The REAL Lando Norris has arrived | Ferrari-Mercedes team orders in Zandvoort | 2026 Dutch GP Review

[00:00:00] I swear to god I have not seen this version of Lando Norris. This is just something else. He won this race, firstly, on his own, in spite of not being in the best of positions, in spite of having Kimi Antonelli pass him. He won it. And in the last int, Lando Norris looked invincible. To the point that he was on his hard compound tyres and Kimi on his softs just could not do anything to touch him.

[00:00:24] Now, you have to ask the question as well, is it of course a situational thing that the soft compound tyres are just not good enough to make any dent to the hard compound tyres throughout the race? Was it also a Mercedes track characteristic thing? And was it just not good enough this weekend overall? But you also have to put this thing out there, Kunal, that I don't think Lando Norris has ever looked this dominant in a Formula 1 race. And he's won a world championship.

[00:00:47] Yeah, and you know, we were brainstorming, this is a world champion's drive, but we also saw that in Hungary. But to me, this was a drive which you would literally look up to a Schumacher or in this case Max Verstappen. And it's of course, you're playing on the fact that Max had an opening lap crash and he was out of the race. So it was easy to be Max Verstappen because when Max Verstappen's on track, you can't be Max Verstappen, right? So, but I'll put it this way. One of the things I loved about Lando is that he wasn't battling Max.

[00:01:17] He wasn't battling Oscar. Two drivers he battled last year. Very surprising that Oscar was not even in the mix, by the way. And we'll get to that. But he was up against Lewis. He was up against Antonelli. He was up against Russell. And McLaren's upgrade brought the car to him. He used his talent to be in where he should be, which is pole position. He always said, I need to qualify higher up. And he got pole for the Grand Prix.

[00:01:41] And then he made the strategy work in Sunfoot. And there are very interesting things on strategy as well, Somal, which we should quickly get into. But yeah, all in all, what a drive.

[00:01:53] And where was, you know, there's some unlock Lando Norris has had this year, which I believe he didn't even have last year. Last year, he was just trying to hold on to his dear life and that world championship title. And this year, he's saying, it is possible. I'm going to go for it and see where it lands. And that it is his world championship defense, which he didn't have till Hungary.

[00:02:16] No, he didn't. He really was out of it. And now Lando Norris still isn't quite fully in the mix. Let's actually pull up the points table and tell you what the situation looks like. Normally, we tend to do this. But this time, I was like, oh, well, I just need to focus on Lando and the win. But we do have the point standings. And Lando currently is in fourth. He's ahead of Charles Leclerc at 159. Four points ahead of Leclerc. So he's finally jumped him. To Hamilton, there is still a few points left.

[00:02:43] Twenty, what is it? Twenty four points to Lewis Hamilton and to George Russell, who are now tied at 183. And Kimi's now, Kimi's all the way off. What's the gap now? Sixty nine points. Kimi to George Russell. It's ludicrous. I honestly thought Kimi would have the race win in the bag. He looked on course for it. But very surprising that the Mercedes just did not look comfortable on the hard compound tires at all. And it just progressively was able to get worse, Kunal, as the race went on. I thought it would get better with a lighter fuel tank.

[00:03:12] Can you imagine that Mercedes, the most dominant chassis, power unit, even the driver package, if you consider Antonelli, struggled on that hard compound tire. And this actually points to what Toto Wolff has been saying. This is now a development war on upgrades. What are the upgrades McLaren brought in Hungary and in Sanford? Well, this is going to be a little detailed, but very crucial.

[00:03:37] In Hungary, they brought a lot of front of the car upgrades and they supplemented that with a new rear wing and new engine cover in Sanford. And what are they trying to achieve? They're trying to achieve two things. First is aero efficiency. Of course, everyone wants an aero efficient car. So you're quick through all corner ranges. Right now, McLaren is the fastest in high speed corners, medium speed corners, but not really there with very, very slow speed corners.

[00:04:04] So they're trying to correct that. The second Samuel is what we remember from last year about McLaren. They could bring the tires up to temperature fast and then they had some magic in managing rear tire temperature. Yeah. Okay. And I believe that magic is what we saw back this weekend because Mercedes, while they struggled on the hard tire, Lando Norris ran 50 plus laps out of 72 on that hard tire.

[00:04:30] And between the top three teams, there were lots of tire variations of, you know, tires that they had chosen as their prime race tire, which we'll also talk about when we get to Ferrari as well. But that's, that's my reading that McLaren has brought this upgrade and they've made this step and they were definitely the fastest racing car out there, but it didn't come easy. They still had to use strategy to make that win happen.

