Ted's Japan Podbook: Will anyone catch Mercedes? Will 'Yo-Yo Racing' force drivers to think outside the box?

Hello everybody and a very warm welcome to Paddock Uncuts from the Marvelous Super Super

Susuka Circuit in Japan. We're giving you your first look inside the Suzuki Paddock,

which this isn't, and your first look inside the Suzuki Pitlane with Rachel Brooks and

Karun Chandok as we have our last race, Rachel and Karun, before the knots don't call it

the summer break, spring break, call it the spring break, four weeks spring break, and it's

great to be in Suzuki. It's fantastic to be back here, love this circuit, and it's one of my

favorite to run, but I forgot to bring my gym kit this week, so I've got an excuse.

Okay, I mean that do. I know what I mean, jeans, someone wants to run the track in jeans,

do they? I've got some shorts, you can borrow it. I'm not going to get away with that.

Get a belt or something like that. Karun, it is cherry blossom season, but are you here

earlier than last time? I haven't seen much cherry blossom. There's a tree over there that

looks like it's been pruned to with an inch of its life, and it's got no cherry blossom on it at

all. There's one of the least shoulder over there, which looks like it might have been cherry blossom.

I think we are here about two weeks earlier, don't we? We were last year, so I think it's the first

time we've raced here in March, so that tells you what you're doing to know. Are you shivering?

No, I put a bit of cherry blossom on my finger now. I've got cherry blossom on my finger now.

But no, listen, I love coming here, as you and I think your whole family,

you're big Japan fans. It's just a great place to come, great culture, great moderating

fandom as well, great history of this place. Think of all the world championship

designers we've seen in this place. It's a bit like when you walk into silver cinema monitors,

you get a little extra bounce in your step when you walk into this paddock.

And I've already bought the I love Japan t-shirt. What kind of paddock have we walked into

in terms of Mercedes still dominating, but it's Kimi Antonelli right up there with George Russell

in terms of the championship. And then you've got these whole bunch of teams not exactly in crisis

mode, but needing to get their seasons going. But yeah, what struck you as the big story so far

today, Rich? I mean, the gap is big between the top two and the rest of the rest of the field

right now. That is a big gap. Back to McLaren. You're looking at 50 points back to McLaren in third,

which is huge. And we've only had two races. So that strikes you that the rest of the field

have got a lot of work to do. You're right, we've got this spring break for them to try and catch up.

There are other things coming into play. Some of them might get the additional upgrade

opportunity that is around if they're outside of 2% down on power on the most high performing

power in it will probably come onto that another point. And also, you know, whether or not the

compression ratio of rules will change in it. We don't know. But at the moment, the rest of the paddock

seem to be looking at Mercedes with a lot of envy. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've quite enjoyed

today. It's my first day in the paddock of the season. So it's actually been really nice to come in,

you know, almost refreshed and walk up and down and talk to different people from different teams.

And quite clearly, anyone you speak to at Mercedes and Ferrari are loving the new rules and think

they're wonderful and they're very buoyant. There's a vast number of people, including Mercedes

power unit teams, who are less happy about how things are unfolding. And, you know, that for me

is kind of the big story in terms of how much can these people, like McLaren, like Williams,

like Aston Martin? Now, how much can they develop and try and catch up? Because clearly,

the power unit is working well. Well, not the Aston Martin, but the other two.

Yeah, well, I agree with you. And I think the story for me really has been Mercedes

somewhat under attack. And I use somewhat advisedly a little bit under attack in terms of their

front wings and rear wings moving their active arrow, maybe not closing at the same time,

and a change to qualifying. We'll get on to that in a bit. But first, today has been the George

Russell. I'm not thinking anything about the championship day. Is he convincing anybody?

