Arise, Sir Lewis Hamilton! 2024 British GP Review

[00:00:02] Before we begin, I wanted to give a huge shout out to the folks at Amazon Music for partnering with us on this episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast. But more on this later, right then, let's get right into today's episode.

[00:00:36] Two and a half years ago, on one of the most scandalous nights in this entire sport, Michael Massey said to Toto Wolf, Toto, we went motor racing. I think that same sentence can be applied to this race, a complete race,

[00:00:50] a race that truly tested who was the complete racing driver, a race where you needed judgment, composure, adaptability and decisiveness. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we went motor racing today

[00:01:03] and the winner of it all was probably one of the most complete drivers we have ever seen without a doubt. Lewis Hamilton is your winner for the ninth time, Kunal. For the ninth time in Silverstone, for the 104th time in Formula One history

[00:01:21] or rather his 104th win and Sundaram's world famous stat, which I'm sure every broadcaster in the world has used. We used it on Viya Play today. Lewis Hamilton becomes the first ever and the only driver to have won after crossing 300 race starts.

[00:01:42] And for those who believe in numerology, it was 344th race start for driver number 44 or car number 44. We've been waiting for this stat to be broken for such a long time, dude.

[00:01:57] I remember us chatting about it, but to do it in this fashion in what is on paper Sundaram, the third fastest car and in a situation where it was not plain sailing. I mean, at every given point in time, you need to be good at the start,

[00:02:12] the change over to the wet, getting the strategy right at that point, being good at the wet, then changing over to the dry, being good in the dry and having a sprint at the end of it.

[00:02:21] And in all of that, he won with the third fastest car on paper. That's a result, man. And that's why I love these sort of races where we have we go from dry to wet and back to dry because then we have two crossovers

[00:02:35] and it's not just the driver who has to put all his skill on track. It's also the strategy, the man, everyone back making the simulations. When is the right time to pit from slicks to wets and from wets or intors back to slicks?

[00:02:48] And that timing is so crucial. I think we saw that multiple times with the Piaz tree and with Hamilton and Norris. And there is a beautiful example of when you need to get the timing right. And also the case of the person who made the least mistakes.

[00:03:02] I think there were four drivers in contention today. There was the Stappen, there was Piaz tree, there was Norris and Hamilton. What's happened had definitely car issues to deal with. Norris had pit stop issues or strategic issues and the same also was with Piaz tree.

[00:03:18] And if anyone who really nailed everything, it was Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. And when it's done in such such a fashion, I have no qualms in my favorite stat being smashed to smithereens. It's totally fine.

[00:03:33] The drive was so good that I have to put respect to that drive rather than my stat. So I think we had a brilliant race today and I'm very, very happy with what we saw today. And it's taken 56 races for him to go and score a win again.

[00:03:52] And for some reason, you know the emotions, of course they were high British Grand Prix, British driver 30th time that a British driver has won year. And this one was an emotional and a stat loving race.

[00:04:04] I'm sure people like Sundaram are like, oh my God, so many stats from the race. Right? So remember to check iPhone stats, go to an Instagram. I'm sure Sundaram's going to keep churning out those stats through the whole week. But the emotions were so beautiful to experience.

[00:04:18] Lewis Hamilton, his mom, his dad, he told everybody how his whole family was there. Toto Wolf, Pete Bonnington. It's his last time that he's racing at Silverstone, at the British Grand Prix with Mercedes. And remember that relationship Lewis Hamilton has given up on that relationship.

[00:04:40] Okay. But to still go out and score what was a win on merit was also where a lot of emotions came out. It wasn't by chance like Sundaram pointed out. It was on merit like you said, Samuel. It was on judgment for every single lap of the 52 laps.

[00:05:00] And he was able to hold on. I'll tell you something. Yeah, go for it. I'll tell you something because this particular stat of mine, I never expected it to be broken anytime soon.

[00:05:09] But today for some reason, going leading up to the race, I felt, you know, I should probably keep it ready because it's possible it could happen. It's the British Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton. Gently tends to do very well here.

[00:05:22] It's going to be raining and we don't know who's going to be winning. So something led me to change that creative. I had a couple of other stats for Nordic and Westatron. And at the end of the day, I thought, you know, let's check the rest.

[00:05:32] Let's just keep this Hamilton one ready and I'll do the rest if I have to do on the fly. And that was the only creative that was the only stat I needed for today.

[00:05:41] And probably it was meant to be probably this was meant to be that this was his last race with Mercedes at Silverstone. And this was the right way to say goodbye with Mercedes to all these British fans.

[00:05:52] And if this is indeed the last one and this if this is indeed the last win with Mercedes and the last time he and Pete Bonnington can celebrate a win together on the podium, man, it's a beautiful farewell.

[00:06:03] Seriously, but we will talk more about it in depth in a second after we tell you who we are. Yes, we are low Samaritan fans, but we're also fans of all the other drivers in the same way.

[00:06:14] If they drive brilliantly, we are just great fans of motor racing and today was a great race. We are the inside line F1 podcast. We are at what the top 1.5% of most listen podcast on Spotify.