[00:04:53] Yeah. And be brave and be confident about their hard tires at the end, because a school of thought would be to jump in and cover Kimi Antonelli's move to the softs, but they didn't. They were that confident about Lando's lap times and that worked out, right? Lando was supreme throughout. And yes, there was a more, I think it is the start, right? Where Lando got overtaken by Antonelli and there was some amazing bravery, which by the way, is good for Formula One, because now we've seen overtakes at Sandford consistently.

[00:05:21] So it's a shame that this circuit is leaving. But on the other hand, you also have to look at the cars and be like, hey, if we made it work at Sandford, theoretically, the chassis and the aero side of the cars is a success because this is one of those races where it just did not work out. And the sprint was a prime example of that. So race rating, Weiss Kudal, what are you rating Sandford? What are you rating the Dutch Grand Prix, the final Dutch Grand Prix for now?

[00:05:42] I would say it was like a 9 on 10 or a 10 on 10. It was so entertaining. Even in the midfield, the likes of Nico Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso and the Audis and the likes were, you know, battling. We did not have Max Wischtappen entertaining us. Yeah, we still had a very, very exciting race. And, you know, the bottom line is it was the best send-off race Sun Food could have given us despite having a really poor sprint yesterday.

[00:06:09] So it just goes to show you can have a poor sprint. But at the end of the day, the Grand Prix is what matters. And there were two things in the Grand Prix that stood out for me. Why were the overtakes happening? The first is we didn't really talk about, you know, clipping, super clipping, derating, because this is an energy rich circuit. Okay. Even otherwise, after the sprint race, there was a convergence in the team's energy deployment algorithms. So for the sprint race, they were deploying in different places. But for the race, they were all deploying in similar places,

[00:06:38] which meant that at the end of the straight, when overtakes could happen, drivers were not running out of battery, but they could still be there. They still had energy to get into that braking zone. So that was one reason why this happened. And then the second is there were lots of tire deltas being created. The minute somebody put it, you're like, I'm not going to cover you. I will create a tire delta and I will try and overtake you later, which is very surprising to see because it's a circuit.

[00:07:02] As you know, track position is vital, but drivers were still okay with having the tire delta and then making the overtake happen on track. So very interesting. And I think it was a fabulous race. I don't know what you've rated it. Yeah. 8 on 10 for me. Very, very good. Very solid. Very enjoyable. Felt a bit long from the commentary box, honestly, that the red flag didn't help. And it also didn't help that my AC stopped working midway through. So I was sweating like halfway through the Grand Prix.

[00:07:29] Because you can't turn your AC, you can't turn your fan on, right? There's no other way to work it out during a broadcast. So that was a total workout for you then because you were sweating, adrenaline. And then that red flag was actually very, very long as well. It took like, wow, it's, it's of course. And you know, one of the reasons why it takes long to clear these red flags is they need to make sure that the barrier is repaired up to standard. So if somebody else goes off, it is still safe enough. And it was a very high speed crash that we got to.

[00:07:56] But I mean, I think we should, right? Because that's, that's what I'm seeing is getting like the most traction online. Like I know we have a very, very deep topic to talk about considering Ferrari and their battle and the whole teammate dynamics there. And also Mercedes as well, because Russell and Antnelli had a bit of a scrap and Russell was very unhappy on the radio. We should get to that in a second, but that accident, let's just, let's just talk about it. Because that's what, that's what the world online seems to love the most.

[00:08:25] A driver error from Max Gunal, a driver error from Max. And I said it on air and I don't, I don't regret my words, even though I love Max Verstappen, the driver. It's a rookie error. You don't put your tire on the wet lines. You just, it's a rookie error. Well, well, well, this is where I think I'm going to defend Max Verstappen with a couple of facts. So yes, he put it on the white line, but lots of other drivers were putting it on the white line as well. So it wasn't just him.

[00:08:50] It just so happened that he was on that white line and it went, maybe he went onto the power early because he's Max Verstappen or whatever. But anyway, it could be a battery spike as well, right? Because these things happen. Like you don't know yet. But let me elaborate a little further because I was in the Wireplay studio just as you were, you know, doing fan code commentary duties. And I actually sat to dig through some of the more interesting data that was available.

[00:09:15] So when the rain started falling, the rain was coming from turn one onwards towards turn 14. So it was, so the last part of the circuit to get the rain was turns 13, 14 and that part, which also meant that when the race started, the wettest part of the circuit was that. Okay. So that's why you saw Bortoletto go through whatever and then Max do whatever. So a lot of drivers were twitching.

[00:09:44] So it was at the wettest part of the circuit. And now this is where, you know, Max is Max when it comes to mixed conditions. He's the last one to make an error. But there's another part to this. This was the banked corner, which means that towards the inside, water was actually getting collected more than the outside, which is still fine. But here is where I think I give Max a bit of benefit of doubt that he's been unwell most part of this weekend. Max has not been. Yes, he has not been 100%.

