Verstappen-Norris, will the battle continue? 2024 Emilia Romagna GP Review

[00:00:02] Before we begin, I wanted to give a huge shout out to the folks at Amazon Music for partnering with us on this episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

[00:00:10] But more on this later. Right then, let's get right into today's episode.

[00:00:27] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

[00:00:40] Clearly it is not Saumil Arora who is opening the podcast with his beautiful voice, with his beautiful metaphors and comparisons.

[00:00:49] It's me Kunal Shah, reviewing the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

[00:00:59] And with me is F1 stats guru Sundaram.

[00:01:02] And Sundaram, while I'm going to try and never imitate what Saumil does because he's clearly in a league of his own, I'm going to just do it in my style.

[00:01:10] But the race was actually number two stands out for me because Max Verstappen won two races in one day.

[00:01:19] One was the virtual 24 hours of Nürburgring and then the second was, of course, the Grand Prix at Imola.

[00:01:26] The other reason why number two came up for me is it was a race of two halves, especially if you ask the first two finishers, you know, Max and Lando Norris,

[00:01:36] because for Max, he was on the medium and that was a race of his own.

[00:01:41] So that was the first half and then on the hard and that was a race of Lando Norris's, which he actually managed to stay ahead.

[00:01:47] And then the second before we actually dig deeper into everything, the second or the third time the number two, you know, sort of strikes up for me is the drivers at the front actually had a very exciting race.

[00:02:00] But if you ask the drivers at the back of the field, Ricardo Alonso, Logan Sargent and the likes, they actually said it was a very boring race.

[00:02:09] Right. So I'm going to throw it up to you. Was it an exciting race or was it a boring race for you?

[00:02:15] I think it did get a little monotonous somewhere in the initial one third, one third of the race, initial third of the race.

[00:02:24] But I still think we had the Piastri science battle going on at the time.

[00:02:29] And something that's really stood out for me was we do not.

[00:02:32] We had a very clean opening of the race since it's a very narrow track.

[00:02:36] I always had this in my mind that Verstappen and Norris are going to be banging wheels around the first couple of corners.

[00:02:43] We did not have that. Everyone went off pretty cleanly and we did not have a safety car, which actually had a hundred percent probability in the last couple of years.

[00:02:53] So surprisingly, we did not have a safety car and that's why it seemed a little processional.

[00:02:58] But I think the latter half of the race, Norris and Verstappen, Lickla and Norris also for a little period of time.

[00:03:05] I think it kind of made up for the whole of it.

[00:03:08] You know, there's this meme doing the rounds lap one to lap 53 and everyone's just sitting and watching and then lap 54 to lap 63.

[00:03:16] Everyone's just cheering. I definitely resonate with that meme.

[00:03:20] There are very few memes I actually feel closely about.

[00:03:23] But since you are the Mr. Stats guru, right?

[00:03:26] Here's a numerology that I picked up from one of my findings.

[00:03:30] So Max Verstappen's race time was one hour, 25 minutes, 25 seconds and 25 tenths.

[00:03:38] I'm not making it up. So 25. So number two somewhere plays up there as well.

[00:03:41] But why don't we also start with our moment of the race, Sundaram?

[00:03:46] Why don't you take your pick and then I'll see how different it is from mine.

[00:03:50] See, I would have probably gone for Ferrari kind of having a slight brain fade, not bringing in Carlos Sainz as soon as Piastri pitted.

[00:04:00] They actually pitted him four laps later.

[00:04:02] But I think I'm actually going to go for the passes that Yuki Sunoda and Nico Hülkenberg made.

[00:04:09] It's a very narrow track, like I said, and overtaking becomes very, very difficult.

[00:04:13] But they had literally the confidence to go.

[00:04:16] I think that was after the first corner and which made me go.

[00:04:20] Wow, this is a brilliant track to go racing at.

[00:04:23] It's a brilliant track when you make a pass.

[00:04:26] And it kind of made me feel we really miss these sort of classic circuits.

[00:04:31] There are some circuits like Spa or Mutual.

[00:04:34] I keep saying mutual because I'm in all of that circuit and it's not been on the calendar for a couple of seasons, obviously.

[00:04:41] But when we go racing on these tracks, we see a different quality of racing, which we don't see in a Bahrain or in one of those Herman Tilker circuits.

