in a few years back and he has been kind of charged with returning McLaren to their former glory.
00:30:46
Speaker
um McLaren used to be a championship winning team. ah The last championship they actually won is it with um their former driver, Lewis Hamilton.
00:30:58
Speaker
And yes. And so they are trying to get back to that, you know, real pinnacle, real peak in the sport. ah They have two drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
00:31:12
Speaker
Lando Norris is a British driver who... I believe finished yes second in the driver's championship last year. um Despite Max's dominance kind of early on in the year, Lando and McLaren made like a late charge, were able to overtake Red Bull in the constructors championship. And Lando was able to kind of make a go at ah Max for the driver's championship. He would have had to win out by an incredible amount.
00:31:41
Speaker
And Max would have had to have even more kind of issues with the car than he did for it to have worked. But it's the first real challenge Max had in a while.
00:31:52
Speaker
ah Since 2021, really. um And so that's kind of Lando. And then his teammate is Oscar Piastri, a young Australian driver.
00:32:07
Speaker
He's not that much younger than Lando, but he kind of just more recently came to the sport. Um, everyone goes through kind of other series, um, formula three, formula two.
00:32:21
Speaker
Um, they may race in some other things, uh, while they try to kind of, you know, impress a team enough to get a seat. Um, Oscar Piastri is considered to be a really good, really strong driver.
00:32:33
Speaker
Um, If McLaren is a championship contender again this year, um there's a lot of people are going to be watching that teammate battle because Oscar Piastri seems like he may have a little more ice in his veins than Lando does. Okay, he ready to hit it. And so there's a lot of people who, even people who like Lando Norris, who think Oscar Piastri may really have what it takes.
00:33:03
Speaker
Okay. Okay. um And so that's also going to be McLaren's potential problem is that You can run into some situations where they don't necessarily want to play the team game and maximize the points that they make the team if there's an opportunity for them to, say, try and pass each other in kind of a tricky spot or push there ah the team to let them do an alternate strategy that's higher risk but could mean beating their teammate.
00:33:35
Speaker
And maybe winning this race instead of coming home safely in third and you know getting good points for the team. What if we did this and maybe I could beat my teammate and I could do a little bit better?
00:33:55
Speaker
And so for these top teams, especially if you have two very talented drivers, that's one of the things that Your CEO in zax brown case ah Zach Brown's case or your team principal in some of the other cases also has to manage.
Ferrari's Legacy and Challenges
00:34:11
Speaker
oh Next is Ferrari. Scuderia Ferrari. Oh, Scuderia.
00:34:21
Speaker
um They are the team that has been in Formula One the longest. They have the most wins of any single team. They have the most championships of any single team.
00:34:33
Speaker
um They actually have a special deal with the FIA where they get extra money for being a historic team. They get like an extra 60 something. ok Ferrari, when F1 was less popular, threatened to leave if they didn't give them some cash. And so Formula One paid.
00:34:51
Speaker
And now Ferrari gets like an extra 60 million dollars a year.
00:34:58
Speaker
Oh, I wish I could get that much money for just being, I was there first. I saw it. I knew the potential. Give me the money. That's a great. Yes. And so they're, they finished second.
00:35:12
Speaker
Their drivers last year were, um, Charles Leclerc, AKA Charles Leclerc. He is a Monegasque driver. um
00:35:24
Speaker
Some people view him as a bit of a sad boy. um He does often at times look sad. He also has had ah something of a tough go with losing people.
00:35:37
Speaker
His father passed um just as he was kind of getting into Formula One. His godfather passed in one of the last um one of the like kind of five last really um terrible F1 races.
00:35:55
Speaker
um His godfather passed in that accident. um One of his very good friends growing up passed in kind of one of the last really bad accidents in, I think, Formula 2.
00:36:08
Speaker
two And so just somebody who like um when you kind of hear his story, like, yes, he grew up very well off in Monaco. Yes, he's a Formula One driver, but he he's kind of experienced some losses in life that really kind of make people very sympathetic to him, um as well as just been plagued at times by like weird technical issues and stuff that like,
00:36:35
Speaker
He doesn't really have control over and they happen to everybody, but everybody notes it a little bit more when it happens to Charles.
00:36:45
Speaker
I mean, I'd be a sad boy too. it sounds terrible. His former teammate was Carlos Sainz. um Carlos was another good young driver. He's around Charles age.
00:36:59
Speaker
um He was doing a really solid job. He finished um Maybe only like a position or two. Yeah, two positions. Charles finished third.
00:37:11
Speaker
ah Carlos finished fifth in the driver standings.
00:37:16
Speaker
So really good driver. um Great talent. But ah Fred Vassure, the team principal of Ferrari, was working the phones.
00:37:27
Speaker
um And found out basically ah that another driver was available and so was able to convince Lewis Hamilton to leave Mercedes and come to Ferrari.
00:37:41
Speaker
Lewis Hamilton um is probably best known for two things. One with also seven World Driver Championships being tied for the most driver championships ever.
00:37:57
Speaker
um As well as being the winningest driver in Formula One history at like 105, 107 wins. he has won more than some teams good grief The other thing Lewis Hamilton is known for is being the first and only black driver in Formula One.
00:38:19
Speaker
Damn, he's Michael Jordan. Sands the, you know, everybody else being white on the team. but yeah Or other. Man, that's a lot of wins. Yes.
00:38:31
Speaker
He came into McLaren with a teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, and at the end of the year, tied him in his rookie year.
00:38:42
Speaker
Good grief. are they all he Are they driving independent before they get to F1? Or where are they at? You come up through. like So when you're a little kid, you'll do various karting series where you'll You know, you'll start off in like really small go karts and you kind of move up, move up, move up.
00:39:02
Speaker
Eventually you'll get kind of moved up to kind of regional um
00:39:08
Speaker
motor car racing. um Eventually from there to Formula 3, then Formula 2, and then, um you know, a handful of the most successful and most connected will get moved up to Formula 1. Got it. Okay.