[00:10:10] But that doesn't have a difference on your throttle inputs on the exit of a corner, does it? But look at it this way. What are the mixed conditions need you to be? They need you to be absolutely sharp and prime. Okay. And here is Max, who's probably taken a paracetamol at some point of time in the day or whatever to the weekend to recover. He's not feeling 100%. And then he's in these conditions. I'm not saying that it was not a driver error. But I'm saying there were lots of factors that went into it.

[00:10:38] And if a driver is not 100%, we've got to be a little more gracious in the fact that they made an error. And now I'm going to be labeled as a Max Wishtappen fan, which I don't care. But it's important as broadcasters for you and me, Somal, since we do this with official broadcasters, to state the facts. Now you can make whatever judgment you want on my... It's a driver error. It's a driver error. Absolutely. Yeah, it's a driver error. Again, Flavio's school of thought. It doesn't matter. At the end, did he finish? He didn't. Oops.

[00:11:08] Yeah, it's a bit rare. And I don't recollect if this is... I also remember that spin in Australia at turn number one that Verstappen had. I don't recollect whether that was a driver error or a mechanical thing. Because Silverstone and Austria clearly were mechanical. But a few accidents for Max. That's a good point because he's made these driver errors, which we've not seen, especially in these conditions. He's the one who will actually not make a driver error. So anyway, driver error. But just to say that conditions were different. Nobody else crashed.

[00:11:37] I know Bortolet was spun. But he was also not at 100%. So you've got to just save him a bit of flack on that. But Sarika is here asking, was it Max's error? Yes, it was his error. Or was it a tire case with Lawson earlier in the lap? Well, it was a case. But it didn't bother him, I would say. By the way, what an opening lap by Liam Lawson. Fireworks. Unbelievable. By the way, I'm so happy that today Liam Lawson is in the points in a new car. This is like a completion of the story, right?

[00:12:07] Remember when he was with Red Bull like 12 odd months ago. He only got two races. Didn't start any of them from the grid. Got pulled right back up, right back down rather to Racing Bulls without even a real opportunity to give it a go. And now that we've heard his Beyond the Grid interview and have more perspective on what he... Beyond the Grid and in fact, high performance podcast. Jay Comfrey. Great. Epic, epic interview that one. And we have more perspective on what Liam Lawson felt afterwards. This feels so good, Kunal.

[00:12:33] That he's proven that A, Red Bull can trust him with a big opportunity like this and B, he can deliver. And he was not very far from Max. I think it was a fantastic weekend for him. Notwithstanding that he got a call up. He just had one sim session, seat fit, and then he had to drive. He made it through to Q3, right? He was in Q3, a couple of tenths of Max. He didn't make it to SQ3, which is fine. But then he also made it through to the points.

[00:13:00] For me, this doesn't mean that Liam Lawson will get a call up to Red Bull in the future because I think with Hadjar and Verstappen, they're pretty locked in. But this means that Red Bull now has more data on Liam Lawson, even if it's one weekend, on how he has progressed in the 12 months he's had at Racing Bulls. And should Max want to leave? They know what they could do with Liam. But also, I think it was a great advertisement for Liam to show the other teams that, hey, I'm still good.

[00:13:28] I went into Red Bull and I was matching Max. And I'm there to do the job if you need me. So all in all, great to see him do that. And then since we are talking about him, we should just quickly talk about Yuki Tsunoda. Solid weekend. What an overtake on Pierre Gasly. He loved it. And, you know, he was totally pumped. And he told the team, I so missed being in action. Thank you for this opportunity. And here's to whatever is in the future. And Yuki almost scored points as well. He was 11th in a very chaotic race.

[00:13:56] And to me, what was impressive is both Lawson and Yuki in Newcastle were close to their teammates in qualifying. And this is where I'm going to ask you a question that Max put on the table, which Andrea Stella actually shot down. Max said, these cars are just easier to drive on the limit. Do you think so? I wouldn't know. I haven't driven them. No, but what's your educated guess? Seeing all the data and seeing everything. I know what you study when you do prepare for a race broadcast.

[00:14:23] But these cars are easier to take to the limit compared to last year's cars. And hence, Max actually gave an insight. He said, hence, the gaps between teammates is a tenth or two tenths. And he's like, a bad lap is three tenths. I don't know. That could come from a place of slight bitterness also. I'm going to take it with a pinch of salt. I think so. Max being bitter about Lawson matching him? No, no. Yeah, slightly. I mean, it's... Okay, let's deconstruct what this is, right?

