Franz Hermann wins on impressive Formula 1 debut | #F1 2025 Imola GP Race Review

[00:00:00] Hey Sandra, wir haben uns ja lange nicht mehr gesehen. Grüß dich Nadine. Mensch, du siehst ja toll aus. Ja danke, ich habe mein Plus fürs gesündere Ich entdeckt. Was? Komm, ich zeig's dir. Die Bewegungskurse der AOK Plus. Kostenfrei für AOK Plus Versicherte. Entdecke dein Plus fürs gesündere Ich und starte mit unserem Selfcheck. Ganz einfach online auf aok.de. Aus Liebe zur Gesundheit. AOK Plus.

[00:00:32] $100 million annually. I think that's justified. I think he should get paid more Kunal. I'm going to sign a petition to get him a $100 million a year contract because that sort of a move, that's not a memory for today or a week or a month. This is stuff that we're going to be telling our kids and they're going to be telling their kids and they're going to be telling their kids about. Max Verstappen schooled Oscar Piastri. And this is revenge served cold from Saudi Arabia.

[00:01:02] And this is the best driver in the world being the best driver in the world. I think this is just what a perfect motor race should be all about. What a race Imola was. What a race. What an opening lap. What a mega mastermind. Maxter class move into turn one. You guys remember we actually thought of these scenarios. We said what happens to the race will be defined by what Max Verstappen decides to do. What sort of Max Verstappen decides to show up.

[00:01:32] And my goodness, when was the last time Max had such a clean opening lap move that he did not? He did not. Go for it. Yes. We'll tell you. Because this is what Sundaram and I were discussing. Sundaram told me Qatar 2024 when he got past George Russell very easily and then shut the door on Lando. And then I think Sundaram, you also recommended Mexico 21 where he got past Bottas, Hamilton and Checo to go from P4 to P1.

[00:02:02] So, I mean, I'm building it up saying it's a very big deal. But he's done this so often, Sundaram. He's done it so often and but suddenly we've not seen a lot of this recently. And a lot of it has also been a little scrappy. There's been a little bit of wheel banging and stuff going off track and everything. But this was the beauty of this pass was that it wasn't there. It really wasn't. No one really anticipated he's going to be going for it. And he really created the chance and went really clean.

[00:02:32] So, everyone was baffled by the fact that he was P3 going into the corner. But at the end of it, he was leading the race. And I think that was the race defining move that eventually went on led to him winning the race. One second. You guys are saying he's pulled this off often. Right. What do you mean often? Is once a season often? Is once every few races often? Because what's been the narrative often? Off late. Okay.

[00:03:02] Is that Max has been pushing the limits. Max has been wheel banging. Max has been either driving off track or driving others off track. But this is the Max Verstappen we all love, don't we? Who is able to pull off such a stunning move when he knew that. You know, everyone knows the minute you're in clean air, you have a different race running. Oscar Piastri said I don't know what my pace would have been like in clean air. There you go. And I actually did this analysis on Wireplay.

[00:03:30] And I'm very happy to explain that, you know, here on the podcast as well. Firstly, Max had wheelspin. So he was bogged down. Second, there was a headwind into turn one, which meant that Oscar Piastri was punching a hole through to everyone else. Which is why George Russell, who was in his wheel tracks, was getting a beautiful toe so much that George Russell could have actually taken the lead of the race. Okay.

[00:03:55] Which is why Oscar Piastri did not pull out absolutely wide on the normal racing line. Because he thought, you know what, George could just sneak it in. And then, you know, whoever has the inside line usually has the lead of the race. Well, that's what didn't happen because Oscar had the inside line. But it was Max Verstappen who took that outside line. And my goodness, when Max went in there, I said, that's it.

[00:04:20] These two are going to collide mid-corner, apex of turn two and end of the race for both of them. Okay. But Oscar gave through. He actually said pre-race to David Coulthard on the Wireplay show as well that even if I'm not leading after turn one, I still am confident about leading this race and winning. Well. Yeah. So my question to you guys is, do you guys think that Oscar was maybe a little complacent? Maybe he was caught napping at turn one?

[00:04:45] Or maybe he just realized, oh my goodness, this is who Max Verstappen really is. Yeah, I think, I honestly feel Sundaram, he underestimated what Max Verstappen could do. And Verstappen, as Alex Verundel explained wonderfully on his analysis in F1 TV, he left Oscar Piastri a compliment because he got so close. And he believed that Oscar wouldn't understeer into him, which is a great sign of respect.

[00:05:12] But I think that's when Oscar also realized, wow, this guy is Max Verstappen. And we saw that, I mean, we saw after Jetta that Oscar Piastri has the composure to nail these moments. And I genuinely thought that he had Max's number because he passed him in Jetta. He got the better off in Miami. And I thought, wow, finally someone who can take it up to Max. But we forget how good this guy's judgment is.

[00:05:38] I think this is the perfect way to seal off Red Bull Racing's 400th race win. And Max Verstappen actually now has more than 50% of Red Bull Racing's race wins. It's crazy. See, that's the thing with Max Verstappen. And if you've watched him racing in this last decade, if you at any point get his number, anticipate payback soon enough.