00:39:23
Speaker
Okay. and Lewis is also notable because he is part of a handful now of drivers who did not grow up with money or a father who raced in, you know, Formula One or World Endurance or something like that.
00:39:41
Speaker
He did not have connections coming in. Um, Lewis Hamilton, Esteban Ocon is probably the other best known one from this kind of circumstance where Lewis's father had to work multiple jobs to help pay for his carding career. um Esteban Ocon's parents famously had to sell their home and live in what they call like a motor coach, but like a, uh, uh,
00:40:14
Speaker
Not a trailer, but like an actual. Yeah, like a Winnebago. They had to like move into a Winnebago to help finance his driving career.
00:40:26
Speaker
And so that is kind of the other thing Lewis is known for is that he grew up in pretty regular means. And ah the only black driver, um especially in the higher series, and was still able to not only make it to Formula One, but become one of the most dominant drivers in its history.
00:40:48
Speaker
um The last couple of years, he's... ah go ahead. I was just saying, he made it... He's the best.
00:40:58
Speaker
yeah right ah The last couple of years he's fallen on hard luck. Mercedes fielded some pretty not good cars. um One of the big issues they had to deal with is a thing called porpoising, which is when the aerodynamics caused the car to kind of like bounce up and down really hard.
00:41:18
Speaker
Mm hmm. And he and his former teammate, ah George Russell, I mean, a lot of teams had to deal with it, but Mercedes kind of had it the worst. And they went from being a like eight in a row world constructor champions team.
00:41:37
Speaker
counting ah Nico Rosberg, who won one championship while he was Lewis's teammate, I think eight world, drawer seven or eight world driver championships in a row, um to being a like fifth best team. like Just a real fall from grace.
00:41:56
Speaker
That's real. That they have been clawing their way back from ah the last few years. um The rumor also is that They didn't want to sign Lewis to a long-term contract because they had another kid coming up who they didn't want to lose.
00:42:13
Speaker
And so they were like, if we give you three years or four years guaranteed, this kid is going to leave and sign with somebody else. We'll give you two years. We'll give you one in a possible. But you're entering your 40s. You're not going to be racing forever. We need to think about our future.
00:42:33
Speaker
The rumor is that also they would not give him a Mercedes ambassador role. We don't know that for sure. um But a lot of people think um basically, you know, where you like see people go out and they like do appearances and that kind of stuff all around the world as a kind of like not quite salesperson for the company, but like, you know.
00:42:59
Speaker
um It's your job to go to do PR for Mercedes and at Mercedes events and um that he wanted to basically tie them to ah him and to his charity Mission 44.
00:43:12
Speaker
um a charity he started during kind of the height of black lives matter to, uh, get more underprivileged youth, um, women and youth of color into all areas of motorsport, including, you know, the STEM careers, aerodynamics, engineering, et cetera.
00:43:32
Speaker
And that Mercedes maybe didn't want to dedicate themselves long term to all of Lewis's ideas and projects. Um, This many people feel was confirmed by the fact that it's said, at least in his Ferrari contract, he did get those guarantees that we're going to donate tens of millions of dollars to your charity. You're going to be a Ferrari ambassador ah now and after your career ends. And we like that. They were willing to kind of make those long term commitments to Lewis's brand and to the issues he cares about.
00:44:10
Speaker
Oh, Ferrari say, come on over here. We love you. We like you. We want everything you do to be great. Also, take us with you. Basically, ah that seems to kind of be many people's theory is that Lewis saw Ferrari with a strong car and ah recently hiring Fred Vassure, who he worked with.
00:44:31
Speaker
um I think in Formula Three, they won the championship together um with Vassure as his coach back then or a team principal back then, basically. And so and that they had always kind of maintained a good relationship.
00:44:44
Speaker
And so when he saw someone who he kind of knew, had worked with before, really liked and trusted, and then um Ferrari was willing to commit to his long term post racing goals and visions um that he was basically like, um and and I get to run drive for Ferrari.
00:45:01
Speaker
So like, what's why why would I not do this? Right. so like that i do The most storied team in Formula One. ah Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and take it.
00:45:13
Speaker
Okay. ah So that's ah Ferrari. Next, um and hopefully these are going to start getting a little bit faster, is Red Bull Racing Honda RBT.
Red Bull Racing's Internal Struggles
00:45:28
Speaker
That's a whole thing, like a Trap called Quest? Yes, ah they're generally just called Red Bull. One of the things you have to keep in mind is that all of these teams, because of all the sponsorships and everything they sell, um you know, ah McLaren, you'll note is a McLaren Mercedes, because while McLaren constructs their car, they purchase the engine for their car from Mercedes.
00:45:55
Speaker
Oh, this is actually part of what is considered a slight to Mercedes is that you guys had the same engine and they beat you all, which means they designed a better car around that engine.
00:46:10
Speaker
that's It is very rare for what are called customer teams, like McLaren teams that do not build their own engines, to beat works teams, ah teams that not only design their own car, but also build engines and often sell them to other teams to help bolster their budget.
00:46:30
Speaker
ah Red Bull Racing purchases their engine, but not from another team. They ah do theirs in partnership with Honda um in a deal where they actually like it it was a whole thing because Honda was like, oh we're going to leave Formula One.
00:46:49
Speaker
And so they're like, okay, well, we'll buy the factory and stand up our own team, Red Bull powertrains. But then Red Bull won the championship and then they kept winning. And Honda was like, well, maybe we want to stick around now if you guys are going to win.
00:47:01
Speaker
And so it it's now Honda Red Bull powertrains, at least for the moment. Okay. ah Their team principal is Christian Horner.
00:47:13
Speaker
He kind of was a young phenom when he came in. um He's won multiple world championships with multiple drivers, including now Max. um He's known for being kind of an S-stirrer.
00:47:28
Speaker
um He also is known for having been involved in a scandal with him inappropriately texting and potentially having an inappropriate relationship with a ah personal assistant at Red Bull, who is now ah in suit ah with Red Bull in the UK.
