Reaction to Chinese GP sprint qualifying

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Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy.

We are going to try our very hardest to not be fully depressed.

As we explore what happened in sprint qualifying, I am a resident Charlotte Claire fan, as most

of you know, Tommy is a resident max for staff and fans, so lots to explore, lots to talk

about, quite a lot of emotion Tommy, that really wants to come out, I'll be real.

Yeah, I think it's emotion from two sides, it's not even the fact that our drivers have

obviously had not the best of qualifying, and I think there are no doubt people jumping

on going, are you only saying this because the driver you support is off?

There's a lot more that I didn't like about that qualifying than that, and it's just

yeah, another very strange feeling after qualifying.

A very strange feeling indeed, yes, you know, there will be part of it, as you will know,

we are Formula One fans, we have our allegiances, we try and be as fair as possible, but also

we want Charlie Clown, Max for the happens to do pretty well, and that didn't happen,

but we're getting to that.

SQ3 is a little bit further on in this podcast.

We are going to now look at SQ1, where the bottom six drivers, I'm trying to get that

in my head, bottom six, were signs, Albon, Alonzo, Stroll, Bottas and Perez in twos, Williams,

and then of course, Aston Martin and Cadillac, a question from P1 Patreon, remember, Justin.

Do we think that Williams is the biggest letdown of these new regs so far?

Let me reintroduce you to Aston Martin, but I think second biggest letdown has to be

the Daddy Vowels hype train.

I mean, it can change quite quickly, of course, but I'm a big old conductor, you know, Tew Tewing

for James Vowels and the Williams team, because they did a phenomenal job last year when apparently

they weren't trying to come into this year where they weren't trying, and it appears

things were broken and things just haven't worked out in this start, at least, of these

new regs.

I don't want to hear about another five-year plan of Williams.

I want to hear that they are towards the front where they belong, you know, their history

is one that's amazing to look back at, and it looked as if maybe they might challenge

the top four if they kept on that trajectory from last year.

Alas, that is not the case both of them out in SQ1 and the turmoil continues at Williams.

It really does, because, you know, we're going to go into SQ3 and no doubt be ranting about

Mercedes, so clear they've got this amazing engine.

Williams have that Mercedes engine in their car, which we thought, and based on what we

saw in 2014, would be essentially a cheat code.

And instead, I'm just looking at the times, Fernando Alonso was like three tenths off Alex

Alvin, which, based on how bad us and Martin have been, shows just how poor it's gone for

Williams at the start.

You know, we've been talking about how you mentioned us a Martin being like the, how bad

it's gone for them, and they definitely still are the most kind of embarrassing package

of the whole kind of regulation so far.

But Williams to have that Mercedes engine in their car and be so far off and being both

of them knocked out, they look slow, they're, you know, they've had problems with their

car being overweight, it seems as well.

And this is not what we're expecting from Williams this year at all, it's, it's really, really

disappointing.

You've got to feel for, you know, Carlos Sites made a very big choice.

He believed in the Daddy Vals hype train, and that's why he chose that team.

He's gone from, you know, Penny for his thoughts right now, seeing Ferrari in the last race,

you know, challenging for the win, and he had to choose Williams with the idea that

they were going to be very good in these regulations, and they really are not.

And how quickly it's changed as well though, of course Carlos did not have a say on whether

he stayed at Ferrari or not.

So I guess there wasn't a case of, I wish I hadn't have left, like he was ousted out,

of course, because Lewis Hamilton wanted to come in.

Of course.

But, you know, you look at last year, and we were saying Carlos Sites is, he's beating

the Ferraris, you know, he's, how quickly it can change in Formula One when you have a new

set of rules.

The one thing, you know, I'm looking at here, for example, Carlos Sites putting over

half a second on Alex Albon, and before we get into teammate comparisons and things

like that, the one thing that is irritating

me about these new regulations, and some of it is going to be natural, and some of it is

going to happen, of course, with it being brand new and teams trying to work it out.