[00:06:26] I always tend to forget that number, but actually, yeah, it's also all in the world. Spotify is just one of the sources of top 1.5 podcasts in the world. Oh, there we are. And also India's best sports podcast that was also awarded to us very, very recently too.

[00:06:42] My name is Somil Arora. I'm the voice of the Moro GP Indian Grand Prix, where again, Moro GP had a crazy race too. And I'm also the voice of the Indian Supercross Racing League, the Indian Racing League and many other championships. You heard F1 stats guru.

[00:06:56] He is one of the most followed social media pages for all quality formula one content. The formula one statistician himself who stats as Kunal mentioned have been used on so many TV channels and websites like auto sport, motorsport.com and the likes.

[00:07:12] And of course, Kunal Shadam and who started this podcast, the former marketing head of the first in the F1 team who was in the studio this week and also on camera for the Vioplay network where he is working as a formula one expert

[00:07:25] and also a formula one producer slash consultant. So lots of fun is going to happen on this podcast because we have a lot to digest Kunal. But I think the one big thing that rings in my head is Carlos Sainz. Now, I know there's a reason behind it.

[00:07:42] I know I'm a Carlos Sainz fan very openly and he had a better judgment called in Charlotte Clear today, which we will get to. But I think there's one area where his judgment call might be going wrong.

[00:07:52] If that Mercedes one year contract is genuinely still on offer, I just hope he hasn't signed for Williams yet. Seriously. I don't believe he's signed yet. I think where he's going is he wants to be in a car that will be powered by a Mercedes power unit,

[00:08:11] which is understandable. He's trying to bank on the power unit since at least there are more guarantees or more opportunities to get it right there rather than bank on somebody building a chassis for that power unit.

[00:08:22] But having said that, I get a feeling that Mercedes after this win even more so will want a driver like Carlos Sainz in that car and not a rookie like Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Nothing against Antonelli.

[00:08:39] But when you believe suddenly, oh my goodness, we're winning on merit and we've been on podiums and we've been scoring pole positions, you need to make sure that you give yourself as high a chance

[00:08:51] to extract this performance week and on weekend rather than go back and be like, okay, I need to train a young driver to then come up and do this.

[00:09:00] So I get a feeling this win actually will work in Carlos Sainz's favor if at all that door at Mercedes or the cockpit at Mercedes is available for him. But what was the most impressive part about Hamilton's drive today for you guys before we get to McLaren

[00:09:17] and how they sort of fumbled the ball completely. But if you had to pick both of you guys, what was the best part about Lewis Hamilton's race today? Was it his judgment?

[00:09:27] Was it his ability to hold off the pressure at the end or just that qualifying lap from Saturday? Who's going to go first? I can go first. Okay. There were various things actually at play and it was his judgment.

[00:09:40] He, you know, Bono said it's we think it's time for inters and he said no, it isn't. Driver, the biggest sensor, the best sensor in the car like I even said on Vioplay a few times today. So that was one. Second was even yesterday.

[00:09:53] Actually, George Russell had slightly lower or lesser wing that he had taken, which meant he actually put the car on pole position and Lewis Hamilton was quick to say I didn't optimize for that one single lap, but I should have nicer balance in the race. And guess what?

[00:10:10] In those conditions, Lewis Hamilton had nicer balance. He also could manage tires better when he needed them to aided by that slightly higher wing. So a lot of decisions actually went in Lewis Hamilton's favor along with his judgment and

[00:10:28] above all else, his ability to extract maximum from these conditions because some of you mentioned a lot of drivers could have won today. Well, George Russell started from pole and was leading, but the minute the conditions

[00:10:41] changed, Lewis Hamilton was the driver who overtake him, who overtook him on track on merit. So it was supposed to be a lot of factors that came into play and even in the last stint,

[00:10:54] Lewis knew all along that Max Wistappen was on a different tire, a harder tire. He needed to look after those softs. That was hammer time, even though Bono did not say it on the radio in as many words.

[00:11:07] He saved his tires for when he knew if an attack was coming either from Norris or from Wistappen. And just goes to show he's not lost his edge at all. He was waiting for the right time, the right package to come to him. And guess what?

[00:11:23] The race that it did come to him, he's gone and won it. Are you checking up on Russell Sundar? Not yet. I mean, do we know what he's feeling like? Anyone has asked him or something? No? This could have been his feeling as well.

[00:11:38] It could have been his home win, but I think the race went away from him the moment Hamilton passed him and I think Norris also passed him on the very next lap. And coming back to your question, the two things that I particularly liked about Hamilton,

[00:11:52] one was of course the judgment. I think his experience kind of made him aware of the fact that Rain is going to be coming in a couple of laps. And if I don't pass Russell, I'm going to be the person who's on the alternate strategy

[00:12:06] or I have to pit a lap later, or I'll have to probably wait in the pits if we double stack. So he knew it's going to be crucial for me to have the advantage. So he did pass Russell when the weather conditions got a little worse and probably

[00:12:18] Russell was struggling either in the wet or his car was already having problems. So him having that judgment or that awareness that it's crucial for me to pass before we get into the pits, that's one thing that I absolutely loved.