00:47:52
Speaker
Missy boots. Okay. All right. This kind of overshadowed their season last year and also... um True or not is thought by some to be the reason we've seen multiple high-profile people leave Red Bull, including their ah aerodynamic and their head aerodynamicist, Adrian Newey, who is considered one of the like best car designers in the history of Formula One, if not the best.
00:48:24
Speaker
Where did he go? ah He went to Aston Martin, who we will get to in a little bit. Okay. um Red Bull has two drivers. Max Verstappen already mentioned he came in as a young phenom, though he's considered a bit of a hothead.
00:48:41
Speaker
um That has calmed down some with his multiple championships, but also his car has been so fast and he has been so fast in it. He hasn't had to be very aggressive. oh um But he's kind of known for being someone who really leans on the edge of the rules as when it's, you know,
00:49:00
Speaker
Him and maybe is a little loose with the rules when it's, you know, you. When I'm supposed to leave you enough room to make the turn, I'm going to push you as hard as I can.
00:49:12
Speaker
When you're supposed to leave me enough room, boy, am I going to be on the radio yelling at everyone anyone and everyone about how they need to go back and watch the tape. He didn't leave me enough room.
00:49:23
Speaker
you need You need to tell the stewards he didn't leave me enough room. He's one of those. Got it. They're all one of those to a degree.
00:49:35
Speaker
Max is just kind of viewed as maybe a bit more hypocritical because he really tends to like push hard and believe he can make some turns and make some passes that maybe he shouldn't believe he can make.
00:49:51
Speaker
i mean, you got to have somebody to push the push the boundaries a little bit more than we need. You do. And that is what Red Bull likes. Red Bull would rather have a aggressive, fast driver who they have to kind of hold back and teach to become over a, you know, kind of more docile driver who is maybe consistent, but not consistently at the front.
00:50:18
Speaker
They want the Red Bull really selects for aggressive drivers. got it we gotta go over his which drivers have what style in a different episode yeah we'll get to that after the race maybe uh his teammate is liam lawson um he's a new young driver he ran he was at red bull's sister team uh
00:50:44
Speaker
Vcarb or whatever they're calling themselves now. um Basically, Red Bull, the parent company, owns two teams. Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.
00:51:00
Speaker
ah We don't need to get into like... Yeah, look, we're selling. We're selling everything we can. yeah And so ah Red Bull generally uses Visa V carb, I think they're going by as a practice ground, a testing ground. They bring in young drivers who they think could be good and give them a shot there. And if they like how they drive, then they might get a chance at um the big sister team, ah Red Bull.
00:51:30
Speaker
ah That is what happened with Liam Lawson. He did 11 races last year. It is now going to be Max's teammate, um given they let go Sergio Perez, a Mexican driver who had some success but was never able to get what Max did out of the car, um eventually costing them pretty clearly the drivers champion of a constructors' championship last year.
00:51:57
Speaker
If he had been performing even close to what Max was, they would have almost certainly won it running away.
00:52:07
Speaker
So he's being replaced by Liam. Liam needs to prove himself. um But he's had 11 races already. So they're going to expect him to really get to grips with the car very quickly and to, you know, really start extracting speed and keep up as best he can with Max.
00:52:28
Speaker
Sheesh. Okay. ah Next up is Mercedes. Their two drivers are George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli. George Russell has been there for a few years now. He came in as Lewis Hamilton's teammate right as the car became not as good. A third or fourth place in the constructor championship car is when he finally got called up.
00:52:55
Speaker
oh Now, after years of being in not as good a car and kind of in Lewis Hamilton shadow to a degree, though, ah he did beat Lewis in the driver's championship a couple of years.
00:53:07
Speaker
um There's some debate about that because there's questions about was Lewis trying and testing out some different strategies and such that were riskier in order to.
00:53:19
Speaker
try and get more out of the car versus, you know, how much was George doing that? um He's considered to be a very good young driver, um a potential world champion.
Mercedes' Strategic Changes
00:53:29
Speaker
um But this is kind of the big year for him.
00:53:32
Speaker
He has a new fast young teammate. He needs to prove that, you know, he can do it and that he can lead a team.
00:53:41
Speaker
His teammate, Kemi Antonelli, is... ah uh, true rookie. This his first year in formula one. um the pressure is going to be on him because whatever anyone says, and Mercedes says over and over again, he's not replacing Lewis Hamilton.
00:53:58
Speaker
He's just the next driver for Mercedes. No one could replace Lewis. Lewis is Lewis Hamilton. Like you let Lewis Hamilton go because you were trying to keep this kid and everyone knows it.
00:54:10
Speaker
And so, um Everyone says he's fast. Everyone says he's very good. Everyone says he's something special. He's going to have a lot of pressure and a lot of eyes on him because everyone's going to want to see what was worth letting the winningest driver in F1 history go.
00:54:30
Speaker
yeah Maybe not fair, but it is where he's at. And I was going to say, he signed up for it. He knows. He knows. It's fine. Uh, next up is Aston Martin, a Ramco Mercedes.
00:54:42
Speaker
Um, they also purchased their engine from Mercedes. Um, they came on strong at the beginning of last year and then faded. Um, they didn't develop the car very well during the season.
00:54:55
Speaker
Um, over the course of the season, they will bring updates, new front wings, new rear wings, new body work to try and make the cars faster. Um,
00:55:06
Speaker
It seems like Aston Martin wasn't able to do that as well as some of the other teams. um But they hired um Red Bull's former aerodynamicist, Adrian Newey.
00:55:20
Speaker
um, one of maybe the most successful aerodynamicists in formula one history. He is, um been in the, he's been in formula one for decades and decades. He's designed multiple championship winning cars across those years.
00:55:37
Speaker
Um, he's probably forgotten more about car design than some people will ever know. and ah By all accounts, Aston Martin threw as much money and freedom as they could at him to get him to come work for them.
