Oscar Piastri's F1 title chase begins | Race reactions from 2025 Bahrain GP

[00:00:02] Okay then guys, the dust has settled literally over the Bahrain Grand Prix. We've come back here after a whole day to just process all that went down in that race and just to wrap around our head over all the pit stops because at one point while commentating on that race, I couldn't understand a thing.

[00:00:22] There were drivers stopping in left, right and center. They were using all three compounds and weirdly the softest compound ended up lasting harder and was also faster over a longer stint than the hard compound tyres. This race made no sense, Kunal. The only thing that did make sense was Oscar Piastri being calm, composed and as cool as he possibly can be. Heat in the desert? I think you need a cool head. Oscar was exactly that.

[00:00:46] You know, one more thing that doesn't make sense is Lando Norris' struggles, I would say. And, before everything else, also Bahrain actually delivering a great race.

[00:01:01] You know, Somil, I remember growing up to people being like Bahrain is like snooze fast, you know, typical circuit in the middle of a desert and of course this, you know, I think it's become better as the asphalt has given us a lot of high degradation. It's probably highest for the rear tyres in the season and then when it's become a twilight race, night race, whatever you call it as well.

[00:01:28] As Krishna says right now on the stream, crazy race guys can't wait for Jeddah. I want to wait till we get to Jeddah because there's a lot to talk about Bahrain as well, although I get the sentiment, Krishna. Yeah, I want to wait for Jeddah also. I just want to wrap my head around everything. There's so much. There's so much.

[00:01:51] There's so much to understand on the track and off the track too because we're now staring down the barrel of Max Verstappen potentially leaving Red Bull Racing at the end of the year. We're looking at people doubting Lando Norris' capabilities as a world championship material driver. We're looking at Lewis Hamilton pulling out moves that he used to do a couple of years ago and finding that mojo. And we're also looking at Kimi Antonelli passing Max Verstappen on merit.

[00:02:16] But the craziest thing of them all, even still Kunal, I mean, is the fact that the Haas drivers were able to undercut everyone and then also overcut. It's just like, there's so much. There's so much. Where do we begin? Where do we begin? Do we begin on the track, off the track? What you tell me? You know, let's put it this way. The race was so crazy that the transponders couldn't handle it. I cannot get over that image where everyone's on the track, as you remember.

[00:02:46] And George Russell was like, hey, the bottom down there doing something on the beach or the sand or desert, wherever he was. So the transponders went all right. It was one of those races, Samuel, where Piastri cool-headed but did not have a drink. He didn't tell the team that, but he told them that when they reminded him to have a drink as well. Typical, I love that humor, you know, he's like, I would have it if it was working, you know.

[00:03:11] So McLaren had a reliability issue, just that it was an issue that didn't cost them any performance. And then what else did we see? We saw drivers being told to manually operate the TRS. We saw George Russell just flicking it and shutting it and then, you know, it was a manual override. Charles Leclerc also did it at some point as well. So, yeah, that's how crazy the race was. We also saw Kimi Antonelli's astronaut jacket, which Charles Leclerc was very impressed by.

[00:03:39] We also ended up seeing, let me just pull through my notes, because I had a thought a second ago, but certainly I've forgotten it. We also ended up, yeah, seeing Flavio Briatore after qualifying, just before the race, firstly saying that every race should be a birthday race, because it was his birthday on Sunday and they scored points. But then he also came back and said that Pierre Gasly did a great job in qualifying. Jack DeWin did a normal job in qualifying.

[00:04:05] So it's like, it's been a weekend where there's been so many refreshing stories and observations that have come out. And still, Formula One has come out with a banger of race. People might look at that and go, ah, boring, lights to flag, feroscopy, ashtray, very simple. But there was so much more. And a lot of it, I get a feeling, is tyres. Like, they were the main culprits. I don't know if I'd call them the culprits or the heroes of the race, I would say.

[00:04:35] I know you call it very nicely, the soft lasted as long as the hards and went even quicker than the hards over a longer stint, as we saw drivers being forced to do that. It's hard to be soft sometimes, yeah. You don't always have to be that hard. You don't always have to be. I think it's a function of the track layout, the track surface, the track characteristics itself. And like we said, or like I said in the solo preview that I was forced to do, because you were busy with Red Bull in Chennai and Sundaram was busy at the Bahrain Grand Prix itself.

[00:05:05] But, of course, not complaining. I loved the solo. It was a great opportunity. But like I said, you know, it's at the end of the day, one of the best circuits to drive modern Formula One race cars on. And I think the circuit just came alive, especially when you think of it, Samuel, Suzuka was the exact opposite. Okay. Suzuka was like the snooze fest. And who would have imagined this 20 years ago?

[00:05:28] Imagine Suzuka, the ultimate driver circuit, bored all the fans to an extent where you were like, oh, it's a qualifying race. There's no overtaking problems with the cars, with physics and whatever. And then suddenly you come to Bahrain of all places, Bahrain, which has got not even an ounce of the character and history as Suzuka does, delivering a panger. Not saying that any of these are correlated, but yeah. I think it now does, Kunal, when you come to think about it.