[00:12:30] And the last 15 laps which kind of brought me back to the Hamilton of the past. And one of the things that real is really why I respect this driver more than anything else

[00:12:40] because the way he's able to soak in pressure, the way he's able to put in lap after lap, exactly the way how it's supposed to happen. Because I was looking at the gap between Norris and Hamilton and it was just not reducing.

[00:12:54] It was fairly reducing by a tenth or two tenths but not beyond that. So Hamilton was absolutely perfecting every single corner. And that's what he does best. That's what he's been doing over the last decade or so and that kind of just took me back to

[00:13:08] what he's been doing in the hybrid. So I absolutely loved seeing that tough luck for George Russell. But I think more than a podium, I don't think so. He would have won the race after it started raining but podium might have been possible.

[00:13:24] Samuel you asked if George Russell missed out on a home win. I think the one driver who most definitely missed out on a home win or at least a fight for it was Lando Norris because one of the things I loved about Silverstone

[00:13:39] is that different times of the race, different conditions, different cars and drivers were quicker. Exactly. That's the Formula One I fell in love with. You never know who's going to win. It's about extracting the best on that particular lap in that particular stint

[00:13:57] and then hoping that something else happens the next stint and the next stint. Lando Norris, let me put it this way. I don't believe that last stint he would have been able to hold back a Lewis Hamilton because Lewis Hamilton was the quickest like Sundaram also said.

[00:14:12] But had he not stayed out that extra lap, maybe he would have come out on the lead. Maybe we would have had a battle. Maybe Lewis doing all the chasing couldn't have come closer or maybe Lewis would have still won the race.

[00:14:26] We don't know how that would have played out. But McLaren was so found lacking in strategy because first instance, they chose to not double stack with Oscar Piaz-Tri. The most shocking thing ever. I mean, seriously, I literally felt like going and giving Oscar Piaz-Tri a hug

[00:14:44] because that's the most brutal thing you're driving for a former world champion team. One of the most successful teams, second most successful team in history. And guess what? They do not have the guts to double stack.

[00:14:55] I mean, the way I look at it is when a pawn is one step away from becoming the queen, you don't look at it as a pawn anymore. You look at it as the queen and when Mercedes were double stacking right in front of him

[00:15:08] and he was the faster driver in those conditions, not making this up. Look at the timing data from lap 20 to lap 27. Piaz-Tri was going faster than Norris. In fact, he was almost at his tail and had they gone on for longer.

[00:15:21] There could have been a scrap for P1. Again, nobody knows who would have won that, but they were equally competitive and Piaz-Tri was decisive at that point. He was making moves with composure when he knew he had the better car.

[00:15:31] No urgency, no fretting about and then they chose to do that. Why? And what happened? Let's just relive what happened. The most embarrassing moment in Piaz-Tri's F1 career to date. Landon Norris, who was just ahead of him, pitted. Piaz-Tri was 20 seconds slower on that lap.

[00:15:52] By the time Piaz-Tri actually went around and came in to make his pit stop, Landon Norris was on his gearbox. So that's how much time Piaz-Tri lost in that indecision or whatever. So that was one McLaren mistake.

[00:16:09] McLaren quickest car, so many races, Landon Norris up there almost every race. And I think while we're counting how many races Max Verstappen has won this season, we're also going to keep account of how many races Landon Norris could have won this season.

[00:16:25] Because by the looks of it, Verstappen despite not having the best car pulled out a strategy won extended his advantage. Guess what? We are still talking of McLaren should have done this, should have done that. They could have won yet another race. Imagine their home race as well.

[00:16:41] Exactly. Exactly. And it just only makes me wonder why were they not double stacking? Were they not confident enough of the double stack? Were they exploring a split strategy? Again, why would you when there's so many other drivers on the soft set up genuinely just doing better?

[00:16:57] I mean, where there's a clear idea that you have to really get on on the slick tires as soon as you possibly can. So why did that happen eventually? And the second thing on top of that, who made the call to keep Norris on the softs?

[00:17:10] And I wonder was that the reason why he couldn't quite catch up to Hamilton at the end? Do we have an answer on this? Because clearly, when snapping on the hards was able to pull out faster lap times than Norris on the soft.

[00:17:23] So is it something to do with temperatures in the runway? Anything on that sort? I think at least from what I've observed in the last couple of races that is that the McLaren tends to do better and the temperatures are conditions are a bit colder.

[00:17:36] And that also coincided in the last couple of races as well. And that happened even today right at the point when Norris started catching up to worst happen or even up to the Mercedes. The temperatures were far lower closer to 20 or even below.

[00:17:49] But in the last 15, 20 odd laps when it started becoming sunny and we had a dry racing line, the temperatures had risen up to close to 25. I'm not sure if that is one of the reasons why he was chewing up his tires.