00:55:52
Speaker
um The thing about Aston Martin is that they are owned by Lawrence Stroll, a fashion billionaire. Oh, talk about diversifying your portfolio. Yeah.
00:56:06
Speaker
Yes, he did a lot of rehabbing of fashion brands and um after buying the team, also bought um the rights and everything to Aston Martin, added them to his portfolio and then used their branding for the F1 team.
00:56:26
Speaker
Their two drivers are Lance Stroll, Lawrence's son,
00:56:34
Speaker
I was thinking, i was like, why does Stroll sound familiar? Got it. It's his kid. Got it. And um Fernando Alonso, a two-time world champion and famously mercurial driver.
00:56:54
Speaker
Okay, so all they need, they got, ah feel like they have a champion and then a kid that's been around it all. Now they just actually need a decent car and they got the best aerodynamic man to come put, you know, a spoiler on that thing.
00:57:13
Speaker
Yes. Well, that's what ah certainly Aston Martin is hoping. um While Lance is considered to be the best of the quote unquote pay drivers, um That is drivers who have their seat in no some small part because they bring significant financial backing, maybe more than they bring the brass tax skills.
00:57:33
Speaker
In this case, um my dad owns the team and bought it so I could drive here.
00:57:41
Speaker
ah But he's not considered a bad driver. He's just not maybe... he probably wouldn't still be driving in Formula One this many years in if his dad didn't own a team.
00:57:56
Speaker
Right. Okay. They would have let him go a while ago. Like, you know what? You're good. Just not good enough to get us where we need to be. Yeah. Like you're not getting over that hump consistently enough for us to really, you know, keep at you.
00:58:11
Speaker
So Alonzo. They're hoping that the other guy brings the skill. Kind of. No. Oh, you cut up.
00:58:23
Speaker
I said, so they're hoping that the other guy is going to bring the skill, the other teammate. Oh, they're hoping that he'll bring the skill. It's also thought that he's been kind of hired to be like a on track driving coach for Lance, like work with a Lance when you're doing your prep work with Lance.
00:58:43
Speaker
you know, some of the simulator, let Lance see your telemetry data and stuff so that we he can kind of see what he should be doing. ah We don't know how much of this obviously is true or not true. We don't get to view everything they do.
00:58:57
Speaker
But one of the thoughts is that this is the second like multi-world champion driver they've hired um to be Lance's teammate. And some of the thought is that they want Lance to be able to see how they drive, what they do,
00:59:13
Speaker
what their telemetry and stuff is in the hopes that it will help improve, continue improving his driving.
00:59:21
Speaker
o Okay, good luck, Lance. Yes. o ah Next up is Alpine Renault. ah They're the largest like French car manufacturer, they're one of the largest car manufacturers in the world, and their team that is pretty perennially involved in some weird drama at some point.
00:59:44
Speaker
Like, what? I mean, we've already had the scandal with the with assistant. And then the guy that had everybody die. they're the kind of team that like announces they're going to have a new driver and that driver announces i ain't coming to this team and then there's a weird back and forth and a legal case and that like just there's all like they brought in a new team principal for like two years and in the beginning of the second year they fired him like three races in like they just there's always some weird drama and weird turnover with them um
01:00:22
Speaker
Their two drivers are Pierre Gasly, a French driver, whose view to have been pretty good, a consistent, solid driver. He used to drive for Red Bull um until they kind of went, yeah, you're not keeping up with Max well enough. Get out of here.
01:00:39
Speaker
ah And so he ended up, after going back down to Red Bull's little sister team, left and signed with Alpine, which was part of what they wanted, a French driver on a French team.
01:00:52
Speaker
Their other driver is Jack Doohan. He's viewed as being, again, a pretty good guy. Maybe not as good as Gastly. Maybe he could be as good. like you know Part of what people want to see is, can he keep up?
01:01:06
Speaker
ah The big drama with him is that they just hired a ah reserve driver who also has driven in Formula One. And the word is that Doohan only has like a five or six race contract.
01:01:21
Speaker
And so if he doesn't perform, he's going to be out and this other guy is going to be in this year.
01:01:29
Speaker
Oh, no pressure.
Alpine and Haas: Team Dynamics
01:01:30
Speaker
Huh? yeah ah Following them is Haas Ferrari. um They are a Ferrari customer team. They purchased the engine from them. They purchased the maximum number of parts from Ferrari.
01:01:49
Speaker
ah So Formula One's regulations. Exactly what you have. Just yes the great value version. As close as we can get, please. Thank you.
01:02:00
Speaker
Yes. And it's a much cheaper. They are owned by Gene Haas, who also owns a, I believe NASCAR team. Um, he also owns a like CNC manufacturing company.
01:02:15
Speaker
Um, And he has for several years kind of tried to run the most affordable competitive F1 team. um In part to try and prove that as a customer team, you can still win.
01:02:27
Speaker
And in part to not have to put too much money into the program.
01:02:33
Speaker
um They are team principled by, I believe, Kamatsu. um He was a engineer with Haas who has been moved over to be team principal.
01:02:46
Speaker
um And their drivers are Esteban Ocon, also known for being a bit mercurial. He was Pierre Gasly's teammate last year.
01:02:58
Speaker
um They were both at Alpine together. um They famously didn't get along very well um for years and years because when they were both coming up in France, um part of the reason Esteban's parents had to sell their home is because he and Gasly were up for the same sponsorship deal and Gasly got it instead of him.
01:03:26
Speaker
so why did Gasly get it instead of him? Uh, there's lots of questions about that. Gasly is also a great young driver.
01:03:38
Speaker
um his family is also a little bit better off. It's been theorized than the Ocons. And so where there other connections? Was it that, you know, Pierre was just a better driver. Was it that they liked the, who knows?
01:03:54
Speaker
Um, Either way, he um was Pierre Gasly's teammate last year. He also drove for the team that was the team before Lance Stroll's father bought Aston Martin.