[00:04:50] But I think Formula One also missed Imola.

[00:04:54] Wasap instead, we should probably race in Imola more frequently.

[00:04:57] And for me, I think that was my moment of the day, seeing Sunoda and Hülkenberg having the confidence around those initial corners to make a pass and making it stick,

[00:05:07] especially in a weekend when the gravel traps are a bit more closer to the racetrack.

[00:05:12] So there's a lot more to lose, but they pulled it off brilliantly.

[00:05:15] So I'm actually going to go for that.

[00:05:17] You know, I actually have no memory of Hülkenberg and Sunoda.

[00:05:20] Apart from the fact that Sunoda had a brilliant pit stop strategy, he undercut Hülkenberg and then had a mega outlap to grab P10 in the race.

[00:05:31] Yet another point for the racing bulls.

[00:05:34] But my moment of the race, or rather I'm going to probably put a couple of moments of the race.

[00:05:38] You already mentioned the opening lap and just how clean it was.

[00:05:41] And I was a little disappointed saying, oh my God, you know, they keep saying they're the best 20 drivers of the planet.

[00:05:46] And they actually were the best 20 drivers of the planet or at least 18 of them.

[00:05:50] If I may, let some North American drivers not be on the list.

[00:05:54] But they actually were so clean, right?

[00:05:56] But just the moments before the opening lap, there's this beautiful shot.

[00:06:00] Talking of a historic circuit, this is beautiful shot, you know, which camera was just positioned, you know, looking towards the start line.

[00:06:09] And it's not a straight start line.

[00:06:11] You know, the way the camera was positioned for the few seconds on the world feed, you could see only Norris and then Max Verstappen.

[00:06:18] And sort of the start line is also a little curved, which is not what you see in a lot of tilke circuits.

[00:06:23] You will see it in Monaco. Yes, you don't.

[00:06:25] We saw it.

[00:06:26] You'll see it at Interlagos.

[00:06:27] Yes.

[00:06:28] You'll see it at Interlagos towards the back end of the field, but you don't see it in a lot of other circuits.

[00:06:32] Exactly. So I love that.

[00:06:33] That to me was one of the moments saying, oh, this is one of those old really gorgeous circuits.

[00:06:38] You know, that was that.

[00:06:40] But talking for moment, if we may also classify it as an action point for the race, that moment was Lando Norris' several radio messages.

[00:06:49] But the one where he was told, you know, Leclerc is pushing and he's like, yeah, I'm also pushing.

[00:06:53] And then you thought, OK, maybe Lando is just playing it up.

[00:06:56] And then three or five laps later, he was just boom.

[00:06:59] And that moment, lap 54, like I spoke of that meme, that moment when he started attacking, you know, he pulled what?

[00:07:08] Some 10 seconds towards the end of a stand over those 16 or 17 or laps.

[00:07:14] So to me, that moment just striking on when Lando Norris said, that's it.

[00:07:18] I think I have the pace and I'm going to go for the win was what was my moment.

[00:07:21] We will dig deeper as to why could Lando Norris actually attack that late in the race.

[00:07:27] And one of my other favorite questions, just how did Max Richtappen and Red Bull Racing turn things around from that messy Friday,

[00:07:34] messy FP3 and managed to get pole and race win at Imola?

[00:07:39] So we're going to dig into that. But before that, another question for you, Sundaram, since we're going to keep asking questions or rather I'm going to keep asking questions.

[00:07:46] Who was your driver of the day at Imola?

[00:07:49] If you ask for the driver of the day, it probably would be Lando.

[00:07:53] But I'm actually going to go for the driver of the weekend instead.

[00:07:55] If there were two drivers who really impressed me, one for very obvious reasons, Max Richtappen, the car was literally not at its 100 percent.

[00:08:04] But he still managed to ensure that he got pole position.

[00:08:07] Very smart usage of a certain toe that he received from someone else, which we'll talk about a little later.

[00:08:13] But also when it's not the fastest car on track, he still managed to take that to the win.

[00:08:18] So he's one of my drivers of the weekend.

[00:08:20] Very impressive driving overall, but also Oscar Piastri.

[00:08:24] I would say he had a bit of a lukewarm start to the season, but he actually challenged Max Richtappen for pole position.