[00:18:04] But I also felt it could have been indecisiveness or they're not being aggressive enough or them having a bad judgment of the conditions. I mean, first of all, I'm very baffled by the fact that a lot of questions or decision making is left to the driver

[00:18:20] who in that confusion in that high pressure situation of probably going on to win race, he's being offered the opportunity to choose between softs and mediums. And I think at one point I did hear Norris saying that I think mediums is the best bet.

[00:18:35] I'm not sure what happened beyond that. Why did they go with softs? But I think the team has all the data available then if what are the conditions going to be like and how sunny is it going to be, what are the temperatures are going to be like?

[00:18:45] These are things that drivers don't necessarily have. What I have seen from Mercedes of the hybrid era, I have very seldom seen them leaving tire choices to Hamilton. And I've seen the opposite of Hamilton often blaming you've put me on the wrong tire,

[00:19:03] but then at the end of it, they end up winning. So I've always seen Mercedes and Red Bull being very strict and particular. And we're going to give you the tire choice on another very rare occasion. We're going to hear it from you.

[00:19:15] I actually have a very, very different point of view on that. There are thousands of sensors in the car that are being tracked, but the best sensor, the smartest sensor is always the driver.

[00:19:28] In Lando Norris's case, he was asked when he came in, if we take the medium, we are covering for Max who was behind him. If we take the soft, we are covering for Lewis. Lando Norris after qualifying ahead of Max Verstappen actually said,

[00:19:45] my eyes are going to be forward and to try and catch the Mercedes car. So he took a brave decision to take on the soft, right? Out here, very crucially out of all the top four teams, McLaren was the only team with the extra medium tire, right?

[00:19:59] Now, Somel, the problem here is actually you because you've gone and hyped that McLaren does so well on the C3, which is the soft tire that they decided to then go on the C3, which was the soft tire.

[00:20:11] So in hindsight, yes, you can come back and make another decision. But at always it is always better to check what the driver also feels about the conditions. And this is actually a good segue into what happened with Charles Leclerc. And I'll get to that.

[00:20:28] But we spoke of Lewis Hamilton. He said no to the inter. OK, we also spoke about or rather we didn't speak about it. Max Verstappen, who we are so used to seeing winning all the time that when he doesn't win,

[00:20:39] we are all surprised and we're like, oh, this is another blip. He's going to win the next race. OK, that's what we all feel. Max Verstappen decided to switch on the inters. He took the call by himself.

[00:20:49] So the driver at the end of the day has to be the biggest judgment. And what the teams do is they feed in all the information to the driver. And that's exactly what happened. So Lando Norris chose the soft in hindsight he should have taken the medium.

[00:21:06] Lewis actually or Max was it told him you had the medium? Maybe that was I think it was Lewis who told him post race. You had the medium you could have probably taken the medium, right? But he didn't do that.

[00:21:18] But it just goes to show that the margins are so small, you got to get your execution right and just so be it, I guess. And you know, Lando Norris and Max, sorry, and McLaren, I think last one in Miami wasn't that right?

[00:21:36] And since Miami, I think Ferrari has gone to win. Mercedes has gone to win. Mercedes has two wins. Ferrari has won. Yes. That means Red Bull has three wins. And guess how many McLaren has zero where they've actually had the fastest car in a majority of the races.

[00:21:56] And this should have been them and which brings me to this whole question, right before we get to look look about Norris. Is he the final article? And I just wonder is Norris ready yet? Is he ready to win a world championship?

[00:22:10] And there are two different phases to this, right? Because you look at every single driver, not all of them are Lewis Hamilton. In fact, even he wasn't ready to win the world championship in his first year.

[00:22:20] He made a big mistake in China that cost him a world championship in his debut year. It takes time. It's called experience. It's life. You make a mistake and you learn from it. And with Lando Norris, I'm not saying he's a bad driver.

[00:22:31] He's been one of the fastest. In fact, I was so impressed by his ability to get the fastest lap times in the middle of the race in tricky conditions on demand. That is brilliant stuff, especially when your lap times at one stage are around

[00:22:45] one minute 32 and you can snap your fingers and get it down to one minute 30.5 or something. That takes incredible skill, but things like the start where Verstappen again got the jump on him. Things like making the judgment call on these things.

[00:23:01] Again, Sochi 21 comes to mind, but again, probably made the right decision that day in terms of the process, not the outcome. But the same thing here, right? Is he there yet? And versus if he Verstappen and Red Bull Racing who were decisive,

[00:23:14] they were literally out of the race canal at one point. They were not meant to be in that conversation anymore. But then Verstappen making one right judgment call and being able to modulate his performance level

[00:23:25] immediately after that, that I feel is the difference between a race winning driver and a world championship driver. And that's what I wonder is Norris there yet? I would say Norris is there yet. It's just about all cylinders firing at the same time.

[00:23:38] It's about finding the sync between him and the McLaren pit wall. He's found a sync with the car. And you know, Sundaram brought up this question, why are they leaving the decision to the driver under the heat of the moment in the stress of the situation?

[00:23:52] But Sundaram, this is what the drivers have been trained for ever since they go cart. Okay, ever since they've been competitive racing, you're making all these choices. And that's what separates Formula One drivers from most of the other athletes.