[00:06:00] Okay, so if Piastri's had the better off Verstappen in Jetta or in a couple of other races, payback was inevitable. And he served it hot and fresh today. And I think only Piastri would know what was really running in his mind. But like Kunal explained, Russell had a much, much better start. He was in the tour of Piastri and he was quicker than Max. So probably it was fair for Oscar to keep his focus on Russell and not giving him enough space to get past.

[00:06:28] But he probably must have disregarded Max as further behind. I don't need to worry about him because it's a narrow track. The first corner is also very, very narrow. And there's gravel at the end of it. So I don't think so. Max is going to be trying what he did in Jetta. Surely he's not going to be doing that. So probably, yes, he was caught napping and he break way earlier, which suddenly opened up a window for Max. And he thought, I might as well go for it. And truth be told, Max was actually third. Okay.

[00:06:55] He was third entering turn one, the braking zone, etc. He was third. If you draw a line from Russell's front wing, Max is actually behind. So Oscar was also right in trying to block off George because he said, okay, George has taken Max. So I don't have to deal with him. Only to realize that everyone had to deal with that Max. I mean, Max drove what he called the normal racing line, which is so true. And that's why he could carry more speed into those corners and so on. But guys, I have to ask you this.

[00:07:25] Was Red Bull racing the quickest car this race weekend? Yes or no? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what Lando believes. And I was very... No, I want to bring in what Lando says first, because I think it's a very interesting statement. He said that even if he wasn't pole today, Max would have still won. And that could be interpreted in two ways. Honestly, I don't like the sound of that. It genuinely doesn't come across...

[00:07:54] Did he say that? Did he say that if Lando was on pole, Max would have won? Lando said that even if I was on pole, he would have won. So it's... I don't like the sound of that statement first. And when I read that, I was like, has he really said that? He did really say that. But that also then plays into what I believe. Because I think that last stint was characteristic of it all, Jermin Lee Kunal. Because I thought, okay, Lando, five laps, five seconds. Now is when we find out just how good that McLaren is.

[00:08:24] And the gap increased. It didn't cut down. I think they finished at what? 6.6 seconds or something towards the very end? With Lando in clean air? Sure, Lando must have taken off a decent bit while trying to get past Oscar. But nonetheless, that McLaren, which is apparently a god at managing tyres, wasn't quite looking like a god anymore. So it doesn't matter if Red Bull were the fastest or not. Given the circumstances, they just weren't quick enough to capitalize on Red Bull's...

[00:08:50] Sorry, McLaren weren't just quick enough to capitalize on Red Bull and whatever they had over there. And that, to me, was alarming. But Somal, was Red Bull the quickest car? You still haven't answered that. Yes or no? Well, on an average, no. But Max Verstappen is the best driver today. I would say. I actually go with Sundaram. And here's some stat. Okay. Max Verstappen, before the safety car actually neutralized the race,

[00:09:17] was 18 seconds ahead of P2, which was Lando Norris. Okay. Now, here's what was happening on the radio channel. GP and Max were tracking Lando Norris' lap times to the 10th of a second every single lap. Okay. Which is what they should do. Yeah. But they were... My point is, yes, they do that. But they were actually mapping it, saying how much time are we losing to Lando? Is Lando pulling away?

[00:09:45] And my guess is the upgraded Red Bull, along with the slightly cooler conditions, even though it was warmer than usual in Imola, and the upgrades brought in Miami and Imola have sort of brought Red Bull into play. Red Bull were also running a little more wing this race weekend. Maybe that helped as well. So my point is, Red Bull has taken a step forward in performance. Okay. At least in Imola. At least for the kind of corner ranges we had and the tarmac and whatever else you call it.

[00:10:15] And then, of course, there's Max Verstappen also being able to extract from such a strong package. So that was one. And then the second stint where he pulled 6.6 seconds. Okay. GP actually went and told Max, Max, you've won on merit. You proved your point, which was his way of saying back off. But guess what Max was doing? He wasn't backing off. Okay.

[00:10:37] So I am of this opinion that Max Verstappen was actually the quickest driver in the quickest car today around Imola, especially in clean air or even if I remove clean air out of the equation. I tend to sort of agree with Lando that maybe Max could have won against Lando. But could Max have won against Oscar? I don't think so. Maybe that would have been a far more even fight because Oscar just seems more comfortable in this McLaren than Lando. Yeah.

[00:11:06] And the other thing that we saw from qualifying is Max actually had the fastest, the top speed in the qualifying sessions. I think it was on 339. And the McLarens were at the bottom of 331, 333. So there was already a significant difference on straight line speed. And that also probably contributed to the fact that they were not able to close the gap on Max.

[00:11:29] The eventual winning margin is just six seconds, but it would have been a lot, lot bigger if not for those safety car interventions and in between. So McLaren just didn't have an answer to what Max was able to do with that car today and quite clearly. And I think this also probably has to end. The narrative also has to end at Red Bull at the third or the fourth fastest car.

[00:11:51] Quite clearly, we've seen that over these seven races that it's definitely the second or worst case, sometimes third, not the fourth, fourth quickest car. That car has space. The upgrades are working. And if you remember last year, Imola was actually where Red Bull's problems began with slow rotation. They were struggling at Imola and Norris was catching up to him. So now it's a flip story. It's how the story has developed through the last one year. And the Red Bull seem pretty strong today.