But the one thing that's irritating me is that you can't really compare accurately between

drivers, because there are so many issues that are going on in almost every car, and

it is.

I mean, you can tell that Charlotte Clezby not qualified by Hamilton.

Shut up.

Shut up.

We'll get onto that, and we'll get onto what happened there, but I'm not, I'm sat here

going.

I don't think Alex Albon has been outright qualified by Carlos Sites by five and a half

days.

Maybe he has, but my initial thinking is to know, and that's kind of annoying at this point

in the regulations for sure, to not have that consistent data and something where we,

and because that's an exciting thing for us as F1 fans to compare drivers, especially

within teams.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I'll save it for a question that we've got in SQ3 about all this, because I totally

agree that the problem is it's hard to know what the drivers are doing, and where the

drivers are making up the skill, and that's been one of the big things in this regulation

that people are quite rightly upset about so far.

Right.

Go to SQ2, where the bottom six were Holcombberg, Ocon, Lawson, Bautiletto, Lindblad, and Collapinto.

Question from people in picture, remember Captain Obst 3, 4, 2, 0, who seat is under

more jeopardy, Ocon or Collapinto?

It goes back to my previous point of we're in such early stages of these regulations

that, I mean, there are heads of heads obviously going on, but we don't know exactly what's

going on in the cockpit of each one of these drivers cars, because there are problems

up and down the field.

Collapinto, clearly, you know, that there was a lot of time left on the table, I think

nearly a second to Gasly, Ocon, I don't think you can say his seats under jeopardy for

qualifying P-12 for the sprint.

That's not...

This is the second race of the year.

It was a tenth of Bermond's time in.

Yeah.

It was very, very close in that part of the field.

I enjoyed Ted in the broadcast, talking about, I didn't think in the second race of

the season would have such a compact field and then goes on to say, from eighth to 12th,

I'm like...

Oh, no.

What compact field are we looking at here?

Yeah.

Because it's several seconds between the fastest and slowest cars, but I'm not going

to jump on that of any driver's seat, to be honest with you being under jeopardy at

this point in the year.

Well, Appinto will need to pick up his game for sure in comparison to Gasly that it seems

already Alpina starting to unlock some more performance in that Mercedes power unit and

maybe getting a few pieces of the instruction manual like McLaren may well be doing, but

I'm not going to jump on the seat jeopardy train just yet.

No, definitely not.

I do think Collapinto has been underwhelming so far.

We know what he can do, because we saw it at Williams, but a long way, of course, of

his teammate Gasly was one of the stars of the session, so this is the thing with Alpina

as well, that they've got a driver in Polaren waiting in the wings, they've got other drivers

waiting in the wings from their academy and we've already seen that Flavio is not afraid

to be savage and boot someone out.

Yeah, it's definitely, I don't think it's a time for change immediately, but it's not

looking good for Collapinto.

Alcon, I wouldn't worry as much at the moment.

We'll see what happens in the race and stuff, but he's been comparable to Bermann.

I think, yes, it's a surprise that Alcon as a veteran is losing out to Bermann as much

as he is, but he's not a million miles off Bermann at all.

And also, Bermann, I think, is a generational talent.

Well, Bermann is really good, so it's not like Alcon is miles behind, but yeah, it's from

a head-to-head perspective, Alcon needs to do a little bit better when it's against

Bermann, but it's not catastrophic, he's not qualifying 20th with Bermann up in 8th.

Another thing to talk about from SQ2 was Antonelli blocking Norris into turn one, so Antonelli

was coming out of the pits.

Norris was out of sync with the other drivers' fast laps, and it was a clear-as-day slam-dunk

blocking.

Now, we also said after Australia that the non-appeals or green shells, whatever you might

want to say, that came out of Antonelli's car and Norris then, I mean, it's Norris and

Antonelli again.

