C'mon Charles Leclerc, what can you do? 2026 Austrian GP Preview

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[00:00:26] It's race week once again. Welcome back everyone to the Inside Line F1 Podcast. Somal Arora here, Kunal Shah with me. This weekend, I'm going to be away from the Formula 1 commentary box for fan code in Hindi and Kunal is going to be stepping in. So we're going to make a substitution. But nonetheless, even though I'm not going to be in the commentary box, that does not mean that the Inside Line F1 Podcast stops asking the big questions in the world of Formula 1.

[00:00:53] This weekend, we're racing at the Red Bull Ring. I currently am at the Red Bull India office. We're all really excited for the Red Bull Ring as well because it's a race where we get to celebrate everything as a brand. It's our own, I say our, because I end up working with the company. But it's Red Bull's own circuit. It's a big occasion. Verstappen is rumoured to be in conversations with the Red Bull management about his future.

[00:01:17] Red Bull are bringing in a major upgrade package to be able to give that Red Bull car a bit of a weight saving, a bit of a trim, a bit of a liposurgery, if you might like to call it that way. But that's not the big story, Kunal, because while it may be the Red Bull Ring, while Kimi Antonelli may be the championship leader, while everything may be pointing towards Mercedes winning the championship, the big story is actually happening at Ferrari,

[00:01:41] where we could see not just a Lewis Hamilton championship charge, but something even bigger, a story that you've identified. This be that race of Leclerc's career where he's under maximum pressure to deliver. Okay. Remember, he got picked up by Sergio Marchionne from Sauber in 2019. Mid-season announced big signing. He's going to come in and partner Sebastian Vettel. Charles Leclerc beat Sebastian Vettel, I would say, fair and square when they were teammates.

[00:02:11] He had the edge. Along came Carlos Sainz. Quick enough, but not quicker. And for the first time, has Charles Leclerc met his match in Lewis Hamilton? He has to perform this race weekend if he doesn't want to become an ally in Lewis Hamilton's title bid at Ferrari. Yes, you heard me right. That could well happen if Ferrari ends up being quickest.

[00:02:35] Hamilton takes more points off Antonelli. Will Ferrari be forced to tell Leclerc? Thank you. Take your time. You got to help, Lewis. That will be such a big occasion. In the title fight, Lewis Hamilton is far, far closer. In fact, let's just pull up the points and give you a lowdown of where things stand at this moment in time. Because Lewis Hamilton is currently second in the standings with 115. Charles Leclerc, fourth with 75.

[00:03:03] There's a big, big gap. 40 points between them at the moment. And Leclerc clearly isn't that territory where if it doesn't work by this race, you could be looking at a circumstance where the gap increases up to 45, say 50 points. And if this momentum continues and Leclerc keeps on sliding away, by a couple of races' time, you could be 60, 65 points ahead, which is normally the point where a team is going to be like, hey, it's time for us to pull the trigger and prioritize one over the other. And that's what Ferrari has always done.

[00:03:32] Remember, Ferrari comes from the Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel era. They have always backed one driver over the other. And they've backed that driver. And that's the way they win championships. And if they see that Lewis is up there more than Leclerc, even though Leclerc is the world champion elect for 2030 or whenever it is that he's going to win it, or even if they treat Leclerc like he's a world champion,

[00:03:59] their blue-eyed boy, their boy with the longest term of a contract signed ever, they will back a driver who has a better chance of winning it. Of course, it's very, very early days in the 2026 Formula One season. A couple of races ago, we were saying it's Antonelli versus Russell. Suddenly, it's turned to Antonelli versus Hamilton. Maybe in three weeks' time, it'll be Antonelli versus Hamilton versus Leclerc. And you never know where it could go.

[00:04:25] But at this moment, that pressure is more on the psychological end of things. Leclerc has crashed four consecutive timed official sessions. He's at two consecutive DNFs. Not for reasons, you know, that were driver error, but just goes to show that he is scratching his head. And what I've loved some of it is Hamilton. While he's turned up the week in the car, he's also gone and said something after Barcelona

[00:04:53] to show that he is Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion. You remember when Leclerc crashed in qualifying at Turn 4? Lewis actually told us in the media that, I saw the data, Leclerc saw the data, and he was trying to do at Turn 4 what I was doing all weekend. And maybe that's why he crashed. Okay. That was one of the... Mind games! Mind games! That's Lewis Hamilton hunting for blood.