[00:12:23] And just for a point, yeah. You know, again, narrative, social media, Max pitted under the virtual safety car, got lucky. And again, I said this on the TV show, and I'm going to repeat it again for a larger audience because the TV show is restricted to Norway and the Norwegian audiences, right? Max was able to run a pace that allowed him to go on to lap 29, that allowed him to extend his stint. He could manage his tires.

[00:12:51] He was managing race management, as we call it. So he was there to make the most of that lucky break. Yes, when a VSC pit stop happens, it is luck. But you've got to be in the right place at the right time to extract that luck. And that's what Max wished to happen, was able to do. So 14 minutes in, and we are still talking Max Verstappen because that's how fantastic the race was today. Absolute Max-ter-class, as we love to call it on the Inside Line F1 podcast.

[00:13:19] Oh, we will still continue to do so. Oh, you were saying? No, I was saying this was the first race win for Franz Hermann. Isn't that the case? I don't know why we're referring to him as Max Verstappen throughout the first 14 minutes. Yeah, Max Verstappen retired when his daughter was born. This is Franz Hermann now. This is different. No, but we will still continue to talk about Max Verstappen because I'm not done yet with that start. Again, looking back at the replays, his positioning was perfect.

[00:13:48] Russell had a great getaway. Verstappen could well have gone extremely to the outside line, which I didn't notice initially while commentating on the race. I just watched the replay and then watched Alex Brandl talk about it. And then I was like, oh yeah, fair point. He put his car perfectly so that Russell couldn't slide past and sort of snake his way past into P1. And also that Lando Norris had no space on the outside. That is excellent positioning.

[00:14:13] And Verstappen immediately after getting the getaway was constantly looking left and in his mirrors to see where everyone was. That level of detail while driving is unbelievable. And as you mentioned, Gunal, that extended stint, while on the broadcast, we were all constantly analyzing when are they going to box? Are they making a mistake? Because every single lap, he was consistently, I remember, three and a half, four tenths slower than Oscar Piastri. But in the long run, Piastri was losing time because he had so many cars to pass.

[00:14:43] And I was surprised. It's like the overtakes were looking phenomenal and it's beautiful for the highlight reel. But eventually, they really, really got bogged down by that. And I'm genuinely a believer that the race would have been closer if not, I mean, I'm not sure about the result being different, but it definitely would have been closer if McLaren hadn't boxed that early. I'm still confused, Gunal. Like, why did they box on lap 12? Even Carlos Sainz says that when they did that, it felt wrong to him. And that's why he's finished Fala later.

[00:15:12] Very interesting. Abhishek is here. He's joined the live chat and he's asked the same question. A word on McLaren's strategy during the safety car stops. Could they have pitted Oscar 2 or at least put Lando ahead by team orders to immediately chase after Mac? So let's break it down because, you know, several points. You also raised a point. Why did they pit Oscar early? Truth being told, Oscar said he was struggling.

[00:15:34] And at that point of time in the race, degradation early in the race was still very high, which is why George Russell said he couldn't meet the target lap time at that pace. When Russell pulled the trigger, Carlos Sainz pulled the trigger because the undercut was supposed to be very strong. And Piastri realized that that's it. I'm not able to, you know, manage my tires as well.

[00:15:54] So McLaren's trial degradation, which has typically been one of their strengths, as both of y'all were saying, was not as much of a strength this race weekend, which will also be something that will concern them as well. But truth be told, they just had to pit at that time. And then, you know, to Abhishek's point, could they have pitted Oscar too? Well, Oscar did not have tires remaining because he had used up his tires, just like Charles Leclerc as well.

[00:16:19] So it was just down to tire allocations and what was available to each driver at that time, which is why PS3 was actually on much older tires behind, you know, Max Verstappen. And I'm actually glad they did not use team orders, even though in the end they sort of said they did. That's what Zac Brown said. We took a decision as a team.

[00:16:38] And I would say for Oscar Piastri with a 24 race calendar, with so much pace that he's shown, to go away with a badly managed race by the pit wall and in the cockpit, if we were to call it that, to go away with a podium is still fantastic. No, but I think we have to call a spade a spade, Sundaram, because we criticize Lando Norris a lot for his mistakes. I think Oscar deserves a bit of it too. That just wasn't it at the start.

[00:17:05] And also the race management, Lando was able to manage his tires a lot better. So let's just call a spade a spade. If we call out Lando, we need to call out Oscar too. Sure, decent result, but clearly there is a bit of work to do. No, of course. And this all comes with experience. And especially at a track where you don't have a lot of opportunities to kind of claim the race. I think everyone knew that the driver who takes the lead of the race after the first corner has the advantage to literally win the race.

[00:17:32] And Oscar would have known that this is possibly the only chance. So yes, he was caught napping and probably this is also inexperience coming into play. And then like you said, first up in positioning the car perfectly in that regard. But I'm also looking at the lap times right now, but I'm not really sure if Piastri was really struggling a lot in terms of degradation. If you look at Russell, Russell was losing literally half a second or in some cases more than a second from lap 7 up until lap 12 where he put it.

[00:18:00] But Piastri was losing probably 3 tenths, 4 tenths. And it didn't even seem a lot. So I'm not really sure if they jumped the gun to kind of defend against Leclerc and kind of lost sight that their main challenger was Max up ahead. I don't know if they got spooked by Leclerc's pit stop, him being in clear air and his lap times being at least half a second quicker. So I'm not sure if that was the right thing for them to do, which again goes back to McLaren's strategy.