[00:05:54] Like I was just prepping for the race and I thought, oh, each corner has history. Like turn one, I think of Michael Schumacher. I think of Mal Bernardo and Gutierrez. Turn four, I think of Leclerc, Verstappen, Rosberg, Hamilton. Turn 12, I think of, not turn 12, what's that double left-hander? I forgot the name. Yeah, that... 8-9 sequence. Yeah, a lot of them. You're just breaking further, rotating, going onto the back straight. Exactly. I think of Fernando Alonso. I think of so many other drivers locking up there.

[00:06:21] Every corner has memories attached to it now. It's actually building up character, the circuit. Including an eerie memory when Esteban Ocon went off in qualifying and that turn two, three sequence, you know, just accelerating up. He went on the other side of the circuit on the left, whereas Roman Groszor went on the right side through the barriers and Binbo, as he calls it, was born that day. I mean, great memories. A man has been crashing out at turn number one in his first ever Formula One race. You remember that also?

[00:06:51] It's, my God, have we started to fall in love with Bahrain? Hmm. I would say I always loved the circuit since I got to drive on it in a Formula BMW, which is like a Junior Formula 3 car. And I was, I would say it's a great circuit. It's fun eventually. And yeah, I think maybe we're all in love with Bahrain. And I must go back in history because when the first race was happening,

[00:07:19] those were the days of Facebook community and Facebook pages. So for all of y'all following the Aston Martin Facebook page, actually, that was, you know, started by me, if I may call it that, you know, 20, 22 years ago as Force India or whatever. Yeah. Whatever. It was called Club Force at that time because you wanted to say club of all the fans were called Club Force. Anyway, the point I'm trying to get at is there was something called as a wall. You could go and write on a wall.

[00:07:48] And Bahrain was seeing human rights protests. And I remember going to sleep and then waking up one day and suddenly it's like 200, 300, maybe 5,000 comments. And you could, the only way you could do it was disable public posting on the wall. So fans couldn't really speak to you because there were, you know, there were those issues where people were wondering why is Formula 1 racing year when human rights violations, et cetera, it happened. There was something that had happened at that time. I don't remember. Pardon me. It's not that I'm ignorant. I just have. The Arab Spring.

[00:08:17] Yeah, must be. Because when you were in Force India, that's what happened over there. Lots of unrest in the Middle East. Lots of people fighting against, let's say, the existing powers. Let's put it that way. Yeah, that was a big thing. And then I think it was a few years later, several years later, the Force India cars were blanked from the broadcast. Okay. It's not a humble brag. It's just some stories. Come on, Krishna. But thank you. Okay.

[00:08:45] The Force India cars were blanked from the broadcast because something somebody in the management had said at that time about, something about Formula 1. And it was Bernie Eccleston. He just told the camera people, the minute you see a Force India car, do not put it on TV. And guess what? We didn't get any coverage for that race. I think we did score points. But anyway. Yeah, neither did Oscar Piastri this weekend because he was just running away with it. He was flying.

[00:09:11] I think I only caught him twice or thrice on the broadcast. And it was strange. At some point, I was struggling to find George Russell also because his transponder kept giving up. And I was just thinking, is this guy on? Is he pitting early? Have they given up on the soft tires with only two laps? What's going on here? What are they doing? But then he survived, which was probably one of the drives of the day. But I think we should address what the people are saying because we have some lovely viewers. And thank you, everyone, for watching and commenting.

[00:09:41] And I'd like to start off with what Shorya said because we normally tend to have an order that we love to follow. But this is life. And you are live with us. So we're not going to let your comments sit back for a long time. Shorya is saying Norris is not looking very confident. Has he ever looked confident, Kunal? I think it's a very personal thing, right? Just the way he communicates to himself, the way he speaks. Very self-deprecating British humor. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing.

[00:10:10] But yeah, clearly qualifying was off. And that really set the momentum for the entire weekend in a negative spiral for him. And he's been saying the car's quake. Oscar's doing a great job. It's just me who's not clicking. And just probably goes to show that this particular McLaren, the way you're extracting lap time, is a little different than what Norris is comfortable with.

[00:10:36] And Samuel Watts also happened is I think Oscar has made that step forward. And because he's made that step forward, it's forcing Norris to also sort of make that step forward. And he said something very interesting. He said, the more you start pushing, the more lap time that goes away from you as well. So I would say Norris is not looking confident in this McLaren, which is also Oscar Piastri is making Norris not look confident.

[00:11:05] I would put it that way. That's a very valid point. That's a very valid point. Because of just how ice cold he was. I thought maybe at the restart, Oscar might flinch. But then I was reminded that this guy is one of the most special talents. And Krishna has pointed out, not just the talks, he struggled a lot with late breaking in the first corner and locked up multiple times. That's actually very true. And you know, this brings me back to a lovely piece that Mark Hughes did after qualifying. And God bless him. What a guy.

[00:11:34] What amazing observations he's able to pull out. We're all big fans of him. But it turned out that Norris' style is somewhat contradictory to what Paharain requires. Not my words. I'm not a driver coach. I'm not a driver analyst. Just a very big fan who loves reading his in-depth pieces. But Mark Hughes pointed out, Kunal, that Norris, and this is something he's pointed out for years now, he's a driver who loves trail braking into corners quite a fair bit.

