Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hello and welcome to Grand Prix but more importantly welcome to the 2025 F1 season! Now we're kicking off the season in Australia but we're kicking off each of our race episodes with Izzy's quali lap. Yes. Now we had qualifying on Saturday, race on Sunday, it is the race day today but before we get into the race Izzy is going to give us a summary of the qualifying session but to make it more interesting she has to do it in the time of the pole sitter's lap. Now, yesterday, Lando Norris qualified on pole and his quali time was one minute and 15 seconds. So Iz, you have to give us a summary of all three quali sessions in one minute and 15. Are you ready?

• Speaker #1

  I'm doing a lot of scrolling on these notes.

• Speaker #0

  I'll keep the timer up so you can watch it.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, yeah, hit me.

• Speaker #0

  But I personally think that will add more pressure, but whatever. That's true. Okay, you ready?

• Speaker #1

  Ready as I'll ever be, I think.

• Speaker #0

  Three,

• Speaker #1

  two, one, go. Q1 and already drama. Liam Lawson P18 struggled on his final lap. Ouch. Kimi Antonelli broke the front bib of his car on a kerb, which saw him losing three tenths on the straights. That explains his P16 exit, knocked out by fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoletto in a kick salver. Speaking of rookies, Jack Dewan outqualified Pierre Gasly in Q1. That'll help Jack as Alpine have had an army of reserve drivers waiting to jump in his seat if he underperforms this season. And get this, Oli Behrmann's gearbox went kaput, so he just wasn't able to take part after having a crash early in the weekend. Norris topped the time of the charts and Red Bull finally had some pace. Liam Lawson was excluded from that, obs. Q2 and Lewis Hamilton spun. Old tyres lost the rear just a mess, while Leclerc ran out of time to change his set of softs late on. Ferrari's rear tyres were getting cooked by the end of the lap, which cost them serious lap time. Bortoletto nearly kissed the wall, aborting his lap, and Norris topped the timing sheets again. McLaren won two. They are the team to beat this year. Unfortunately, none of the rookies made it out of Q3. Q3, it was a McLaren masterclass. Piastri took provisional pole, but Norris snatched it away from his Aussie teammate. McLaren won two, Max Verstappen P3, Lewis P8, Leclerc P7, Ferrari not as competitive as we thought, and the shocker, Alex Auerbaum P6 ahead of both Ferraris, and Yuki Tsunoda in that RB. P5, what a session. Well done! That was very smooth.

• Speaker #2

  I didn't think you were going to be able to do that.

• Speaker #1

  Brev, there was a whole paragraph I could not read. I was writing like a whole damn poem. I don't know what I was thinking. Okay, cutting that down next time. Oh my gosh.

• Speaker #2

  well my face is red we learn did you take any information from that quali roundup um liam lawson p18 what the hate news yes yes i'm strongly a hater and i'm sticking to it and i will check on this in this episode right

• Speaker #1

  it is almost time for the grand prix to begin and we've waited many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many days for this i know

• Speaker #0

  too many it's finally here and reem gets to watch her first live grand prix on the pod right are we ready let's do this okay there you have it first race is over we were up at 4 a.m to watch that reem we're sleep deprived and i want to hear your most sleep deprived delulu thoughts about that race what

• Speaker #2

  a chaotic first race for the season.

• Speaker #1

  It really was.

• Speaker #2

  Oh my god that was not boring whatsoever and you know what I've watched F1 with you both before and there were races that were very boring but this one just this one was very entertaining. First of all I can't believe how many of them crashed and were at the race. That's crazy. Usually you see like one or two. I don't know is that common to see so many of them with these like weather conditions crash?

• Speaker #1

  Yes it's very common for a track that's going from a drying track to a wet track. and similarly for a wet track going to a drying track those in between these conditions can be incredibly difficult for drivers to be able to navigate even experienced drivers like we saw Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz crashing out it's all about you don't want to drive on the track you need to feel your way through the track and you need to be able to keep a reserve of performance in your back pocket you don't want to be driving at 100% pummeling every single lap with absolute performance you have to keep it a little bit reined in and it's down to just driver instinct where you push and where you don't. And that all takes time. Hence why we've seen a lot of those rookies crash out. It's very common. And it wouldn't have been the ideal rookie race for you to start in because it was all over the shop. But amazing season opener.

• Speaker #2

  I think everyone who's watching it can agree that it's not the newbies fault. Like it's not down to the actual skill set. It's just awful weather conditions. But I think, I mean, for someone who's seen... bits of the 2024 season and is now going to be committing to the 2025 season. I think what's so exciting is that you can see that this year it's going to be such a close competition between different teams because it was like McLaren was doing well, Red Bull was doing well. I mean, Ferrari was even, you know, kind of messing up. But I think they still have potential. I think we're going to see them. Mercedes was doing well. Like, even Williams. So I think it's going to be a very, very exciting 2025.

• Speaker #0

  Okay, shall we go through the main talking points of the race? I think the obvious one to start with, even though he did not actually start the race, is Isaac Hadjar. My heart broke for him. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, so we're on the formation lap. this is actually happening after a long cold winter of nothing we're now watching cars go brum brum for the first time the main portion of my personality is coming right alive because oh my god oh no who is that is

• Speaker #0

  it no no no i destroyed the car oh no okay for context isaac had just in a barrier he's obviously spun out on the formation lap

• Speaker #1

  oh that rear wing is oh no oh god he's destroyed the car no i destroyed the car for context as well it's 4am and also um isaac hadjar in the lower formula formula 2 and he was battling for the championship he crashed out in monza and his radio message with his beautiful french accent was so iconic and he said no i destroyed the car All the listeners don't care what I've said. I'm so tired. It's frustrating for Isaac Hajar because he was in contention last year for the F2 Championship, which he narrowly missed out to Gabriel Bortoletto, who's now driving for Kicksalba this year. He qualified in P11, which I think in an RB is a very respectable qualifying. He wasn't that far away from Yuki Tsunoda, who's been in Red Bull for quite a few years now. He was driving around the formation lap. The formation lap is obviously the lap that you do, a warm-up lap around the circuit before you land back in your pit boxes, ready to start the race. I have a feeling that he's probably not used to driving an F1 car slowly. And without sounding like I'm patronising people that are listening, you're not meant to drive an F1 car slowly. It's a horrible experience to have to drive it slowly. And the way that the car interacts with you is different to when it's driving full pelt. That's just the nature of that car. So I'm sure he was most likely trundling around, getting himself in the zone. People did say in commentary that he was very nervous before the race started, bless him. Oh,

• Speaker #0

  you could be though.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, and before the race has even started, he ended up getting a DNS, because it's the do not start, so you didn't manage to start the race. Whereas if you get a DNF, that means you did not finish the race.