[00:05:20] He's hunting for that psychological edge in the Ferrari camp. He has a great relationship with Frederic Vossoor. He's got the brakes he wanted. He's made the changes he wanted. He's even got the race engineer he wanted, the Italian Bono. Is Lewis Hamilton making Ferrari his own team, even if he doesn't have the longest contract in Ferrari history? It could be slipping away for Charles Leclerc. He's got to figure it out fast. It's a circuit where he's been great at the past. We all remember that battle between himself

[00:05:49] and Max Verstappen back in 2022. Mind-blowing one. Left us with chills down our spine. Given the context of that championship and where things were going. But Leclerc is still in that same circumstance. Ferrari's blue-eyed boy. Except this time, he walks into 2026 at the Red Bull Ring in a worse position than in 2022. What's going wrong for him? Brakes are now there. He's got to figure it out. On the other hand, this could be the start of Lewis Hamilton's championship charge.

[00:06:16] Because we did not expect him to be as good as he was. And he blew all of us away. Some say he could have won even in spite of that virtual safety car in Barcelona, which was a big turning point. Now, that's a big question to be left aside. What we will get an answer to is how good can he be? And can he take the fight to the Mercedes in spite of a different circumstance? Because the Red Bull Ring is, honestly, just polar opposite to what Barcelona is. Well, Barcelona is a circuit that's going to chop your tyres off and is going to have a long lap time

[00:06:46] and you're constantly going through long corners. The Red Bull Ring is largely straights, slow to medium speed corners, very few corners, nine of them only. And the lap time is going to be going fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. And there's also places for you to do lots of overtakes. So, complete 180 in terms of circumstances, can Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari still be just as competitive? And can they take that fight to Mercedes? Because if they do, Kunal, the championship dream is real. The dream for the eighth title could be real.

[00:07:14] And I'm going to add a variable to that. One of the biggest deficiencies in the Ferrari package has been that power unit at the back of the car. Ferrari has been politically lobbying to get the duo, you know, which is the additional development and upgrade opportunities, which is when if you have, if you have an engine, which is not up to the benchmark, you get certain allowances to upgrade your engine to get to the benchmark. Okay. Or at least try to get to the benchmark.

[00:07:42] Ferrari's first a duo enabled upgrade is rumored to come to Austria. Okay. Now here's the fun part. And I actually spoke to Mark Hughes, the legendary Formula One journalist to get this. Yes. I spoke to him to get this part clarified. The official a duo was announced after Monaco and Red Bull has queried it, but hasn't officially protested it, which means that we are already in the post a duo process for Barcelona

[00:08:12] and then for Austria. It is rumored again that Audi had already got upgrades to their engines in Barcelona and Ferrari's a duo upgraded engine. The first big upgrade that they are allowed out of the two upgrades in 2026 is coming this weekend in Austria. Austria is known to be a power circuit, especially the first three corner sommel. It's just sheer power, flat out kinks, flat out straights. All you do is power.

[00:08:39] And you know, the second half of the circuit after turn four is like a rollercoaster ride sitting in a go-kart going down. And I remember somebody saying it's like, it's like going down in a sledge or a toboggan. You know, you're just constantly cornering and carrying a lot of speed. Will Ferraris a duo upgraded engine get them ahead of Mercedes? Because the question we asked in Barcelona is, are they neck to neck with Mercedes? And of course, you know, these politics of Formula One

[00:09:07] also means that you don't want to just be neck to neck. You want to get upgrades to go ahead. And if they are ahead, will we finally see Ferrari deliver their best result with Leclerc and Hamilton? Because they've never had a double podium despite such a headline pairing. Yeah, they've never had a double podium. It's a stat that boggles my mind. Leclerc and Hamilton have never finished on the podium together. We've all had this belief, right? That when Leclerc does well, Hamilton doesn't.

[00:09:36] When Hamilton does well, Leclerc doesn't. This stat just proves it. It's true. They just cannot. And I'm also very curious about the Ferrari upgrades, by the way. Like, what are they doing to their engine? Because the smaller turbo is helping them get better starts. But that advantage has been nullified. So what do they do? Are they doubling down on that? Are they adding for more power? Are they adding for more power to the power unit or the battery? Is there something fancy that they're planning around? Remember, upgrades don't always work. Always have that big caveat.

