2026 British GP Review: FIA's Safety Car error ROBS late-race DRAMA at Silverstone as Charles Leclerc WINS

[00:00:00] Error, Error on the Wall, which is the biggest error of them all. Is it Kimi Antonelli's front flap? Is it the decision that Ferrari made to stop Lewis Hamilton? Or is it the FIA by erroneously displaying a message saying that the safety car would come in on that final lap, giving us all the hope that there would be one more lap of racing before destroying it all of it?

[00:00:24] Well, lots of questions to ask in the British Grand Prix Review. And by the way, you can ask those questions live on air with us. Make sure firstly, subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast. Make sure you're dropping in your comments. Make sure you're interacting with us because this is going to be a lot of fun. Welcome to the British Grand Prix Review. My name is Somal Arora. Joining me, Kunal Shah. Kunal wasn't in the fan code in the F1 studio this weekend, but I was broadcasting live.

[00:00:51] And at that moment, Kunal, I genuinely thought that Ferrari had not made a mistake by boxing Lewis Hamilton because I thought, okay, they want to play it safe. They want to have fresher tires towards the end. Maybe they get a couple of laps more of racing, but we did. You know what? One second. You hear the music in the background. That is the celebration in the Shah Mehta household of Leclerc's race win.

[00:01:14] Finally, after 2024, he scored his first race win. Also his first British Grand Prix win, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. Are we talking of errors or are we talking of luck or are we talking of Leclerc's final win and how he made that happen? Leclerc or lucklec, should we call it now today? That's what our producer Sarang gave us an idea. Maybe he's just lucky. It's just lucklec.

[00:01:41] And in part, that is true because he could have been on course to be beaten by Kimi. He was on course to be beaten by Kimi. That's a bold statement I'm going to make. We will, of course, dissect all of that. But on to the FIA safety car. You know, it was one of those things where you're like, oh, we're going to get one lap of racing. And I think it looked fair because it was a beached car of Max Wischtappens. Unfortunately, he went off at one of the high speed sections.

[00:02:07] Luckily, he didn't touch anything but lots of gravel. The car was beached and taken outside. I thought maybe they will squeeze in one extra lap of racing. And why do I say that is because the teams, all 11 teams have agreed that race control should do what they can in their rights within the rules to not end the car under safety. To not end the race under safety car condition. So try and make it green flag, even if it is for one single lap. We had Abu Dhabi 2021 also going down that road.

[00:02:37] We had one race in Monza a couple of years ago going down that road as well, ended under the safety car. And I remember, I think Nick DeFreeze scored his point there for Williams. But the main point is we had a software error. The FIA claims they had a software error, which is why when we commentate, Samulai, Chetan and all commentators in the world, we have a race control dashboard, which actually flashed safety car in this lap. And I said, OK, that's it. We're going to get that one single racing lap that we're going to get.

[00:03:06] And immediately it said, safety car deployed. And all drivers were told and Lewis Hamilton was really upset. Go read my tweet on what he said. There was one word he used, but I'm not going to say it on live broadcast because he clearly wanted to attack George Russell like you said, Samul. They put on the soft. So lots of things to dissect. There was a lot of drama over those 52 laps, wasn't it? A classic British Grand Prix. It was slightly underwhelming, the ending.

[00:03:33] But all throughout, I think there was lots of expectation for that final clash we would get to see between Antonelli and Leclerc. On and all, pretty decent race. Pretty decent race. I think it could have been better had we not had yo-yo racing. Obviously, I'm a little sad about that, that the fact that racing is just now dictated by who's got how much battery left. And that is still back again in the whole picture. But very dramatic. Very dramatic. I think let's start with the final few laps. Let's start from the back.

[00:04:00] Because very evidently, we were looking at a situation where Kimi Antonelli was on course to beat Charles Leclerc. His target lap time was he had to extract 0.4 of a second for the next 15 laps and he would have been fine. And Antonelli was on course to do so. When he came out after his pit stop, he had pressure tyres. And in his first lap, he took out a whole second from Charles Leclerc's gap ahead of him. Then, then the drama began, Kunal. Where do we go from here?