[00:12:02] There's a very, very small, let's say there's barely any difference between his braking and turning. And it's all very smooth, all very in one momentum and in one motion. Whereas Oscar's movements are slightly smoother and slightly more separated. That's all good for Lando at a circuit where there are high-speed flowing corners. But in a place like Bahrain where you need more traction and where rare stability is something that Lando loves, that can be a bit of an issue. And that's why qualifying didn't really go very well for him. That's why he couldn't find the balance.

[00:12:30] And that's why McLaren actually wanted to tweak something in the car, which I believe they did this time, to make sure that they don't have as much front deck when Lando trail brakes and makes those movements. So I was just fascinated by that side of it and how that could potentially have also impacted Lando's performance, apart from the mental side of things, which is also 50% of it, I believe. But Somal, key question from the race, should we be writing Lando Norris off? He said, you know, he should be quicker.

[00:12:59] He said he's surprised he himself is leading the driver's championship, et cetera, et cetera. Would you write him off? One word, yes or no? No chance. No chance. No chance. You mean he will bounce back and he will make Oscar Piastri look a little average just the way he was made to look average all through the race weekend in Bahrain? Not average. Again, that's a very... Is that what you think? Are you pushing on it? No, I'm just kidding. But with Lando,

[00:13:28] I think it's a very circuit-specific thing also. Just wait for it. Wait for the circuits that fit his style. And now you naturally end up saying, hey, a good racing driver should adapt to every single circuit in the best way possible, which is true. They should. And that's what makes them world champion material. But the margins are so fine that if things are going slightly all right and slightly away from what you like and your teammate is just that good and the rest of the cars are so close as well, just being a tenth and a half away could mean that you're now sixth

[00:13:57] instead of second, which would be the case in 2023 or 2022 if you were Sergio and Max. So, no, I don't think Norris has fallen off that bad. Just wait for it. I wouldn't write him off. Would you? Well, I wouldn't write him off, but I definitely don't think McLaren have two number one drivers going forward. Because if you were to look at the law of averages, four races, Oscar Piastri has been there in every single race, every single session that's mattered. Norris hasn't. And, you know, your favorite driver,

[00:14:25] Carlos Sainz, actually said Australia, whatever happened, what was it, China? And then I can't remember races. Suzuka were all front limited circuits. Okay. Something that Norris doesn't like. Okay. And that Bahrain was a proper or a real, real limited circuit. Something Norris really likes, which means it sort of works to his advantage. But through all these types of circuits, Oscar's been there or thereabouts. Actually, not even thereabouts. He's the one who's been there.

[00:14:54] His average qualifying position is 1.75. Okay. Norris's is 3.0. What I mean is, yeah, I think Norris is going to realize that Oscar Piastri is just the better driver. That's what's going to happen. That's what's already happening. And McLaren are soon going to stop saying we have two number two drivers or number one drivers. That's my meaning. Because what you said, I actually, I hold that, you know, if you're a world champion driver, there are a couple of things that, you know,

[00:15:23] you learn as have you. It's not just me, but I'm just saying it, right? Yeah. First is you get one mistake that you can make in a world championship season. That's usually what people say. This was over a 16, 18 race season. Fine. You've got 24. Maybe you can make two. Fair enough. Okay. And the second thing is on a bad day, you should still be maximizing points. Okay. Lando Norris said he should be finishing second. I think him not finishing second in Bahrain is a failure.

[00:15:56] I'm not, I'm not defending him. I'm not justifying him. I'm just saying that because the grid is so competitive, I think even your worst days look, your worst days look even worse because everyone's that close. And because qualifying is just so important, your failures might seem even bigger. So for Lando, I mean, if this was, to be fair to him, if this was 2022, 23, or maybe some earlier year in the mid-2010s,

[00:16:26] he still would have qualified second, still could have had a shot in the race, still could have done something on Sunday. And yes, he had a great first lap and yes, he made it all work. But then again, P6 is too far to start from and you're just losing momentum. So you're right. You cannot make more mistakes like this and it needs to improve. But just that, just that, yeah, as you rightly mentioned, your bad days can't be that bad. And Oscar's not been doing that. Oscar's been super flat in terms of his performance. Super consistent

[00:16:54] is the way I'd like to put it. And I think that's what will ultimately get him there. A world championship is won on having lesser bad results than more good results. Because KK Rosberg proved that in 1982. One champion, one race win, but still became world champion. So, tells you all you need to know. And, and you spoke of his race again. Isn't it, isn't it one of those rookie mistakes or whatever you call it, you know, not getting the basics right to be outside of a grid slot.

[00:17:24] He jumped a slot, he jumped his grid outside and then boom, gone. And he knew he had to nail an opening lap. It was the best opening lap Lando Norris has driven in recent times, him actually going forward. But guess what? It was a false start. And, you know, I agree. Do you think he, had you not made the false start, he would have still had such a great lap? Or do you think the false start sort of just helped him get there? Being out of position. Very marginal. I don't know. Again, I'm not the right person to comment on that. Sure,

[00:17:54] sure, it must make a marginal difference. And I think five seconds is a decent penalty. But, I don't know. From all the drivers I've spoken to, and again, they're national championship drivers, not world championship level drivers. They say that that much doesn't make that much of a difference. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and, you know, at the end of the day, I would say, I'm excited to see how Lando Norris bounces back, takes the battle to PS3, because that's what we eventually want as well, right?