• Speaker #2

  You could see that he's someone who has a lot of potential, and he has a lot of heart as well. And I think we're going to see him shine in the other races. It's just a disappointing start for him. But I mean, have you seen, did you see the video of Anthony Hamilton going to comfort him after the race? Yeah. That was so cute.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Anthony Hamilton is a father to more than two. He's definitely like a bit of a paddock dad. But I thought it was very, very sweet. And Isaac Hadjar is a huge Hamilton fan. Yeah. So to be consoled on your F1 debut after you crash on the formation lap by your hero's father, although isn't the same as winning or being able to compete in the race. It's a pretty good consolation prize.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  I think he would have rather finished the race.

• Speaker #1

  Well, he was in an RB, he wasn't going to get paid yet.

• Speaker #0

  He could have still finished.

• Speaker #2

  I mean, he's kind of in the best position being in that team because it's not so much about the pressure to win for them, it's more about the exposure and being able to show your skills.

• Speaker #0

  Have you forgotten about Daniel Ricciardo?

• Speaker #2

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Maybe it's been a while since we've seen Jack the Survivor,

• Speaker #1

  so no, I think.

• Speaker #0

  I think it is important also to point out that it's not necessarily entirely his fault because of those paint lines on the track.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Albert Park is essentially a street race that's kind of also a circuit race. So there are bike lane paint marks that are all over the track. And where it's obviously a wet race and the amount of rain that's been falling, those paint lines are very, very, very slippery. And F1 have been trying very hard to get anti-slip paint to be able to put over them, but nothing has really worked. Nothing is actually anti-slip for these cars, for the tyres, for any of these wet races. So it is just a case of his wheel touched one of those and it made him spin and crash out. And, you know, several other drivers did the exact same. I mean,

• Speaker #2

  at what point do they say that? these are just not the right weather conditions to be racing because i saw online that they were supposed to be postponing the race based on the weather conditions if the rain gets worse at what point does it become dangerous for them so they have different grade levels for the rain so grade one to five one

• Speaker #0

  being you know it's barely raining this isn't going to have a huge impact three is sort of where it was towards the uh later stage of the race after we saw the cars that were on slick tires then going back to put them on to intermediates and then five being it is an actual shower this race can't go on and we have had it in the past where there have been races it was such a boring day honestly because it was raining so much and they kept sending out this water dispenser truck onto the track to try and like mop away some of the water from the track so that they could actually get the race done i think after about three hours of the race not starting they said okay the race isn't going to happen so what we're going to do is we're basically just going to send all of the cars out behind a safety car do two laps because two laps is the minimum to be able to say that the race is complete oh So they made everyone drive really, really slowly for two laps behind a safety car. And because less than half distance of the race was raced, they only gave half points. That was in 2021.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, it was small.

• Speaker #0

  So there have been races where they have postponed the race and, I mean, altogether just basically not done it before because of the weather.

• Speaker #2

  In that scenario, are they then following the safety car in the position that they were in in qualifying? And then that's the order that...

• Speaker #0

  they end up coming out with in the race yeah it's not 2021 that's what they did but they've also had it where you know it's rained so heavily that they have red flagged the race and you just stopped everyone's gone back into the pit lane they've waited for it to stop or calm down a bit before then sending cars out again i mean the rain does make things exciting but i mean yeah i guess it's a great it's a great equalizer for for cars because

• Speaker #1

  Your performance in the dry is very different to your performance in the wet because you're trying to survive the laps as opposed to attack them. So it always creates an interesting race. Next talking point is Lando no wins, as we've mentioned in Drive to Survive.

• Speaker #0

  Lando no wins no more. Yes.

• Speaker #1

  After seeing the hesitancy and maybe the self-doubt that he had in Drive to Survive when talking about if he was able to be able to take on the fight to Max and Red Bull in 2024, he said, He claimed that 2025 would be his year and he obviously qualified in pole position. During 2024, Lando did have a bit of a tendency to give away his pole position and would get overtaken on turn one. That was not the case today. I thought we saw Orlando Norris very much in control. He was able to navigate all of those conditions very well. Unlike Lewis and his engineer that we're getting on to, Lando and his race engineer, Will, seem to be in perfect harmony. And I felt there was only one hiccup. Well, apart from him going wide. There's only one hiccup and I thought that was lap 29 with the return of Papaya Rules. Papaya Rules! Papaya Rules! Where they decided to hold positions and Lando was leading with Oscar, who was, I mean, he had pace.

• Speaker #0

  Piastri was faster.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, he was. I think he had the home crowd behind him. I think he had that adrenaline and sweat pumping. And I think he was seeing the back of his teammates car and thought, nah, I'm going to send it, mate. So, but then he got a radio through saying, we'd like to hold positions whilst we wait for these conditions. You know, the weather's, just hold station. So Piastri's been told to hold position behind Lando. I don't really know why though. Yeah. It's the first race of the season. No one's a driver in contention for the championship as of yet. Well,

• Speaker #0

  they both are. They're both on even footing right now. Both on zero points.

• Speaker #1

  And if he's at his home Grand Prix, he wants to impress in front of the crowd. I think let him race. Yeah. Okay, I get it to a degree. You don't want your cars to be fighting and crashing out, but they're also getting paid millions by you because you think that they're that worthy of the money. It's the first race of the season. There's nothing stopping Oscar being able to overtake Lando.

• Speaker #0

  And I think he could have done it easily.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, why were the papyri rules put in place? It didn't feel very fair.

• Speaker #2

  I thought that was very disappointing. And I mean, they could have just let them race one. It would have been great entertainment for the fans to see them go head to head. And two, it's like you said in the drivers and team deep dives before, which is that you are racing against the other teams, but you're also racing against your teammates. And I think McLaren isn't really acknowledging the fact that they are supposed to be racing against each other because they are supposed to be kind of figuring out which one is the best and trying to prove which one is the best. So telling them to hold position is very, very disappointing for them.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, and I would understand it more if we were a few races in. for the season and there was like a clear person who had more points that was maybe going for the driver's championship but it's the first race everyone's on zero points there's absolutely no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to race and you know there was absolutely no reason for them to say don't race it's also so demotivating for piastri because

• Speaker #2

  how is he going to go into the next race and give it his all the same way he did with the first one when he's already being told that we want to prioritize land or winning

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I mean, they've signed up a big contract extension for Oscar Piastri, so his heart and his future does still lie in the Papaya team. I was a bit disappointed to see that they decided to make that call. They let them race a couple of laps later and they then said, no, no, you're fine to carry on racing each other. But by that point, Oscar Piastri had been absolutely hashing out fast lap times coming right towards Lando. and then was told to back off. So he was about two seconds behind by the time they said that he could go and race his teammate, at which time he'd created enough buffer where Lando was nowhere under threat from him. So it sort of was a bit like, well, that was a few laps too late when I was actually ready to overtake him. He told me, no, now you want me to overtake him. I'm nowhere bloody close. I mean, his race was completely ruined by him going off on the grass, you know, on dry tyres with a race that started raining again, which was, oh. I wasn't expecting him to get back on the track, if I'm honest. I was expecting him to just turn the engine off and that would be that. So good on him for doing that.