[00:14:52] Let's articulate what this could mean. So why is a car easier to take to the limit? So a car can become harder to take to a limit when the limit is slightly further away, which means that you need to do more to get there, which means more variables. So like warming up the tire in an absolutely perfect way or like condoing in a certain technique to get that car right.

[00:15:13] Maybe this generation of cars is just more forgiving because they're not as heavy on downforce as the last gen, which means the window to take them to top speed is slightly lower. Much lower. 30% lower downforce. Maybe that's where... You're actually going on the right track because firstly, extraction of a lot of lap time is on the straights. And because downforce is lower and you are always worrying about battery deployment... That's what I don't like. You're also not cornering to the limit.

[00:15:41] When you neutered the spas and the sylvestons of the world, it was not the straights that were neutered. It was those corners. It was those corners where somebody driving on the limit, you know, for example, last year's car, which were much quicker in cornering versus this year's car, which are slightly more agile. So I personally believe that's true. It's easier to take these cars to the limit because their limit ceiling is probably lower as well. And hence, it's easier for a driver to just go and hit that limit. Look at Liam Lawson.

[00:16:11] Look at Arvid Lindblad. Look at Yuki Tsunoda. You know, this is where I want to throw a spanner in the works and be like, how much of it is actually the car or how much is it actually just the battery? I was having this philosophical discussion with myself. Like I had an eight hour ride from the east of Sri Lanka to the airport and I was just debating, oh, am I really excited by this Formula One session? And I was like, let me ask myself, why? Why? What's the reason? Why am I not so excited? And it all points down to the fact that I can't attribute where the performance is coming from.

[00:16:40] I can't decipher where the lap time is gained. And that's because the battery has really overwhelmed every bit of it. So maybe if you take the battery off, this car actually becomes tougher to extract lap time from because it's so dancey. Like for the lack of a better word. And let me add two points to that. First is we will never know if your favorite driver did not get a good lap time because a mistake was made in driving or because he used more 1% battery somewhere else. And I hate that. And I hate that.

[00:17:10] So for me, that's one big like, what the hell? How could we find ourselves in a situation like this? And hence, then the second is we don't believe two cars from the same team are equal, even if mechanically they are equal. Look at what happened to George Russell. There's an error in his software code. Okay. That caught him out in spa. AI is being used to be able to decipher how much power goes on when. And I was shocked hearing all of that.

[00:17:37] Hence, if he has the same car mechanically, but the software code is a problem. So what essentially we're trying to get at is, yes, these cars are easier to drive to the limit is where I'm going to put it at. And Andreas Teller's opposite view was actually that because the downforce is, 30% lower, your cornering is slower and you could have to have more feel in the corners. And then, of course, it's dealing with so much of electrical element in the car. But I believe electrical element in the car is controlled by softwares and the engineers.

[00:18:07] It's not that the driver is choosing. Now I will use battery. Now I will use ice. I'll use battery. I'll use ice. I'll do a mix. It's not. It's no longer that. It's what you're given and you're just supposed to drive around it. So anyway, yeah. Very good point because we have access to the live team radios, right? So we're able to sometimes see and hear what they're being instructed to do. And I'll be honest, it's not that much more complicated than what it was a few years ago. It's not remarkably different. Obviously, at the start of the era, we understood the scale of it.

[00:18:36] And drivers actually had to spend a lot of time studying the physics or the electrophysics of the batteries and output. But during the race, the Camars that they're given and all, I think it's pretty standard by that regard. You just told state of charge, choose this, choose engine mode 11 or whatever. You know, they're just standard settings that drivers are. Drivers, of course, know which modes give them more power and which are to conserve power and fuel through the race and so on. So anyway, you know, great work by Sunoda and by Lawson. And how should hire Sunoda, by the way.

[00:19:05] If you're really looking to get Ocon out of the team, which I don't know why you would, because the one weekend his car works, he's able to actually put himself in a strong position. But if you do... That's a great point. Ocon, in 11 races that have happened before the summer, had the same car as Behrman only three races. This is accepted by the team. And in those three races, he actually finished ahead of Behrman. Okay, so if that guy gets boot, which seems increasingly likely... I don't know why.

[00:19:34] It's so unfortunate. Yeah, I don't get the rumors. The guy is literally doing so well. And we saw how there are huge discrepancies within the Haas, right? Like, it's not like they're two same cars. Like, one's here and the other one's languishing at the... Well... Or the other way around, right? Yeah, yeah. Exactly. But we can talk about Haas. Yeah, but before we move on, which is an interesting question from Sarika, saying, is there seniority that decides who is promoted in such times? Could it have easily been Arvid?