[00:18:22] And I had this tweet on my Twitter page, and somebody said, Lando Norris's race start lap was so good that it was deemed illegally, and he had to get a penalty for it. That's how good his race start. So, it was a good one. But Oscar Piastri, we have not spoken about him, even though he almost became the leader of the world championship, which is, which is sooner or later going to happen, is my reading. But what a drive, calm,

[00:18:52] composed, I would say, sarcastic, funny, whatever you call it. And, you know, we hosted an event yesterday at Carl's in Oslo, in central Oslo, and I actually called this out in predictions. I said, Oscar's going to run away with it. He's going to control the pace. There were about 120 people, 110 people watching the race with us. And the battles are going to be all behind him, and that's literally what happened. He just took off, controlled the race, and this is the same Oscar Samuel,

[00:19:22] who we last year said needs to learn still how to manage his tyres. Just shows how hard he has worked in the winter to sort of get into this position where suddenly Oscar Piastri, just 50 races in into Formula 1, is dominating Formula 1. And he has as many wins as Lando Norris, if you count the sprint also. Just saying. But I feel that's also an important metric to count. Not overall, but it shows you that

[00:19:50] when given a winning position, he's a driver who can make it count, which is a very, very rare skill. You see so many drivers struggling in that position, and they say, I need to learn how to win. I need to understand how to handle the pressure. Not him. Not him. 100% pole to win record, Kunal. Sure, we've only had two races, but that's honestly unbelievable from Oscar Piastri. And he's coming up strong on his words. He said last time out there, I want to be better in qualifying, or I need to be better in qualifying.

[00:20:21] Now, he's done that. He's taken pole position and he's absolutely smashed it out of the park. McLaren have a fun problem. And I'm just so excited to see Jeddah and how everything goes on here. It's a very, very, very interesting circuit. Norris loves his sharp front rotation. Jeddah is a circuit, but you need a lot of that. And it's going to have consequences if you don't have a good qualifying lap, which means the pressure will be extra high.

[00:20:50] So, I think it's fun all the way around, especially when we have other drivers like George also in the mix. You know, you remind me of Zac Brown right now. He was asked about how cool was Oscar's lap, okay, and how cool was his race when. And he said something nice about Oscar only to bring in Lando Norris as well. You're being like that parent saying, no, no, I have two kids, so even I can never talk up one kid. I will bring up the other kid, even if the other kid didn't do too well. Trust me, Samuel, this is that time when we just

[00:21:19] have to bask in what Oscar Piastri has put out there. He's put out one of those races that some of the greatest of drivers have done. Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, take it up front, control it. And I know we're going to look forward to Jeddah and you will repeat what you said about Lando Norris as well, which you should very well. But literally, this is all about Oscar Piastri and how so fantastically well he drove. Not a single foot wrong this entire weekend from what I can remember, Samuel. And one question that

[00:21:49] actually again came up was why could Lando Norris not overtake George Russell despite being in a McLaren, despite having DRS? Well, there's a very simple answer to it. Mercedes had the fastest straight line speed of the top three teams or the top four teams. And George Russell just used it to his advantage out there in the race itself. And this is despite George having steering wheel issues. And he said after the race, you know, he was so afraid to make changes in case you couldn't revert those changes.

[00:22:19] The changes were suboptimal despite having a brake by wire issue where he was not sure how long his brakes would go. I think fantastic stuff because yes, there was a safety car which brought bad luck to pretty much everybody in the field. But George Russell's race was, I think, three situations he's always dealing with. First is, of course, a safety car. Second is all these issues that he was facing with his steering wheel. And third is always like, oh, if Max is having a bad race, he's going to Mercedes. There's always that chant that happens. Exactly.

[00:22:50] Exactly. Someone give him his flowers, man. He's been so good this year. And there are rumors that he's going to get a $30 million contract. Yeah, sure. Get it, George. George. You've earned the bad, dude. You've been incredible. Before we go to Saran's comment, and it's a lovely one. I really want to bring it up. I also want to highlight where Russell's actually been so good. And it's been qualifying. Like, he qualified on the front row more than Max

[00:23:19] Verstappen has done this year, which is saying quite something. I know car also helps. But still, I wouldn't say that the Mercedes is also a phenomenal car. They're closely matched with the Red Bull in terms of just how bad they are. And the bad days with the Red Bull are worse. But even then, he was out qualifying Lewis consistently last year. And that pace he's able to bring in. I hear it's from the tyre warm-up. Fair play. I mean, that's incredible if Russell is just absolutely able to nail that. And then having a better grid slot,