[00:18:28] Is this where they're a little conservative, a little defensive? Should they have, you know, really been confident? Like how Red Bull does it? Oscar pitted, they really didn't react to that. They said, OK, we're going to stick to our plan. We're going to go long because I think Sunoda started on the hearts, right? So they were getting information on how long the hearts can run accordingly. Max had to tweak or run according to that, this thing. But yeah, the question once again on.

[00:18:54] So today I think Piastri dropped it a little and McLaren also to some extent in terms of strategy. Yeah. And I want to discuss what happened towards the end as well. So on the live broadcast, we didn't have a lot of information. And I'll be honest, I need to take some time off from the race to understand, which is why now this question is coming in my head about what McLaren's decision was towards the end. I didn't fully catch it, Kunal. What did McLaren decide?

[00:19:24] Did they decide to just keep them as is? And I call it quite a quandary for them. Do they prioritize the championship leader or the car that's faster in the moment? What does papaya rules really mean at that point in time? Because some might say that they could have probably cost themselves a shot at a race win, quite like Suzuka, where they didn't let the faster car go ahead and have a fair shot. Is that true? Okay.

[00:19:49] Firstly, I maybe I'm wrong, but papaya rules usually come in when Lando Norris has to swap with Oscar Piastri, not the other way around, at least not in 2025. I'm being I'm just saying it as it is. Is that true? Of course, maybe not. Also, this was a different scenario than Suzuka because Max was still way ahead. In Suzuka, he was half a second ahead. Here he was four or five seconds ahead. So not really something that I believe he you know, none of the McLaren drivers could make an intro.

[00:20:17] So eventually they just decided to, you know, swap the drivers. Could they not if Lando had much faster tires though, which clearly was the case? But again, like we said at the start of the show, I think it was Red Bull that was the quickest car. So whatever it is that they would have done, it would have been a 2-3 finish only. I don't believe they had the pace to go challenge Max Verstappen. But just give it a shot. Like, I don't know, just to prove the hypothesis right.

[00:20:42] They did let Lando through and then, you know, we saw what happened after that. So I believe that it was just how the pace of each team and each driver and each car was. But let's agree on one thing, which I know you guys will, that this 1-2-3 finish that we had has actually bunched up the top three in the Drivers' Championship even more. Because Oscar Piastri has lost points to both his nearest rivals. He's only 13 points ahead of Lando and Lando's, I think, 9 points ahead of Max.

[00:21:10] Can you imagine? Max in the second or the third fastest car, except for Imola, okay, is only 22 points away from the lead of the Drivers' Championship. I mean, my goodness, this season is going to go down in the history of history books as well. Because that's how well Max Verstappen has been. And, you know, can we move Schiff tack or tack to Williams?

[00:21:40] I don't want to. I still want to talk about Max. But, I mean, I had a question about whether he's turning out to be the best individual driver performer in the history of Formula One. It reminds me of Schumacher in the late 1990s. I mean, I can't think of anyone else who's been that good individually as a driver, like just outclassing the field. But I get a feeling this will lead into a 20-minute discussion.

[00:22:08] So you can let us know what you think about it in the live chat. We should then move on to Williams because... I'll take one minute. I'll take one minute. Let's see. If you look at the last 11 races, Max Verstappen has the most points of all drivers. 199. No. 199. I think Lando Norris is second, 192. So this starts from that Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the one that he infamously won. Since then, Max has the most points, 199. Then comes Lando.

[00:22:36] The second Red Bull driver in all of these 11 races has accumulated nine points. And we recently spoke about this in terms of how closely the second driver qualifies to Max, which is never really the case, or at least just 30% of the races, which just goes on to show that Max really is driving solo in all of the races. He doesn't get the benefit of having a cushion behind him. But the other way where they're using the second driver is putting one,

[00:23:04] the alternate strategy like what we saw from Sunoda today, at least getting tire data, if not really helping closer to him. That's the only way this is where the second driver is really helping him. But in terms of points, they're not pulling an end a lot. I think Lance Stroll has scored more points in those 11 races, 14, which puts a big question mark on what's really happening in that second seat. But yeah, now let's move to Williams. I still want to talk about Max. Okay, okay. Williams, Williams, Williams.

[00:23:33] Okay. Where do we go from here? I'll start with my personal favorite first, because I just want to get the disappointment out of the way. Even though Williams accumulated a total of 14 points this weekend, if I'm not correct, if I'm not wrong. I think it's still... The most this year. The most this year. I still feel it's a bit of a disappointment, because that's what my favorite driver, Carlos Sainz, said. He said that the communication wasn't perfect, and we didn't quite execute the race as well as we should have. And of course, they got caught out a little bit by that strategy,

[00:24:03] because they boxed on lap 12. VSC came in, and it messed up with everyone's race, whoever boxed earlier. But the point being, this comes across as a... Also, just to add, they boxed early, but James Walsh actually at that point said the tire degradation was extremely high early parts of the race. So when they decided to call a two-stopper for Carlos Sainz, it was actually the right decision. It's just that the tires eased off as the race progressed, which was very strange and very peculiar for Imola.