[00:04:28] Then the drama began so much that Leclerc himself was worried with Antonelli's pace. And this is where I go back to if this was not a battery world championship. Leclerc on old tyres could have still hoped to use his defensive skills. And mind you, he's brilliant at defence as well. Yeah. You know, he would have hoped to use his defensive skills against Kimi Antonelli. But he knew that his defensive skills will not hold up for Antonelli's aggressive battery mapping and engine mapping they would have done to give him energy management.

[00:04:58] But that's that because Antonelli had a 10 lap tyre advantage, which Antonelli created with the help of Mercedes using, you know, a strategy where he went longer. And there would have been a higher chance that Kimi Antonelli would have won that race had it not been for, of course, a windshield error. Or he went over a curb as we saw those replays that thing cocked out. And then that was it. It was incredible, right? Small, small little thing. And Mercedes just goes, pulls it out.

[00:05:28] And some of the designers, especially the chief financial officer of Mercedes would have been looking, saying, wait a second. That's a 2 million pound thing that thing you've just pulled out. Keep it safe. We're under budget cap. Yeah, it's so true. And then eventually everything went crazy because Antonelli went back. Then he kept fighting. Then he kept complaining on the radio about the problem. Then he made that pit stop and afterwards ended up getting a draft limit penalty. Mind you, I love the fact that Antonelli went back out and fought for that final point.

[00:05:57] It shows you how much he wants to fight for that championship. He knows, right? He's grown up seeing Lewis and Max deal it out in 2021. So he knows what every last point means. But then afterwards, Max Verstappen and that rear wing crash. Oh my God. I said it on live commentary and it's something that Verstappen has doubled down upon, as Kunal told me before the recording. It is dangerous for a car to have its downforce lost suddenly, like Max Verstappen's car lost two times in two weeks now.

[00:06:27] And that too had so, which could have been upwards of 200 kilometers per hour. We're lucky that the gravel trap was so big, but this could have been far worse today, Kunal. If I was Max Verstappen, I would not drive a Formula One car tomorrow. Because in Austria, he had the problem on Saturday. At Silverstone, he's had the problem on Sunday. Luckily, there's no track action tomorrow. Because given the trend, he could well have the problem on a Monday as well. And yes, it seemed extremely dangerous when it happened. And that's when Max himself said, you know, once is okay, but twice it happens.

[00:06:57] That's dangerous. And he literally said, I just want to go home and not think about Formula One. So you see, guys, what has happened in seven minutes, we've gone from safety car software error to Leclerc's, you know, Leclerc or Luck clerk's win to Antonelli's failure to Hamilton's pit stop and the attack he should have had. And what did we just speak about? Verstappen. That's how we've had six topics in eight minutes now. So which one should we dissect more?

[00:07:26] Well, it's the safety car error. I think that's a defined one. But by the way, before we do so, let's take a few comments firstly. Shorvik is saying, Silverstone always ends up cracking up great races. Ending was a damn squib, but a great race. I think sentiments 100% echoed, Kunal? Yes? 100%. I mean, you know, when it was a dry, sunny race, one stopper, I was like, yeah, this might just err on boredom. What also happened was, you know, I know you spoke about yo-yo racing.

[00:07:54] Yo-yo racing was not that bad at Silverstone as we saw in China. Because it was bringing the drivers closer in battle. And I say that, I've said this before, I'm going to say it again. It is fun, but it's not real racing. And Samuel, you've been put under the bus here by Fai Anshu saying you liked it in Austria when we all called it yo-yo. You were defiant then. Look how the tables have turned. So I have to hold my hands up, man. I have to hold my hands up. I've been proven wrong. I thought it was amazing at that time because for the first time in years,

[00:08:24] commentating on a motor race involving Formula 1, I actually had fun talking about the battles. But maybe that was a novelty factor. It's worn off because since then, I've watched a lot of IndyCar. Since then, I've watched a lot of Formula E and watched a lot of WEC. And they've provided real racing in comparison. And I don't enjoy the yo-yos anymore. You know, that particularly frustrated me because I was thinking about George Russell in the sprint yesterday. I know we're going slightly off topic. But I was thinking, this guy has a better car. This guy is faster. This guy has everything he basically needs to be able to be fighting at the front.