[00:20:04] And Red Bull has explained some of this scenario. Because yes, we also agree that it would have been a good scenario to test what Arvid can do in racing bulls. But the mannerism in which this decision was taken was that Arvid is too young to try and get this call up. It was important to let him have his development curve and not get demolished alongside Max and, you know, suddenly realize he's not ready. So that was easy to decide that, yes, Arvid is too young. But we've got Sunoda and Lawson. But we know what quantity Sunoda is from just last year. Okay.

[00:20:34] So hence, why do we not just put him in racing bulls to let racing bulls just have a driver? But to retest Liam Lawson and the change he's made or the progress he's made after having one full season with a Formula One team. So that was the reason why it was decided that Lawson will get the call up and Sunoda will go to racing bulls when they could have just easily just put Sunoda there. But it goes to show Red Bull is not going to leave a single opportunity they get to keep testing their drivers.

[00:21:04] And that's what I love about their DNA. It has not changed despite Newey, Marco, Horner and everyone else leaving. That's just what they do. And Gwen LaGroo has the responsibility of carrying it on. Watch this face. Gwen LaGroo is the same person who had a hand in Kimi Antonelli's journey. I wouldn't say he discovered him. Hand? He had a whole body in Kimi Antonelli's journey. Yeah, it's sometimes hard to attribute, right? Because it's a classic grassroots racing thing where I discovered this talent. I discovered this driver.

[00:21:33] I don't know whether Gwen LaGroo discovered Kimi, but he had a huge role in... So he's admitted he's not the one discovering Kimi, but he was the one who was pointed... He was told that here's the next Ayrton Senna. Everyone tries to find the next Senna and Schumacher and Richter. And then he tracked Kimi at Kart Republic. And the gentleman who runs Kart Republic, Dino Chiesla, is actually somebody I just met a couple of weeks ago in Christian Star. Because he's also interested in running Atikamir next year.

[00:22:01] The 11-year-old junior cutter from India. So the point is, he didn't find Kimi Antonelli, but he's definitely nurtured Kimi Antonelli into who he is today. But yeah, that's about Antonelli. Should we just talk about Antonelli since we're on Antonelli? Yeah, we should. Good. By the way, if you had to rate Kimi's weekend from a driving perspective, Kunal, how much would you put it as? 8 on 10? I'd say 8 on 10. I'd say maybe 7 on 10.

[00:22:31] Because Kimi made a couple of mistakes in sprint qualifying. He made a mistake in qualifying. But he still nailed the start. He was still leading. I mean, maybe I'm being a little harsh. But Kimi probably in that moment when Norris attacked him and he was trying to attack Antonelli, he was trying to attack Lewis at the same time. That was an experience coming to the fore, in my view. How do you place your car in a three-car battle where one is Lewis Hamilton who is almost impossible to overtake? And second is Norris who is ready to pounce.

[00:23:00] And his car positioning was a little questionable. And I'm being very, very critical. I don't mean to sort of pinpoint just that moment. But guess what? That's what you and I have been saying. That when you have a 50-55 points advantage, where are the two areas it could help you? First is reliability, which is what we've seen before. And second is an experience like this. So he's using it well, I would say. And he still scored points more than Hamilton and Russell. And that's who his eyes will always be on.

[00:23:28] Yeah, but by that objective lens, he's done all he had to do this weekend. So you can't fault him that way. But you're right. I wonder if it's an experience or just his tyres letting go that badly. Because you could see the rubber chip away. I think they had this one prolonged shot for 30-40 seconds where they had the back of his tyres visible as Lando was trying to catch up. And I was like, God, that rear tyre looks in bad shape. And there was just some 12 or 13 odd laps into his stint.

[00:23:56] So it looked a little hard. Which I wonder why. I'm very, very curious as to why. But then that brings us on to another talking point. George Russell and that final overtake that eventually turned out to be a swap between the two. Yes, it did make sense for George Russell Kunal to let Antonelli go. Because different strategy. Antonelli was ahead. But I love the fact that Russell asked the question that you're asking me now. Why? Why should I let him go? Why? I was amazed.

[00:24:24] Firstly, I love the fact that Russell asked. I also love the fact that he was the obedient team member at the end. But I love he asked. Yeah, I was like, wow, why is George Russell even doing this? He's in a title fight and he's giving up track position. He's given up whatever number three points. Three points away, right? To Antonelli. 18 versus 15. But there is context to this. So when Ocon brought out the virtual safety car, Antonelli was running second and George was running third.