01:04:14
Speaker
ah So before it was Aston Martin, it was Racing a Point um owned by an Indian a billionaire. who went into bankruptcy and had to give up the team, which is when Lawrence Stroll bought it.
01:04:29
Speaker
um After a few years, um he bought Aston Martin and then kind of combined them ah to some degree. And Esteban was the driver who got ousted so Lance could drive for Aston Martin.
01:04:45
Speaker
He was driving for a different team before that. This is so messy. Yes. ah So Esteban is known for having a chip on his shoulder. But if you kind of hear his story, you can understand why.
01:04:59
Speaker
In this sport full of very well-off young men from very fine families, this guy who grew up a bit more working class, my parents had to scrimp and save for me to do carding, they had to sell their home for me to stay in the lower formula series.
01:05:16
Speaker
I finally get here and some rich guy buys the team and kicks me out ah so that his kid can drive. I stick around the sport, keep my head down, be a good backup driver,
01:05:28
Speaker
And, you know, get a chance at Alpine and then feel like they're favoring Pierre maybe a bit over me because Pierre also kind of looks a little bit more like a traditional Frenchman where Esteban maybe looks a little so more Spanish.
01:05:47
Speaker
And you can kind of see how you start to get a bit of of a chip on your shoulder about things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I would also feel a way. Yes.
01:05:58
Speaker
ah His teammate is Oliver Behrman. ah He came in as a backup driver a couple times last year. Drove really well. um You know, everyone's expecting good things from him in the future. They think ah when Lewis does leave Ferrari um that Behrman is a candidate for that seat and that that is part of what They're kind of trying to find out right now.
01:06:21
Speaker
um Ferrari has a lot of influence because of Haas purchasing everything from them that they can. Oh, they have a lot of influence over kind of who gets that seat. They can't tell them you pick this guy, but if they make it known, we'd really like you to give this kid a shot.
01:06:38
Speaker
um There's a pretty good chance he's going to get a shot, right?
01:06:43
Speaker
I mean, yeah, if you got somebody to vouch for you, I mean, yeah just like they're bringing the other guys in to train the guy's son so he can pay attention to be better.
01:06:56
Speaker
I mean, ah yeah everybody needs an advocate. As messy as it might be.
Red Bull's VCarb Development Team
01:07:03
Speaker
ah You do. The next finishers in, what was this?
01:07:08
Speaker
got Eighth place was... um The Racing Bulls, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, also known as VCarb.
01:07:19
Speaker
ah This is the little sister team for Red Bull. um Their drivers are Yuki Sonoda, I believe the only Japanese driver currently in ah Formula One.
01:07:32
Speaker
uh lukey yuki is known for kind of having like maybe a bit of a foul mouth um though people will point out that he learned english primarily from the mechanics he was hanging around growing up in race and racing oh yep that would explain the foul mouth i was about to say you dishonored the home oh you you learn english around a bunch of possibly roguish people got it Yes. And that he also seems to just.
01:08:01
Speaker
Yeah. And that he also just seems to have like a very strong personality. A lot. I mean, you're driving a car hundreds of miles an hour around a track. um Everything doesn't always come out nice and sweet.
01:08:14
Speaker
Sometimes you like to cuss and sometimes a good cousin is called for. Yes. um The thing with Yuki is that he's been at V-Carb for a while now. He was at V-Carb before Liam Lawson, Max's new teammate.
01:08:30
Speaker
um And now Liam has gotten the nod to go up to the big sister team over him.
01:08:39
Speaker
um And so that's kind of his thing right now is, there's this Red Bull saying, Hey, we're not seeing what we need to see from you. And if we don't start seeing more, you know, maybe you will do good enough to keep hanging out at this team, or maybe we're going to, you know, give somebody else some run and see if we can get a better driver in here.
01:09:05
Speaker
hope he figures it out. Yeah, we're hoping so. We like you. His teammate is Isaac Hajar. um He won some championships in lower series.
01:09:17
Speaker
He's brand new this year. um I mean, there's not that much else. Yeah.
01:09:25
Speaker
really kind of to say about him at this point. He's a French driver. Um, and one of the kind of new kids on the block, everyone's kind of waiting to see what he's going to really bring, you know, is he going to have the speed? Is he going to have the consistency?
01:09:42
Speaker
Are we going to, you know, see someone who is competitive with yuki and maybe um pushes uh red bull to decide if they want to keep liam in that seat or you know give it to isaac or is he gonna be you know now isaac can't come in jumping over yuki too if if he does it would probably be the sign that they're going to let yuki go dang it's cold word okay it ah Next is Williams Mercedes.
Williams' Strategic Transition
01:10:12
Speaker
um Williams is another kind of storied in the past team that has fallen on hard times, as evidenced by the fact that they are ninth out of 10.
01:10:25
Speaker
um They were for many years the last kind of independent team as there is no Williams car brand. They were started by Mr. Williams and his family owned and ran the team for decades.
01:10:40
Speaker
ah They finally sold the team a few years ago to Darleton Capital, who kept the name Williams and, you know, saw many other people to the door.
01:10:54
Speaker
Okay. um they say Yes. Their current team principal, ah James Vowles, was the chief strategist for Mercedes for several years.
01:11:07
Speaker
ah Who left to take this job to become a team principal. um You know, one of the only real promotions from his previous job. Okay. He was there when Lewis was there.
01:11:20
Speaker
Yes, he was there when Lewis was there. He was um actually pretty famous for getting on the radio. Yeah.
01:11:29
Speaker
The running joke is, hey, Valtteri, it's James. um This is because when they needed to tell Lewis's former teammate, Valtteri Bottas, that they needed him to do something that was going to negatively affect his race, but help Lewis win or Lewis finish better.
01:11:48
Speaker
ah Usually they would send James in there to let them to let Valtteri know, no, we're serious. This is the strategy. We need you to, you know, fall on your sword effectively.