• Speaker #0

  I think he had the home crowd willing him on.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, totally. I think the crowd does add a huge amount of strength to a driver in that position. But he went from P14 all the way up to P9 and did that stunning move on Lewis on the last lap of the race, which was very gutsy. So judging by that overtake alone, I think he's probably got...

• Speaker #2

  a bit more gusto in him for the next race but he might come out a bit more punchy towards his teammate he might not be listening to team or i think he should been off team orders i also think um lando needs to watch his ego going forward in the race because i think it's starting to oh no it's coming back right it's coming back i mean listen yes he did win and he's done a brilliant race i mean he he was really really entertaining very dominant very dominant And it's great that he's gotten his confidence back up since what we've seen in Drive to Survive and the Landon Owens affecting him. But I think he needs to make sure that his ego doesn't take over his head and makes him think that he can just kind of get away with anything for the next races and that he could just win them easily. Because I think he's going to find that he's going to have a lot of competition, especially if Piastri stops listening to team orders and actually starts competing with him.

• Speaker #0

  So you're saying Lando Norris, sit down, be humble. Yeah,

• Speaker #2

  exactly.

• Speaker #1

  Sit down.

• Speaker #0

  And since we're talking about Lando's P1, we should also probably talk about Max in P2. Now, that Red Bull didn't look as competitive as I thought it was going to look. I mean, Max is brilliant in a wet race. Yeah. But he inherited P2, I think it's safe to say. He wasn't going to have P2 if Piastri had managed to keep the car on the track. And... Even towards the end, he was trying very hard to get past Norris, but just wasn't able to. And I think he was probably getting way more out of that car than the car was actually capable of. I don't know what you think, but I don't know that that car is particularly fast this year.

• Speaker #2

  Is this going to be the downfall of Max Verstappen?

• Speaker #1

  The downfall is one race here, 23 races to go. Yes. Downfall of Max Verstappen. I don't know because I think the car has been... all over the shop since pre-season testing. Red Bull have been experimenting with different parts and different things all the way up to free practices in Australia, which I think tells you that they have had a track record in the last few years of coming to testing and their car seems a right handful, but they managed to do some brilliant work overnight and get the car looking a lot more in the working window, which they seem to do ready for qualifying. But then you look at Liam Lawson, and Liam Lawson was struggling for pace the whole weekend. He missed FP3. uh he started from the pit lane he had a bad quali he was out of the race and crashed they ended up giving him a i think it was a different type of rear wing and a different beam wing to help him in the wet so that he could have a great recovery drive that ended up making the car really slow so he wasn't able to make any inroads and anyone made the car really draggy didn't it yeah exactly that so i think he was like a whole second slower than max at times he was nearly three seconds off the pace to max yeah to my ears oh stop it you like that you But I think the time for Max and Red Bull's pure dominance where they would be having simply lovely afternoons currently doesn't seem to be happening. However, we had this in 2024. Max and Red Bull were dominating for the first half and then suddenly McLaren came out of nowhere. So it's all to play for. It's a developed race.

• Speaker #0

  It's not one to be trifled with.

• Speaker #1

  Trifled with, yes, I agree. So I don't know, but it was exciting because everyone was saying McLaren were going to be the hottest car on track. Granted, they were also saying Ferrari might have been in the mix, but you know, whatever. Ferrari. Yeah, we need to talk about Ferrari. But yeah, I think Max is going to have to have... He needs to be on point from every single session for the rest of the year, eating his Weetabix every single morning and getting to bed early because Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are a very, very, very formidable team and his car currently is not up to par with them.

• Speaker #2

  Can we talk about Liam Lawson for a second? Because I know, okay, I've already...

• Speaker #1

  I thought we already had.

• Speaker #2

  I've made my stand on the podcast that I'm a Liam Lawson hater. And yes, I did get called out in our social media comments on Instagram. I'm not sorry. Yes, I've been watching for five minutes, but I stand by what I said. But also, thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part. But I think, I mean, yes, I'll acknowledge the fact that, you know, the rookies didn't have it easy because of the weather conditions. And that's kind of out of their control. But I did see a few comments on Twitter that were saying they were basically they didn't have as much sympathy for Liam Lawson because he was supposed to have a seat in the sisters team. What's the name of the sisters team now? Because it keeps changing.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, so it is Racing Bulls, formerly Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, formerly Alfred Towery, formerly Toro Rosso, and before that it was Minardi.

• Speaker #2

  Thank you, now.

• Speaker #1

  That's not getting boring as a joke whatsoever, is it?

• Speaker #2

  So, like, he could have had a seat in the RB team and then he could have, you know, practiced a bit more and then went on to be with Max in Red Bull, but they just immediately shifted him to Red Bull. So there's a... Lack of sympathy there, because if they thought that he would be good enough for Red Bull, he shouldn't have been making these mistakes.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, Lawson on the medium tyre.

• Speaker #0

  Reem, I don't want to hear a peep at you.

• Speaker #2

  I mean, I'm not going to say I'm happy, but...

• Speaker #1

  I rebuttal with the fact that this is now however many drivers up against Max that have not been able to compete in that car. Yes, it is set up for Max and we all understand why. But I think that it shows from Sergio Perez struggling right at the back of the field, unable to make inroads on competitors during races, to Liam Lawson, a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed rookie who was struggling to make inroads on competitors and get it up the field. It's not to do with the talent of the driver. It's down to the car.

• Speaker #0

  Max had been complaining all through the practice sessions this week about the car and how it was to drive and the handling and all of that stuff. And they made changes. And after they made the changes, Liam Lawson was then struggling. And it is just very clear that they are making whatever changes Max wants, regardless of how it's going to impact the other driver. And then the other driver starts to struggle. And in this case, it's Liam Lawson. Last year it was Perez. Before that, it was Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly. And I think they are going to very quickly realise this is how you lose Constructors' Championships. Yes, in 2022 and 2023, they managed to do it. But that's because all of the other teams did not understand the regulations for this car at all and were taking their time to get up to speed where Red Bull had known it. So they had no competition but themselves. Then in 2024 and 2025, they are now continuing this trend of only making a car that is suitable for Max to drive. And guess what? They are not having as many points for the Constructors' Championship. And it's going to hurt them in the long run because they're going to get less money for it.

• Speaker #2

  They need to rethink their priorities.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Yeah. I mean... The question will be asked if Max was to leave the team or was to retire, what would their next strategy be? Because then they've got a car that's only set up for him. They have to... Oh. This feels like quite a drastic statement.