[00:10:04] It's labeled as upgrades, but honestly, it should be updates. You only classify if it's an upgrade or not after you find out if this one component has been an upgrade or not. So that's one thing I'd like to clarify to every single Formula 1 fan of the recent news. And it's like, oh, Ferrari's gotten an upgrade. It's an update. We will then see if it's an upgrade or not.

[00:10:23] And that's a beautiful point because Formula 1, on their official handles, always releases the number of updates or upgrades brought for the weekend by each team. Okay. And just because your favorite team has got the most number of upgrades doesn't mean that they will be the quickest. Doesn't mean that they'll have the best performance. There is no correlation between whether you get one upgrade or 18 upgrades to the actual performance you'll pull out on track. There are comments coming in into the chat. We'll pick them.

[00:10:53] Good to have you, Rudra Prathap. But we'll pick some of these. Just wait for predictions till the end of the episode. But down to Ferrari, they know what it takes to deliver with two drivers. Remember the science Leclerc era? The two of them solid into bringing Ferrari a P2 in the Constructors' Championship. And Ferrari, while addressing the Hamilton-Antonelli challenge in the Drivers' Championship and hoping Leclerc steps up, whether he helps Hamilton, takes points away from Hamilton is another question altogether.

[00:11:22] We'll also know that their big fight is in winning the Constructors' Championship this year as well. There is a large gap to Mercedes for various reasons. Okay. But can the two of them keep adding more points to Ferrari's, you know, Constructors' Championship challenge? Still a long way to go. And Somali, here's a question for you. If you were the lead driver of your team, you were the one in the Drivers' Championship challenge.

[00:11:50] Which driver would you prefer to have as your wingman? Charles Leclerc or Isaac Harchar? Or Checo Perez? Or Alex Alpen? Checo Perez. You really picked Checo Perez? Okay. Checo's a legend. Checo's a legend. Max Ferrett. Yeah. Max Ferrett. Yeah. Because Lewis Hamilton may just have the most illustrious number two driver backing his title bid. That is Leclerc if that happens. And that baffles me.

[00:12:17] And, you know, we spoke of the circuit power and going down the toboggan. One of the other things that Leclerc will be getting used to is the brakes. We know he's been using the carbon industry brake discs like Lewis has. But in Barcelona, which was a more fast and flowy circuit, how you use the brakes is different than how you use it in Austria. So Leclerc's biggest brake adjustment brake, you know, usage, whether he fits into these braking systems, will come in Austria as well.

[00:12:44] So that's another step up that Leclerc will be needing to make. So Ferrari's upgrades, Lewis Hamilton continuing pace. Can, you know, Charles Leclerc match him? And what is it going to be when it comes to the duo finally to that Ferrari power unit? Lots to look forward to, right? Yeah. Lots to look forward to. And we're not still touching upon the intra-Mercedes battle.

[00:13:09] Because George Russell really now has a lot of bad luck against him that he wants to get vindicated. But also there's this big question mark hanging over him about the defeat from Catalonia. He may have finished ahead of Kimi Antonelli in the points, by the way. Like, he may have finished that race ahead because of Kimi Antonelli's DNF. But we all know Antonelli passed Russell on track in Barcelona. In spite of missing one session, Antonelli was able to pass Russell in Barcelona.

[00:13:39] He was able to outpace Russell at a circuit where Russell was dominating throughout the practice sessions. So that's a big question mark looming. That momentum, if you thought, had changed. But it's not changed. It's still in Kimi Antonelli's favor. If anything, that DNF will give him even more fuel to be able to prove himself. And remember, this is the very same circuit where we saw Hamilton and Nico Rosberg clash back in 2016.

[00:14:04] And this is a circuit where we also nearly saw Lando, Morrison, Oscar Piastri crash last year as well. It's a circuit that allows you to be close. It's a circuit that allows tactical battles during overtaking. And this year, more than ever, because we've got straight line mode. We've got boost mode. We've got regeneration and harvesting. And deployment in variable places. So the tactical gains for overtaking increase even further. I am very excited to see the wheel-to-wheel racing here.