Oh, my word.

Of course, drove over that in Australia, and I was like, that surely is some kind of unsafe

release grid penalty, but no, it was like a seven and a half thousand euro fine for Mercedes

for literally breaking Norris's wing.

I mean, I still cannot believe that to this day, because some people go, yeah, but it's

the team's fault.

The team and the driver are combined, especially in competitive sessions.

And, essentially, it's the team's fault, and that's always been the case in Formula

One, that a team and a driver are one when it comes to competitive sessions.

So I found that weird, and then we come into this one.

This is a slam-dunk block.

I don't know how Antonelli will get away with not getting a grid penalty for this.

It should be a three-eye record.

A bit now.

What, yeah.

Watch us go live tomorrow or be on the podcast and Antonelli's starting second, but I cannot

see how Antonelli will not get a penalty here.

Of course, it seems as though Mercedes have not let him know.

Mercedes have maybe missed the fact that Norris was out of sync because there was no real

sort of attempt either for Antonelli to get out of the way when he was coming out.

So, yeah, a shame for Antonelli if he does get a grid penalty, but great for Hamilton

fans who will then start third and maybe take the lead at the start.

Yeah, I'm very surprised that if he doesn't get a penalty because you can say all you like

about, oh, it's Antonelli is more on the team telling Antonelli that someone's coming

up, which we, that is Formula One now.

You know, it's all about data and who's being told where, but I just think it's insane

if he doesn't get a penalty, but we'll wait and see, I guess, if they want to do the

whole thing again where they don't give them a penalty, their free excuse pass would be

that they both got through the session.

But that's not, that's never the case, is it, that's never, I can't remember moments

where that would be the excuse, I just, yeah, they do tend to just make it up as they

go along.

I don't know, they with this.

I'm watching the video now and it is, I mean, he couldn't be more on the racing line

if he tried.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I'll be a penalty.

It has to be a penalty.

Yeah.

By the rules and what they say, a question from people on picture, remember, zingy 13.

Why can't the stewards make decisions about blocking, etc. at the time, rather than waiting

until after the session, what more information will they get for the teams and drivers that won't

be biased?

Exactly.

It's so true because at the end of the day, Antonelli only excuse will be going into the

stewards room and going, oh, my team didn't tell me, but he's still blocked him.

So it doesn't matter, just that, that's still a blocking penalty.

So why they can't just make the decision in qualifying.

So we know after the race because you know, Antonelli could have easily just got his first

pole position there as well and it kind of savers it when there's a penalty and you

don't know till afterwards and stuff.

So sorry, it's not his first pole position as he got in Miami.

But yeah, like, could have been fastest and then it just savers the whole thing because

it's like, oh, actually, he's got a penalty and we find out afterwards.

So yeah, it's not, we've said this so many times why Formula One and the FAA love to be

a dictatorship, but when it's, when it's not in the right way, when they need to just

make a decision, like they used to and go, that's a penalty and not have to have a committee

meeting of the other kind of driver that's always going to say, oh, well, this happened

because it doesn't matter.

You blocked him.

It's a, it's a stone wall penalty.

Yeah, it should be very clear as day, right?

Like it's a black and white thing of, and this is how, yeah, it's a frustration watching

when you go, oh, so I'm going to have to check social media in a few hours to see if,

to see if, um, Anthony gets a penalty and it should be in the moment, those kind of things.

I can understand if it's like, I don't know, I don't know what every, every instant

and situation is different.

I can understand if it's really complex and you're not really sure what's gone on fine.

But this one, it is blocking and you're not allowed to block in qualifying and

accidentally blocked in qualifying.

That should be a penalty, like 100%, but Formula One don't like to be so knee jerk for

some reason and they need to hear from a McLaren representative who will say he blocked

us and a Mercedes representative will say, we didn't mean to block him and then what

more information could you possibly need?

It's bizarre.