[00:24:07] We know that there are so many decisions you have to make time and time again. There are so many likes of, you know, Carlos Sainz that we applaud. Fernando Alonso even more so that we applaud. So it's just how it's the life of a Formula One driver.

[00:24:21] You are supposed to be making these decisions and the team better be relying on the driver input rather than, you know, just telling you what the data says. I mean, if I remember a few races like you pointed out Mercedes relied completely

[00:24:35] on data and Lewis would come back and bash them, right? And a couple of times they lost the race and they said you should actually just listen to your driver or sometimes they say, just put your hand out of the window and you'll know it's raining.

[00:24:47] You don't need to ask Google each time. Is it raining today? Or is it raining right now? Yeah, but in that same dialogue, perhaps I'm not going to be very harsh on Landau today even though he's been very harsh on himself because I also

[00:25:01] feel like like Somil mentioned, it's a case of the process being that smooth or that bulletproof. And this is also probably why Red Bull and Mercedes have been winning all those championships over the past decade. The process internally has been that bulletproof that they very rarely

[00:25:18] tend to make these mistakes. And these are the typical attributes of a championship team. Usually when you see a midfield team suddenly at the front, sometimes they get flustered on what do we do in the heat of the moment?

[00:25:31] You've seen that with Monaco last year, Aston Martin not knowing which is the right tire to put in. We've seen that probably that's also one of the reasons what's happening with McLaren as well. They have been a great midfield team now they're at the front, but there

[00:25:45] are still a couple of rough edges that need to be smooth and doubt in battle. Like for example, in Austria when Landau went up against Max, probably didn't have the sort of experience to go up against a championship driver, a champion driver on how exactly to beat him.

[00:26:00] And probably even today when you have the opportunity of a race win, kind of fumbling it and being too conservative. And just you've explained it very well because this even though McLaren is the second most successful team in Formula One, this particular management driver combo, etc.

[00:26:19] McLaren is finally suddenly finding themselves at the front end every race. Previously it was every couple of races if the conditions met, if the characteristics met. Now it's only every race. So they're going to have to move quickly. They're going to have to learn quickly.

[00:26:34] Landau learned last race weekend how to race against Max Verstappen. This race, they will now learn how the other teams have actually made some calls, right? And I think what will pinch McLaren more is not about being on the wrong

[00:26:47] tire as much as not pitting on the right lap. So McLaren also need to realize one thing and this is a good segue maybe into Ferrari as well. Although we need to speak about Max Verstappen who also, you know, drove a great race.

[00:27:00] But McLaren, when you're fighting at the front, sometimes you just have to do what the front runners are doing. What they've tried to do is a lot of different things and then again, they go back to playing catch up.

[00:27:12] You know, I've seen this in the last couple of races. Even if you pick Miami, Canada and even today, McLaren evolved always stayed out an extra lap. Yeah, it worked in their favor and Miami didn't really work in their favor in Canada.

[00:27:27] And even today, call it a judgment of what it is from either the team or the driver to stay out for an extra lap. But again, today that was one of the reasons that they didn't

[00:27:36] go on to win the race or they didn't have a double podium today. I actually looked at the data for PST and like you correctly mentioned, PST was half a second behind Norris and four laps later when he pitted and he came out.

[00:27:50] He was 18 and a half seconds off Norris. And if you compare the Mercedes drivers who are double stacked, George Russell was a second and a half behind Hamilton, but after the double stacked, he was just seven and a half seconds behind Hamilton.

[00:28:05] So if McLaren did do a double stack, that would have been a much better option than waiting a lap later. Yeah man, seriously, like why sacrifice one driver's race completely? But I don't want to be again, they should be too harsh on

[00:28:20] themselves, but let's not forget this is not the same McLaren as we saw 10 years ago or 20 years ago. It's a new team. It's a younger team with different people, different management. The name might be the same. The operating base might be the same, but eventually the

[00:28:35] people who are working in it are not the same people who were there when Jensen Button was there, when Lewis Hamilton was there, when Mika Hakinen was there. So let's not forget that. It's a legacy with the name, not the people. They will learn.

[00:28:48] They're like a stumbling teenager at this stage. So give them time, but they better learn because if they don't that car is far too good to let go of things like this. But on the other hand, some teams have don't really have

[00:29:00] that privilege anymore and some teams have a star driver with good judgment that will be coming to them, but just a car that does not work in their favor sometimes. Are you talking? Who are you alluding to here? I think you're talking of Max Verstappen.

[00:29:14] But can you imagine it is such a surprise for all of Formula 1 when Red Bull is not the quickest car anymore? It's like in the opening stages of the lap when he was being overtaken, people are like, oh, is he saving tires?

[00:29:28] But the truth is Red Bull was the third quickest car in Silverstone across all the conditions and everyone is shocked despite Red Bull not being quickest is what pretty much every fan hopes for so that there is at least a more unpredictable race every race weekend.