I mean, look, when you've got a dominant car, you need to set a marker down early. You need to

get that advantage. You need to get those points on the board. Because as we know, things change

during the season. People develop, people catch up. So he's must be thinking about it. But I do

want to say, Kimi Antonelli in China, we're so impressive. Because in qualifying, we know George

had the issue with the front wing. We know he changed his. But when Kimi went to the Skypad to

speak to Antonelli, he referenced the fact that he had huge amounts of understeer and actually

turns out we believe that he also had an issue with his front wing. So his time could have been

even better as well. So I think George has got a massive challenge from Kimi this season.

I'm just going to defer back to what Pete Pondington said to the guys after race, which is he

just keeps scoring as many points as you can on each individual weekend. And then the championship

will be what it will be. And I think I actually believe George that I think at this stage,

he's just trying to bank as many points as he can at each of these individual weekends.

And then we'll start talking championships when we get to the back end of the season.

Okay, let's just quickly address the issues with the front wing active arrow closing. So some

people had spotted in China that the front wing and the rear wing maybe weren't closing at the same

time or within the 40 milliseconds, whatever it is they had to. Mercedes said that's not by design.

They've said that it would really mess up the arrow balance if that was by design. So it couldn't

really be by design at all. And that maybe there were some forces on the wing that made it do that,

but it was a mistake effectively. And they're going to try and see whether they've got some

solutions for practice. I'm buying that. I couldn't see why you would why that would be a benefit.

Because suddenly if it did close or the rear wing closed, your balance would be all over the shop.

You wouldn't want one to be open. Yeah, I think they look, they've come out with a clarification.

As I said, the proof will be when they get back running on track because what you can be sure of

is now that that flag has been raised. All the other teams will have people watching the videos

slowing it down. The FIA will be keeping an eye on it. So if there is some sort of discrepancy there,

they may have got away with it before, but they won't anymore. But I'm with you. I believe

they're version of it. It's like you said at the very start though, whenever a team is dominating,

other teams will start to look at that car very very closely and try and find anything in the

media world as well. So that I think that's all that's happening. Well, we'll get on to how the

other side of how Mercedes feel that they might be the subject of other teams' attentions in terms

of maybe getting the rules changed to close up the field. But in the meantime, the closed system

of Mercedes is of course Ferrari. And while Charlotte Claire hunted down his teammate Louis

Halton in Shanghai, he didn't manage to get him in the end, which meant that we had Louis Halton's

first proper Grand Prix podium for Ferrari since he joined. To think he said to Ferrari, I'd like

to go in in this skyline GTR and they went, no, no, no, you will not. You will go in their 40. Here you go.

Here's one in Japan. That's quite cool though. Very very cool. He's also been having a great time.

He had killbill's sword fight choreographer train him earlier in the week. Did he go to the killbill

restaurant in Tokyo? Oh, I don't know. Gone Pachi. Gone Pachi. Yeah, great restaurant. So he said

I'm the one with the Japan knowledge. No, no, no. Anyway, yes, he is having a great time

with his friends. Friends? Are you two a talent? Are you two trying to say something? No, he is.

He makes a lot of deep relationship. I don't read the papers that you do tell. They're two of the most

famous people in the world. And they go, they seem to be going out together. But she might be

coming here. Oh, yes. It doesn't even know who we're talking about. No idea what you're talking about.

All right. But the interesting thing about yo yo racing. I mean, I agree with Lewis. I hate

this word. I don't know who came up with yo yo racing. I don't really understand it.

But is he comparing eggs with eggs in terms of carting and formula one? No, I don't think that

is a fair comparison actually, because I think in carting, you don't have this situation where

one person's engine goes faster than another when you're doing carting, for example. And that's

what I think some of the frustration and discouragement from other drivers or fans are.

Or they're passing on the battery. Is they're passing on the battery, right? And you get that in

other championships. You have it in sports cars. You have it in other types of racing. So,

to me, I think we all have to get used to this new type of formula one. The battle that we saw

between Charles and Lewis that he talked about there being such a great, you know, fun things

for him to experience. That was pure driving. Those overtaking moves in the middle and second

with pure bravery, pure commitment and also innovative and creative thinking it is the way you overtake.