We had that one time, didn't we wear stroll was just like, I don't care, I didn't even

turn up and they just didn't give a penalty out, but Lando, you know, is in, is in Lando's

best interest for Anthony to get a penalty because he's behind him on the grid and he would

promote him to second and it also, it shouldn't even be on Lando to go argue his case.

He got blocked.

So it should be a penalty.

Simple as that to say, he was on the racing line.

Okay, let's have to queue three, SQ3, in fact, where the top 10, Russell, Antonelli, Norris,

Hamilton, Piaštry, Lecler, Gazli, Verstappen, Bermann and Hadjar.

Question from East Coast 49ers, is there any hope of the other teams becoming more competitive?

This is going to get old really quickly.

Is there hope?

Yes.

There is always hope.

I'm a Ferrari fan.

It's like a true Ferrari fan, yeah.

Exactly.

I, I, I'm trying desperately to just remain in my logical brain of things can change at

such early stages of, of a new regulation.

I was like, you were like, I've got hope, but I've got no factual information to tell

you why.

This is good.

Yeah, because every time I've ever seen a team dominate out the blocks, they usually

end up winning pretty comprehensively.

You know, you look at that when Max Verstappen was dominating, or you, I mean, to be fair

to...

Firing 22 away.

Yeah.

I mean, Leclerc was able to shut up, just shut up, you honestly, just, you not know that

I'm very, you know, vulnerable, talking about this qualifying session in general, then

you bring up 2022.

Most of the time, the fastest car at the beginning of the season, you, especially with this amount

of gap, will, will be quickest, most places, if not everywhere.

So, yes, the other teams, I think, will be able to close the gargantuan gap that it

currently is, but I don't think it'll be any time soon.

The first of June is obviously going to be an interesting thing to keep an eye on.

So just to clarify, if anyone that doesn't know, from the first of June, the compression

ratio, which is the cheeky little trick that Mercedes have been able to quite cleverly

exploit, will be measured at 130 degrees, as well as ambient temperature, and from next

year, only at 130 degrees.

So essentially, they are changing the way they test, whether or not that Mercedes engine

compression ratio is legal from the first of June.

And that may well change their dominance, if they're found to have not been abiding

by those tests.

So maybe, let's see if it pegs them back, but there's no guarantee, but also, Tom, you

made a really good point.

The watch along about when Mercedes had a party mode, which was then banned in 20, what

was that?

2022.

No, 2020.

No.

Oh, God.

It was.

Tommy's done it again.

Every time he says, 2020, he says, 2022, what's going to say, 2022, 2020, 2020.

It was the W11, wasn't it, when they were absolutely rapid.

They were rapid.

They had this party mode in qualifying, but everyone believed they were taking their

engine to a new level.

What was then banned?

And they still were.

It was banned for Monzer.

And then they did the fastest time in the history of Formula One.

So I would sort of manage your expectations for the first of June, but that's our only

hope, I think, really fair to not see.

Mercedes-Benz 1 2 in every qualifying session.

Yeah.

First of June might be the one to potentially help that.

Not bring some factual, positive things, even though I'm only the pessimistic one.

Wow.

Yeah.

No, we're seeing some rare Tommy pessimism right now.

You go back to optimism, not pessimism, bro.

Sorry, yeah.

You go back to pessimism and rare from you, mate.

Yeah.

You go back to the fact that you were mentioning about the new regulations.

Even the start of 2022 when we had that new reg, you're looking at, I'm looking at

like the qualifying times.

And yeah, there was a well over, it was like a second gap to six.

It was, I guess, the argument there is it was close between Red Bull and Ferrari, but

even looking at what McLaren have done now, I fully expected it there to be, you know,

an even bigger gap and McLaren have found a bit more pace.

I know it's like, it's still six tenths to the other car, but it was eight tenths

last week.

And this is a track that I thought they'd be even stronger at.