[00:14:31] And especially if it happens between Russell and Antonelli. There's a lot of history in Austria, right? Somel, especially if you're Mercedes teammates. And I get a feeling that they will still be at it. I love the freshness with which Antonelli just puts in a lap. And it's P1 or P2 most of the times. And him getting back in the points. Him fighting Lewis while also fighting Russell versus even, you know, maybe the Verstappen and Leclerc or the world.

[00:15:00] You know, let's put it this way. In Spain, Antonelli never scored points in F2. And of course, he didn't score points in F1 because he had a DNF. In Austria, Antonelli has never scored points in F2 or in F1. So there is this version of Antonelli from last year, which we are rewriting, rewiring, re-energizing when it comes to this Antonelli. This version of Antonelli has never raced in Formula 1 before. And that's what we are out to enjoy.

[00:15:29] So I get a feeling that the Mercedes versus Hamilton versus Leclerc. So Mercedes versus Ferrari battle will continue to be at the top. The race strategists will be challenged. And I believe the heat will challenge the Mercedes P. Eight out of eight Mercedes drivers now have had power unit related retirements. We are going to the circuit where it's a higher altitude. The air is thinner.

[00:15:56] This will challenge how the teams use their power units. This will challenge all the turbo lag that we see. Will this be another issue for Mercedes when it comes to their power unit? And should that be the case, will there be bigger points available? Not just for Hamilton, but for several other midfield drivers. That's what is going to be seen. Because Mercedes has had brake issues here before. Remember, braking is crucial, especially the second half of the circuit. You use a lot of the brakes that you come in.

[00:16:25] You don't get enough time to cool them. Mercedes has seen brake related retirements here before. So circuit cooling or rather brake cooling, but also engine cooling requirements. So we'll test the Mercedes power units and in general reliability. Quick question. Is the Mercedes power unit the most unreliable power unit in Formula One today? Statistically, yes. But they're also powering more cars than the Fords and the Hondas of the world.

[00:16:54] So at this moment, the Mercedes power unit is the most unreliable but competitive power unit in Formula One. I'll put it as that. So it is still gold standard. It is still delivering all the wins and poles and everything else. But you can't compare them to Honda, who, of course, have not been competitive, but been having reliability issues as well. So I would say so. And what's that they say about a driver and a car? A fast driver can win you championships, but a slow driver cannot.

[00:17:21] A fast driver that crashes is better than a slow driver that doesn't crash. Because you can fix the crashing, but you can't fix the pace. So Mercedes are in that little sweet spot where they've got to fix the crashing. They've got to fix the technical issues. It's high time. And this also reflects on all of their customer teams too. Most notably McLaren, who had this big dent in points that they had the opening for races. And let's be honest, McLaren might have built a pretty solid package, but they're still on an average two, three tenths behind all the others.

[00:17:50] They may still point out to the fact that because they're a customer team, they're not able to gel well with the Mercedes power unit as well. And they're at a disadvantage. You may call it the truth. You may call it just a political statement to protect the real issue that could be there. It could be anything. But the fact of the matter is McLaren need to buckle up as well. And this also reflects further on Williams because even they are in the middle of a midfield scrap that's just getting more and more exciting. Like Alpine. Alpine are consistently up there, Kunal.

[00:18:18] And this weekend with Austria, I expect a lot of scrapping to happen in that midfield. And all the Mercedes power unit teams might be in for a treat if they're genuinely that quick. Yes. And, you know, Williams, if they bring upgrades which reduce the weight, will they, you know, be in contention with Alpine? And, you know, when you mentioned Alpine, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton are the only two drivers who have scored points in every single race weekend this year. And I think that's a beautiful stat to remember because each time Flavio Priyassar

[00:18:47] you speak, he says, you know, Team Endstone was built on legends like Schumacher, on legends like Alonso. We are looking for the next Schumacher and Alonso. But here is Gasly who's, you know, really driving his experience when it comes to... When you said that, it made it seem like we're looking for legends like Alonso and Schumacher, but here we have Gasly. It's like... But they're in talks to probably get Alonso back. Alonso in his third stint at Team Endstone when it becomes Gucci Racing, Alpine F1 team or something.