01:12:03
Speaker
don't like that type of game, but I hear you. Okay. It's part of the reality of at a point, if you're trying to win the World Drivers' Championship, you've got to start backing the driver who's ahead.
01:12:16
Speaker
And that means sometimes your second driver is going to have to take a back seat. Mm-hmm. And so he has taken over Williams and is trying to update their systems and get them off of running everything off of a series of Excel sheets.
01:12:38
Speaker
Their two drivers are Alex Albin, a Thai driver, part Thai, part British, who also used to race for Red Bull.
01:12:53
Speaker
At the little sister team. Got called up to the main team. Was Max Verstappen's teammate. For. Maybe a year. Give or take. And then kind of got bumped out.
01:13:05
Speaker
For someone else. Like let's see if somebody else can win. Because we just don't see it from you. ah He. Bounced around the sport. A little bit. um Before finally kind of. Like he was you know. Reserve driver. A backup driver.
01:13:20
Speaker
Kind of just hanging around and then finally got an opportunity with Williams um to race full time again and has pretty consistently people feel outperformed the car.
01:13:33
Speaker
oh pushed it to get it into 10th place at times it probably shouldn't have been, um you know, really extracted a lot of performance compared to some of his teammates.
01:13:44
Speaker
And so he's a very likable person. He's considered to be one of the nicest people of a certainly nicest drivers so in the sport and just kind of an all around really good guy.
01:13:57
Speaker
um Oh, that's rare. I mean, I guess not rare. It sounds like in the sport, there's so much mess. I'm like, okay, that guy sounds like mildly normal. Go team, go.
01:14:11
Speaker
Yes. ah His teammate this year is Carlos Sainz. Carlos Sainz was also in the Red Bull training program.
01:14:23
Speaker
um and basically left kind of early was like i i don't really think you all are going to give me the run or handle me properly like i think i should be i'm gonna go and he left and went to mclaren uh where he had success as lando norris's teammate and then left and joined ferrari as charlotte claire's teammate where he also had success i mean he Like I said, he was only ever a couple places behind Charles in the driver championships at the end of the year.
01:14:54
Speaker
But seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton came along. And so now you go from the one of the top three, top four teams in the sport down to the second-to-last team last year.
01:15:13
Speaker
That's rough.
01:15:16
Speaker
Yes. Now, he says that he has seen some stuff in the car that makes him feel like it's going to be very competitive this year, that he he thinks that they actually have, you know, maybe not a shot to like win the constructors, but a chance to get some podiums, ah get some top tens, maybe even some wins that he he sounds very high on them.
01:15:37
Speaker
But it's a rough way go.
01:15:41
Speaker
I'm glad it ain't like spades where you got to call your hand. Yes. Sounds sketch. ah The last team is Kick Sauber Ferrari.
Sauber's Transition to Audi
01:15:53
Speaker
um Kick Sauber um
01:15:59
Speaker
hasn't been a great team lately. Their last place in the constructors. um They purchase a lot of their stuff from Ferrari despite being a you know car manufacturer.
01:16:14
Speaker
um The big thing with them is they are not investing in their car.
01:16:20
Speaker
ah Because the team has actually already been sold.
01:16:26
Speaker
What? The team was sold a year and a half or two years ago to Audi. What?
01:16:37
Speaker
Okay, so Ferrari, they just, Audi's not ready? They don't have a car ready? Well, so they bought Sauber, and they have been spending money preparing to officially enter the sport.
01:16:57
Speaker
But Audi's whole thing is that they are very competitive racing team cars. oh And especially that they ah love to beat Mercedes as a fellow ah German constructor.
01:17:13
Speaker
And so the decision by were by um Audi basically was we're going to kind of let you guys run yourself a bit. And, you know, we're going to work on building up, ah figuring out, you know, engine stuff and building up car design stuff and, you know, really getting ourselves ready so that in 2026 next year, we can kind of come in and unveil the new Audi F1 team.
01:17:43
Speaker
The problem slash flaw of that is that you now are paying a bunch of people who know that they aren't going to probably be kept on yeah so run your team. And so the performance started plummeting, so they had to make some changes.
01:18:00
Speaker
Oh, outie. But they this is still kind of a holding pattern team. like they're They're going to put as much kind of money as they have to in this car, but most of their budget and focus is on next year fielding a competitive car and making sure they nail the new regulations um this is kind of the other reason people think a lot of teams are going to be competitive this year is this is the last year of these regulations the car designs are going to change next year and like what is isn't allowed in the cars is going to change next oh god and that's what audi is building for
01:18:46
Speaker
Yes, and Audi is building, focusing on those upcoming regulations. And ah the other thing that's going to happen is right now there's kind of an engine development freeze where you can only do so much work on your
Audi's Competitive Vision
01:19:02
Speaker
engine. You can tinker around the edges. You can make it more reliable. You can make some minor changes, but you can't make wholesale design changes to your engine under the rules right now.
01:19:15
Speaker
Okay. Those rules will also go away coming up in the next year or two. audi I feel like Audi is like Marshawn Lynch when he was like, I'm just here so I won't get fined. They like, look, we bought it.
01:19:28
Speaker
Okay. We go pay the people. They going get out here, drive that car, but we'll see you in 2026. Okay. ah Yes. That is, that is kind of what they are doing. And so that's, but that's why people think this year will be more competitive because,
01:19:43
Speaker
The rules have been stable, so everyone has had multiple years to kind of figure out the rules and the regulations, how to design things to get the maximum out of the cars.
01:19:54
Speaker
And the really big teams um who tend to dominate Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, they're going to be pretty quickly turning their focus to next year because they need to make sure they nail these regulations.
01:20:13
Speaker
They all just saw that Mercedes thought they got it right and their team languished for, you know, three, four years in the middle of the pack and no one wants to be that team.
01:20:28
Speaker
um The loss of prize money, the loss of prestige, you know, they these are all highly competitive people who love winning. And so um they are going to be turning their eyes to next year really quickly because getting next year right means that you may have gotten the next two years, three years, four years right.