So you hope that it would chip away as the other team catch up and with a new regulation

in theory, there should always be the worst as it's going to be in terms of performance

gaps.

So that is something to, to be positive about.

However, you know, I'm not going to lie.

No, I'm saving on a leave on an optimistic, I mean, I've done a very clear, aren't they?

And I think our, our fears of it being another 2014 so far, you wonder how much they've

even, you know, I hope they're not even raining, raining it back like the rumors were in 2014,

where they're not even pushing because they don't want to seem too far ahead and everyone

make drastic changes.

Let's get a question from through to Lugo.

Did Mercedes give McLaren the user manual?

Well, McLaren have definitely found something.

They were much more competitive.

I did not expect based on what we were seeing throughout the session really for it looked

again like it was going to be Mercedes and Ferrari for most of the qualifying.

I know in FP3 there was strong, but they did kind of come out of, of nowhere in the end.

And caviarism at, but I do think that if we're looking at any team, that if we're talking

about how Mercedes have this unbelievable advantage, they're so clear because their engine is

amazing and they've got this compression ratio and they're so quick on the straights.

The one team that are competitive and does have that Mercedes engine is McLaren and they're

already third and fifth on the grid and closed a bit of the deficit.

So I would back McLaren by the end of the season to be the ones challenging Mercedes

more than any other team.

It's a fair call.

Yeah, McLaren, they have made a huge step from Australia at least in qualifying and

you would expect that to continue for them.

And I hope for the sake of the season, if we have to just rely on another team to get involved

in Ferrari and able to do it, let's get McLaren in there because right now, two races

in, not a long time, but two races in, Antonelli is not stepped up to the level of which we can

go, he can challenge for the world title.

That's not what we're seeing right now.

So let's see what McLaren can do.

I'm excited to watch their progress and hopefully Ferrari go with them as well.

That's my ultimate goal and dream.

But yeah, much more competitive in this sprint quality session for McLaren and they've literally

been watching the on board from Mercedes and just figuring out what the hell they're doing

with their car and their power unit.

So lots of learning still to be done, I'm sure.

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Question from O-10 FCB.

Is the Red Bull now a midfield car?

All right, I'll try not to take too much enjoyment out of this as time.

Now it's your turn.

Tommy sits there.

Come on.

Winning me.

I would argue it's always been a midfield car and Max was staffed and made it.

This is so clear.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Red Bull are miles off around here.

I caught an interview with the staff and just as we were starting the podcast and he was

saying there was no grip, no confidence in the car.

So it's not just a case of them losing time on the Straits.

They've just not got a car at least around here that is competitive.

I would say in Australia, they were looking all right until the staff and obviously

just speared it into the wall because of the problem.

I think Red Bull have gone backwards quite dramatically going into China to qualify eighth

and tenth be out qualified by an Alping by three and a half tenths to the staff and

had jar.

I'm not sure exactly what happened to him on his final lap, but he was looking comparable

to Max up until SQ3, but they've got a long way to go and perhaps Red Bull will have

a car that may well change, chop and change their form book as we go around the different

tracks because Australia, as I say, was kind of a positive in some way in the fact that

Max could have well qualified P3 and may well have finished somewhere near the podium.

Instead, he had a big old comeback to do and then we come here and they've clearly got

something very wrong with the car.

One practice session.

This can happen.

We're not going to go straight to the panic stations, Tommy.

No, you're not.

No, don't press the big red button because I think teams at this stage of the regulations

can get a set up and power unit deployment and every other stupid term.

They can program their cars to try to get those correctly.

They can get it wrong because they don't really know what they're doing at this stage

of the season and it is a sprint weekend.

So they've only had one hour to dial it in and learn for qualifying and the race.

So it looks on paper like a disaster.

I don't think it's as bad as that when we when we eventually look at the full picture

of the season at the end of the year.

It feels a very long time ago that in testing, they're like, oh, wow, Red Bull might be

faster.