• Speaker #0

  If Max quits, we quit.

• Speaker #1

  That's that. This is quite a drastic thing to do. Okay.

• Speaker #2

  Sorry about dedicating.

• Speaker #1

  Right. Let's talk about it then. It's been long awaited. It's been long awaited. The news broke early last year that Lewis would be leaving the Silver Arrows to go over to Ferrari in red. And the fairy tale turned into a fucking nightmare. So Lewis and Ferrari are left with a reality check after a disappointing race and a very bad strategy call. And also not a great car and also not a great qualifying. There really wasn't much to take home that was positive other than they both were able to finish the race, I guess. However, one thing I would like to highlight is Lewis Hamilton and his engineer. Peter Bonington, his previous engineer with Mercedes, didn't decide to take the opportunity to go over to Ferrari and uproot his life and family to go over to Maranello, which makes sense, which meant that Lewis was then inheriting a race engineer from Carlos Sainz, who's obviously moved over to Williams. And before it was Carlos Sainz's engineer, it was Sebastian Vettel's engineer. And it was reported that Lewis called up Sebastian Vettel and basically said, hey, is this Donny all right? And Vettel was like, hey, this Donny's all right. And he was like, all right, cool. That was all paraphrased. they may have spoken like that how do i know but during the race the amount of radio calls that he had from his radio engineers that seemed to be inundating him with information he didn't ask for so on lap 13 he reported that the car was snappy and then on lap 14 the engineer decided to tell him k1 when close and he was like yeah i know thanks leave me to it and he was like k1's available and he was like yeah i know thank you so much for the information leave me to it please and then on lap 23 it's so funny how you

• Speaker #0

  He was so well-mannered.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, he was polite, but it was... Okay, thank you.

• Speaker #0

  Leave me to it, please.

• Speaker #1

  But it was like me sort of putting a middle finger up and being like, afterwards, like, leave me alone.

• Speaker #0

  Maybe that's what Liam Lawson should have done.

• Speaker #1

  Lap 23, Lewis lost gear sync, which means that he was trying to go into another gear and it was out of sync and was going up or down and wasn't doing what he wanted it to do. And then his engineer... sort of came back with some helpful info but gave him like way too much information was being like a stage five clinger lewis was like okay i got it thank you don't need that it's not a problem please stop lap 28 he was talking about uh you might want to use upshift this might be helping lou was like leave me to it thank you and then we got to lap 31 and he was like try and hold k1 and he was like yes i know i know i'm not close enough yet i will when it's the time thank you so much ferrari and then we got to lap 49 when he was radioing in to say We lost a huge opportunity there. That's costed us so many points. It was probably after something back from his radio engineer who doesn't stop talking. His radio engineer just said, understood. The one time my man wants answers, he got one word back.

• Speaker #2

  It's like when you're in the kitchen and you're cooking and then someone's with you and they're giving you unnecessary tips and you're like, just leave me alone.

• Speaker #1

  Round two of you giving random analogies that are way too close by.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I was disappointed. I was kind of sold this fairy tale dream of two F1 legacies coming together. It's going to be spectacular. I was really excited to watch everyone on that track, but I was very excited to see what Lewis was going to be like in a Ferrari just because all of the hype. I mean, the amount of marketing that Ferrari and Lewis have been doing, you know, the amount of social videos and stuff like that that I've seen, it's like, oh, OK, they are making this a really big. thing and then on socials I've been seeing that you know teams like Red Bull and McLaren have been saying we believe Ferrari are actually holding back what they're showing us we don't think they've shown us the actual pace of the car and I've since seen a meme that was like Ferrari aren't showing us the true pace of the car because they've forgotten where they hid it i mean what a great strategy basically up every chance you get and then say okay there was a panel long what we actually had i mean the ferrari fans are going through it on socials everyone is so disappointed but also they're coming at it with a we kind of expected it

• Speaker #1

  point of view yeah i don't know if you've noticed that where it's like you know we thought we were all very excited but this is just ferrari's strategy they're always all over the place so this is kind of what you expect this is ferrari through and through so lewis welcome you've been in the races you've seen the the replays and the highlights and stuff like that you should have known this was exactly what you were coming in for but also i do think he should have done his due diligence with his engineer and i think there should have been more conversations before actually getting into the car on race day where they were discussing the level of information that he was after from an engineer. You spend more time and communicate more with your race engineer than you would your actual partner, if you had one. And you need to know how to communicate effectively with them. They needed to work that out beforehand, I think.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I agree. I was also quite shocked that he was saying that he needed to learn the wet weather race controls on his steering wheel the night before the race, because that was something he hadn't done. And I would have expected him to have done that in the race simulator in Italy before they'd even started the season. So I think that was maybe another miss sight from them.

• Speaker #0

  I thought Lewis was supposed to be one of the great drivers when it is raining.

• Speaker #2

  He is. But I mean, during qualifying, the Ferrari really seemed to struggle with overheating its rear tyres. The rear tyres and the whole of the rear part of the car looked very loose going around the circuit. They would get to the last sector of the lap and they would just be lighting up the rear tyres way too much and they'd lose loads of lap time. So it was clear that they were losing a little bit of pace. They just didn't seem to be quite on the mark with McLaren or Red Bull, which was quite alarming. Going into the race, they just didn't seem to have the same sort of pace that we were expecting or that had been sort of reportedly that they were keeping behind closed doors. So Alex Albon, who was ahead of Lewis in the race, did an incredible job, made his car as wide as a bus. But also, I mean, Lewis was learning how to get, you know, he's been only in a car that's only ever been Mercedes powered with a Mercedes engine in the back of it. This is the first time he's had a Ferrari engine in the back of his car. And how that engine is able to fire, how it's able to use this energy and store its energy, it's all very different to how a Mercedes engine would do. And Charles Leclerc would be a lot more adaptive to be able to understand how that all works, whereas Lewis was learning it. I did feel that he lent on that as the reason why his performance wasn't great. But ultimately, I don't think that he was confident enough in the car to really attack because we saw Charles Leclerc making some pretty tasty moves against Lewis and others on the track. So... I think Lewis is a great wet weather racer. Do I think that we're seeing him in his prime right now? No. Do I think we're seeing him in his comfort zone right now? No. I think it was a pretty terrible race weekend for Ferrari in general. They are leaving Australia, Melbourne, Albert Park with five points and they're in seventh position, which compared to McLaren and Mercedes, who are on equal points leaving that round, 27. So they're already on a huge back foot. They need to have a big, big... talk and half the problem will be that lewis is a great leader when it comes to being in racing however he doesn't know the bloody car enough or the steering wheel or anyone there enough or isn't know half their names to be able to tell them what he needs to be better how the car needs to be better and how he can be better all those three questions are still very unanswered for him and unfortunately it's going to be a live testing ground for 2025 but i also don't think that that should be an excuse that he is able to use because his very first race in formula one he managed to get a podium

• Speaker #0

  Do you think a part of it is kind of falling under pressure? Because he has a lot of pressure on him at the moment because people are seeing him in a new team. He has this whole legacy behind him. He's going to try and improve his point, especially with Mercedes kind of not really working out for him in 2024. And maybe he's kind of cracking a bit under the pressure.