[00:24:31] But yes, I just had to say that, because I love that Williams is able to give such a beautiful, especially James Walsh, such a beautiful explanation of what their decision-making was at different parts of the races. Because inadvertently, I think the top five teams actually had all drivers split on tire strategy, just because Russell went early, Carlos Sainz went early, Leclerc went early, Piazzi went early.

[00:25:00] So it wasn't team splitting choices. It's just that their hands were forced because Russell just went early and pulled the trigger on everyone else. Yeah, exactly. And that just sort of put Sainz in an awkward little spot. Like, he wasn't progressing the second part of this race review. And the second part is where things got awfully wrong for Carlos Sainz. He got stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg.

[00:25:29] That's the point we were discussing after the second pit stop. And, yeah, I mean, Sainz couldn't progress as much. Still got points. There was a feeling that he could have gotten a lot more. P8 is what he got at the end. But at the end of the day, 14 points for William Sundaram says a lot about how far they're progressing. And this weekend, they out-qualified the Ferraris and genuinely looked like they were on par. Sure, the Ferrari's race pace was better, but they're in the mix. They're consistently in the mix.

[00:26:00] And that's the interesting part of it because we all thought Carlos Sainz was going, he was getting a downgrade in terms of the team. And everyone was seeing, being very emotional about the fact that he truly deserved to be at Ferrari. He's probably relieved that he's not really in that pressure situation of being in the Ferrari stables. Now he's probably more valued. He's probably more appreciated over here. And he's managed to find performance. He's actually been able to adapt

[00:26:29] to the car quicker than probably Lewis has able to do with the Ferrari. Probably a car that's more easier to drive for him as well. I mean, we've always known Carlos was someone who's always very adaptable. He's always done that going from a Toro Rosso to a Renault to a McLaren to a Ferrari. It's never been the case where he struggled a lot in the early period of his time. But everything's just working together. And that's great to see for someone like Carlos Sainz and his experience is actually being valued. And that's translating into performance. Today was a day

[00:26:58] where luck really caught him out. I think if it was Al Bourne in place of him who was the leading Williams, he would have been the first one to pit. He would have been the one who would have been P8 today and Sainz would have been the one who finishes P4 or P5. But yeah, you really can't call these sort of things, especially with a track that has gravel around it and a safety car is more or less a certainty. But yeah. You know,

[00:27:25] I think that move that Charles Leclerc pulled off, I think it was fair, but you know, clearly even him giving the position back was okay because he didn't give space to Albin at the apex or the next corner that followed. But what that took away was that P4 finish, which Albin would have loved because in these seven races, I think he scored points in six of them and he's finished fifth three times. Okay, this is Alexander Albin whose manager,

[00:27:55] Shaq Hextal-Smith, was on our podcast a few weeks ago who said Alex has changed nothing between 2024 and 2025 to cater for an incoming Carlos Sainz whose debut with Williams, whose arrival at Williams was very much publicized and heralded, etc. And I think to see Alex do what he's doing at Williams, the way he was battling the Ferraris was fantastic. And you know, a question I can put forth on the Wireplay broadcast was is it that Williams are fast

[00:28:24] or is it Ferrari is slow? Because, you know, that's also the context we need to take. But I think genuinely Ferrari is faster on Sundays but they lose out by not qualifying higher up on Saturdays and that Williams is just seemingly an all-round faster car in both qualifying as well as race trim and gives me so much joy to see both of them right there battling the two Ferrari boys. Like your childhood.

[00:28:53] Like I said on the broadcast this is like the late 90s coming to life Ferrari versus Williams and Williams in that perfect royal blue shade that is of the Williams of old. None of that none of that toothpaste rubbish that we saw in the late 2010s. Not that BS. But what a great performance and Alex Albon yet again there to capitalize on all of it. I loved it. But that I feel is a perfect segue to Ferrari because I didn't expect

[00:29:23] Lewis Hamilton to be the better one of the two but of course ultimate strategy clearly paid off and he was at the right place at the right time given both the VSC and then the safety car but they clearly found something that worked on Sunday. Now they need to go back and find something that works on Saturday because I suppose all is well that ends well Sundaram but I still don't think this makes it any better of a weekend because P11, P12 let's just judge them

[00:29:53] by the standards that they'd like to hold themselves at. Still I don't know man long way to go. I think it's not bad as people tend to say it. Ultimately points are given on a Sunday so I think it's still better that you are able to go further up you're able to make passes and finish P4, P5 than qualifying higher and then falling backwards on race day so I think it's still better. Yes they have to make amends in terms of Is that coming from an Aston Martin fan?