01:20:51
Speaker
That makes sense. um But that will also give an opportunity to some teams that have maybe been focusing on the future for a while now or who, you know, they only have so much budget. So there's only so much they can focus on either one and may give them a chance to, you know, push the limits a little bit and maybe be a bit more competitive this year, which means a more prize money potentially, which means, you know, potentially more money to put into that next car.
01:21:22
Speaker
I'm here for it. Okay. Shout out to Yes, their drivers are Nico Hulkenberg. um He's been around Formula One for a lot of years. He's considered to be a fast driver, a really good ah qualifying driver.
01:21:37
Speaker
um So maybe not always as great in the race, but in qualifying to determine your starting position, he's considered to be really good. um His kind of big thing is he's never, I believe, had a top three finish
01:21:53
Speaker
um so he's been in the sport for a long time he you know keeps coming up he's very competitive people really like him he just hasn't really ever broken through to those top spots um and part of that is probably the cars he hasn't really gotten a lot of chances in really competitive cars like that okay And his teammate is Gabrielle Bortoletto, a young Italian driver, also won championships or came in first, you know, came in second in some championships in um Formula Two, Formula Three, all of that. Like another, you know, exciting young kid who we're going to find out how well he did, how well he does in the big leagues.
01:22:37
Speaker
Yeah. you know, come Saturday slash Sunday. ah We'll find out for the first time how well he'll do, but just another kid. People are going to be watching to see how well does he do? How well does he stack up to Hulkenberg?
01:22:54
Speaker
And what does he look like in three, four races, five races time? Like, does he look like he's getting a hang of the car? Does it look like he's up to the speed of formula one or is he kind of, you know, falling apart?
01:23:07
Speaker
Yeah. Is the car driving him? Okay. Yeah. Like that's what they're going to be watching with all these young guys. ah Some of the older guys who changed teams, Carlos Lewis, um they're going to expect in about three races, you should be competing with or beating your teammate. Like, yeah, we'll give you, um there's not a lot of practice time in formula one. You get like a day and a half of testing.
01:23:33
Speaker
um And then you can do some simulator work where they build, you know, car simulator rigs that you can drive around. But um these practice one, practice two and practice three, which are each about an hour long, are going to be their best, you know, first chances to really get in the car and, you know, push it.
Decoding F1 Qualifying Process
01:23:54
Speaker
And the races are going to be the most time outside of testing they've spent in the car like one time.
01:24:04
Speaker
So they're going to have that little bit of grace of like, ok it's a new car to you. You just got into this one. it's set up differently. It behaves differently on the road.
01:24:15
Speaker
We'll give you a race, two races, maybe even three races. But after that, you're a professional race car driver. You should be competing. ah At a high level. And so they're going to get less grace than, say, a Gabriel Borcholetto, Andrea Kimi, Kimi Andrea Antonelli, or Isaac Hajar, who will be given a little bit more rope, a little bit more time to kind of show if they have, you know, the pace.
01:24:52
Speaker
this is going be interesting. Everybody trying to prove themselves, you know, or yes, at least in the third race, second, you don't understand. Like, yeah.
01:25:05
Speaker
And so, and that also, I wanted to go through those just because there's going to be like a handful of teams that are likely competing to win. McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull,
01:25:18
Speaker
maybe Mercedes, maybe Aston Martin, um, at this first race or first few races will be competing to like really win the race. A lot of those, a lot of other people are going to be competing for, you know, eighth, seventh, 10th.
01:25:37
Speaker
Um, but there's also some interesting storylines down there. There's team dynamics down there. And like I said, it's, you know, potentially tens of millions of dollars for those teams.
01:25:49
Speaker
If their drivers are able to finish a little bit ahead versus a little bit behind. And so, um, It's a sport where simultaneously you can you can keep your focus at the top, and this year we think that's going to be competitive.
01:26:04
Speaker
So there's going to be potentially some more exciting finishes, hopefully, some more you know churn as far as who's kind of a leading. Yeah. The world driver standings, but that also like there's some interesting stuff happening lower down with your, you know, your Isaac Hjars, your Yuki Sonoda's, your Carlos Sainz, who might not be in that top five, top eight, may not even be in the top 10, but are still out there pushing hard because they have.
01:26:35
Speaker
you know, kind of their own, you know, hopes and dreams and everything and that pinned on it. And some really interesting stories that make ah rooting for them worthwhile, even if it isn't necessarily the, you know, guys who are going to be standing on the podium, holding up the ah trophies and spreading champagne.
01:26:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:57
Speaker
Okay. That's a hell of a background, but everybody's got some skin in the game to try to figure out where are they going to land. They do. Uh, we're recording this one pretty late, not just at night, uh, but in the, uh, race season.
01:27:14
Speaker
So I'm going to actually see if I can pull this up quickly. Um, well not race season, but in the, um, we're already into the race weekend as we are, uh, recording this. So I want to see if I can pull up practice one.
01:27:31
Speaker
Um, so this is the results of the first practice. Um, This is not necessarily indicative of kind of where they'll necessarily be at.
01:27:43
Speaker
oh you In the actual race? Yeah, like in the actual race, but it is kind of where they are.
01:27:56
Speaker
oh right now, which is also interesting. ah One looks to be the person who finished with this fastest single lap over the course of practice was Lando Norris.
01:28:14
Speaker
The second fastest overall lap was Carlos Sainz in the Williams. Okay. Third was Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.
01:28:26
Speaker
Fourth was Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren. Fifth was Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Sixth was Alexander Albon in the Williams.
01:28:41
Speaker
Seventh was George Russell in the Mercedes. so Eighth was Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin. Nine, Isaac Hajar.
01:28:53
Speaker
10, Lance Stroll. 11, Yuki Sonoda. 12, Lewis Hamilton. 13, Jack Duhan. 14, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. 15, Gabrielle Portoleto.