• Speaker #2

  I think he's got a lot of eyes on him. Him and Charles Leclerc, before the season started, went over to Milan. and were going around in the cars doing donuts waving to the fans and they performed the whole national anthem of Italy to them where he didn't know the words and got called out for it so I mean he was able to see you know in broad daylight very clearly the passion that runs through the heart of Italy when it comes to Formula One and it's not only that it is all the millions of people across the world even if you're not a Lewis fan everyone thinks it's pretty cool so yeah there's a lot of pressure there he'll pretend that he doesn't feel it he'll pretend he doesn't see it and he'll pretend it's not there but it will be bubbling away as a human being for god's sake and he's also a high performance athlete there's nothing we can say on this podcast that lewis won't be saying to himself and then some he's as harsh as critic all the greats are so i'm sure that he will be able to dust himself down and come back stronger but is the car there for him and is the car there for char that's the main question and since we were talking about lewis let's talk about the guy that replaced him in mercedes shall we from

• Speaker #1

  antonelli

• Speaker #2

  From crashing in the barriers at Monza to taking P4. Not bad.

• Speaker #1

  He's done very, very well. I mean, he qualified P16. Yeah. And to be able to get all the way up to fourth place in a race as treacherous as that one was, where... He was one of two rookies to stay in until the end of the race. I think he deserves a very big pat on the back.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I think Kimi Antonelli has started off with the ripple, but is starting to make waves. That performance from a rookie driver, he's 18 years old, for Christ's sake. I mean, I wouldn't have been able to do that. Well, I can't drive, so I can't do it now. The point being is that I thought that his ability had a spin, obviously, and he nearly hit the barriers, which he was able to save beautifully.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, what a save. That was so good of him.

• Speaker #2

  It was, but it was also, he didn't get a stressed chest after that. He was able to get his head down. Mercedes made all the right calls, as they did with George. He was able to just take the situation in his head and just keep pushing forward. That's what you need to do. You don't need to get frazzled or stressed or worried. He kept going. Oh, we've got Kimi Antonelli. Don't hit the barrier. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  what a save.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, he's done well there.

• Speaker #1

  He's done very well.

• Speaker #0

  He's the only rookie who is doing that.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, he'll be frustrated with that.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, but he should be proud of himself. That's impressive.

• Speaker #2

  He got done with an unsafe release. So he came into the pits and as he was releasing out, it was deemed by the stewards that he'd been released at an unsafe point that could have caused him to collide with another driver. It wasn't shown on telly. It was all a bit random. We didn't see it. No one saw it. Mercedes didn't see it. Toto didn't see it. So... they ended up appealing it after the race because he got a five second time penalty, but they managed to win that appeal and he managed to secure P4. So, I mean, it was amazing result for Mercedes in general, but Kimi Antonelli is one to watch, Brev.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I think for a rookie driver's maiden race to be able to finish just one position behind your teammate who was P3 on a podium is a really, really, really good job. And it must be said, Toto Wolff did look a little bit smug in his post-race interview. like a proud dad no she was being more shady than that yeah more like oh Lewis has finished where and our rookie that we replaced him with is hmm fourth okay

• Speaker #0

  I will say I mean he like the rest of the rookies had a lot of eyes on him because everyone's trying to see okay what are the newbies going to be doing and a lot of them disappointed not their fault it was their conditions except one of them it was their fault and not their condition you

• Speaker #3

  Who?

• Speaker #0

  Who? I'm not going to say it.

• Speaker #2

  No, go on, say it. Say it, you won't. It starts with an

• Speaker #0

  A. But, I mean, he's done such a great job. I mean, he drove brilliantly. You were talking about the save. I think the save was one of the best parts of the race as well. And I think he should be very, very proud of himself. And hopefully he keeps that up for the rest of the season and it's not just beginner's luck.

• Speaker #2

  Ooh, I like the shade. I'm into it. Well, it could be. It 100% could be. But we won't know until we go to China next week. But yeah, very well done to Kimmy and to Nelly.

• Speaker #0

  Should we talk about science?

• Speaker #2

  What do you want to say?

• Speaker #0

  I'm just rooting for science.

• Speaker #2

  Keep that in. Keep that in. Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  go on. You've gone from hating this guy, calling him Botox face.

• Speaker #0

  I just thought he has done a lot of Botox. But ever since watching Drive to Survive season seven.

• Speaker #2

  You have a crush on him. We get it. You love the Spanish dark hair.

• Speaker #0

  and that beautiful body we get it i just i think i've developed a soft spot for him i think yeah he's got a crush hello and i think he's doing really great i mean i think william's crushed in the race really just to make a crush oh

• Speaker #2

  look she can't get her words out two laps brev are you blushing you can't see but she's looking down why are you turning your hair for

• Speaker #3

  Please message me.

• Speaker #0

  I don't know. I'm reading from him. Yes, he crashed, but I think he's going to be doing really well in a Williams car.

• Speaker #2

  This is such a non-talking point. What am I meant to say?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, he crashed. No, there is a talking point around science, actually, and it's the fact that he became Williams' second strategist in this race.

• Speaker #2

  Well, no, they've got more than one strategist now.

• Speaker #1

  So in the post-race interview with James Fowles, who is obviously the Williams team principal, he, you know, was asked about, you know, how are you feeling about the fact that Sainz crashed? But hey, at least Albon managed to finish P5. And James Fowles, giving Carlos Sainz his flowers, said... He was actually invaluable in this race, even though he crashed out and didn't manage to finish, didn't get any points. He was the one that was telling us when we needed to pit Albon, saying, OK, well, he's on slick tyres at the moment. He's not going to be able to last this long. You need to be pitting him on this lap to be able to get over to inters and completely saved Albon's race and managed to get them. p5 which i mean is astounding for a williams to be getting p5 albon was in shock himself see this is why i'm rooting for science he's a man with many talents he can crash but he can also work very well behind the scenes yeah

• Speaker #2

  they pay him millions to work well behind the scenes i mean reams crush aside i'm just going to focus on nav's actual factual points um Yeah, I mean, Williams are leaving this first round of 2025 in P4 in the Constructors' Championships with 10 championship points to their name, which is huge for them. And on top of that, I think that we are starting to see that Williams are really on the up. Alex said that the team is really united. There's a great atmosphere in the factory, that him and Carlos are working really well together. And James Vowles was saying it's not about both the drivers going head to head and challenging each other and, you know, having a big, you know... racing battle the whole time it's about trying to get over a thousand people in the williams team to all be facing the right direction and moving in the right trajectory and after this this race i mean that's exactly what they're doing yeah carlos obviously had an awful i had a torque spike in his car which caused him to go sliding off and crashing into the barriers which is rubbish because he's a brilliant driver and deserves a better debut for his new team than that but no doubt he'll be fighting back in china next week with a vengeance but you A team that seems very much in their redemption arc after many years right down at the bottom. And it's exciting to see. Going down to the lower end of the scale, Alpine, which I know Reem, you saw a lot of in Drive to Survive with Flavio Briatore being very dramatic and rather sassy and also kind of a villain in that storyline.