[00:23:48] it just makes things even better. So, I think he's finally becoming that alpha driver. And Krishna said, last season, Merck had the slow straight-line speed. Right now, compared to top three teams. How were Merck able to turn it around that quickly? Is it... A lot of it could be down to set-up also and balance because a lot of the stuff that we have seen on a Formula One car is just what we see externally, like above. But there's a lot of stuff that's happening below the

[00:24:18] car as well on the floor. And that can also change things. And also underneath and inside the car in terms of balance, in terms of suspension, how the car handles, how it manages things around. And then you can change so many different things around it. So, if a car is behaving more stable, let's put it that way, then you can afford to sort of take off a little bit of wing, take a little bit of downforce, make it slightly leaner, less drag. So, maybe something like that is what Mercedes could have done. Also, we have to remember, and I'm just reading out what Krishna said, is how

[00:24:48] are they able to turn it around? You have to remember, it's not a turn it around that happens. All packages have different ways they extract lap time. In Bahrain, McLaren was quickest in the medium speed corners, which is usually a lot of corners that Bahrain has built off. Ferrari was quicker in the slower and the traction heavy corners. That's how they extract their lap time and Mercedes was quickest on those straights. So, it's just different parts of the circuit that everyone's, you know, sort of extracting more performance from.

[00:25:18] But, Abhishek, is asking an interesting question on Mercedes' top speed. Do you guys think Lando should have waited till turn three instead of going around the outside at turn one? Well, I put it this way, that, you know, when there is a battle that's happening, both drivers engaged in the battle are displaying a high level of intelligence. Okay, when you want your rival to come alongside you, when you want your rival to never be alongside you and so on. So, much of what we probably saw

[00:25:47] of Lando trying to go on the outside was also George being okay with that because there is an immediate direction change that happens in turn two and three. So, that was one. So, it was that. And second, I still think, like I said a few minutes earlier, that at the end of the day, the Mercedes straight line speed was just so much better that, you know, George Russell was not catchable. The only thing that could catch George Russell was actually the sensors by the FIA. That was pretty much it. But I must say, Somila, I'm surprised.

[00:26:18] You know, that penalty that happened with George Russell and the DRS. Firstly, fantastic stuff by the FIA. The telemetry was brilliant. They actually counted every meter that the DRS was open. Firstly, they said the manual activation actually was also the activation for the radio with the team. So, he pressed it and it was open. Then they said that on a 700 meter DRS zone that was available, George had it open for 37 meters, which was a 0.02

[00:26:47] second gain on that lap. And then he said the minute George realized that, the next couple of corners, he let go of a 0.2 advantage. I mean, can you imagine as drivers you're battling, you're chasing, you're making sure nobody chases you, you're having all these issues and then you're like, ah, I need to give up two tenths the next corner and I just know exactly how to give up two tenths and not three or one. And I think that was pretty fantastic by George Russell in every way out there. But the second

[00:27:17] thing where I'm a little surprised he didn't get a penalty, Samuel, was he started stripping in the cool-down room. Okay. I am pretty sure, I am pretty sure Mohammed bin Salam is looking at it and being like, okay, you know what? This is not permitted. I'm going to make sure the gag order actually falls in line and nobody actually strips in that cool-down room. But... Why is it called a cool-down room then? Let the drivers... You are the ones putting the camera

[00:27:45] there in a room where the drivers are actually supposed to relax if you have a problem with it. I don't know. I was about to say something that I shouldn't say on a live stream, but yeah. You can complete my sentence. Yeah. I don't know, man. But George Russell, you know, what a fantastic driver. He's the only driver to have had a top-five result in every session this season, every competitive session. This is by F1 guy, Daniel

[00:28:15] Valente, who I think likes... I love his stats as well. And also, I think this is George Russell's 14th consecutive point scoring that he's done in his career, the highest streak that he's hit. And of course, we spoke of Oscar Piastri, but Piastri has also been, I think it's his 30th point scoring finish that Oscar Piastri has. So 50 races, but out of which last 30 he's been in the points or something like that. Yeah.

[00:28:45] So consistent, so smooth, just so good. Abhishek has pointed out that can't help but point out what a great first sector at Bahrain for proper side-by-side action. I know, man, it's had so many iconic moments. We just discussed this earlier, right? We had Alonso versus Rosberg, Rosberg versus Hamilton, Leclerc versus Verstappen, Antonelli versus Verstappen, Norris versus Leclerc. Leclerc versus Hamilton as well, I suppose, in 2019 for a brief period.

[00:29:14] So it's amazing. It's turning out to be a great one. But I want to turn the conversation around to focus more on what Sarang has said, our producer Sarang, who's now producing from the YouTube chat. So great to see you here, Sarang. I hope you're doing well. Also, one narrative that I felt you could debunk on show, discuss on show. Wow, I'm sleepy. One narrative that I felt you could discuss on show and debunk is redundancy. Is Kimi becoming the youngest driver to lead a Formula One lap? Do stats like this and most laps led without

[00:29:43] a win actually matter, especially when you get absolutely no points for it? So why this obsession to hand a rookie and empty platter to bang on? Well, it's a stat. It's not all stats are meant to be meaningful. It's just an observation. So I think it makes it holds no value that particular line like the youngest driver to lead a lap because theoretically you could do what Antonio Giovinazzi did at Singapore a few years ago and just