[00:19:17] So let's see if they actually get their Alonso back. I have nothing to say. I have nothing to say except the fact that I'm happy that our beloved old man is going to be on the grid. And we absolutely love that. Well, there's more drama at Racing Bulls though. There is word that Liam Lawson might be kicked out of that team by the end of this year in spite of doing well. For who, Kunal? What's the matter? What's the story around here?

[00:19:42] The story is in case Red Bull sees Max Verstappen leave, either leave Formula One altogether or leave to go to Mercedes, both of which is possible. They need to fill that gap. They're filled by either hiring Oscar Piastri, who is very capable of stepping up. That's the conversation in the paddock. But they also have a really quick junior driver. And this brings us to the case of Liam Lawson. Is Liam Lawson the new Yuki Tsunoda?

[00:20:10] Where the minute you give him the Racing Bulls car, he's able to maximize potential. Okay. But the minute you put him in Red Bull, he's all over the place. Unfortunately, he's got a couple of races. Well, they only put him in Red Bull for a hot minute, did they? That was unfortunately the problem. And hence, I must say, Lawson has gotten to Yuki Tsunoda's level much faster than Yuki Tsunoda did. Remember, Lawson still doesn't have one full season with a Formula One team on the grid.

[00:20:39] He's still, you know, go here, go there, step out, give two races, give it up. And he's still, you know, there. And I believe Lawson will be needed if Racing Bulls is, you know, in this midfield fight. But what is his future in Red Bull? Because if he's not going to get upgraded to Red Bull Racing in the next year or two, then Red Bull might as well get a replacement and let him go and find, you know, better pastures elsewhere. Because Racing Bulls exists to get drivers for Red Bull Racing.

[00:21:07] And Liam Lawson, while he's doing enough for Racing Bulls, doesn't seem to make the cut for Red Bull Racing. Pierre Gasly has been through this. Yuki Tsunoda is now going through this. And it's understandable, while unfortunate, if Liam Lawson goes down the same road, Somali. I wouldn't buy it. I just think it's so sad that we're putting Liam Lawson into the, let's just put it, the Jean-Erik Verne, Sebastian Buemi, Brendan Hartley, Danny Kifiat kind of category.

[00:21:36] Liam even was a superb driver. And I think he's exhibited a higher, if not a similar upside to all these drivers in his time in Formula 1. Like in terms of being able to adapt so, so quickly to two different generations of cars, by the way, and being able to perform super quickly. But the Red Bull system is just different. I expected Red Bull to be more lenient with their drivers now that Dr. Marco no longer is involved in the program. But no, this is very surprising that they're looking to actually have lost after only such little time.

[00:22:03] And it's very Dr. Marco-esque that they're looking for a driver who's only done legitimately, not even a full season of Formula 2. Nikola Solov did a few races at the end of 2025. Now half the season till this point, and he's already winning races. And the Red Bull hierarchy are like, he's got to be in the car next year. All the Dr. Marco haters will now sit back and wonder, well, were we hating that person? Or were we hating the system? Because the system doesn't have a face or a name to it. But Dr. Marco did.

[00:22:32] And Somal and I are definitely not Dr. Marco haters, given how much love he's had for us on the podcast. And how many gems he's unearthed. Absolutely, right? I would put it this way, Somal, that a lot of these times when you see a junior driver doing well in Formula 2 and you are unable to make space for them in Formula 1, it does also permit them to look for seats elsewhere. Okay. And depends who's managing them. Because the manager, of course, is eager to get the driver into Formula 1.

[00:23:00] You don't care whose seat they take, so long as they take a seat. You saw this happen with Bortoletto. He was a McLaren junior. McLaren didn't have space for him. Audi did at that time, Sauer, and he just went there saying, that's it. Thank you very much. But I'm going to go where I get to go. And could be that Solo is in a similar space where if you are within certain performance benchmarks in Formula 2, you deserve to be promoted to Formula 1. And then that's the headache they're trying to solve.

[00:23:27] And then they realize that should we just figure a way this can be put in place within Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad, Isaac Hartjar. And how do you solve that headache? And, you know, the bigger headache is who would you drop in 26? We've spoken about this three, four races ago. And there was just one name that comes up, which is Esteban Ocon. Every other driver on the grid has been fantastic. Okay. Barring one driver in green. But every other driver... He's always been that way.