• Speaker #0

  Almost like a movie-like villain.

• Speaker #2

  You said you liked him.

• Speaker #0

  I did, but he is very much like a movie villain, even the way he talks and the way he, like his whole personality.

• Speaker #2

  Just Spanish.

• Speaker #3

  It's literally just Spanish. I thought he was this early.

• Speaker #2

  No. I mean, Alpine, obviously, we've got Pierre Gasly, who was running in the points in P9 for a decent amount of the race. He would have got some points. Then he went wide and then lost some positions to the Ferraris and then kind of dropped back with no pace and ended up with no points. And Jack Doohan, he's doing his main debut season with Alpine after we heard Flavio Biritorium drive us by and say, one thing you need to know, Jack. I own every millimetre of you. Which was a bit menacing and a bit strange. Just a tad. If my employer said that, I might be calling HR or maybe just telling my mum and saying I don't want to work there. It's tough. No, it's a bit creepy, actually. My boss is owning every millimetre of me. It's weird. But he crashed early on. And there's two points I wanted to bring to this. One, do we think that Flavia Briatore and the team are going to be putting a huge amount of pressure on Jack's shoulders after him crashing at the end of that? And also, a weird thing that they've done. How many reserve drivers room do you think that Alpine will have? A reserve driver. How many do you think they got? Two? No, they got four.

• Speaker #0

  Four.

• Speaker #2

  Why the bloody hell do you need four bloody reserve drivers? Why do you need them? Because you got four potential replacements for Jack Doohan if he doesn't perform.

• Speaker #1

  All this intimidation,

• Speaker #2

  isn't it? Yes.

• Speaker #1

  But that creates absolutely no psychological...

• Speaker #0

  safety for a driver and that is very necessary it's a team sport at the end of the day i mean you saw it in in drive to survive like the because there was that episode that was um showing the difference between alpine and has and you can see the difference in the environment where has was very supportive and even when they were losing they were still very much like oh don't worry about it like we can still do better we're still gonna work out our strategy like there's no hard feelings while Alpine was a lot harsher. And I think that comes down to Flavio's personality as well and how he manages the team, even though he's not even the principal. Principal or president?

• Speaker #2

  Oh, principal. First time you ever thought it. Principal or president?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I think he's going to run that team into the ground, personally.

• Speaker #2

  I mean, their form seems very similar. I mean... slightly better but similar on par with where they were uh last year i think they're using the same monologue as they did uh for 2024 which is i think this race is a fair evaluation of any of the cars pace it's a wet race which equalizes everyone no i do agree but i also feel that for jack doing the race conditions were incredibly treacherous and i think that any driver would have really struggled and they were all saying even the ones that did survive the race that it was really really tough and you know you have to have a level of concentration beyond the pale whilst also trying to push and push boundaries when your fight or flight is telling you absolutely don't. Racing drivers don't seem to have that part of their brain. But Jack Dewan crashing and also knowing that he's got four people with four pairs of hands and eyes and a brain that can fit their heads into helmets and very easily into his car is not going to help with his nerves and his stress.

• Speaker #3

  Oh,

• Speaker #2

  Jack Dewan's crash. Another rookie to fall.

• Speaker #1

  Oh no. Oh, and at his home race.

• Speaker #2

  We've got a safety car. Oh, it's pandemonium at the minute. Holy moly. What the hoot and heck is going on here? Oh, it's just lap one. I wonder, it looks like he's just done that. It's just self-inflicted from losing it under traction, right?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, bless him. One in the wall on the formation lap, one on the first lap.

• Speaker #1

  Well, he'll be very concerned because obviously Flavio Briatore has made it very clear that there is a long line of reserve drivers waiting to replace him if he does not perform.

• Speaker #2

  There's nothing like an employer telling you not only you're replaceable, you're replaceable by four different people to really motivate you.

• Speaker #0

  Can I ask a newbie question?

• Speaker #2

  Of course.

• Speaker #0

  When you say that a wet race equalises everyone, what exactly does that mean?

• Speaker #2

  Because the conditions change so much. I mean, the characteristics of everyone's cars during a dry race and during a wet race are very different. On top of that, when the FIA and the governing body decide to call it a wet race, they decide to disable DRS. DRS is obviously a drag reduction system. The small little letterbox at the end of the car on the rear wing that opens up when you're within one second of a driver. which means it helps you overtake, reducing your drag and making you go faster. But during the wet, that isn't, it's not applicable because it just isn't safe and under those conditions. So as a result, everybody is driving a lot more gingerly. They're not attacking braking zones in the same way. And you're having a lot, a lot shorter braking zones because you're braking earlier to make sure you actually make the corners. And as a result, it means that if you get a bold strategy and you can also be able to drive your car to the best of your ability, you can get results that. a team normally wouldn't be expecting to get. You can get a huge haul of points just based on the fact that you pitted at the right time and your driver was able to really hold their nerve under those conditions which means that it becomes an equalizer because everyone has a much more equal chance of being able to get some big points.

• Speaker #1

  But also as we saw today even the most experienced drivers struggle in the wet.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  And someone who's completely new to it like Kimi Antonelli seemingly thrived.

• Speaker #0

  Damn. Well how often are the wet traders?

• Speaker #2

  What kind of questions?

• Speaker #3

  Hell, I don't know.

• Speaker #2

  They're as often as it rains, Reem. How else can I squeeze?

• Speaker #3

  I don't know.

• Speaker #0

  Which countries have a high rain percentage?

• Speaker #1

  Not usually Australia.

• Speaker #0

  A little more, I guess.

• Speaker #1

  Oftener than wet races.

• Speaker #2

  18 per year. How the hell do I know? Yeah, okay. Moving on to Hass as well. Haas, we thought, well, we were quite unkind about Kicks Alba. Because we were like, why are you moving to the sport? You're fucking slow.

• Speaker #0

  Why do you have a black coloured car?