[00:29:47] But great judgment call by Max to bring himself back in the race and end up leading or extending his lead in the world championship. Yeah, and I mean, honestly, right? Even though in the middle Verstappen was ordinary

[00:30:03] in terms of his lap times and pace, I think it takes a special driver to amp it up when you know when you're back in like it's not you see with some people sometimes it can be emotional again that can be a criticism

[00:30:15] of Lewis sometimes that when things are not going well, he just does not follow through upon it. Like I just it's like the worst day in the world for him whereas someone like Max will stick in it. That's just different characteristics, no better or worse.

[00:30:29] But when the emotions are by our side, there's nobody stopping you like with Lewis today. And in the same case with Max, I think it was just plain objective brilliance all across like the moment he saw a chance to do it.

[00:30:40] He bounced on it like, oh, I'm in the race now. I'm going to put in some phenomenal lap times and that to on the hearts like that is honestly something you know, the moment they switched on to hearts and I think that was a question everyone is asking.

[00:30:54] Did we just see Verstappen go on to hearts and with the tracks still drying? I had written them off. I had literally written them off but obviously I'm sitting in the comfort of my home. I don't know what the team are seeing and what the driver is seeing.

[00:31:05] But then that worked out like magic and he literally had a shot at the tree and like we always say if we had a couple of more laps, maybe he would have won it, but that's not the case.

[00:31:16] And he was I think he was shot by a second or so, but he still made it work. And that's the thing we say. I don't think so. This was a very clean weekend for Red Bull, but that's the thing.

[00:31:28] Red Bull's brilliance is such that even on a bad weekend, they end up second or third. And that's like I said, the characteristics of a championship team or a champion team that even on an off day, they managed to get enough number of points and Ferrari

[00:31:42] unfortunately don't tend to get many or so Joe Perez for that matter, even in an off day or a non day. But we'll talk about Perez later. I believe Red Bull decided to take the hard because they knew the conditions weren't in their favor.

[00:31:58] They were chewing up the tires a lot more even at the start of the race. So they just put on the harder compound and they had used up the only medium tire that they had in the race. So there was either the soft or the hard and then

[00:32:08] they decided to go for the hard, which by the way was actually can you imagine Max was shappan on the hard was quicker than Landon or is on the soft. Okay. Yes. But that's just where it goes and and and Red Bull

[00:32:21] racing very important stat and I know Sundaram has also put this up in different numbers. But since Imola this year, which is six races, Red Bull racing has been outscored by Mercedes in five out of the last six races. Okay.

[00:32:42] And if you want to know which is a race where Red Bull actually scored higher, it was actually in Austria where no, actually Austria also Macla... Mercedes, so you know, I'm actually I made a comparison with McLaren. So just ignore that stat.

[00:32:56] We've got stat man and we should just let stats Guru do what he's he's doing, but maybe we should just switch to talking about Ferrari since there's a lot of pain that needs to be addressed there. I guess. Yeah. But on that, I have a question come observation.

[00:33:17] Why wasn't it only Charlotte Clerk eventually had to go for an extra pit stop for Ferrari, but not Carlos Sainz just just putting it out there. Why was that? Is that a call made by the team which has always happened

[00:33:30] that the clerk is always the one who tends to fall prey to Ferrari's poor strategic decisions or what's the case here? I mean, what's happening? So let's play it up. Firstly, Carlos, sorry, not Carlos Sainz. Sean Leclerc had a really pathetic qualifying.

[00:33:44] He said we just didn't have the pace. We were inconsistent. So that saw him BP 11. He still made a decent start. He was running up in the top 10. But what happened from lap seven onwards, Carlos Sainz actually went on to the radio to say those guys are

[00:33:57] pushing too hard. I cannot keep up, which was the first sign that Ferrari was chewing its tires a lot more. Sean Leclerc out here was in the dirty air trying to do all the chasing and then he was anyway going even slower at that point of time.

[00:34:10] So when they decided that, okay, that's it. The tires are giving up and you know, they were going to lose the position to or risk being losing position to drivers behind them. They decided we should make a pit stop.

[00:34:23] They decided not to wait for the rain, although their data or their radar data turned around and said the rain is just coming next lap. So they said why don't we just preempt the rain and pit. So they preempted the rain. They pit.

[00:34:38] It just so happened for Leclerc that the rain came eight laps later and not that particular next lap. Right? So that's what that's one of the first things that happened. They preempted the rain, but they were not in a position where they could have waited like the

[00:34:53] drivers up ahead waited. The drivers up ahead were managing their slicks so that they just wait till when the rains come. But in Leclerc's case, his tires were short anyway. Then what happened is those eight laps where he was on those inters, he just went through the

[00:35:07] rubber really quickly because inters on a dry track, completely dry track means you're just going to blow them apart completely. So when the rain actually came, he needed to make another pit stop. So he actually had an inter which actually worked in those rainy conditions. Right?

[00:35:23] Frederick Vesuvar said post race, we gave the information to both the drivers and then they made their choices and Leclerc actually said I need to check whether I got the right information or I understood, assimilated it and then decided on it correctly.

[00:35:36] But just very, very embarrassing that Leclerc chose the inters because he had to pit or he pit because he wanted to take the inters. However you see it, but color science made it work and didn't have any such issues by being his chief strategist again. Never trust him.