[00:30:13] stay out absolutely long for no apparent reason and end up cycling out of the points and still be there and have more laps led than any other driver artificially. But what difference does it make? Yeah, as you rightly pointed out, Sarang, it doesn't really matter. But I wouldn't blame the statisticians. I wouldn't blame the people pointing it out because it's an observation. And if you don't state the obvious, you're missing out on the story. So yeah, I think that's... And we have to remember, Musseris is hell bent on proving

[00:30:43] this guy is the next Max Verstappen. Formula One has, and for that matter, any sport, if you notice, there is a constant churn of heroes, right? And that happens with very conscious hero building. The broadcasters, the media, the tournaments themselves, the drivers themselves are all hero building. I would think that barring Flavio Briatore, all other 10 team principals or team bosses are extremely proud of their drivers.

[00:31:12] We'll call them the best heroes they can find. And that's the thing. But yes, it's pointless. A lot of these things are crazy, especially youngest this, youngest that. There are so many things that are different and people just get trolled after a point. But Kimi Antonelli, since we are on him, he said something damn cute. If I may call it that, given that he's just about 18 and it's okay to call somebody cute. He said this was the first time I got undercut. Okay.

[00:31:42] Yeah. And he was pretty pissed and he said I'm going to review this with the team. I could have gone longer, etc. And he also, for the first time again in 2025, that's his debut season, showed certain characteristics of being a rookie. He cycled through his tires much faster because it's a high degradation circuit. He put him on a three-stopper. He was the only driver in the, not the top 10, but either way, only driver apart from I think Carlos Sainz who did a three-stop

[00:32:12] race, but eventually just circled out of the points because he got undercut by several drivers out there, including the Ocon and Pierre Gustleys of the world. But good learning for him. But that takes me to the fact that the safety car was bad luck for pretty much everyone. I'm yet to come across a single driver who said actually I benefited from the safety car. And after a point I was making... Max? Did he? Yeah. Didn't he? Because he would have been out of the points for sure. But,

[00:32:43] oh no, actually. Yeah, he was able to hold track position as a result, right? But when all the drivers ahead of him stopped, he was able to hold on and then he's Max Verstappen. So he was able to maintain his tyres till the end. But I think Max benefited a bit. Ocon benefited a bit also because the Haas is just so good in terms of tyre management and he just boxed right before it. So he was able to make good use of it as well. But there were so many other drivers who just lost out as a result, didn't they? Sonoda a bit,

[00:33:13] Doohan a bit, Antonelli for sure. Yeah, there's several of them that pretty much, which I think Alexander Albin said that he was also one of those who missed out on the safety car. And the Ferraris, how can you forget? Because they were running really strong on the mediums and their medium was cut short as well. They were forced to go into a hard tyre. But Max Verstappen, quick word on that. Hero in Suzuka with Red Bull Racing, Zero in Bahrain, if we may call it that. But it was just one of those races where

[00:33:42] the package just didn't deliver. It was extremely hot. He said everything was overheating all the time. Brakes were a struggle for him. Tire degradation was high. Something the Red Bulls don't like either. And I think what made news even more was that Raymond Vermeule and Max's manager was in a heated argument apparently. I love how everything is behind closed doors but in a glass building and just three people sitting and chatting and you think it's a calm chat and I think it's a screaming chat. And both of us could be right. Both of us could be wrong. But Twitter, of course, likes to say that they were screaming at each other.

[00:34:11] But I'll be surprised if suddenly it's chat of hey, things are not working out because seven days ago we won the race but now that we didn't, it's not working out. They probably knew this was a struggle which tells me Andrea Stella said that Bahrain would be McLaren's biggest challenge of all the races in the first half of the season and we saw how big a challenge it was out there. And I think Red Bull would of course be very shocked. I don't know what is more shocking, Red Bull being as slow as Alpine

[00:34:40] or Alpine being as fast as Red Bull. Exactly. Max had to make a last lap move to make that happen and I think Max had the quote of the weekend. He said this is a driver's championship for the McLaren drivers. I'm not competing. I'm just participating. No, come on Max. Don't say that Max. You know Max has also become very stoic recently. He's very stoic, very pragmatic. Just saying all the practical things that we can see but then he'll pull out a

[00:35:10] banger of a performance and find himself right back. And I still think we're awaiting one Weber versus Vettel moment from the McLaren drivers. At some point they will crash. They will crash, of course. But when have two teammates on an equal level never crashed? I can't think of one. Hamilton, Alonso? Okay, they clashed, not crashed. Vettel, Weber in their early days, very equal.

[00:35:39] Then they of course had a similar thing. Hamilton, Button, Canada, 2011. clean. They were too clean. Yeah, exactly. But that was one instance. But they're too clean. Who else? Who else? Verstappen and Ricardo as well. 2018, Baku. Rosberg, Hamilton. Of course. That's iconic. And then Verstappen, Ricardo, like you said, 2018 as well. It all places happened, yeah. At least one or two of those moments are bound to happen this year.