[00:08:54] But he's going to be pulled back by the yo-yos. And I don't like that. If I'm George Russell, I'm going to be smashing my head into a steering wheel right now. So yeah, you're right, Fai Anshu. You got me. Yeah. Are we doing more comments or should we dissect the safety car one first? I think let's take one more comment which came in right at the very top. Because I think it's the first time we're seeing a comment from you. A F1 with Pravar India. By the way, firstly, welcome to the channel. Thank you for joining along. Any yellow flag Hamilton news?

[00:09:24] I don't think we have it yet, do we? He's still under investigation. He's still under investigation. He was called into the stewards 36 minutes ago. It shouldn't have taken line so long. But sometimes these things are more about just waiting till the official news are out. But yes, that could mean that we could have a different person on the podium. Given that the safety car bunched drivers up. If he gets a penalty, he'll be off the podium for sure. But we've already in nine races had nine different podium combinations almost. So that trend continues.

[00:09:54] For the first time, Leclerc has won. Safety car error. You know, got him the win. But he was anyway on the fresher softs. And luckily when Ferrari decided to double stack. And Mercedes decided to stay out with Russell. Leclerc still kept track position. Otherwise, as Leclerc's luck is gone. All these years in Formula 1. Leclerc would have probably lost track position to Russell. So if Antonelli didn't have a problem. Antonelli was out there to chase him and get the win.

[00:10:21] And if George Russell got even a little bit luckier. He would have probably had the win under the safety car over Leclerc. Yeah. Yeah. And it just all played into Leclerc's hands today. It just all did. Yes, luck was a big factor. I'm also kind of happy that he put himself in a position where luck then just had to elevate him to P1. Because all throughout, he was better than Lewis. He fought very hard. Kept the Mercedes on their toes. Put some decent lap times after coming out on the hearts as well.

[00:10:51] But you're right, Kunal. I think at one point it really seemed like Antonelli would win. And by the way, I know it didn't happen. But I really want to shout out Mercedes for taking the risk on putting Antonelli on that different strategy. Which is staying out for 10 extra laps. And then putting him on the hearts. I honestly thought they were going to put Kimi on the socks. I thought they were going to experiment. Because less than 20 laps to go. Might as well give it a shot. But they ended up going on the hearts. And he still was just as fast. So I was like, wow, this is bold for Mercedes. And I like it. That's a good point.

[00:11:21] Because come what may, the soft was not going to be the race tire to be on. Also a sprint weekend. So lesser allocation of soft tires available. Which means you've got the hard and medium to play with. And the medium was actually a very good tire. Mercedes, the degradation factors have always been better than the rest. So I knew that they had to try and do something different. Because overtaking while was easy. It wasn't as easy as we've seen, say, back in China. So you still had to wait for the overtake mode to come. So you could harvest more battery.

[00:11:49] Also Ferrari seemingly changed their energy mapping after being overtaken in the sprint yesterday. So it wasn't easy to overtake that Ferrari. So full marks to Mercedes and Antonelli for trying what they did with the tire offset. They said they'll do target plus eight laps. And that's eventually what they did. And I would also say that hats off. I loved Antonelli's fighting spirit. He said he's going to go for it. He's going to try and get the point. He was ahead of Anto Colapinto.

[00:12:18] And then he finally started to match his lap times to Colapinto's as well. I get a feeling Mercedes will protest that track limits penalty. Like Antonelli was furious. He's saying, I'm not gaining any advantage. I've had a broken car and I'm still driving on track. So given how Pierre Gasly got his podium back, I get a feeling Antonelli will get two points back. Toto Wolff himself said those two points are important.

[00:12:41] And by Mercedes' simulations, Leclerc would have been caught six laps to the end with a 10-lap tire advantage towards Antonelli. So six laps of wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead of the race is what we were robbed today. God. Oh, man. And Samuel, when last have we ever seen Antonelli versus Leclerc? We've seen Antonelli with Stappen. We've seen Antonelli Russell. We've seen Antonelli Hamilton. I was dying to see Antonelli Russell, Antonelli Leclerc.

[00:13:10] And I was literally like, oh my God, I can imagine Samuel and Chetana having a blast on the Fancode Hindi broadcast doing commentary on these two drivers going for the win. Just unraveled from that point. We would have had such a good ending. It just unraveled from that point. Russell's going to be the happy one. I think the gap coming into this race was 43 points. Where are they now? What's the gap right now as it stands? Does it even matter? No, it kind of does.