You know, they've got the best.

Have you seen the red bull?

Have you seen the fish deployment?

George Russell.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think Rebel.

Yeah.

They're looking good.

Yeah.

You can really good.

Flash forward one month and with three tents, nearly four tents slower than an Alpine.

We thought there was going to be an absolute chasm as well.

I think this is between the midfield and we thought that Red Bull, even if they were

the fourth fastest, would just have this amazing gap to go into.

But, you know, Gasleys there, Behrman or almost, you know, close to the Stappen as well.

And it's not looking good for Red Bull, tall Max is unhappy with how the cars drive.

They don't look remotely competitive.

And yeah, it's, I do agree that there'll be better at some circuits.

We saw that in Australia.

Like, what, what could Max have done?

Had he done a normal qualifying, no disrespect to Hadjar, but we saw, you know, Hadjar.

Qualify third, what could Max have done in that race from third position?

It might have been a different story, but here they have not, not got it right.

And they are so far off.

Speaking of Hadjar, he started off looking in that session.

And this, this may be again, comes down to the frustrations that we're going to get into

the next question of not really knowing what is a driver and what is a battery and what

is deployment.

Because Hadjar looked fairly strong and actually looking like he might even be able to out

qualifying Max and yet he's finished half a second off, which is miles.

And for his, saving his blushes really, because half a second of a Stappen, that was kind

of first to 14th last year that we saw with the other second Red Bull seat.

But he's, but how did I really solid job for most of that qualifying session, but then

find himself half a second off, which is almost kind of what we would usually see from

that second Red Bull seat?

Indeed, a question from Enblaze 53, where does the driver skills start and the battery

end with these cars?

Piastry purple sector one and then point eight of a second off pole by the end of the

lap.

I'm just confused about where they're gaining and losing time and what is driver versus

automated battery software.

This is why I fully agree with him where my frustrations of this regulations.

I want to start it by saying that we need to be careful in terms of, and I want to just

let everyone know that George Russell is a phenomenal driver.

And just because we're going to now go into the fact that, oh, how much of it is driver

skill versus this?

I don't want to take anything away from what like Russell is doing.

And he's shown many, many seasons, you know, last year he was incredibly strong doing

amazing things in the Williams that he's a top driver anyway.

And I think even if we had normal inverted commas cars, Russell would be up there anyway

because he's a top top driver.

But my problem with this regulation is this whole, Piastry goes purple and then he's

fifth, seven tons off.

And is it just because how they choose to use their battery on the certain part of the

track means they're quicker?

And then that whole situation, and this is the problem that a lot of people have found

in that battle between Lecler and Russell and despite everyone going, oh my god, we've

done 150 overtakes and some people saying they like it.

What's driver skill anymore and what is just power deployment?

And that's not what Formula One should be.

It should be about drivers being able to make up time in fast corners and using their bravery

and skill to be able to navigate these cars and be on the edge, particularly in qualifying.

And unfortunately with these new regulations, I just don't know what's what anymore.

And that's probably why qualifying to me feels so not to do a battery pun, but flat.

We don't watch Formula One for who's fast on a straight.

We literally talk, watch Formula One because we like comparing between drivers between teams

about who made up time through a corner, who absolutely sent it into that corner and

gained a tenth.

That is not the conversation anymore.

Hamilton after this print qualifying was saying, yeah, the car felt good, but we're just

down on power.

I'm like, well, great, you know, that's great, isn't it?

Because we watch Formula One for the best drivers and I echo what you said about Russell.

He's a great driver.

He's incredibly consistent.

And we knew the minute he got a front running car or a car that is dominant, like a dominant

car, he would win a world championship.

And I think that's what we're seeing the early stages of.

But yes, and I'm going to get to it right now.

Charlotte Clell has four tenths on the straight for no reason.

His battery or whatever it didn't deploy, shut into your map, he just didn't press the

right button on the screen.