[00:35:53] I mean, but you know, I know people will criticize me a lot for being a very vocal car loss science fan, especially when Leclerc is the golden boy and agreed he is the faster driver. But in situations like this where it's more a

[00:36:07] matter of judgment, I don't think you can go against car loss science. Can you Sundaram? Because he's the only one in the team who scored the points when their biggest rivals actually go to race win. Indeed. And I think on Leclerc's part, he's just been very

[00:36:22] unfortunate, very unlucky and he's been dealt a rougher hand in all these situations when the team has to pit. It happened in Canada as well. The team they put him onto hearts. Yes, they put them onto hearts and today it was just very unfortunate because I looked at

[00:36:38] the numbers. Leclerc was behind stroll. He was trying to catch up to stroll and his lap times were very similar to signs and even the moment he passed stroll, he was quicker than signs. But the very next lap after he passes stroll signs

[00:36:53] on lap 15, Leclerc is 0.8 seconds slower than signs. The next lap 0.5, the next lap 1 second slower and the next lap 1.6 seconds slower than signs. So the point at which they pit around lap 19, I think it is inevitable because Leclerc had no

[00:37:11] tyres and we often, I mean, I think everyone thought that Ferrari was going for a gamble. They were going for the inters but then they got the timing right. But like Kunal said, they did not have tyres at all and unfortunately it's always Leclerc who's

[00:37:25] at the receiving end of all these bad decisions and all the luck which kind of ends up going well in signs this case, which I think you're happy about. Yeah, I will cry home with this information knowing that the driver who is always more decisive

[00:37:41] in the pit stops where the races really are one or lost is the one being kicked out of the team and he's forced to be getting a contract about Williams or something. I don't know, man. We'll figure it out. Let's not bring up my trauma here.

[00:37:54] Not the right place. I should also tell you the numbers that Leclerc has after Monaco. So I think we've had four races after Monaco and Leclerc has only 12 points in these last four races. Carlo signs as 38 and actually Nico Holcombberg has

[00:38:09] more points than Leclerc in these last four races. He has 16 points. What and Lance Stroll has the same number of points as Charlotte Claire since Monaco. Yes, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez has 11. Sergio Perez is one lower and I think in the

[00:38:26] constructors title, I don't know was Alpine higher than Haas a couple of races before because Haas is at 27 now. Alpine is on 9. Wow. These last two races have been incredibly good for Haas. Haas is just four points away from racing books. Harbi.

[00:38:46] And it's all down to that upgrade, their big upgrade package, Nico Holcombberg hats off fastest Ferrari qualifier made it work in the race as well. Scored big points. What a driver. What a team they've backed themselves. It's worked for them.

[00:39:02] Also, there were eight teams that scored points today. The highest number ever in 2024 Alpine and Sauber, the only teams that did not score points today. And Yuki Sunoda scored points again, not Daniel Ricardo, but all in all a very, very emotional but a fantastic race.

[00:39:26] I mean, if I, you know, I always remember such races as if I have fans who are not formula one fans or just on the fence, I would sit with them and say, guys, let's watch this race together.

[00:39:38] And this is again, one of those races where I'm like, let's watch this race together. Yeah, it's for Christmas today in the midfield. What double points for Aston Martin, P6 for Nico Holcombberg, points for Alex Albor. What is this? Is this 26th of December or what?

[00:39:54] And a special mention to Logan Sajan. So he's got his best race result of the season. He's finished 11th today. And I think just one or a couple of positions behind Alex Albor, which very crucially by him, by him finishing 11th,

[00:40:09] he is no longer 21st in a 20 driver champion. It's value for us to be both. Okay. And can you imagine there's only so there are four drivers or three drivers who not scored points. Joe Guanu, Logan Sgt. and Walter Ibotas. Joe Guanu finished 11th in Bahrain. Logan Sgt.

[00:40:28] and finished 11th in Silverstone. But Walter Ibotas is yet to finish 11th. And that's the reason why Walter is there. Now if Walter has to move up from them, he has to score a point. There's no other way he's going to do it otherwise.

[00:40:39] So James Zawld is looking to choose a driver between Logan Sgt. and Walter Ibotas. I think there's a very clear cut choice. Go for the driver who's higher up on the standing. That's what you do. But are there any other heroics of failures that we have

[00:40:55] missed discussing in these 40 odd minutes that we've been recording this episode? It's been 40 minutes. Wow. Incredible. Yeah. We're not going to be speaking what Sergio Perez right now. We just dropped out. We've spoken enough about where he is at this point.

[00:41:11] There isn't really much to say apart from the fact that he's probably in his last season in Formula One. I get that feeling. That's a boardwalk. What will happen is by the time Mercedes or by the time Red Bull might actually decide to let him go.