[00:13:39] There's a lot of fluctuation. 179 minus 154. 154 minus 154. 25 points now. That's a big chunk taken out. That's basically what? 18 points, essentially? That Russell's taken out? Wow. Yeah. Feyanshu's asking, Kimi finished P16. They can't reinstate that, can they? I think, Feyanshu, what Mercedes will say is there was a post-race time penalty added. And like in the case of Pierre Gasly. And they will probably do a similar thing. Just take the time penalties away.

[00:14:09] And hence, whatever time was taken away from his race added back in. So whatever time you added, you minus it back in. And the Tifosi is here. I just refreshed my stream a few times in the ending laps. And I saw what I saw shook me completely. Kimi going down. Wistappen crashing. And then Hamilton finishing third. Well, that was a mad ending. That was a mad ending. Where do we go now? Leclerc and Lewis. I think we should spend a little bit of time dissecting that whole dynamic.

[00:14:36] Because it's fair to say, Leclerc's kind of back. He's not that far behind Lewis now. I mean, he's just won a race. And we're now basically thinking, or hoping at least, that little tough spell for Leclerc that he had in the last few weeks is kind of over. Because he really was better than Lewis today. All along. And that too at Silverstone. Where, of course, you know, Lewis is won here nine times. It's his home race. He knows everything around here. Leclerc out-qualified him.

[00:15:06] Even if it's by a slender margin, he was still ahead. And drove away into the distance in the race on Lewis. Of course, Lewis took away a lot of wing and a lot of understeer through the race. So he wasn't entirely comfortable between the sprint race and the Grand Prix. But I believe those were settings they were trying to change to get a better race car for the Grand Prix on Saturday. But how and why has Leclerc suddenly had a change of fortunes? And Leclerc has been very open about it. He said he's been working extremely hard.

[00:15:34] Brian Bozzi and Leclerc post-race were congratulating and thanking each other. Saying, you've worked your, you know, asses off it. And you deserve this result. And what Leclerc had to choose was either he changes his driving style to Lewis's. Because Lewis's style was working with the car. Or he changes parts of the car he can and get the car to suit his driving style. And he said, I chose the latter. Because that obviously is a far more long-term, you know, decision to make.

[00:16:03] And at the same time, you know, he's also said, listen, remember, this is one qualifying and one race. So let's not get ahead of ourselves. But he scored his ninth Grand Prix in 180 races that he's been at. His first ever British Grand Prix win. And also Ferrari's 250th win as a constructor. At the venue where they won their first race back in 1951.

[00:16:30] So lots of history when it comes to Charles Leclerc winning with Ferrari at Silverstone. It's an incredible win. First since 2024 as well. 2024 USA Grand Prix. So that was Austin. Spent such a long time. He wasn't even the last Ferrari race winner before Lewis. It was actually Carlos Sainz. There have been two other race winners since Charles Leclerc. I'm just hoping that he's back. I'm just hoping that he's back because we need two Ferrari drivers at the top.

[00:16:57] And it's going to be all the more exciting as it goes along. And we would have had a Ferrari 1-2. They were in it after Verstappen's crash, after Antonelli being out. Despite Lewis Hamilton's false start and the penalty that came along with Samuel. So it was a lot of things at play with Ferrari, with Hamilton. And I'm curious to see, can Ferrari continue to deliver a car that works for both the drivers?

[00:17:27] Because that's what we saw. Suddenly when Leclerc was comfortable, Lewis wasn't. And then the vice versa. And this is like we said before, a team which has seen Leclerc and Sainz both drive to a very high level. So that's that. Congratulations, Ferrari. Congratulations, Leclerc. Let's see how Hamilton versus Leclerc spices things up in a couple of weeks time. Because that's also going to be a story to follow. Big time. Time for a few comments. Hitman is basically, I love that name by the way. He's basically saying, nobody still knows what happened to my man Oscar.