[00:08:30] He's just in his second year.

[00:08:32] I remember that and he's already matching Lando Norris on and off in certain situations, in certain tracks.

[00:08:38] That's very nice to see a person in just a second season.

[00:08:41] And when the car is there, it has sort of pace.

[00:08:43] He's able to utilize that.

[00:08:45] Him doing extremely well in qualifying and also today to a great extent.

[00:08:49] So I'm actually going to go for Worstappen and Piastri as my drivers of the weekend.

[00:08:53] What about you?

[00:08:55] You actually have left me no choice, because you took Norris, you took Piastri.

[00:09:00] You also mentioned Max in that.

[00:09:02] By the way, you slipped in Max, the way Max slipped in that pole position, surprising everybody.

[00:09:06] But I'm going to go completely left field.

[00:09:09] I'm going to pick Fernando Alonso.

[00:09:11] OK.

[00:09:12] Second race in a row, he didn't make it to Q3.

[00:09:15] First time in 2024, he didn't score points.

[00:09:18] Driver of the weekend, literally driver of the last two weekends.

[00:09:22] And I'm, of course, you know, being humorous when I say this, but very puzzling to see Fernando struggle both these weekends.

[00:09:29] It was Landstroll who outqualified and outraced Fernando Alonso, which is something we don't really usually get to see.

[00:09:37] So technically, I'm actually praising Landstroll and calling him my driver of the day by bringing up Fernando Alonso.

[00:09:44] But no, I'm not before we go there.

[00:09:46] But why don't we just, you know, instead of saying we're going to talk later, talk later, why don't we just dig into it?

[00:09:51] Because Lando Norris and Max Worstappen have been one and two for the third race in succession.

[00:09:59] The big question that we should try and answer was how did Max Worstappen and Red Bull Racing recover from that messy start to the weekend?

[00:10:10] And, you know, Sundaram, what really stands out for me is Christian Horner actually turned around and thanked a very old veteran Formula One driver.

[00:10:20] You know, for the listeners listening in new, especially who probably not, you know, followed Formula One 10 years ago, there was a driver called Sebastian Buemi who won everything everywhere else, but not in Formula One.

[00:10:33] He and Jake Dennis. Jake Dennis is also another Formula E driver just as Buemi.

[00:10:38] They are simulator racers for Max Worstappen and Red Bull Racing.

[00:10:43] I wouldn't say Max Worstappen for Red Bull Racing, right?

[00:10:46] And those two drivers, of course, back up the race team by being in the simulator.

[00:10:51] This time it was Buemi's turn, Sebastian Buemi's turn, you know, racing in the simulator.

[00:10:58] He did about 10 or 12 hours of sessions trying to figure what will work, what will not work, especially since Red Bull came up with a big upgrade.

[00:11:06] And, you know, Buemi was definitely one of those drivers who helped, you know, turn things around.

[00:11:11] And the second driver who really helped Max, like you pointed out even on your Instagram page, was Nico Hulkenberg.

[00:11:20] You know, a driver who almost became Max Worstappen's teammate had it not been for Checo Perez at the end of 2020.

[00:11:28] But Nico Hulkenberg took the tour from Max on his fast lap and then gave the tour to Max Worstappen in Q3.

[00:11:36] Can you imagine Nico Hulkenberg is the reason why McLaren did not start 1-2 in today's race at Imola?

[00:11:44] Of course, Piastri's penalty notwithstanding. But Nico Hulkenberg, what a lad.

[00:11:50] Haas is in fact one of the reasons why McLaren was not on the front row because Magnussen was the driver who was impeded.

[00:11:56] And Hulkenberg was the driver who gave Worstappen a little bit of a toe, so kind of diving deeper into it.

[00:12:02] So, Nico Hulkenberg yesterday in qualifying was on his fast lap.

[00:12:07] And it's not that Worstappen and Nico had some sort of a pre-agreement before qualifying.

[00:12:12] You know, I'm going to give you a little bit of a toe, you're going to give it to me back.

[00:12:16] Worstappen, I think that's where a little bit of experience came in straight away.

[00:12:20] Worstappen knew Hulkenberg on a fast lap. If I give him a little bit of a toe on the final sector,

[00:12:26] I know that once he crosses the start-finish line, he's going to back off.