[00:36:08] So don't count out, Max. Yeah. Krishna is asking for the impossible. Okay. He's saying, can we keep a track of what's happening in FPs and how each team is performing a quick race pace breakdown based on FP data? Maybe on Saturday afternoon. Would it be great? Actually, it is possible. We do do that amongst ourselves. Somal prepares for the F1 official broadcast in Hindi with fan code. I do my preparations for what I do with Wireplay and our qualifying reactions.

[00:36:37] Maybe we could bring that in the qualifying reaction. We could just have a chat about it. And well, Sadhana is saying there should be a double episode. You guys did not give us a preview. My goodness. Thank you. Yes, we did not do a preview. We couldn't. We couldn't. We were just. Thank you for pointing that out. Yeah. And if you don't mind, I could just do a preview as a solo next time because I realized a lot of people wrote in saying where's the preview? Thank you for that, Sadhana, as well. But quickly, wanting to move on, Somal.

[00:37:08] Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda had slow stops, not because the crew didn't perform. Well, okay, when Max's front right was stuck for a few seconds and he was busy nodding like that, which happens. But they had, you know, pit stop gantry lights malfunctioning. Okay. All it needed was Jonathan Wheatley to go make his debut at Sauber on the 1st of April and then promptly two races later, they had a pit stop lights issue malfunctioning, which is strange. These things happen. Yeah.

[00:37:38] But one of the reasons he couldn't showcase his magic was just because, you know, I think Max's magic comes out when there isn't such high degradation or where there's inclement weather. When races run as they standard did, the package, you know, is where the driver finds a limitation and that's where the limitation literally came in out there. But his spatial awareness is still spot on, Somal. In Suzuka, he knew when Lando Norris

[00:38:07] jumped the pit lane speed limiter earlier on. Or at least he said that on the radio. And then in, where did we race again? Bahrain. He was like, Lando's outside of his start grid box. I love that he was able to sort of place all these things. It's incredible, you know, when drivers are able to do this. Unbelievable. I was surprised at how composed he was. You could be panicking, you could be in your own zone, you could be in your own head. And it's only natural, right?

[00:38:36] Some people might like to use that moment to say things to themselves or just get in the zone. But Max was looking at Lando, which is something that Frans Stost referenced on that amazing episode we had with him just last week about how Max has reached enlightenment as a racing driver, the level five of awareness. So after knowing a lot more about the tires, about the aero, about the engine, about everything else, you start to notice things about your rivals, which

[00:39:06] is the last level of awareness a racing driver unlocks. And Max just has that. And it's beautiful that we get to see it every single race weekend. But before we go, Kunal. No, one sec. There's one thing we need to ask Frans Stost. When does a driver achieve sainthood? Because you saw Vettel with four titles suddenly became a Saint Sebastian Vettel. We've seen that with Lewis Hamilton as well. Best fans. I'm so grateful for these chances, life, opportunity, etc., etc. Max is going down that

[00:39:36] preaching mode as well. And I'm not saying it's bad. I love this side. You get into the sport, you're hungry, you want to win everything you can. Then you realize you are winning everything. And you're like, oh my God, there is more to life than just winning everything I can. And I love seeing this transformation in real time as it happens in front of all of us. And my mind goes back to, I think it was 2019, Hamilton swapped with Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton was chasing Vettel at Hungary in the Drivers' Championship.

[00:40:05] And then he said he would swap back if he can't chase Vettel down. And he did swap back despite losing our points. So these things happen only when you also have an inner sense of security with everything you've done in life, all the achievements you've had. So that's what probably Max Verstappen was showing. Another sense of insecurity that everyone's probably had is Ferrari's tire strategy. They came good in the race. Again, they were undone by the short medium tire stint. They were planning to do

[00:40:34] medium, medium soft, but they were forced to do a medium, medium hard. They started on the medium with Leclerc on the front row, which was a bit of a surprise. He lost some track positions. But I guess they just thought that spending more time on the medium tire was best for their performance or their performance limitations, whichever way you call that as well. But we saw Hamilton overtaking Lando Norris at the restart. I pretty much loved that. I still have these visuals of the main straight.

[00:41:04] Lots of cars just sparking. Nikos was sparking a little more because his skid blocks were more worn out. But lots of sparking that was happening on the main straight of Bahrain. Exactly. One comment by Abhishek, Ferrari strategy selection section. Wrong again by forcing themselves with no options for the third stint by going medium, medium in the first two. Also, could they have gone

[00:41:33] softs like George? They did have you softs remaining. I think they were more confident on the mediums. I think they must have calculated that this is where we're able to survive. It's a general conservative estimation to go to, right? That you'd rather go on the harder tires to get a better idea. And yeah, some might say they were wrong by going on the medium, medium initially. But then maybe they could you could also frame it

[00:42:02] around saying that they were playing to their strengths. They were playing their best cards early to see how high they could be. And just sort of offsetting everyone, seeing if they could get track position. And in the middle stint, just waiting and watching. And then, of course, if a safety car comes in, you have the option to do whatever. I don't think they had the trust on the soft compound tires as much. Maybe one could say that they could have sort of looked at the others and then made a judgment call. But at that stage, nobody had really done lots of laps on the softs. It was only in the last time that we discovered that, hey, they can