[00:17:56] We don't, do we? We really don't. We saw that front wing being damaged. But then what? I think you could say that for the British GP and for the whole season. Because nobody knows what's happening to Oscar. Where is he? You know, and that's the strange thing. Again, with McLaren, it's either driver up there. You know, there are races when Oscar is up there and Lando's not and vice versa. And Lando himself pointed out, we just don't have downforce on the car. We are struggling. We don't have upgrades. But we're also not able to extract most of the package we have.

[00:18:25] And Lando was P3 yesterday, P4 today. He said, that's quite impressive. And he said, yes, we are lucky. But to finish first, you need to first finish. You need to finish a race. And we are doing that even if Antonelli and Bestappens of the world aren't. So I know a question was about Oscar. But I answered about Lando. And that's what everyone's been doing these days, even in the paddock. No, it's still, it's still surprising. With Lando as well, it was good to see him throughout the race weekend. But then just lack of pace shows, right? And then he ended up fizzling out during the race today.

[00:18:53] But another question that Hitman asked, which is worse, FIA or TV direction? This, by the way, is going to bring me to a rant. Because I really think F1 TV direction can be a little bit better. Like, especially during the sprint. I was bored, Kunal. I was bored because they just kept on showing the same routine camera angles again and again and again and again. For the last seven or eight laps. Where there was a battle that we could have focused on. I think it was the clerk fighting with someone. I can't remember the life of me. But I was like, show me the craftsmanship.

[00:19:23] Show me the onboards. Show me a driver's eye point of view. Show me something. Show me more telemetry or something or the other that tells me how exciting this battle is. Or show me where everyone's battery is. Because we are a battery world championship, right? Something. But then it just kept on going to the same routine camera angles from different corners of the track. And then more to showcase the spectacle of Silverstone other than the craft of the drivers. And as a 30-year-old, you're just saying, give me the drone cam you use in Austria.

[00:19:53] You know, tilt it in various ways. So I'm seeing the same battles in different angles. Yeah, that too. But if it's a nose-to-tail battle and if there's two drivers who are within, let's say, three to four tenths of each other. You normally, at that point, know that they're going to be in a similar gap. So what excites you then? The exciting part is, where are they different to each other? Like, why is one not able to catch up? Or why is the other one keeping the other behind? Answer that why for me. Give me an onboard. Give me something. I just didn't get it. I was so sad.

[00:20:20] And, you know, we've actually said this, Hitman, that as racing gets more chaotic, which it is with these battery-powered, battery-induced yo-yo racing, what's happening is it's overloading FIA. It's also overloading the TV direction. You don't know where to focus, which is why so many times now I'm seeing even more this season. While you're watching the main screen, there's suddenly a left box that's popping up with somebody trying to make an overtake in the midfield. And then you're just like, okay, well, there is ghastly going through with signs and we are not going to see it on the main broadcast.

[00:20:50] So that was that. And Lewis owned the weekend until the final run of Q3. Yes, you could say that as well. Feiyan Chu. And Feiyan Chu is also asking, was Kimi's issue driver error because he took the curbs too hard, essentially external force? No. Well, if the team, bless you, Samuel, he's been sneezing on the screen every time we speak about Antonelli. But, you know, if there are issues with cars riding curbs, if there are teams having questions on reliability, they inform the drivers to stay away from the curbs.

[00:21:20] But also Silverstone is one of those races where you need to ride those curbs to, you know, eke out more lap time. And that's what he was doing out there. So what are we going to next? Since we're talking of Mercedes, should we just speak about George Russell? Just how much bad luck he's had, even though he was the big winner of the race today. The safety car worked in his favor from P3. He got a P2. Antonelli retired. So he scored, you know, tons of points on him. Max Verstappen retired, who was, wasn't Max ahead of him? Yeah, I believe so.

[00:21:49] You're on mute? Yeah, I think he was. I think he was. Yeah. So I guess good that he made up. But also there was, you know, George's biggest challenge was not anyone else but Toto Wolff on the radio. When he came onto the radio and he said, yeah, we need to fix that straight line speed on the car. Toto Wolff immediately said, George, there's nothing wrong with the straight line speed of the car. And this is so crucial. And I know George will be told to be mindful of this going forward. And what is the mindfulness that he needs to have?