And I think that's what we're all going to get to see more of. The drivers will come to realize

actually, yeah, you can, I can use more energy and pass someone on the straight but they'll pass

me back. So instead, maybe I need to try and pass someone, I don't know, to turn five at Budapest.

You know, they have to start thinking outside the box. So, I think we have to give it time to

see how everyone settles into this new style of racing. And there's no doubt about it. We are still

getting those battery overtakes down the street. We saw the Mercedes do that in Shanghai and in Melbourne.

But is it much different to those DRS moves? So we should see, you know, they run up from

Oruj up the straight to Le Comfort. You see people drive past and we all go, oh, that's just an easy

DRS move. So I think that we're just going to have to see how the teams, the drivers and the FIA

and the sport develops around this new form of racing. And let's not forget, I mean, look how happy

Charles and Louis both were in the pen in Shanghai after the race. Louis said to me on Saturday

after the sprint, oh, I've learned from that, I need to work out, I need to work a bit harder

at working out where to make the moves and what I can do. And he said, he stayed so late at the track

that night on his own, trying to go through everything and work out what he could do in the race.

And then it paid off for him in the race and I just feel like if that's what the drivers have to do

this year, bring him, bring it on and let's see who works hardest and get it right.

Can we just edge this? I'm just as well as some people. You're right.

There we go, that's better. I can see you now. But okay, but if Ferrari are still, we think,

especially round here, that's probably going to reward some of the best bits of the Mercedes,

a little bit maybe five tenths, six tenths, whatever behind the Mercedes, is it that fight then

that between Lecler and Hamilton here that's going to be entertaining? And do you think Lecler

on the back of his self-confessed worst circuit of the year in Shanghai, at least he's got that out of

the way we see a better challenge. I think what we have to watch out for is the start from the Ferrari

because we've seen it now on, we've had three examples of the starts and the Ferraris are the best.

Now this is going to be a harder track to overtake at compared to Shanghai and Melbourne,

even with the differences in energy, it will be a tough track to overtake on. So if the Ferraris

do get in track position, then they get in a position where they can maybe two together fight

against Mercedes, four Mercedes drivers into a situation where they never get the battery into a

happy state, like they did with George, although they made a mistake in Melbourne, letting George

off the hook to have some free air charge, you know, charge the battery where he wanted to and they

let him off the hook. I think here, if they get track position, they've got maybe a better chance to

at least fight for longer.

Okay, they are testing the Macarena wing again, aren't they?

They are, they brought it here just to begin with.

What was sticking with Macarena?

Flip Flops, haven't I called it? Was it?

I mean, Crofty likes to call it the Luke Littleer because he says it revolves 180.

180, yeah. Which I believe is a dance reference.

Yeah, again, you're me.

I prefer seeing people doing the Macarena and trying to remember the moves personally.

Ferrari call it the Macarena and they have Macarena on their playlist.

They play it in the garage at the show and tell when we're seeing it.

Well, that's what we got. I'll teach you the moves as well.

Ferrari calling it Macarena, so we're calling it Macarena.

Right, what about McLaren? How can they go from Constructors' Championship last year to not even

starting the race on both cars in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago?

I mean, you look at the way Macarena have been able to develop the car in recent years

and you'd have to think they will come back.

It's only a matter of when, not if, that they'll be back fighting,

but Will Mercedes have too big a lead by them, which is a very good point that could well be.

You look skeptical. I see skepticism in your face.

I question whether they'll come, whether they'll have the best car this year.

I know it's a, you know, a lot of diminishing returns, the terms of development,

but I still think that even the Mercedes is so early in this development curve,

they're going to keep adding performance on.

So I don't know if the McLaren will have the best car because I genuinely think

this whole year and this particular rules we've got, the set of rules we've got now,

there's so many nuances where if you've got the power unit and the chassis side and the system

side integrated on the one roof, you've got an advantage.

And to me, I'm not surprised to see the two factory teams, Mercedes and Ferrari

as the two teams on the top because they've got everything under one roof.