Yeah, exactly.

He wasn't pressing the pedal.

And I get the car problems can happen, car issues can happen.

And I'm not just saying about this, the clear situation I said at the start of the podcast

is that there's so much unknown that it, it's hard for us as fans to know what's going

on.

And I agree with the, with the qualifying point as well, qualifying for me now, one because

of the gaps, two because we're not seeing them go particularly fast, and I don't know

what three was.

I don't know why I was like, those two were the big points.

The fact that we are witnessing them super clipping qualifying is devastating for a Saturday,

I would say, because the one thing we've always sold qualifying as is we are seeing these

cars at the absolute limit, the ragged edge.

We're watching drivers risk it all to put in an amazing qualifying lap.

Instead, what we saw in Australia is turned nine then rolling it into that, to that apex

and boosting out the corner, whoop, do, whoop, do, do our day, I say to that, because

no one cares about a battery deployment down a straight.

We care about the corners, yes, look a little less time in the straight, and that pains

me because he probably would have started fourth.

But the biggest thing for me that I'm, because qualifying was the day that we all loved

and looked forward to, it has now become a day of, oh wow, there's massive gaps and

we're not seeing the drivers at the same ragged edges we're used to.

And that's quite a sad thing to see at this point, and I don't know how that's going

to change because it is an engine battery formula.

So how are we ever going to see them top speed at the end of a straight into a hairpin and

really tested under the brakes?

We're not.

We're not.

And, yeah, I was obviously bantering about LaClaire and you're saying with Max, I genuinely

believe and some people would disagree, but I, you know, if LaClaire was on pole position,

I guess you'd be happy and saying with Max, but the enjoyment of qualifying has been lost

that even, you know, even if it was, I think even if the gaps closed up, we don't want

to see this super clipping and battery usage in certain positions.

We want to know that the driver's skill and the best drivers are like making that time

in the corner and being on the ragged edge in qualifying to make it.

And yeah, the, at the moment, we can only hope that they do make changes because I don't

think I'm alone in saying that I think a lot of the magic of qualifying has been lost

so far.

It has.

I will say, back to a positive note in the fact that once the teams figure out at the

very, I'm not talking about the corners and the corners and the problem about the ragged

edge stuff, I don't think we're going to have a solution to, but once the teams have a

better idea of all this battery rubbish, at least, I don't know how long it will take,

but we'll have a consistency between teammates and across teams where, you know, we're not

going to have drivers coming out and going, well, I had this problem, I had this deployment

problem, I had this problem, I had this problem, I had this problem.

If we can eradicate that, then at least we can then start to do our comparisons and the

fun things that we have as Formula One fans.

But right now, it's teething problems for everybody, but it's teething problems.

And this is the most frustrating thing is, I wish they wouldn't feel the need to manipulate

things, hide things, what the drivers are saying, I'll go back to Max saying all this stuff

was going to happen in 2023 and downshifting on straights.

And my initial reaction to that was, oh, wow, that sounds really bad, but in three years

time, that's not going to happen.

They'll sort it.

And it's quite clear they've not listened to those frustrations and they're also, you

know, continuing not to listen because they're happy to, you know, basically ignore them

and cut what they're saying out and not play their team radios and the telemetry is mysteriously

disappearing when the cars are slowing down for super clipping.

Yeah, and we're not getting the picture for that either, which is so irritating.

That's another point.

No, Tommy.

We're going back to negativity.

The blocking of team radios then blocks the picture for us as well.

So people will casuals will be coming out of that going, oh, look, I lost a lot of

time in that last day.

So I must have made a mistake.

No, he didn't.

He had no battery.

He even came over the radio and said where the hell was my battery deployment in a four

tenths?

He lost four tenths on the straight.

That's a team radio that people need to hear.

Instead, F1 are prioritizing their image, which I think is dangerous in the same way,

you know, not the way to go because we're seeing through it as hard cause.