[00:22:18] This is the most exciting part immediately after the race. Cool down laps, everyone on the radio. Emotions are, you know, hi, I have won, I've lost, etc. And Formula One is also massive media and PR platform. Here's a Mercedes second on the podium. And the first thing the driver says is, you've got to fix a straight line, you know, a straight line of power. And what does that mean? It's talking of the Mercedes-Benz power unit in behind, you know, George Russell's Mercedes F1 car. He won't be allowed to do that. If you're George, if you're George Russell, you're not allowed to do that.

[00:22:48] If you're Max Verstappen, maybe you get away with it. If you're Lewis Hamilton of Fernando Alonso, you get away with it. But George Russell definitely won't be allowed to get away with that comment. Even if you don't know publicly what happens. But Toto Wolff will tell him that, dude, come on, mind what you're saying. Yeah, and not immediately. Like, I think it's also George trying to play the game a little bit, trying to force things in his way. Because he knows that public interest is often the highest at that very moment after the race.

[00:23:16] But yeah, if I was Toto, I'd be really annoyed with that. And I'm glad Toto corrected him at that very moment. It didn't seem to be much of an issue, I wonder. Because if his teammate is faster, why can't he be? So I wonder what the issue was. Shawi's actually got a question on that. Yeah, you're saying, how is Russell so fast on a tyre with a slow puncture? Did the low tyre pressure help him on the grip side? Or did he just have that much overspeed? I think the puncture was a very slow one. So it didn't impact him as much until Mercedes thought,

[00:23:45] okay, it's a bit too risky for us to keep him outside now. I don't think it does until the pressure has dropped dramatically. One or two PSI, maybe not a bit too much. Yeah, I think also it was more like a precautionary one that, okay, you're seeing this issue and you've got a pace advantage. You'd rather pit early and have more laps to chase your rivals down rather than pit later. So it was just down to one of those things. But what is the next topic? 26 minutes in. Would Antonelli have won if it was not for his issue? Well, we've already discussed that.

[00:24:15] A shout out to Racing Bulls. Because Racing Bulls, fourth consecutive race in the points with both the drivers. Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad. They are now 59 points, which means they're one point away from Alpine for fifth position in the Constructors' Championship. And in all of this, I really don't know why Arvid Lindblad is livid today post-race, especially with Liam Lawson. Yeah, I think they're both going to be so, so happy.

[00:24:44] And throughout this race weekend, I just like the fact that Racing Bulls have been the best midfield team. You know, they're in it. Like, Lawson's got 39 points in the Championship standings now. Arvid's on 20. They're 10th and 11th. Gasly has got to be worried because I think Alpine are no longer the best midfield team. And consistently, we're seeing Racing Bulls up there. And they're fighting it out for it. Yeah. And I mean, the midfield battle is strong between Alpine and Racing Bulls.

[00:25:12] And everyone else is a few steps behind still. And I would also put it as Verstappen's struggles were more than just... And I'm moving now. But, you know, I'm reading the notes Someran and I have had and sort of back and forth. But Max Verstappen said he wanted to start from the pit lane if it was up to him. Because he believes there are some power unit issues. And I remember reading some of the radio messages. There were very advanced, you know, instructions on how to downshift. Hold for two seconds and downshift. And there were some issues he was facing.

[00:25:42] So, he was clearly like, just put me into the pit lane. And I would have still come where I was given the pace that I had with the car. Because the car seems there in or thereabouts. And Max just seems more comfortable. But, you know, clearly he knows what he wants. And I wonder why they didn't get that. Yeah, I wonder. It just turned out to go worse from that point. And then the rear wing failure is just a very, very, very, very dangerous thing. How do we look at that, Kunal?

[00:26:09] Like, it's hard to tell what exactly went wrong again. But Verstappen is clearly so twisted. As you mentioned earlier, he's saying he wants to not think about Formula One. Like, we're in a very tough spot with one of our greatest drivers in the sport at the moment. Completely unhappy with it. Yes, I mean, you know, he's come out and said it's the same rear wing issue that didn't connect, especially at the high speed sequence. And it seemed fairly evident with the onboards of the crash that suddenly he's doing everything right and turning in.