[00:24:51] And the team used that comfort to let Antonelli pit and protect himself from the two Ferraris who were also pitted. But Russell couldn't have pitted. Because had he pitted, he would have definitely lost track position to the Ferrari. So the team decided to bid both drivers. But they held on to Russell so that he would keep track position. And then when Antonelli got undercut by George Russell, they just decided to swap the two drivers. So that was the reason. I mean, a lot of people, even in the TV studio environment, they go, oh, that's Mercedes showing.

[00:25:20] They are now backing Antonelli for the win and the world championship and number one driver. And I said, no, none of that is true. This is just keeping it fair on track between the drivers. But the second part, which was not broadcast, was Antonelli was told, you'll be within a second ahead of George Russell. And that's why George Russell was asking, is he going to go attack Lando Norris? Okay, and my guess is, if he wasn't going to attack Lando Norris, Russell wanted it to be a second behind so that he would get the overtake to defend against Lewis Hamilton.

[00:25:48] But Kimi Antonelli just ran away with it. And George Russell did a brilliant defense versus Hamilton. And it's important to say why I'm saying brilliant defense because I'm going to read the numbers. Russell was on a 32 lap hard tire. And when we look at all the hard tire usage, 32 Russell, 35 Lynn Blood and 37 Alonso. So one of the longest hard tire stints that ran was Russell.

[00:26:14] And Lewis was attacking him with a 17 lap soft tire. And he managed to keep Lewis behind despite the Ferrari actually being the faster car. Okay, but that's just what it is. So that swap happened and Antonelli got P2 versus George Russell keeping P3. Yeah, and it just was what it was at the end. Russell realizing he was in a tough spot, still did well to hold on to what he did. Sarika with a question.

[00:26:43] Are we close to the part of 2026 where Mercedes decides on one driver unequivocally? I actually asked that same question on the fan code broadcast. I was just, as we say in Hindi, chabi deh ra tha basically. And I was like, is this Mercedes picking someone? Is this Mercedes like finally saying, okay, this guy's ahead, better strategy? I know it isn't, but you've got to ask the question because 69 points is a lot. 69 points. We've got to ask the question. But we've also got to deliver the facts and the answers, which is what we do.

[00:27:12] And Sovic, I know you're waiting with some midfield questions. And we're going to switch to the midfield in a bit. Just wanting to clear off this part about McLaren, Mercedes. We'll get to Ferrari. But just before we switch to Ferrari. There we go. Sovic. Norris seems to have figured out this car better than Piastri. Quite a big delta as of now, entire Deg management as well. And this is so true because we saw in Hungary, Piastri was leading, but he didn't have the pace that Norris was able to extract.

[00:27:41] And we saw this weekend, Norris was 30 seconds, half a minute ahead of Oscar Piastri on the same strategy. And over 72 laps, that's like half a second a lap that he's pulled out. And I just think it's Oscar. Yeah. To me, to me, I think the two drivers who are taking longer to adapt to these cars in the top teams are Oscar Piastri and George Russell.

[00:28:05] And that just goes to show that these cars, you know, all the talk of you need to be a smarter driver to extract lap time is all BS. If you ask me, it's just a lot of unnatural ways of driving. And this is Piastri just taking time. Yeah. It's weird. Like, it's weird how Oscar Piastri looks unrecognizable in demeanor, behavior and driving ability. Ever since like that final third of the season, I think the Austin GP, right? That's where things started to unravel a little bit.

[00:28:33] Very, very absurd. It's convincingly one-sided now at McLaren. I don't think we stated it yet, but now we have to. Like, it's one-sided there now. And Andrea Stella has said they're working hard to get Oscar at the same level at Lando. And it's just unfortunate that it's not because of talent. It's not because of aptitude. It's just because of how these cars need to be driven.

[00:28:57] And we will continue to, you know, continuously ask the question, why are these drivers not able to adapt if they're the best drivers in the world? And because what are the adaptations you're making? You're making adaptations to circuit, temperature, wind, tires, fuel loads. But at no point were you told that if you press your accelerator too much, you're going to go slow. And that's what they're adapting to. Let's not even go there. Uttara with the comment though that I love.

[00:29:26] She's responding, by the way, to Sarika's question on Mercedes deciding on one driver unequivocally. She said it's definitely the start of it. And then the one after that I love. Maybe he needs to learn about the concept of small wins instead of small talk. That is a fiery one there, Uttara. Who are we now talking about next? Because we've done, I think we have to. We can't ignore the midfield. This is where I'm going to pull out Sovic's comments. Oh yeah, do we put Ferrari there?

[00:29:55] It was a good week car to do Ferrari. Yeah, but okay, let's do Hulk, Galaxy, Sonoda. I don't, I mean, they were really... Okay, let's do midfield before we go to Ferrari. Okay, but Hulkenberg in the points, loved it. Fernando Alonso in the points. Could have almost T-boned his teammate. So those were Hulk-like reflexes. And unbelievable. That T-boning, when that happens in a Formula 1 car, that's always scary.