[00:12:30] That's going to give me a toe into my next lap. And this very smart usage of this.

[00:12:36] And because of that, Worstappen managed to get a tenth or two tenths on his final run.

[00:12:42] And if not for that, it would have actually been Oscar Piastri.

[00:12:45] But since he got the grid penalty, it would have been Lando Norris potentially on pole position.

[00:12:51] And like we've discussed so much already, overtaking is so difficult.

[00:12:55] This could have been Lando Norris' second race win in consecutive races.

[00:13:00] But Haas is one of the reasons why they didn't manage to do that.

[00:13:04] So that's very interesting.

[00:13:06] And the other point you mentioned about Sebastian Buemi is also something which people kind of overlook.

[00:13:12] People think that once the sessions are done, free practice is done, teams do look into the data.

[00:13:17] But actually, the reserve drivers or the simulator drivers, they spend hours and hours trying to find the best setup for the drivers before the next session.

[00:13:26] And that's incredible to see. So Sebastian Buemi doing 10-12 hours.

[00:13:30] I think Hauner mentioned they were using the simulator till I think the early hours in the morning.

[00:13:35] So him being a very instrumental part in Worstappen's win is very nice to see and hear.

[00:13:41] And it also indicates that Red Bull has a very well correlated simulator.

[00:13:47] So what they see in the sim, they're able to extract in the real world results, especially with the conditions, with the new upgrades they would have brought and so on.

[00:13:56] And so what would Sebastian Buemi would have done just to simplify it further?

[00:14:00] He would have tried different setup options.

[00:14:03] And those setup options would have been like this is what Max may like or may not like.

[00:14:06] This is what Checo may like or may not like.

[00:14:08] And he also comes with several years of driving experience in the VEC championship or the World Endurance Championship and Formula E and several races that he's done even in Formula One.

[00:14:20] But the key part here, so Max Worstappen won just by seven tenths.

[00:14:26] And Max very cheekily said we ended the race just the way we started it, right?

[00:14:31] Because that's how close Lando Norris was.

[00:14:34] And one of the reasons why I also started the episode by saying that a race of two halves, the race on the medium tire, which Max said he was superior on and we saw him pull out that seven eighths second gap on Lando Norris.

[00:14:47] But it was a race on the hard tire, right?

[00:14:50] Which is what actually brought Lando Norris into play because Max was very candid.

[00:14:55] He said the hard tire was just out of the window for us.

[00:14:58] We did not have any grip whatsoever.

[00:15:01] And for Norris, it was actually the other way around where the hard tire brought him into play.

[00:15:06] Right. So that was just how it all turned out with Max Worstappen.

[00:15:10] And we should, you know, since we're talking of Max Sundaram also highlight that this was again one of those weekends where anybody and everybody who says it's the car that is bringing Max all that it's bringing.

[00:15:22] It was actually Max extracting all that he knows what to extract from a car because we're used to Max Worstappen winning.

[00:15:30] Let's remember, right?

[00:15:31] Whether you may like it or not, we are not used to him winning with such small margins.

[00:15:36] He is not used to winning with such small margins.

[00:15:39] He was challenged this race weekend to find the right setup.

[00:15:44] He put it on pole. He was challenged in the race.

[00:15:46] Imagine the lap just before the end where he went onto GP and said, my battery is not charging.

[00:15:51] Imagine he was pushed to use more of his tools to stay ahead.

[00:15:55] He had that black and white flag warning as well so he couldn't abuse track limits as well.

[00:16:00] Right. So hats off or helmets off to Max Worstappen.

[00:16:04] And again, the indicator here Sundaram is what happened to Checo Perez.

[00:16:10] Same car, same conditions put under pressure.

[00:16:14] All the other rivals have thrown their upgrades and tools towards him.

[00:16:19] But Checo Perez was even slower than the Mercedes cars.

[00:16:24] He had to start on the reverse strategy and then just make the most of whatever he could.

[00:16:30] And that's the thing when the car is not completely perfect in terms of setup or in terms of balance,

[00:16:36] that's when the driver becomes the more important factor.

[00:16:39] What are you able to do with your limited tools and limited machinery?

[00:16:42] And that's why I said Worstappen putting it on pole, despite the car not being the fastest was incredible.