• Speaker #2

  Exactly. Losers. Yeah, it was Haas that actually are the new Kicks Alba of the year. Haas had a really strange strategy for the free practices across the race weekend in that they didn't do any qualifying simulations. When you're doing a qualifying lap, you have much, much, much lower fuel and you'll have the softest tyre compound that gives you the most grip. It means that you can go very, very fast, but they wear out quicker. Very suited for qualifying laps. They didn't do any of those. All they did was race runs, high fuel race runs. And that's what they were doing. Completely out of sequence from everyone else on the track. And everyone was like, okay, this might work. And then you know what happened? Olly Behrman crashed. So that did put them a little bit on the back foot. But when they came into the race, everyone was like, maybe they'll be able to, you know, bring something a bit more special to the race. Not really. They were very slow and they were at the back of the grid. And they stayed on inters when they shouldn't have and the track was drying too much. So then they decided to change late onto dry tyres. And then they had to change over again when it started raining. So they were just, they were trying to play catch up. And if I'm being really honest, the only positive I've got for Haas's race was they both finished. That's the only thing I've got. Yeah, that's the only thing I've got. I've got Olly Behrman, who's a great rookie. Don't know if we'll be able to see much flashes of brilliance from him currently with where they are. but they have got some work to do because I really was expecting them to be a lot higher up the field, especially with Ayakumatsu at the helm. I thought things were going up. No, they're in a state of flux. They need to get their shit together.

• Speaker #1

  Like I said, if Gunther Steiner is not running that team, it's just not going to do well.

• Speaker #2

  I hate that that has ended up working for you as a statement because I felt so mean. Steiner.

• Speaker #1

  Yes! Why are you saying that? You weren't backing me when I said it.

• Speaker #2

  No, you weren't.

• Speaker #0

  Is that inflexible?

• Speaker #1

  Right, on to

• Speaker #2

  Rat Car. Okay. Let's quickly talk about Kik Sauber F1 steak team, shall we? Nice and catchy. That's it.

• Speaker #0

  That's done.

• Speaker #2

  That's already done.

• Speaker #3

  I don't have bad comments.

• Speaker #1

  Well, you say that. They scored points.

• Speaker #2

  They did. Did they? Hockenberg. Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Let's take that joke back. They're currently ahead of Ferrari in the fucking driver's constandings. That's not what that means. I got too excited. Driver's constandings. That's my mind.

• Speaker #0

  What happened was they listened to our podcast. And there's so much we hate talking about. We need to give them more content. So now they decide to score some points.

• Speaker #2

  I mean, kind of, yeah. They have Gabriel Bartoletto, who is the reigning F2 champion. And he picked up a five second time penalty for an unsafe release in the pit stops, similar to Kimi Antonelli. But then he crashed and he was out of the race. Which was quite a shame because he was running quite nicely. But Nico Ullgenberg. Reem, can you give it a go?

• Speaker #0

  Nico Ullgenberg.

• Speaker #3

  Okay,

• Speaker #2

  never do that again.

• Speaker #3

  It's the heavy ship.

• Speaker #2

  I thought that Nico Hulkenberg did everything right today. He was able to deliver some beautiful points for that team, which they've had a points drought, girl. They're thirsty for points. But he was able to keep his head calm. He was able to just power through, go with the rhythms of that race and bring that rather ugly looking car into sixth in the constructors.

• Speaker #0

  That's crazy. I mean, that's such a redemption for them considering they were so bad in 2024.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, it's true.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. I mean, bear in mind, in 2024, they scored a grand total across all of the races of four points. So they've already beaten their whole 2024 season with one race.

• Speaker #2

  Hard cut to them just not turning up for the rest of the race. They're like, fuck you.

• Speaker #3

  We did what we did to do.

• Speaker #0

  First impressions only.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah. Start strong, finish strong. I think that's all we can talk about.

• Speaker #1

  What's that?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah. Do you want me to stop making up facts here?

• Speaker #0

  I don't want them to win constructors because like having... What,

• Speaker #2

  Sauber?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, because having that green colour, the winning colour.

• Speaker #2

  That's not the reason they won't win the constructors because you don't like the colour of a car. They're not that fast. Lost your head.

• Speaker #3

  They got lucky. What's she had about?

• Speaker #0

  I don't know. I'm still learning.

• Speaker #1

  Evidently.

• Speaker #2

  Still thinking about signs. Aye, aye. Um, so I was gonna, I mean, I was gonna do a nice little, uh, Reams recap, but I feel like the recap is gonna be scientist's heart and that'll be that.

• Speaker #1

  No, we need a Reams recap. Go on.

• Speaker #2

  So we're gonna shout out some bits and bobs at you, not in any particular order. And we're just going to get you to have your say on what you thought about it all. Okay. So starting out, uh, Lando no wins, Lando wins.

• Speaker #0

  Max should be scared of Lando. Also Piastri needs to be given more of a chance.

• Speaker #2

  Okay. Lando,

• Speaker #1

  that was about Max and Piastri. Well,

• Speaker #2

  there have it. Okay. Heartbreak for Oscar as he spins off into the grass.

• Speaker #0

  Oscar needs to be given more of a chance from the McLaren team. He needs to stop listening to Team Orders and actually start competing with Lando.

• Speaker #2

  Okay. I thought you mentioned the spin-off that he did there into the grass.

• Speaker #0

  It's okay. He managed to get out of it.

• Speaker #2

  Okay, brilliant. Lewis and Ferrari, not quite doing it.

• Speaker #0

  Lewis being in an old married couple scenario with his engineer.

• Speaker #3

  and also have a lot of pressure on him.

• Speaker #2

  Oh, that's all she's giving us. Okay, Kimi Antonelli in Mercedes.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, Kimi Antonelli doing very well. Best rookie at the F1 race so far.

• Speaker #2

  Okay, Isaac Hajar.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, bless him. He's, you know, he has a lot of heart. He crashed, but I think we're going to see him shine in the next races.

• Speaker #2

  Alex Albon and Williams take P5.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, Alex Albon doing very well for Williams. Williams really... I think... being a competitor for this year um and signs helping out in the background uh your crush on carlos signs uh he's hot what can i say okay i think that's eight i think he's in a relationship it's fine i'll third wheel it's

• Speaker #1

  not called the third wheel it's called the mistress third wheel okay that was well

• Speaker #2

  Well, yeah, I mean, that was chaotic as ever. I don't know what I was expecting from that. But yeah, well done, Rumi. You did great there. Thank you.

• Speaker #1

  Now, for all of these race weekends, obviously, we have the podium from the race. But we are going to be creating the Grand Prix podium. Hell yeah,

• Speaker #2

  we are.

• Speaker #1

  Now, the Grand Prix podium, much like a normal podium, has three levels to it. And these levels are, from the bottom, Prick, who was the loser of the race for us. Second step, Grand, who performed very, very well. And on the top step, who is our grand prick? Who was the best person on track? It doesn't have to be the person that won the race, just the one that we think...