[00:30:22] Let's see let's not let's not talk about Aston Martin yet I'm really trying to hold that side a little down especially after hearing Fernando's radio message today but I think someone also criticized Ferrari for going the split strategy Leclerc with the medium and Hamilton with the hards I think in hindsight everything looks you can criticize everything but in Emola at a track like Emola where a safety car is almost a certainty you don't know when the safety car is going to come out so if it's a little earlier

[00:30:51] then it's going to hamper the driver who's going long if it's much later like today then it's going to hamper the driver who went who pitted earlier which was Leclerc in this case if both of them had started on on hards and if there was a safety car much earlier then both would have been hampered both would have to come in and switch tires so I think they caught the tire the switch the split strategy right one who was who came out worse and they didn't have any tires at the end of

[00:31:22] the two safety car stints I don't think it was very bad this thing when yeah they have work to do in qualifying do you guys think Ferrari has a pace to win if they start in the top three top four positions based on the last two races it seems strong that's the way to put it my assessment is that Ferrari has the pace to win for only one third of the race in the last couple of races or if we see a standard situation

[00:31:52] it's when the fuel loads are lower in the last stint of a Grand Prix typically last 10 15 20 laps one third of the race or something is when they really pick up pace when the fuel is lower when the tires are newer fresher because my feeling is that over a Grand Prix distance they probably have podium position if they start higher up but they somehow still seem faster not over a full Grand Prix distance because if you see early stages of the race

[00:32:21] they were still not anywhere it was once Lewis had the delta over the tires he was on the medium while everyone was on the hard that's when he pulled off those magnificent overtakes which of course the Tifosi enjoyed but anyway we'll never know Ferrari Ferrari is always a mystery doesn't that make it intriguing Kunal that if they're so good at that stage of the race they're so terrible at an equivalent stage of the race on Saturday where you have low

[00:32:51] fuel loads and the softest tires I find it weird what's not working this weekend perhaps it was just correlation with the C6 maybe they got caught out the most by it all but it's a genuine story it's Formula 1's most followed team I don't know what to say motorsports most followed team and exoteric is saying hi hello it's good to have you back on our live stream which is part two of

[00:33:21] I don't know why we had two races but maybe race control took some time but I think Ferrari's challenges are just tire prep tire warm up and the softer the compounds go the more they've struggled and especially to prep them up in a way that they're ready for the start of the lap which is important but also will stay alive till the end of the lap which is also important right so it's just a function of Ferrari clearly needing to get some performances they've said they

[00:33:50] know where the problem is I think the fix is not as easy as bringing one or two new parts it's changing a lot of components at the rear which allows them to go lower which allows them to extract more performance and you know if you hear what both drivers say Charles specifically has been saying that's it this is the maximum of our performance and I cannot drive any faster any better any much more on the limit so that's it's a tricky situation for

[00:34:20] Ferrari because one third into the championship one third of the time into the championship they're still trying to find the right balance they're still trying to find upgrades and this could potentially cost them development time for 2026 when do they really pull the plug saying you know what we're not winning this title let's move focus 2026 because you're saying that they have race pace but they don't have qualifying pace they're not able to really put it together what do they do from here because

[00:34:50] the Tifosi is a very passionate crowd they would love to they really don't want to see Lewis Hamilton winning next year they want to see him doing it now they want to see him carry that motivation and confidence into 2026 so it's a very tricky situation for them also to to be in but I'll put it this way I don't believe Ferrari is going to necessarily compromise one over the other I think you know pretty much every team is smart enough to know how to balance it out when it comes to that I just think

[00:35:19] that you know with them making these suspension changes etc for one season that they had is probably just sort of also catching them out in terms of finding a sweet spot with the car and the likes we had no Ferrari power unit in the top 10 of the Grand Prix we had one Ferrari power unit retiring and as the Banocon we had a Mercedes power unit retiring throttle issue for Kimi Antonelli as well so I think all in all it's just about you know being patient they've been patient since

[00:35:49] 2007 itself adding more time I mean you know the Tifosi is used to being patient they know how to cheer their wins when they get them and my question is you know there's this rumor of Christian Horner going should it be somebody like Christian Horner taking the realm of Ferrari and being the helm of it would Lewis Hamilton have something in his contract which says that he cannot leave

[00:36:19] or he's a free agent or something to do with binding Friedrich Passeur as well because Lewis would know that you know Ferrari's team principles change as much as the livery does for special races or whatever so interesting times because last year you guys remember between Monaco and Monza Ferrari were actually nowhere right and then they came back into the championship and one of the reasons they actually came back and not remain lost was because Frederico

[00:36:48] could bring the team back and saying okay guys let's bring it back most other team principles would have just been okay here's another season washed out so maybe this is Frederico Passeur's biggest challenge as well you know it's how do you bring that consistency back at Ferrari yeah that's Ferrari tough weekend for them overall such a I mean good ending but I'm pretty sure they'll walk back home with a lot to analyze from this but we also have to give a few shout outs to

[00:37:18] other people we'll focus on the positives before going to the negatives and you were right I'm leaving moving to the negative start you're leaving okay we will get a word for sure because I saw your tweet and when I heard that radio message I had only one thought in my mind Sundaram will be annoyed by that but we will get there we will get there as we mentioned positives first Isaac Ajar qualifying was unbelievable I saw this table that

[00:37:48] racefans.net made and it's a very fun analysis from qualifying where drivers had their final qualifying laps compared to their ultimate qualifying laps so a combination of their best sectors so Verstappen was only 0.2 or something behind Piastri 0.02 behind Piastri was 0.04 Isaac was one of the very few drivers who had it bang on and that to me was phenomenal that this guy as a rookie is able to nail his best laps

[00:38:17] in qualifying more than anyone else and I think only one or two other drivers had it I think it was Lawson because he had a terrible lap in Q1 and got caught out and Carlos Sainz and Ajar was right there which tells me that the composure this guy has is unbelievable and even today Kunal what race Isaac Ajar I mean getting points here again I think Isaac Ajar is definitely one of the most impressive rookies this season and if how do I put it