[00:16:48] But probably Sergio Perez not being able to overcome those limitations was why he got knocked out in Q2.

[00:16:56] He wasn't able to make the best out of his race.

[00:16:59] He also went off track. He lost, I think, a good five to six seconds and he had to salvage.

[00:17:05] He came in P8. I think that's the best that he managed to do also, considering this was a very narrow track.

[00:17:10] But I've been saying this throughout last year.

[00:17:13] The reason why Red Bull had done so well last year was because Max Worstappen was able to push that car to those many limits,

[00:17:22] to that limit, despite not having a safety net of Sergio Perez.

[00:17:26] You've seen this a lot during the Mercedes dominance era that

[00:17:29] Lewis Hamilton always has an Eco-Rosbook or vice versa, so that they have multiple strategic options.

[00:17:35] We do not have a lot of that throughout last year.

[00:17:37] And when it comes to the moment where McLaren or Ferrari are able to challenge the Red Bull and Perez is not there,

[00:17:43] that's when it would be difficult for Max Worstappen.

[00:17:46] And today was a classic example of that.

[00:17:49] If Sergio Perez is not there within the top five also, because we had Piastri and Norris both in the top five.

[00:17:56] We had both Ferraris also in the top five and Perez back in P11.

[00:17:59] They have literally no option or no alternative as well to give any sort of benefit to Worstappen.

[00:18:04] And he's fighting out there alone.

[00:18:07] So it's going to be very, very crucial, especially in such tracks where overtaking is difficult.

[00:18:11] It's fine probably around Miami or Bahrain where overtaking is considerably easier.

[00:18:17] But these sort of tracks, Monaco, Imola, where overtaking is difficult,

[00:18:22] that's where the importance of Sergio Perez is a lot more.

[00:18:25] That's true.

[00:18:26] And Checo Perez, in fact, then had to just run his own race from whatever position he started

[00:18:31] because he had to run the reverse strategy.

[00:18:33] So he started on the hard.

[00:18:35] And this is where I'm going to be a little fair to Checo because if Max was struggling on the hard,

[00:18:39] you can imagine Checo on that hard at the start of a race, full fuel tanks.

[00:18:45] He was all over the place, but he still made some inroads with the top 10.

[00:18:49] He was sort of messing up their strategies at some point.

[00:18:52] But Checo's strategy was then clear that he was waiting for a safety car, which never came.

[00:18:58] We spoke of a clean opening lap.

[00:19:00] There were no yellow flags if I remember or were there any?

[00:19:03] There would have been if Perez went off track, there would have been some yellow flags at least.

[00:19:08] But he was momentarily off track, right?

[00:19:10] Like a few seconds and then...

[00:19:12] But still that still happens.

[00:19:13] Usually when a driver is off track for some time,

[00:19:16] maybe if I think even Lewis Hamilton went off track.

[00:19:20] He went off the last lap.

[00:19:21] Yeah, correct.

[00:19:22] So maybe some yellow flags.

[00:19:24] We might have had a yellow flag.

[00:19:25] But that's what happened to Perez.

[00:19:27] He was just running the hard tire waiting for a safety car and never came.

[00:19:30] He made that mistake, picked up some damage.

[00:19:33] And then the worst thing for Perez is this is that weekend

[00:19:36] where he actually lost P2 in the Drivers' Championship.

[00:19:39] And again, the popular viral posts on the internet are saying

[00:19:43] the true Checo Perez is now back, right?

[00:19:46] Because he didn't make it to Q3, which is what a typical Checo Perez would have done.

[00:19:51] He normally has a strong start to the season and then fades off by race 7, race 8.

[00:19:56] Today is one of those races as well, right?

[00:19:59] When the upgrades come in.

[00:20:00] The moment the upgrades come in, he starts finding it a little difficult.

[00:20:05] Same with Bottas like I mentioned in the preview as well.

[00:20:07] So let's see.

[00:20:08] And you know, Checo Perez doesn't have a contract for next year.

[00:20:11] I know I tweeted saying Red Bull is going to look for an exit clause.

[00:20:16] And of course that was a factually incorrect tweet because he does if he doesn't have a contract,

[00:20:20] he doesn't have an exit clause.