[00:23:57] Yeah. So who is going to create space next? Is it Alonso retiring? Is it Max Verstappen leaving? Is it Max Verstappen joining Mercedes? So it has to be a very big headline move to suddenly there be space elsewhere. And you may think, okay, Nico Halkenberg, he's old. But look at the solid, consistent performances he's putting. I mean, he's Mr. 11 in Formula 1. He puts in any lap, he's always 11th. In the case of Antonelli, he puts in any lap, he's always P1.

[00:24:27] So my sense is that it's a very strange space to be in. And I'd love to see who, you know, Solov actually ends up, you know, replacing that. Yeah. If you had to... Let's just put the question out there. On a gunpoint, if you had to drop one Red Bull driver to make space for Nikola Solov, who would it be? I would say it has to be Liam Lawson, unfortunately. Well, well, that's what, that's what.

[00:24:52] It's just Red Bull asks these questions way before people are ready to ask them out there. They're super proactive about this, man. And let's also remember, so who is Solov's manager? It's the cheeky Fernando Alonso. Who was Bortoletto's manager? Also the cheeky Fernando Alonso. No way Fernando's leaving the grid. If he's becoming a driver manager to two drivers in the Formula 1 grid, there is no chance this man is leaving the grid. So Alonso's going to be around. His kids, his motorsport kids are going to be around.

[00:25:21] And soon his kids are going to be around as well. You know, he's recently out of sun and he's already probably planning where to go. But that's a reality and the brutal reality of the sport, as you know, Somal. And while we've discussed this, I am actually curious to know, since you are a big historian of Formula 1, tell me three moments in history that you remember from Austria, because this race has been around since the 70s in different forms.

[00:25:50] The Osterreich ring, A1 ring, now Red Bull ring. Red Bull's home race. We've said Red Bull's home race, they will bring a lot of upgrades. They will do a lot of, you know, marketing. I think Red Bull is one of the best brands to have been involved in Formula 1 because they project Formula 1 across other sports, music, entertainment, and so on, as you know. But the big point here is there's been so much history. In recent times, actually, Max has made this Max's ring. He said Red Bull's home race, I'm just going to have maximum polls,

[00:26:19] wins, podiums, fastest laps, whatever. I don't believe he's going to add to that this weekend. But tell me three things in history you remember, because there's a lot of things that have happened. Yes, I remember another bit on Dr. Marco. Dr. Marco's debut came at the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix. Always remember that story, because he told that too. It was on the Inside Lineup podcast. So you can always go back and watch that episode as well, or listen to it. That's one.

[00:26:45] But no, in all honesty, Hamilton-Rosberg 2014, Silverado 2016. My apologies. 2014 was not... Didn't they race here in 2014 also? Yes, they did. Yeah, they did. Yeah. Yeah. I think both those years were incredible. Very electric. Yes. So you've gone with Dr. Marco's debut. You've gone with Hamilton-Rosberg in 2014-16. But I know specifically when Rosberg turned in and Hamilton-ed in and his front wing was lodged in and so on. Yeah.

[00:27:15] I also remember Mercedes having curb issues in 2018-19. Like the curbs were repeatedly causing them lots of vibrations in the car. And also some... Didn't it also cause them a puncture at one point? Like his... Yes. And you're going close to my favorite moment. Maltry Bottas. Which was when? Maltry Bottas' perfect start. The one where he started with 0.000 reaction time. Yes. Yes. Yes. Which everyone thought was a jump start. But no, he did. It wasn't. That's a great memory.

[00:27:43] Because Bottas here has more podiums than any driver except for Max Verstappen. So Bottas has more podiums than Hamilton as well in Austria. Will this be that one race where Bottas steps up and actually out qualifies Checo Perez? We'll see. But the other... You mentioned curb riding. Curb riding is important. Much is engine cooling, brake cooling, etc. But you remember track limits. There was that race where there were some 1,200 track limits.

[00:28:12] You and I were watching it and commentating on it. And, you know, a track limit was... Track limit penalty was coming like 15 minutes after the driver had actually committed the sin. So track limits was the big issue. Then there was also when I think Hamilton took away Albin's podium with Red Bull once. And the next year, Albin was replaced by Perez. And Hamilton took Perez's podium away as well. But how can you forget the biggest controversy? 2002, Parakello and Schumacher.