[00:38:47] I don't want to say it in a negative way but I think Red Bull is hopefully going to realize that by being patient with him they will make him only better I hope they're listening to France Tost who of course was on our show a few weeks ago as well and give him more time more patience we all know from our chats with Dr. Marco on our show that he's very upbeat about Isaac and to be up there scoring points so if you look at it Antonelli was the only retirement from the top team so

[00:39:17] that means that there were nine cars that could score points from the top five teams and they did the car that actually was 10th or rather the 10th car to score points even though he wasn't 10th was Isaac Harjar which I think was Racing Bulls is the last in the Constructors Championship anyway as we know so for him to pull that off is pretty fantastic and Harjar was ahead of Yuki Tsunoda obviously who started from the pit lane which from the pit lane to the points is also not a bad situation

[00:39:46] I would say yeah pretty good race for Yuki Tsunoda the overtakes he made was quite impressive I think one of his more confidence inspiring races particularly after that crash on Saturday and then having to rebuild the entire car so good on him good on Yuki Tsunoda I mean he deserves the praise that he's going to get this weekend but right behind him Sundaram I just want to leave the floor to you what do you make of Aston Martin's weekend today just go ahead

[00:40:17] I don't know because as the season progresses I'm actually starting to I mean being very serious over here I'm actually losing more and more hope in what they're able to do I don't know how much pace this car had from the upgrades that the whole raft of upgrades that they brought but it seems that nothing really is working for them and it's not giving me a very good feeling of next year we've spoken about all the money they're pumping in they get they've gotten an Adrian new and the likes but ultimately we spoke about this the sort of upgrades

[00:40:46] you bring and the sort of execution that you do live during a race is key we've seen Aston Martin make a mistake two years ago in Monaco around this time and we said okay it's inexperience but sometimes it feels that maybe that's still extending to some point even now and Fernando has probably never called him unlucky in these 20 years but today he was literally livid he was literally livid that he was the one that was being one of the few drivers who was caught out with the virtual safety car I don't know if you've

[00:41:16] seen the videos on twitter he was literally smacking his helmet when he couldn't pass Sunoda or when Aston Martin didn't call him in for a change of tyres during the safety car he was that livid not sure what happened after that I didn't catch his post race comments or whatever it is but it's not nice seeing someone of Fernando's caliber feeling like this and that I definitely felt when he said that with a lot of pain I could definitely feel it so

[00:41:46] you know that video of him hitting the helmet of course very emotional let's explain to our listeners and viewers why Fernando actually said he was unlucky because on lap 29 is when Esteban Ocon pulled over and called the virtual safety car here's who all pitted under the virtual safety car so Max Verstappen went Alben Hartjar Antonelli Hamilton Leclerc Hulkenberg BEM and Russell Sunoda Science

[00:42:15] they all pitted under the virtual safety car okay when did Fernando Alonso pit Fernando Alonso pitted on lap 13 okay so that's that's when he really his race was just done because you know that's the luck of the draw and then then what did he do from there let's let's sort of read further so he when he pitted he was already on a used medium because remember he used the on the

[00:42:45] hard tire and then he pitted again for the medium tire and that's it his race was done after that because he just lost positions on track and you know the question guys and I'm guessing we'll know in the next few weeks not in Monaco but maybe in Barcelona all the upgrades Aston Martin brought here did they actually deliver lap time or no because in qualifying they ran the C5 which PS3 wanted to which which Stappen wanted to which George Russell ran as well they ran the C5 to finish

[00:43:14] top 5 and top 10 in qualifying yeah top 5 right 5th and 8th or something but in the race they were the only team that couldn't hold position despite qualifying as high as they did so did the upgrades work was it the tires that artificially inflated their qualifying position and then hence did the safety car and the virtual safety car interruptions artificially deflate their race positions as well is something Aston Martin would know if he

[00:43:44] dug through the data but I guess we'll just have to wait till Barcelona to find out yeah Stroll said he would have finished P8 P9 Alonso said he definitely would have finished higher up had it not been for those interruptions so there's some merit in it and there are some reasons to be confident about it but these sort of race executions on weekends where it seemed like they would get a lot of points that just really makes it tough and it was also tough for their somewhat parent power unit

[00:44:14] team of sorts Mercedes and we've left it for the very end but I suppose this has to be the most disappointing weekend of the all firstly DNF for Kimia Antonelli due to a technical issue which is heartbreaking because it's his first ever home race and literally hundreds of his classmates were there watching it and so many people who must have seen him grow up because this guy has raced a lot around Nimula throughout his Formula Racing career but then that and George Russell who was so promising at the start and then only to finish

[00:44:44] P7 firstly he complained of some rare issues restability issues or something before the race and then they manifested during the race as well my whole question is Sundaram is it the heat that caught Mercedes out or was it just Russell having an unstable car throughout like how do you read into this I think it's down to the heat I'm actually trying to pull that data up already but quite clearly and this is what even Russell admitted to the fact

[00:45:13] that when the track does get a little hotter we tend to suffer and that's evident in his tire degradation first 12 watt laps on the mediums so there's no respite over there and it seems like last year's issues are still there they're going to be much better in the cooler track so Monaco might not be as bad but Spain might be bad that's something that they really have to fix they have better balance than last year that's there but then when it comes to this sort of an area where track temperatures