So I just think it will be harder because why would Mercedes hand over secrets of deployment

and the best ways to harvest and use energy to their customers? Why would they?

So I think McLaren of course will develop, you're right, they're a great team and they will

develop. I don't know if they'll overtake Mercedes this year, but let's see.

Okay, we will see. You might have seen some people from Honda behind us.

This is of course their circuit, Ernast and Martin, hoping for a better weekend.

No Fernando Alonso yet at the circuit. He's arriving tomorrow, we believe, or arriving tonight

into tomorrow, but they've got some things to try out on that, Ernast and Martin, to mitigate some

of the vibration problems they've been having. But let's move on to Red Bull Racing.

And you might have seen, watching on Sky Sports F1, we showed the the Nürburgring, the four

hours of Nürburgring, which was one on the road by Maxwell Stafford and Joel Gounon as his teammates,

but then they lost it under a technicality. Look how his eyes light up when he's talking

about the Nürburgring and that car. Danny, you can tell her, by the way, I forgot the other

teammate. You have to look at it though. I mean, he's eight in the championship on eight points,

he's behind Pierre Gasly, he's behind Oli Berman, he's got to find his racing enthusiasm from

somewhere. And we know every time he gets in a car, even if it's in a simulator, it makes him

happy to race. And he's lucky he's got that this season because he's not enjoying the Red Bull.

He said it's incredibly tough to drive and he said that every lap is a fight, which is

really, really hard going for any of the drivers out there. He's that catcher, said it's not the engine,

it's the car, it's the car that's the problem. Yeah, I, it's funny, just talking to the couple

of other teams here, they tend to agree. You know, they think actually the power unit is pretty

strong and you know, I think again, it feels a bit like last year, Ted, doesn't it?

Speaking of last year, the racing bulls chassis looked like an easier car to drive almost,

you know, the Red Bull drivers, Max was really having to ring it, you know, to get lap time. I mean,

here his pole lap was extraordinary last year, wasn't it? So yeah, it does seem like they've got

work to do all around. I'm not surprised he's not particularly happy. I think you lost. What's

happened? No, I'm listening to the traditional Japanese music. They're launching their

delivery for this weekend at the moment, the other side of there. They were missing it.

It's me three. Yeah, you know, Matt, wait, I think some of the, as a driver as well, they're missing

that the purest feeling and qualifying on it. They're absolutely leaning on it for the thing

and Max got to do a bit of that at the number of green and enjoyed it very much. Indeed,

right. What are the pipes and drums as Arvid Lindbergh comes out? We can ask you about, no,

about the qualifying changes. I tell you what they are, they've reduced the maximum

deployable energy from nine megajoules to eight. When Mercedes are racing everything, will any

rule change like this? Different from the one, by the way, when they were doing their simulator

sessions affect, not affect the fastest car more? It sounds like it's quite a small change in terms

of, I don't think it's going to alter the pecking order. I think I had a little sneaky look at some,

some simulation stuff that will recently run, one of the TPs showed me and it's such a marginal

change. I don't think it's going to suddenly make someone else change the order.

All right, let's talk about other stories. The likes of Alan Permanne, who's only been a team

principal for about a year and a half, is looking like older than a tooth now because another team

principal's gone. What is going on with all these team principals? Jonathan Wheatley has gone

for personal reasons and Mattia Benotto's in. Is Wheatley going to Aston?

We don't know. I mean, he's there for personal reasons at the moment, Aston put a statement out,

didn't they? Saying, you know, they have complete faith in Adrian Neurie, even though he seems to be

sort of stepping a little bit aside from the actual full one team principal. He's still managing

technical parts. He is. He is indeed. Who knows? When you have a difficult season, when I get

got landed here at Customs, the guy at the Customs desk said to me, please don't talk to me about

Aston Martin. Right. When he landed. So if the people here in Japan are saying that, you know,

they're up against it right now and I guess sometimes you look at the personnel and change them.

Rachel, thank you very much. Karun, thank you very much. Sayonara from us. Look forward to having

your company throughout the weekend. Bye-bye.