[00:20:22] But what I actually meant is, you know, a performance clause,

[00:20:26] which then allows them to even more say, hey, you're not even P2 in the championship

[00:20:30] when we're winning everything else that we can.

[00:20:32] And that sort of automatically works against him with extensions and so on.

[00:20:37] So that second seat in the Red Bull might just be up for grabs, right?

[00:20:41] But we have to talk with the driver who finished second.

[00:20:43] We're 20 minutes in and the driver who finished second,

[00:20:46] who almost would have finished first if he had one extra lap

[00:20:51] because he kept saying he was actually praying for that one extra lap.

[00:20:56] And were you actually praying for that one extra lap?

[00:20:59] So, Amit Ram, I'm guessing a lot of our listeners, a lot of Formula One fans

[00:21:03] were probably praying for that extra lap.

[00:21:05] I think it always comes down to this where I'm sure the teams,

[00:21:08] they plan when they really have to go and attack.

[00:21:11] And Noris started 10 laps earlier and the prediction graphic that turned up,

[00:21:17] it says that he would catch up to Worstapp or have DRS within five laps.

[00:21:22] But the battle went on until the very last lap

[00:21:25] before he could actually bring it down to one second.

[00:21:28] And this is something that I've actually learned from you

[00:21:30] from going back to USA 2023.

[00:21:33] If, I think if it was Leclerc and Hamilton,

[00:21:36] if they had one more lap he would have overtaken him

[00:21:39] and you said, that's not the thing.

[00:21:41] Every race has a finite number of laps and that's what you race against.

[00:21:45] And like Worstapp had said in the press conference last year,

[00:21:49] you can make a lot of situations and scenarios.

[00:21:51] But I think Noris drove brilliantly today.

[00:21:55] And one thing I also kind of noticed over the last two races,

[00:21:57] which I have to mention, McLaren has done well on the harder compounds.

[00:22:02] If you remember in Miami, they were really able to put in the pace

[00:22:07] on the medium compounds in qualifying.

[00:22:09] But the moment they switched to the softs,

[00:22:11] they were not able to take the fastest lap.

[00:22:13] And even in the race, Noris was able to manage his hard tires much better.

[00:22:17] And the same happened today as well.

[00:22:19] He was really managing his tires and at the last 10 laps,

[00:22:21] he was really able to bring them into the operating window

[00:22:24] at the same time when Worstapp's tires were going outside the window.

[00:22:28] But brilliant battle between the both of them.

[00:22:31] And I'm sure that Win last week or the last weekend

[00:22:35] would have upped his confidence tenfold.

[00:22:38] And that's what really happens when you win a race,

[00:22:41] that desperation or that nervousness is out of the way

[00:22:43] and you can really bring in that motivation and positivity.

[00:22:47] He said, he mentioned that today.

[00:22:49] I'm disappointed that I actually came second.

[00:22:52] I don't hear that a lot from a McLaren driver.

[00:22:55] And that kind of shows that there's a switch in their mentality,

[00:22:58] which is good to see.

[00:22:59] Especially a driver who's finished second what, 14 or 15 times?

[00:23:02] So, he's clearly used to finishing second.

[00:23:05] But he said, it pains that much more.

[00:23:07] That's what he said on the radio.

[00:23:08] And I suspect he also meant the same thing that

[00:23:10] when you're so close to winning and you've already won,

[00:23:12] you know that feeling.

[00:23:13] Having a back-to-back race win would have been incredible for Lando Noris,

[00:23:18] for Formula One, I would say, and for McLaren.

[00:23:20] But the key to Noris, there are key insights that we should sort of look at.

[00:23:25] First, like you pointed out, he had a late race attack.

[00:23:29] That's what Christian Horner said as well,

[00:23:31] that the way Lando Noris' race came alive in the last third of the Grand Prix was phenomenal.

[00:23:37] And one of the reasons, why don't we just dig through that?

[00:23:39] So, why could Lando Noris attack so late into the race?

[00:23:44] Let's dig into that and then let's also switch it back to

[00:23:48] why could he not start attacking earlier?

[00:23:51] They are very interesting situations, right?

[00:23:53] So, why could he attack so late in the race?

[00:23:57] One of the reasons he could, and he was candid about it,

[00:24:00] he said he was just firstly managing his race.