But we're not getting the full picture of what's going on in qualifying unless you dig deep

into the quality interviews and so on and so forth.

Yeah, it ruins the team radio side of it if they can't play any negative thing because

in years gone by, they weren't afraid to go a driver go, oh, I had a bit of an engine

blip there or oh, this happened or my tires were destroyed in the final sector.

But they're so protective over these new regulations that they're willing to basically

make the viewer less understanding about what's going on to save their own public image.

It's embarrassing completely.

Also, I don't think we saw many on boards in that middle sector, but we did once with

Hadjar and that was so eye-opening to how slow they're actually going in that middle

sector that I think Formula One are being very clever in what they try and show, whether

they show off boards of cars in the middle sector, then they go on board, round that long

right hand, drawn to the back straight because that's when they're deploying, they look

really fast, but you've got Antonelli and the other drivers right at the front lifting

into turn 10 before they then go into that final sequence and the long back straight

because they are recharging and yeah, like seeing into turn one, great because they're deploying

again, they're pushing hard, but I think they are being very clever in which places they

don't show us on boards, but they did show us Hadjar and if you watch that, I genuinely

thought he was on a call lap and he was pushing.

Yeah, I know.

It's funny, isn't it, how we have all these problems about TV direction and this is what

the fans want to see and yeah, rarely anything gets done, but as soon as TV direction need

to do a job of hiding all the problems with the cars, there's suddenly the goats of it

and become like a minority report, like I can cut every single thing and make sure you

do this and hide all this information, it's ridiculous, isn't it?

I can't believe we're in a situation where they're not just owning the rules and what's

happening and they're trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and they're not stupid.

I think that's the most upsetting thing about everything that's going on in Formula

One right now is the disrespect to the fans with that stupid that we just go, oh yeah,

this is fine because they're insulting the intelligence of every fan, like you don't

even need to be like a veteran Formula One fan to know what's going on here.

I don't want to be talking about this, this is the problem, like I want to be talking

about great racing and great Formula One, but this is what's controlling the narrative

at the moment and I feel like, you know, as a Formula One fan, and a Formula One fan

for a very long time, like I need to be calling this out because it's just shameful

what they're doing.

Well, yeah, we're real about it, Tommy, you know, we're Formula One fans and we call

out the BS when we see it, that's just who we are.

So hopefully you guys appreciate that, look forward to never working with F1 ever again

and we will see you tomorrow for a very early live watch along for the sprint race, which

I think will be very worth getting up for because let's see what Hamilton can do from

potentially P3 on the grid.

I've been refreshing, and Tonelli, and I can't see anything about an update of whether

he's getting a penalty or not yet.

How is it taking this long to decide whether he blocked him or not, it's ridiculous, we've

done an entire podcast in the 45 minutes of chatting, plus we didn't start immediately,

how have they not made a decision yet, but let's not get into that one, we've already

spoken about that.

But we're doing watch along, of course, for every competitive session on YouTube, Twitch,

Andrew M11, come and join us there, Tomic, final thoughts please.

Final thoughts, despite all the complaining, will be there no matter what tomorrow for

the sprint watch long and the excitement of the start and seeing what Charlotte Claire

and Lewis Hamilton can do from that start with a very short rundown to turn one, but hopefully

something exciting because I think there are hope for a good sprint that people can

get in the mix with Mercedes.

Can we just say thank you to Ferrari for saving this whole season with their start?

So far.

They have literally saved the season.

One start.

They've saved the season.

But they're going to have two more starts this weekend and we're going to love both

of them.

I can't wait to see what they do with the lights.

And I do, they leave it for like 20 seconds and then everyone runs up and chained up

and they Mercedes fan the end instead of the front end just flies through with all this

charge and wins the race.

OK, we will see you tomorrow, sorry for the rant, but you know, it's the way we've got

to be.

Lots of love, take care.

Bye-bye.

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