[00:26:36] And I would be hard-pressed to imagine Max has made two driving errors in two consecutive race weekends. I mean, I can't remember when last he made a driving error, literally. I know people will jump onto me on the comments with a list of when he made it. But that's just me, you know. And Feiyan Shoo is saying, I've never seen Max this mad, his interview on VFB right now. I haven't seen that. I will, of course, see it after this. Same. But, you know, and Sandy is here saying, I'm heartbroken for Max. I can't watch any more.

[00:27:04] And, you know, Red Bull is delivering performance with that Austria upgrade. But it's also delivered him two high-speed crashes. And Red Bull gives you wings. But it's very strange when you have those wings failing at high speed. And that's what Max is. And it's dangerous. That's the line of the show, Kunal. That's the line of the show. Red Bull gives you wings, but those wings are breaking. I love also what Max said. That it seems like he's crossed a black cat or something. Not that I believe in it.

[00:27:33] But it's very, very weird how the luck is just running out for Max Verstappen bit by bit. I wonder what's next. I wonder how much worse can it get for him. Well, not good. Well, I mean, it could have gotten worse had he not stepped into that Lego go-kart. Because Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were two world champion drivers who said they were going to think about whether they're going to do the Lego race whatsoever. And it's very understandable.

[00:27:58] Because, firstly, Grand Prix weekends are very busy with sponsor team, media commitments. And then finally, you're like, oh, actually, I still got to go drive. And as a driver, you just want to think of your driving, be with your physio, your family, your engineers, and just be around the group, which reminds you each time you're a driver who's supposed to drive. When you meet everyone else, you're just a hero they look up to. And those are two different mental modes you have. And when you add a Lego race, of course, it's in place of the driver's parade.

[00:28:27] So it's got nothing to do with extra time. But when you add a Lego race, there is also another angle, which is a commercial angle. Yes. And last year, you had two-seater Lego cars, which means you'd be in it with your team. And then it's still OK. But now somebody could just take a picture of Max in the Lego and think that Max is the ambassador of Lego. And Lego, of course, is not paying Max or Lewis. So there are lots of commercial considerations. It's not about being greedy. It's about protecting your brand image and rights. That's what this is about.

[00:28:57] So Max, of course, had that joy when he said, you know, I wish there was a truck. Imagine Max, who loves racing, didn't want to get into that go-kart. He said, yeah, we could have just done a normal truck and, you know, driven around it. But that Lego race happened. Fernando Alonso won his first race. It had to be him, Somali. Now that you look back at the result, you're like, of course. How did we not think that Alonso will go for victory? Just to prove that I'm still there. And of course, he's still there. I love that. Win number 33 for Fernando Alonso.

[00:29:27] It's come, finally. In a Lego race, yes. But it's come. It's come. And it's come at the iconic, legendary Silverstone race. And I wouldn't be surprised if there were more people watching the Lego race because it was free to air on social media, Lego, lots of hype. And, you know, at my house, my daughter, Antara, from Friday was like, but Papa, when is the Lego race? When is the Lego race? Is it not today? Is it? And then when the Lego race started, she said something incredible, which I'm like,

[00:29:55] oh, wow, this is why she's born in a motorsport family. It started and she's like, where are their helmets? And I said, yeah, it's, you know, just driving around. And why are they driving those so slow? I said, Antara, it's a fun race. Are you saying they won't? No, they're not going to find a winner today. I said, they will find a winner. Is there going to be a podium? I said, no, there's going to be no podium. It's just a winner. They're just having fun. If this is not a serious race, why are they wasting our time? Just let's watch the main race when it starts. And I said, okay, wow.

[00:30:23] I thought the Lego race was for younger generation, but not everyone's impressed. I love this. Antara has got my vote. She should be the next FIA president. She's absolutely nailed it. But I liked it. I liked it. The next thing is, they should not limit the Lego car. Come on, open it up, man. Like, I want to see, I want to see the skill. I really want to see Formula One Drive is go-kart. That's going to be the next fun thing. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Go-karts, equal engines, equal everything. We've spoken about this.

[00:30:52] So what is the chance that George Russell's tire, right rear tire, hit a small Lego brake? That's why he had a small slope puncture. Because when I saw, you know, Behrman and Botoletto crash, I'm like, yeah, it's good. Spread all the Lego pieces. Everyone's wearing shoes out there. What about the tires? Could that become not debris, but debris? Bricks, that would have caused something. Maybe that's the one thing. Maybe that's the one thing that caused all of it. We have somebody not agreeing with us on the title of this episode.