01:29:09
Speaker
16, Liam Lawson. 17, Pierre Gasly. 18, Nico Hulkenberg. 19, Esteban Ocon. And 20th, Oliver Behrman.
01:29:20
Speaker
The top... third 13 were all covered by one second. So... ah Dang.
01:29:32
Speaker
Lando Norris finished... His fastest lap was 1 minute 17.252 seconds. Those seconds? Good God. They're all so close.
01:29:45
Speaker
I mean, thickens. Doohan was thirteen With 1 minute 18.232 seconds. 0.98 seconds slower.
01:30:01
Speaker
So that's also to give you an idea at least over one lap the margins we're talking about here. Again, this is practice one. um Some people were still driving around with like ah what they call flow viz. It's paint they put on the car.
01:30:18
Speaker
And then they have them drive around and it shows them wherever the paint blows on the car. That's there how they know where the air is going. Oh, okay. It's practice, practice. Yes. And so, or big, you know, contraptions on the car to measure like wind speed and velocity, um changing engine modes, adjusting the car, you know, forward, backward, the brake differential. they They're testing lots of stuff.
01:30:47
Speaker
And they're going to be doing that through practice, ah all of practice one. In practice two, they're going to start what is called race simulation usually.
01:30:58
Speaker
ah They'll try to do some of that where they'll put extra fuel into the car and let the driver go for multiple laps um to kind of see, okay, how does the car behave?
01:31:09
Speaker
not just over one lap, but multiple. And then practice three, they're going to do some more ah race prep stuff, some more ah race setup, and then they're going to start doing their qualifying practice where they're going to start um lowering the car as close to the ground as they can.
01:31:32
Speaker
um They're going to start tuning things a little bit more for speed and you're going to see drivers and that third practice start pushing, uh, the car a bit harder to not maybe just figure out the lines or, you know, understand the car, but start to see, okay, what's the real edge of what it can do and what I can get onto, uh, before they go into qualifying, um, qualifying, ah they will will go around the track.
01:32:02
Speaker
Um, It's your fastest single lap in each round. So the first round, all the cars go out. You have like 10 minutes to set your best lap time.
01:32:15
Speaker
um The top 15 go to the next round. The bottom five are left behind in whatever order their times were.
01:32:26
Speaker
So if you came in 16th, you'll start 16th. If you came in 20th, you start last. um In that next round, they all you know the 15 remaining cards go around. They get 10 minutes to set their best lap.
01:32:39
Speaker
Bottom five get dropped. they will ah And they will go in the order from that round. So even if their best time in round two was slower...
01:32:54
Speaker
then someone in round one, they still get to keep their position. So you finish 11th in round two. You could have been slower than someone who got dropped in the previous round, but you made it to the round. So you get that 11th spot. that allla It is because conditions can change.
01:33:16
Speaker
So if it's dry in the first round, Then you may be able to set like a one, you know, 17 lap. But if it's raining when they start the second round, fastest person out there might be 120. You might set like 122 124 and, you know, still finish in the top 10 because the conditions on the track have changed.
01:33:45
Speaker
But. You can't really compare, well, what would the driver who got dropped have done if they had had to drive in the rain? Well, when it was dry for both of them, he lost.
01:33:58
Speaker
He didn't, you know, get a fast enough time to get out of the bottom five. And so it's how you do in that round.
01:34:09
Speaker
I get it. Those bottom five will get dropped. Top ten will go out. They'll go around. ah They get 10 minutes to set the fastest lap at the end of those. They go in that order.
01:34:20
Speaker
I get it. I don't know if I love it, but I get it. i The only thing that will change that is penalties. um oh If you break a rule or um like a rule on the track, or if you break a rule such as you're only allowed to have four engines and your team gave you a fifth one.
01:34:44
Speaker
Well, that extra engine is a 10 place grid penalty. So after qualifying, if you qualified first, you go down to 11th and everybody else moves up one.
Practice Session Insights and Season Predictions
01:34:59
Speaker
um If you do some other stuff like impeding someone else when they're on a fast lap or. you know, changing other parts or that kind of thing that can also get you penalties that can drop you anywhere from like five to 20 places.
01:35:14
Speaker
Once you get enough grid penalties, you will move from starting on the grid, the 20 spaces for the cars to starting at the pit lane exit.
01:35:30
Speaker
And that basically means you can't start until the other draw of the other cars start, and you have to drive out of the pit lane, which will take even longer. So it's just one more kind of like slowdown.
01:35:44
Speaker
The furthest back you can get actually started in the parking lot. Oh, you broke up.
01:35:53
Speaker
ah But yeah, you're going to start, you know, the furthest back that they can really kind of make you start while still letting you compete in the race. But I think that's everything.
01:36:04
Speaker
I got through that about as fast as I kind of anticipated that I would. um So... I think that's probably everything for this one. hope it looks like I'm having some weird connection issues. So I don't know that Joy can hear me, but um I would like to thank Joy for doing this with me for of hanging out and going over kind of the first blushes of the F1 season.
01:36:37
Speaker
um Like I said, we're going to start ah probably recording these a bit earlier in the week to get them out a little bit sooner. ah But the next one will be after the Australian Grand Prix. So we're going to see kind of how everybody does in the first race, ah see how some of the storylines start to play out ah between ah teammates and between opposing teams.
01:37:02
Speaker
um in the first match of the season. But I'm really excited about it. Like I said, I'm excited personally to see Lewis at Ferrari. I'm also excited because if this is anything like the last year um before regulation change, it should be a pretty competitive year.
01:37:20
Speaker
um And that will also be really good to see. We have a chance to see a lot of drivers competing um up at the front.
01:37:30
Speaker
Well, I'll just be alone for the ride. I feel like by the end of this F1 season, I'm actually going to know what I'm talking about. Because right now, call me Lightning McQueen off of Disney Cars. I don't know.
01:37:47
Speaker
Well, that is the hope. Like I said, thank you, Joy, for joining me. And we will see you guys next week after the race. Bye.
01:37:59
Speaker
Bye.