[00:28:41] Oh, yeah. How did we not go there? How did we not go there? Oh, my God. And then when you look back last year, McLaren was actually scolding Piastri, telling him that was too close when he was attacking Norris. And we were like, well, if you have to overtake a driver, don't you have to be too close? I don't like those two memories. I just want to erase those two from my mind. Not good moments. Not good moments.

[00:29:06] Yeah, I was about to think of Norris and Piastri as part of my key moments, but I just didn't like it. I think it was anti-Formula 1. Kusch Maini's first drive in a test in a Formula 1 car was in Austria a couple of years ago. My debut as a commentator with Fancode was at Austria last year. So that was that. What else do we have? Lando Norris' first podium came in Austria. Fernando will also whack the finger to Yuki Tsunoda last year in Austria saying, no, Yuki,

[00:29:35] you cannot pass it like that. Yeah, yeah. That happened as well. Alex Albon punting people off twice at the same corner also happened in Austria. Yeah. The beautiful turn 5, no? That turn 4. Wow. You know when that turn 2 kink is mentioned separately, everything is changed. Yeah, yeah. But there was also, you remember, in a shadow. Alan Jones went from P14 to a win in 1977.

[00:30:04] That was even before I was in a shadow. I love these team names from back then. Wolf and Shadow and Heskett. And now we're still, we just have the McLaren and Ferraris of the world. And of course, what else do we have? Leisure. And Leisure. And PRM. And Grabham. And Lotus. Okay, predictions. We should go to predictions. Let's do it. Paul position. Let's. Give me Antonelli. My Paul position prediction is actually Charles Leclerc.

[00:30:33] He's going to step it up. And he's going to show he is still, there's a reason why he's a blue-eyed boy. Okay. Podium. By the way, while we discuss the podium, seven races a season, we've had seven different podium combinations. Okay. So which one is going to be, which is your podium for the year, Samuel? My favorite podium? No, no, no. Sorry. Your podium for Austria. I don't know why I framed it differently. Yeah. Your podium. Winner two and three.

[00:31:02] Antonelli, Russell, Hamilton. That's what we had in China. Okay. I get a feeling it's going to be Leclerc taking the win. He's going to bounce back, get Ferrari's back-to-back wins. He will be ruthless. He's really good at this track. It's going to be Leclerc, Hamilton, and Antonelli. So eight different podium combinations. But I get a feeling Ferrari will officially launch their Constructors' Championship bid in Austria.

[00:31:30] Hamilton will have to wait to see what happens between him and Leclerc before Ferrari pack him. But I get this is probably going to be the best race for Ferrari since a long, long time that we will remember. I can't wait for it. Tuna's going to be in the commentary box. He's going to be the lucky man this weekend, calling the action. I'm going to be at the FIFA World Cup. So there's a lot of fun stuff going on. One second. You need to clarify. You're going to be at the FIFA World Cup.

[00:31:57] You wish you were there in America for the FIFA World Cup. And you wish you were probably even playing for Team India versus Team India there. But since Team India is not there, okay? You're doing the next best thing, which is officially commentating for the broadcaster in India on the FIFA World Cup. So you've got Formula One. You've got MotoGP. You've got FIFA. You've done tennis before.

[00:32:22] So very, very proud moment for me and for all of us on the inside line that Somers' versatility as a commentator just continues to grow. So congratulations and all the best to you as well. And you did commentate on... Didn't you commentate on the Norway-Senecal game? No, I didn't get Norway-Senecal. So the next one. I'm going to get... You will be going as well. I'm going to get not-Senecal. Hopefully. Okay, wow. Yeah, I bet. But when you get the next Norway game, remember to row on... Yeah.

[00:32:52] Man, what a fun time it is to be a sports fan. What a fun time it is to be a Formula One fan as well. Also, if you're interested, MotoGP this weekend at TT Assen, one of the legendary circuits in bike racing as well. So you can watch that too. I'm going to be on TV on Sunday doing that as well. But for now, got to say bye. See you guys on Monday for the Post Race Review. Bye-bye. Take care.