[00:30:22] But yeah, anyway, but what a brilliant try from both of them. Yeah, and what a battle we had midway through. I think it was Lindblad, Sonoda, Hulkenberg, Gasly. Gasly. I don't remember the order, but they were thereabouts. And Gasly was the one who got the short end of the entire deal. Like he got... Yeah, he tried the outside and he didn't hold it into the 11-12 sequence. But there's a reason why you don't remember the order. It's not because you're old. It's because that order kept changing constantly.

[00:30:52] Kept changing all the time. Whoever was ahead of the flag, I'll remember. Right now, you all just battle it out. Yeah, that's what... And during the race, it's just the nature of how the field is structured. We commentators just end up focusing more on the top half because that's the story we're more prominently shown. Although deep in our hearts, believe us, we would love to talk a lot more about the midfield and follow that entire journey. But it's hard to. You don't get to see enough of it. You just get to see the shots in the middle and you're like, oh, wow, crazy. But Gasly got the short end.

[00:31:22] Unfortunate that he was where he was. But I said it midway through that Fernando Alonso could be on track to score points. And I couldn't believe what I was saying. And he did score points. I'm sleeping a happy man on Sunday. Yeah. And, you know, Fernando said, love the car to drive. More to come. I know. Thank you. Thank you. And well... Didn't he have a monster long stint? He had a monster long stint. And let me read that out to you. Because I keep a note of all these stints. I don't know when to use them. But I know at some point you'll ask me.

[00:31:52] So I'm like, yeah, I have the information. So Fernando Alonso ran 37 laps on the hard tire. So... That's crazy. He did what we would call a two-stop. Okay. In the race where everyone had a three-stop, right? He did a one-stop. Because he started on the soft. And then we had the red flag after the two laps. Then he continued on the same tire for 32 laps. Then he stopped. And then he switched to the hard. And that's how he got his point. Although technically that does count as another stop as well? Does it not?

[00:32:22] No, because on the red flag he didn't change tires. Oh, he didn't. He just continued on the same tire. Which is, I believe, fabulous. Because everyone in the column is shown as a stop for the red flag. Because they went to the pit lane. But just the fact that Honda brought an upgrade which Lance Stroll wasn't happy about. In fact, he wasn't happy about his strategy. And some of the comments he made were really surprising. Go find a different team then if you're not happy with this one. Yeah, he was like, what does my race look like?

[00:32:51] Just explain it to me so I understand. On the soft, we were using too much race time. And then we thought we'll get onto the hard. Which will give us a better chance to improve total race time. But I don't make sense of this strategy. I don't understand anything. We are just losing too much race time. This was Lance Stroll. But what a turnaround of sequence. You give that to Fernando. And suddenly Fernando is flying with it. But anyway, it's just what it is, I guess. Yeah. Last thing we should talk about before we go. Why was Carlos Sainz in Kamikaze mode?

[00:33:21] I've literally got a chili on my shirt here today. I don't get it. But Somal, this can't be last thing. We've not discussed Ferrari and the teammate issues we face there. Oh, we haven't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But should we just do Ferrari and end? What do you say? Yeah, we should. We should. We're just puzzled about Carlos Sainz. Just really disappointed. We've got Savik who knows you extremely well though. He's saying, don't lie, Somal. You don't sleep at all. You're going to cover some football matches now next. You know me too well, man. I'll say goodnight, but then I'll pull up my phone and watch. Who played today?

[00:33:51] We had a city of warmers. Liverpool and Newcastle. I've been dying to watch that match. Even Barcelona played today. Luckily, you're not covering any football. You're not commentating on any football today at least. Not today. No. But I did the FA Community Shield last week. Arsenal vs. Man City. Good game. Yeah. But yeah, no. Ferrari. Ferrari. Oh my god. Oh my god. It is fireworks. And I love it. Firstly, let's just put it out there.

[00:34:19] Leclerc and Hamilton were both on weirdly different strategies. I say weirdly because they started off being on something similar. And then I think there's Hamilton who stayed out. And he went on the alternate strategy. And then Leclerc was on the normal path. And then Hamilton, when he was coming in from behind, noticed Leclerc on the older tyres. He asked Ferrari to clear the obstacle. But they didn't. And Leclerc was like, why should I go away? And Hamilton was faced. And we obviously saw him say what he said. It was fun. It was fun.