[00:31:20] Bring back Scudetto Juventus. Title is so disrespectful of Leclerc. I love that. By the way, I love the title. I think Juventus needs to bring the Scudetto back to the Alianzareena. It's been a long, long time. But is it not? I mean, he would have lost. We're not saying he didn't do it. He was incredible. But he would have lost, wouldn't he? What is the title again? Man, safety car error gives Charles Leclerc his first F1 win. Well, you know, Lewis Hamilton had new tires. Maybe he could have made an attack on Leclerc as well. You never know.

[00:31:48] So, okay, maybe slightly misleading now that I read it again. But okay, we'll change it after the episode, right? Okay. What else have we got? So we've spoken about the Lego race. Okay. And then we missed the most important point, Samuel. The gotifi was back at the British Grand Prix. Did you see those visuals? He was promoting his alcohol-free or maybe alcohol with agave syrup drink. I don't know why everyone's going agave. He's saying if the goat of F1 is going for agave drinks, which is Lewis Hamilton, I'm the

[00:32:18] gotifi of F1. So I also need to go for agave-flavored drinks. He was on the decks spinning music. So from spinning wheels and spinning Formula One cars on track, he's gone to spinning the DJ wheel at a Formula One Grand Prix. No way. Seriously? Yes, he was there. So that's also one of those things that happened. And then Feyanju reminds us, Kola Pinto went from P19 to P9. Yes, that was a tremendous recovery drive from the Alpine driver.

[00:32:48] He had a floor failure yesterday out of qualifying in Q1 and then what a brilliant drive to P9. Yeah, it was amazing. I think at the start itself, he gained a lot of positions. And he went totally unnoticed because we were all focusing on the other drama all throughout. But good on Franco Colopinto. I think really good on Franco Colopinto to be able to get that. And especially given the context, especially how Alpine are losing momentum in this fight with Racing Bulls.

[00:33:15] I like the fact that he's gone out and put out a result over there. Oh yeah, absolutely. Especially finishing ahead of Pierre Gasly because that's also what happened to his race. He was ahead of Gasly. And you're right. He made up a lot of positions in the opening few laps. He started 19th and he was already up to P13 by lap 9. So he's made up lots of positions. And eventually then found his way up through.

[00:33:41] And I think just the very fact that he's able to make these recovery drives will help Alpine continue to back him there as well. And Art of Racing is saying Hulk with still no points while Gabi finished 7th. 7th. What terrible luck for Nico Houghton-Bulls. But that's where it goes. Audi had their best finish in Formula 1. Yeah. I missed that. I really missed that. Was he 7th or was he 8th? It wasn't Bortoletto 8th. I think he's 8th, right? Either way. I really miss how that all happened. Honestly.

[00:34:10] We were so focused on everything that happened up front. If you guys know, let us know. It really, really went through under my radar all throughout. Yes. A lot of things went under our radar, but we still had everything on our radar for this 38 minute long episode. If there's anything else that we should talk about, leave it as a comment. Somal and I will try and do an episode between now and isn't it Spa next? Yeah. Spa's going to be next. Yes. So we'll try and do an episode in the middle. But what else did we have?

[00:34:39] We had home races for lots of people. Yeah. Lance Stroll had a track limits penalty, which was strange because not only are you slow, but you're also outside of the tracks. But it was not his fault. It was his team's fault because the team didn't tell him. And then he was like, please help me and tell me where am I going off track? And that's the strangest thing because as you know, Somal, every time a race control message comes saying track limits, they say what lap and what turn. So Aston Martin, poor execution with, of course, not having performance on that car.

[00:35:08] But on that note, should we say adios? I think it's time to end. Well, thank you guys for joining us all along. It's been great to hear your comments and your perspectives on this race. So many things that even we missed out on. So you guys have been watching with a really keen eye. So thank you. Thank you for joining us on the Inside Line F1 podcast. We'll be back before spa. Make sure you're subscribing to us on Instagram and YouTube at Kunal Esha on X and at I'm Somal Adora on Instagram as well. Back soon, guys. Take care. Catch you around. Bye-bye.