[00:45:43] are hotter than usual that's when they start suffering well this was one of those for sure yeah and you know I think maybe something was definitely not right with George's car because you know when a driver is complaining so strongly that something just feels off and he's saying it was vibrating on the straights and whatever I think it was just down to maybe one of those race weekends where they just didn't feel

[00:46:14] comfortable to push and when they pushed especially early in the race they realized their tires were degrading more faster than the others as well so they just committed to an early stop but as we bring this to a one the one the one race weekend that Toto does not attend things go chaotic yeah this is this is the lowest points that Mercedes have had all year six points today otherwise the lowest has been 18 before this so

[00:46:44] wow yeah but we have a question before we end the stream or rather to end the stream with Abhishek is back thank you because I know we split sort of the live streams but not a bad race considering a track where you seemingly can't overtake right overall rating for the race and driver of the day I'm going to take this first because my rating of the race usually leads to a lot of debates with you guys I think this was 11 on 10 race yes I agree oh wow for once I thought you'd say

[00:47:14] 11.2 or something but okay I'll grant you that but I think I think just goes to show that tire delta is crucial for a good formula one race which is what happened lots of different tire strategies were out at play after a point of my notes are really bonkers in terms of who did what on what lap so that was one and then second having some cars out of place which is what happened with the Ferraris and

[00:47:43] and Sunoda and the likes also of course helped and yeah all in all it was just the Max Verstappen show which I'm really eager to see if this continues my driver of the day would be Max Verstappen go ahead Samal as Sir Faraz Khan said at the 2019 World Cup my answer also same nothing different it's the same you echoed my sentiments exactly now

[00:48:13] the race was definitely enjoyable but I'm actually going with Alex Albon for today I know you were a little disappointed Samal when I didn't mention Alex in my top five drivers but I think I'll put Alex there P5 in Miami P5 today as well and being in that position of within the podium spots P3 at one point P4 at one point but still going wheel to wheel with Charles Leclerc and keeping it together so yeah I'm jumping

[00:48:43] onto the Albon hype train on merit at last and also honestly special shout out to Hedwin for driver of the day because had we not had that Hedwin honestly I don't think we would have had as many overtakes because some of them were phenomenal Lando Norris on Oscar Piatri at the very end and George Russell also what else did we see we saw Leclerc versus Albon we saw Antonelli passing Lewis Hamilton we saw Alonso make three to four overtakes as well towards the very end

[00:49:12] good race really good race like but we should talk about the tyres because the tyres is basically what manufactured such a race if you want to put it that way because yeah I mean although I think 15 odd laps were kind of lost under the safety car so you were not really pushing on those laps but still a lot of teams did go for the two-stop or some of them are struggling towards then so it really wasn't a race where stint lengths were defined like in Qatar or

[00:49:41] a mandate is given that you have to pit twice but rather a situation where you can choose if you want to risk it with a one-stopper or go for a two-stopper and I kind of like it I kind of like it if Pirelli Field said yeah if we go one step softer this and if we like the data that we picked from this we might do this for the rest of the races where you someone is on a tyre offset someone is on a medium someone is on a hard and 15-16 odd laps between them you can pass so that seems nice actually in my opinion

[00:50:11] keep him all up Abhishek definitely keep him all up and also and also do what Mario Aisola suggested on Friday which is try out stepped tyre compounds so instead of going for C4 C5 C6 maybe try C6 C4 C3 like give it a shot let's see what it does why not if we were discussing sprinklers in the race on Friday in our free race show this definitely seems like a more plausible solution and more realistic as well that would be more fun

[00:50:40] I'm sure all the strategies are going to be like we need to pay hike pay rise if this is the amount of simulation that we have to do to figure what's the best strategy if you're going with step tyre allocations as well yeah we're going to be overworked sure man anything for a good race weekend and we were all overworked during the race all of us had so many notes to make and so much so much to prepare for because we like exciting races and all of you did as well so thank you all of you

[00:51:09] for so much so much to prepare and talk for Samil that you know guys just disclaimer when we started Samil said guys can we keep this under 30 minutes which we have just that we've gone two parts under 30 minutes it's insane it's insane I cannot end this stream without putting the stat out there Red Bull have hit a very interesting milestone they are now the most successful team in the 21st century they have them in terms of

[00:51:39] race wins 124 wins in the last 25 years just gone past Ferrari's 123 incredible hey I want to tell them about the max podium stat I saw that point that was very good max has now matched Michael Schumacher's 116 podiums with a single team so you have Lewis Hamilton with how many is it 153 podiums with Mercedes Michael 116 with Ferrari and now Max Verstappen 116 with Red Bull

[00:52:10] Franz Herman ladies and gentlemen Franz Herman what a driver okay thank you for watching everyone we'll be back for the next race preview which is Monaco very shortly I think we should do something on Wednesday because hey our session is starting on Thursday or Friday this time I think they changed right we've long gone from Thursdays in Monaco I mean they should have been Thursday only but yeah I I mean in this time for Monaco we should do it differently I think the most important stream will be what happened after Saturday so

[00:52:40] keep an eye out on that one that'll be that'll be the best one so subscribe to the Inside Line F1 podcast click on that notification bell and that's when you will find out that we're going live so thank you for watching everyone we'll be back bye-bye