[00:42:32] actually go that long. So I'm not entirely sure if that was a mistake, mistake per se. But yeah, it boxes you in if you only have one set of tires left. And Ferrari, they got stuck. They got stuck when they exhausted both of their mediums. Yeah. And I think a lot of that safety car timing, apart from just timing in the stint, it came at the end of the race where you're like, okay, we've just put all the best tires out there because you don't want to also do the reverse where you leave your best tires

[00:43:01] out and you're like, oh, but the safety car didn't come. So that's probably what that is what happened with. So Mercedes was forced onto the soft while the Ferrari was so forced onto the hard because they were just struggling with the tire allocations for the weekend. But how was it that George was able to do it that too in Bahrain? And I think I think the reason why George was in my mind able to do it is like Oscar Piastri said at the restart, sorry, something with my throat,

[00:43:30] but at the restart, George Russell positioned himself in a way that he wasn't even going to attack Oscar Piastri for the win. So Oscar knew that and that sort of helped him at the restart. But George also made sure that he drove in a way that he could stretch his tires. And then following is one thing, overtaking is another thing altogether. And that's where I think Lando Norris just got and ended up using a lot of his tires because he lost positions at the restart as well. So George being able to

[00:43:59] make that happen was actually sensible driving where he just said, I'm going to bank in this second place and see where it takes me in the Drivers' Championship later on. Okay, before we end, last thing, Somal, I know you are extremely impressed with the Haas. They've overtaken Williams for fifth place in the Constructors' Championship. Both the drivers had a very short stint on the

[00:44:28] softs and then they just made the two-stopper work. I love how Haas is delivering Somal despite having two different drivers, you know, who in the fourth race itself they've had two double points finishes already. And Esteban Ocon is certainly not, you know, making Haas and all of us miss Nico Hulkenberg and his heroics from last year. Yeah, Haas just need a type of driver, which is the super mature but

[00:44:57] super aggressive veteran of the sport. But they had two of them last year and for the last couple of years because they had trauma from all the rookies earlier. Now I think they've finally gone for the right driver pairing. And it's incredible what Behrman can also do that early. They needed a Kamikaze type of driver and he's just that. Qualifying, sure, didn't go out of plan, but his first lap was unbelievable and I'm very impressed. I'm very impressed by that. Yeah, and you know, first lap was unbelievable.

[00:45:27] I think he's pulled off five overtakes on the first lap and then at the safety car restart, he took on the softs and he overtook two more drivers. I think it was Duan and somebody else. I can't remember. Somebody who didn't score points. But he overtook Carlos Sainz. Was it Carlos Sainz? Anyway, he's pulled off all those overtakes and sort of made that happen as well. But fantastic showing. Also fantastic showing by Lance Stroll. No points for two races in a row, but he's still

[00:45:57] 10th in the World Drivers Championship out there. But yeah, just all in all, I'm getting used to having F1 for so many races, Samuel. Every weekend there's a race. There's a race coming up in Jeddah this weekend as well. I'm waiting to see if Lewis Hamilton will finally give Mohamed Ben Sulaim a hug. He saw Hamilton just walk past him this time. But yeah, it was great.

[00:46:26] And we'll look to see if Lando Norris is able to bounce back. Exactly. It will be a fun race in Jeddah. And we will discuss all of it and a lot more for the Jeddah preview. Let's see if we can do that live also. We'll see if we can schedule it according to all of our schedules. I think this weekend should be easier because all three of us are home. Last weekend, all three of us were traveling. But yeah, but thank you for the continued patronage everyone. It's incredible to have so many of you constantly

[00:46:56] just have a word with us constantly. Krishna, Abhishek, Sadhana, all of you lot. Sarang, Sharia. Thank you. Thank you for coming on. But before you guys all go, here's a question for you, Samuel. Was there any driver who did not pull off an overtake or be engaged in battle in Bahrain? If you don't know the answer, write it back to us on social media because by my reckoning, every single driver was engaged in a battle in Bahrain. That's our classic. Wrong.

[00:47:25] Oscar Piastri. The only one. That's true. The only one who pulled off 16 seconds in the last 25 laps of the race on the entire field. So he was on a battle of his own, how not to fall asleep, I would say. So the other 19 drivers, was there anyone else? Let us know. Yeah. Krishna says maybe Lawson. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, he got passed. He got passed by Hajar in the first lap. But hey, we could go on and on for hours, but we can't. I'm a Christian.

[00:47:54] Yeah, we literally are. I think we've gone on for an hour almost. But no, I think we should get going as well. We'll be back soon, Krishna. Don't miss us too much. Exactly. Exactly. No, but thank you, everyone. Thank you for watching this post-race review. Catchers on... When are we recording again? Wednesday. Yeah. Wednesday. I just said Wednesday. Maybe we might do Tuesday. We'll let you know. Catch... Is it... Wait, it's Monday already? Yes. Tomorrow's the... Wow.

[00:48:24] Tomorrow's an Oscar Piastri special from France Toss. Look out for that on our channel. We've been holding on to it since last week. That'll be fun. But okay, this is the real goodbye. We'll catch you, everyone. Thank you.