[00:34:47] I like the fact that both of them think, Kunal, that this is their team and they're the number one driver. I mean, I'll tell you what. I was decoding what actually happened at Ferrari on via play. And my reading is this. That Leclerc... And see, remember when the radio was actually broadcast, they broadcast a little late. So Leclerc was anyway waiting to come into the pits. And he didn't know if he... He was waiting to come into the pits. 21 lap old mediums, right? Yeah, I think that was something. Yeah, yeah.

[00:35:17] Something like that. 2021. By the time he came, it was 23. But when he was told to let Hamilton go, he was expected to come into the pits at that time. And he didn't. And then he finally came in the next lap. So there was some confusion there, which is always what happens with Ferrari. So when Charles Leclerc and Frederic Vassure were asked, they were just like, there was nothing wrong in what happened. But of course, Lewis Hamilton was chased off. And he should be because he was on a different tyre strategy at all, completely.

[00:35:45] And I believe Ferrari did also right by splitting their tyre strategy. But where did Ferrari's pace go? Because they were really quick. And you remember at the start of the show, I said different teams, different tyre compounds. While Mercedes struggled on the hard, McLaren excelled on the hard. Mercedes did 50 laps of the hard and they struggled. And I'm reading the data as we go. Well, Ferrari did the least number of laps on the hard tyre because they favoured the soft.

[00:36:14] So the variation in how they were extracting performance was so different. Like Leclerc was able to do 21 laps on the soft, 22 laps on the medium and 17 laps on the soft again. Whereas none of the others even touched the medium beyond the point. So it was just down to that. They had the pace to win the race, if you ask me. But they did not master qualifying. They lost the race in qualifying.

[00:36:41] They had very low track positions to try and attack for the top three podium spots. And why did they mess up qualifying? You remember what happened in Q3? There was rain that was to come. Everyone else was in a rush to go put their laps. Everyone else just decided, that's it. We're going to go for it. Ferrari were confused. What was the confusion? Do we do two prep laps as we were expecting to do, to bring the hard tyre, soft tyre in?

[00:37:07] Or do we do one extremely hard out lap and then go for it on the soft? And they were the last ones to actually put in a fast time in Q3. And by the time they did, the time and the track went away. And that was unfortunately the end of their race chances. So again, poor execution when you consider it the whole weekend, Somal. And it's just a trend that keeps popping up. They've got to do better. They're still second in the world championship standings.

[00:37:37] And McLaren are still around 100 behind. But if McLaren continue the way they're going, and if Oscar Piastri gets there, I don't think Ferrari is safe in second place in the world. No, they're not. The Constructors Championship. No, they're not. Since, I know we spoke Piastri, but there was once in the middle of the race when he actually sent a message saying, please give me some help on how to drive this thing. And that's how much that poor lad is struggling in the car. Yeah. And we've seen this. Piastri is a proper lack of pace thing. If they sort that out,

[00:38:05] well, imagine, imagine how much better the whole situation could be for McLaren. And we know that they're now in the mix. And we know that it's a development world. At this phase, McLaren are on the high of the wave. There will be Mercedes also surfing on that wave at some point. So they've got to make hay while the sun shines, right? Like that's what the phrase is. So, yeah. And, you know, development strategies could be very different. First is you start with a baseline car and through the middle and the second half of the season, you bring upgrades. By doing that, you learn from your car,

[00:38:35] but you also learn what your rivals are bringing. Like Ferrari brought the Macarena wing and then McLaren brought it. And McLaren is sort of following that philosophy. Whereas the other philosophy is you just start with a car and you start throwing things at it early in the season, which is sort of what Ferrari has also done as well. So different teams, different development paths. And I believe Mercedes is the most different of them all. They brought something in, I believe, Miami or Canada. And then they're like, we'll just extract most of this car

[00:39:03] and then we'll bring another solid update towards the end of the season. So I'm waiting to see what that update is going to be because Mercedes still has the pace to be therein or thereabouts. They're no longer dominating Formula 1, but it's all down to the upgrade cycle. Yeah, exactly. So a lot of that will change around. Watch out for that. That's a big story that we must keep in mind and see how it evolves over the course of the season. It's a multi-million dollar question. When do you put your upgrades and what's next? But that's an vote.

[00:39:32] That's an vote for us. Big, big weekend, this one. And very soon, actually, what is it? Less than... Actually, next to next weekend, we have Formula 1 returning with the Italian GP, which is the race we are the most slash least excited for. Most excited because the title picture, least excited because our greatest fears could come true and we could absolutely regret it. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, it's all from us from the Inside Line Up One podcast.

[00:40:01] Make sure you're subscribing to us on Instagram and YouTube. More short-form content will be coming your way. And Kunal and I will be back with another episode sometime soon. So yeah, make sure you're clicking on the subscribe button and the bell icon so that you know when we're going live next. For now, we have to say goodbye and goodnight. Goodbye.