[00:41:26] Let's remember since we're talking of Perez, I know we've got millions of listeners in Mexico and they literally write in on Spotify saying that was not fair what you said of Perez but let's look at it. Checo Perez is at 118 points since race 6 which is halfway

[00:41:42] through or 25% of the season. He's gone from being P2 to now P6 in the championship. Oscar Piatz 3 overtook him in Silverstone. George Russell is 7 points behind Lewis Hamilton is 8 points behind so he the worst he can do is eighth because then

[00:41:59] as Fernando Lonso and he seems like he is going to fall down to eighth in the drivers championship. All those performance clauses that Red Bull actually talks off they will execute them or they will they will use them if Red Bull is actually finding themselves threatened

[00:42:17] in the constructors championship which by the way will also happen because McLaren is scoring with both drivers. Mercedes is scoring with both drivers. No longer can Max Wisch tap and be the drivers and the constructors champion in the same season. Correct. Correct. Soon enough.

[00:42:33] And I think Liam Lawson is testing this week in Silverstone after I mean after this race weekend and there's a lot of talk about either Liam Lawson potentially going to either RB or even to the senior team. But there's also been these rumors once again of Daniel

[00:42:51] Ricardo probably replacing Sergio Perez and I'm just wondering or if I'm really missing something over here. Why is Yuki Sonoda not in this discussion at all? It's actually very simple. Yuki is a Honda driver Red Bull and Honda are no longer together.

[00:43:05] Honda is the reason why Yuki anyway got his break etc. etc. And in Red Bull they don't really think too highly of Yuki to be settling in as Max's teammate. It is a high pressure situation we've seen Pierre Gossley, Alexander Albin and now Checo Perez and if you

[00:43:25] actually talk even of Daniel Ricardo having escaped that situation right? So they do not believe that Yuki is going to make the cut there. I wish they gave him a chance right but that's just how Red Bull sees things and it might well be that

[00:43:39] if Daniel Ricardo gets the jump there they will have to put Liam Lawson in the racing bowls Isaac Hage has been doing extremely well in Formula 2 as well waiting for a promotion to Formula 1 at some point. Although I must say that Liam Lawson's test is not

[00:43:55] a reaction to Checo Perez's downturn and performance. These tests are planned 3 to 6 months in advance. In fact if I know correctly it was in February this year that they had planned Liam Lawson's test because there's a resourcing that they need to do.

[00:44:10] They need to go book the circuit. They need to do the staffing etc etc. So it's not an even although everyone's been playing it up as Liam is testing. Well, Liam is testing because it was decided long ago that he's going to test that out be 20 and Liam

[00:44:24] has actually said it's a marketing test because all he gets is 200 or 200 kilometers to try. Oh can they not raise it up? Like just he's actually gone up from 100 kilometers to 200 kilometers. This is what they call filming day. The tires are never the same.

[00:44:41] They are demo tires that they use etc etc. But yeah, so Checo Perez is where I believe the next big cog of the wheel is going to be in terms of the driver's movement and what might happen is by the time

[00:44:55] Red Bull actually make a decision closer to the end of the season he may not find a seat elsewhere unless he's jumping the gun and already talking somewhere else to go with his experience and with all the Mexican sponsors and fans who back him so much.

[00:45:10] Do they sell a lot of German cars in Mexico? You guys know that do they? I wouldn't be surprised. What brands work there a lot? Not Mercedes otherwise they would hire him for Mercedes but yeah, but do they sell a lot of Seat's or

[00:45:24] lots of Volkswagen's or something similar maybe Porsche is here and there? No, you know in we'll see. It's a good question because I think Audi is still struggling to find a second car. Yeah, yeah. And so in my in my driver movement analysis for

[00:45:40] Viya play earlier in the season I actually put Checo Perez in Audi for the very same reason. Okay, I don't think Carlos Sainz is going to get the nod at Red Bull. They don't want Papa Sainz and Papa Wisch to happen in the same team again.

[00:45:56] That's the challenge. They don't mind the sons. It's the fathers who they have a problem with but I think Sainz might take up Mercedes Ricardo might go to Red Bull and Checo Perez if he's pre-empting such a situation might just call

[00:46:10] up you know either James Wawls or maybe Audi and say you know what I'm bringing all my experience and coming to Audi and the money guys. We've got to leave something for the next preview as well. We're at 46 minutes in this episode. That's it.

[00:46:25] You guys have still yeah, if you guys are still sticking around love you for that seriously because we have had a ball just like we did in the race today and I hope it was reflected in the kind of episode we've been able to put out

[00:46:37] but again, it doesn't matter what the race is like. We will always be here with all these hard-hitting points trying to bring out the things that nobody else took side and try to tell you more about why the race went a certain way.

[00:46:48] So for that to stay updated with us, you've got to follow all of us on all of our social media handles F1 stats, Guru Kunal Shah and myself, Somal Arora and this has been the insight line F1 podcast. See you for the next episode very very soon.

[00:47:03] Shortly I mixed up my words. Don't we have a special guest? Wait, is he confirmed? There's coming up. Watch this space for more. Watch this space. Watch this space. See you folks. Thank you for listening. Bye bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode

[00:47:39] of the inside line F1 podcast. Before we ended, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Amazon Music once again for partnering with us on this episode of the podcast.