• Speaker #2

  Was as good as our podcast is. Exactly.

• Speaker #1

  So let's take it in turns and say who was our prick?

• Speaker #2

  It's a sad day. I think my prick today was Sir Lewis Hamilton. I know it's a big thing because we've had a lot of promo and it's been a long build-up. However, I think that... The performance out of the Ferrari was not great, but I didn't feel that Lewis was able to make many inroads on that race. And I also feel that he's getting paid big bucks and that I wanted to see a drive that was worth big bucks. And I felt like I got shortchanged.

• Speaker #1

  I'm going to have to agree with you. My prick is Lewis.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  I was going to say the same.

• Speaker #2

  You're just a copycat. No, no,

• Speaker #3

  no. No,

• Speaker #2

  I'm doing that. You haven't got a bloody clue. Now you're going first for the next one.

• Speaker #0

  If I picked Liam Lawson, I think I would have been kicked out of this podcast. It's fine. But no, I would agree with you. I think Lewis was unfortunately the perk of the race, because I think he could have done a lot better. And he had a lot of eyes on him and a lot of pressure. And he ultimately came out very disappointing.

• Speaker #2

  Very true. Okay, Reem, just so you can't copy our answers, our homework more like, who was your grand of the race?

• Speaker #0

  I would give it to Kimi Antonelli. I think he's done very, very well for being a rookie, for keeping up. with people like Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen and George Russell, like for him to end up in P4 is something brilliant, even with such awful weather conditions. Whether it's beginner's luck or not, we don't know. But I think he had a brilliant race. And for me, he would definitely be the grand.

• Speaker #2

  I like that as an answer. Nav?

• Speaker #1

  I'm going to go with someone different. I think my grand is going to be Alex Albon. Oh,

• Speaker #2

  okay.

• Speaker #1

  I can see that. I think he qualified very well, obviously, on Saturday, but he managed to defend for a very large chunk of that race against Lewis Hamilton, who, as we know, is quite clearly our prick. But he did very, very well to actually maintain position and managed to finish fifth in a Williams. And I thought that that was a very, very good showing.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I agree. Well, I'll go for someone different as well. Both those two were people I was thinking of. I'm going to go with George Russell. George Russell had quite a quiet race. He ended up with a podium for Mercedes, which I don't think anyone was expecting. Although George always expects to get a podium, but not always does that come to fruition. But he was also saying he was very decisive on the radio and that they'd had many discussions in the engineers room before the race of different outcomes and how they would decide what they would be doing for pit stop strategies and whatever else. And the team explained to him what they needed from him and he was able to deliver. And I think that we didn't see much of him, which tells you that they had it very much under control. Him and the team were very much in sync and they were able to get a decent haul of points. and are now level with mclaren even though they don't have a car that is as fast and i think george is doing a very good job being a leader all right shall i take it away with my grand prick of the race of course my grand prick i'm awarding to kimmy antonelli i think the fact that he qualified in

• Speaker #1

  16th and managed to get all the way up to p4 in the race for a rookie in a wet race is absolutely incredible and finishing only one position behind his teammate who has been in that team for a very long time now and has been in the sport for a very long time, is nothing short of a very, very, very successful maiden race. Yeah,

• Speaker #2

  I agree.

• Speaker #0

  It's done brilliantly. I will go for someone different. I think I would give it to Piastri. I think if he was allowed to compete with Lando and actually race him, I think he could have beaten him. And I think it was down to his team not letting him do it. So I would give it to him.

• Speaker #1

  He did also spin off.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, we are airbrushing that out of the story.

• Speaker #0

  We'll ignore that. He got out of it. It's fine. We'll ignore it.

• Speaker #2

  Brilliant.

• Speaker #1

  He got out of it, but ended up getting, what, two points?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, he was in P9 at the end of the race. For me, I'm going to go with Lando Norris is my grand prick. Lando Norris. has at times not been able to take the fight to people like Max. He had to do a lot of safety car restarts and hold his nerve. He had Max attack from behind. He had Piastri coming in hot behind, but he was able to continue on and he was able to, I think, do a champion's drive. I think if you look at Max in Brazil in 2024, when he did that wonderful recovery drive right from the back of the grid to end up winning, people said that was the race that made Max a champion. And I think we might look back at this race and say that Lando was setting down the marker and making a statement for 2025 to be his championship year. So I think he did great. And I also think that papaya rules on lap 29 aside, which was favoring him, I thought that the McLaren decisions were a lot better than they would have been in 2024. And had they been presented with this race last year, I don't know if they would have executed it as seamlessly as they did, which shows that him and the team are communicating effectively.

• Speaker #1

  so he's my choice all right now girls i hate to burst all of our bubbles we all gave brilliant points we need to agree on one podium here oh what do i agree with this so yeah we've all agreed that lewis is our prick who are we going to award grand to so the options that we had were you said kimmy antonelli i said alex albon and is you said george russell who do we think deserves it i'm very happy to go with kimmy antonelli as our grand okay let's do that yeah and so then our grand prick is now going to be out of lando for me and piastri piastri i think we have to give it to lando come on piastri's fun out i

• Speaker #2

  mean lando does deserve it although he's bad okay so that means that we have our prick is lewis our grand is kimmy and our grand prick is lando Well done,

• Speaker #1

  Lando. Well done,

• Speaker #2

  Lando.

• Speaker #1

  Because Owens is Lewis.

• Speaker #2

  Yes. I honestly wasn't expecting to have Lewis as our first prick of the 2025 season. I was really expecting him to have a good... Yeah, I was expecting him to have a much better showing. But here we are. That is Formula One. You don't always know how these things go.

• Speaker #1

  So that was our Grand Prix podium. Let us know on our socials. We're on Instagram, YouTube, X and TikTok, who you would be giving your Grand Prix podium to. So there you have it. That is the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. And we'll be back next week in Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix. And next week is actually a sprint weekend. Woo, woo, woo! A sprint weekend of the season. So for anyone that doesn't know, a sprint weekend, rather than having three practice sessions, a qualifying session and a race, we're going to have one practice session, a sprint qualifying, a sprint race, a qualifying and then the main race. So we're going to have a race on the Saturday, which is only one hour, half race distance, and then the race on Sunday. So. You're going to get lots of content out of us. And frankly, we are going to be very overwhelmed and tired.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I was going to say, translation, we're not having a weekend. So neither are you. You can listen to our content.

• Speaker #1

  But in the meantime, make sure you follow us on all of our socials. We do live tweet during the race with all of our reactions. And we've been posting lots of stuff on TikTok and Instagram for your enjoyment. And we will be continuing to do so as the week goes on. Other than that, make sure you subscribe to Grand Prix on your podcast player of choice. Share it with a friend and even leave us a review. It would really help. Until next week. Goodbye.

• Speaker #2

  Bye. Bye.