[00:24:03] He was not bothered about other people's lap times,

[00:24:06] which is why Leclerc could actually catch him at that certain point.

[00:24:10] And then he said, everyone else's tyres just fell apart.

[00:24:14] And because I was focusing on my tyres,

[00:24:17] I had the pace to extract against Max so late in the race.

[00:24:23] So that was one part.

[00:24:24] Then the second part, like you also pointed out Sundaram,

[00:24:27] is could he have actually overtaken Max Wusthappen?

[00:24:31] The truth is, I would have actually for once liked that extra lap

[00:24:35] and not to see if Noris could have won.

[00:24:39] But we actually did not see them battle wheel to wheel.

[00:24:42] We just saw Noris chasing, chasing, chasing.

[00:24:44] I think the closest he came was seven tenths

[00:24:46] and then he just finished seven tenths.

[00:24:48] I would have loved to see them attack.

[00:24:51] I would have loved to see one attack from Lando Noris.

[00:24:54] He was trying everything to play with Max,

[00:24:56] but Max of course knew what was coming.

[00:24:58] And even adding more context to this,

[00:25:02] he couldn't attack earlier than the last lap of the race.

[00:25:06] And he explained this very well.

[00:25:08] He said when you get within two seconds of a driver,

[00:25:11] your tires start to overheat, you're losing grip.

[00:25:14] You're still figuring out how to drive the car.

[00:25:17] It takes a couple of laps to settle in.

[00:25:19] And he said by the time I settled in,

[00:25:21] it was already the last lap of the race.

[00:25:24] So very beautifully explained by Lando Noris

[00:25:27] as to sort of what happened with him in that battle.

[00:25:31] And to switch it back to could he have attacked earlier in the race?

[00:25:37] That's what we are saying.

[00:25:39] And he actually struggled on the medium.

[00:25:41] So what you said, Sundaram,

[00:25:44] that when the compounds go harder, the McLaren gets better.

[00:25:47] That's actually what happened.

[00:25:48] He was struggling on the medium.

[00:25:50] And he said we lost a lot of time in the early part of the race.

[00:25:54] Indeed. And that's what every car or every team

[00:25:58] tends to function or perform better in different situations.

[00:26:01] While Red Bull were able to make best use of the mediums,

[00:26:04] it was the McLaren who did better on the hards.

[00:26:08] And if you see, if you compare Noris and Piastri,

[00:26:11] Piastri actually got the fastest lap of the race

[00:26:13] in the initial laps on the hards

[00:26:15] because he was trying to undercut Carlo Sainz.

[00:26:18] And those initial laps after coming out of the pits,

[00:26:21] he was on fire.

[00:26:23] And he was even challenging Leclerc towards,

[00:26:25] I mean up to a point before he fell off.

[00:26:28] Leclerc on the other side,

[00:26:29] he was able to challenge Noris up to a point

[00:26:31] where then even he fell off.

[00:26:33] And then Noris was able to get his tires.

[00:26:36] He managed them extremely well.

[00:26:37] So different situations.

[00:26:39] And like you even hear the commentators say a lot,

[00:26:42] there's a certain period in which you can really push the tires.

[00:26:46] And once that is done,

[00:26:47] once you've hit the cliff, it all goes downhill.

[00:26:50] No matter how much you push,

[00:26:51] it doesn't go faster,

[00:26:52] which is what happened with Worst Happen also towards the end.

[00:26:55] Yeah. And then another insight which Lando Noris shared was

[00:26:59] McLaren had set up the car for cooler conditions

[00:27:02] because there was a bit of prediction that there could be some rain.

[00:27:05] So that setup also sort of compromised their charge in itself.

[00:27:10] Right. And you also mentioned...

[00:27:12] I'll tell you that.

[00:27:13] Yes.

[00:27:14] I'll tell you something on the temperature part.

[00:27:15] I was just looking at the chart post race that comes in from Pirelli.

[00:27:19] Just about the time when Noris launched that attack on Worst Happen,

[00:27:26] temperatures cooled by around five degrees.

[00:27:29] It was around 45.

[00:27:30] It came down to nearly 40.

[00:27:31] Around the time when Noris started charging against Worst Happen.

[00:27:34] That's a brilliant insight.

[00:27:36] I'm sure there was a massive cloud over Imola.

[00:27:39] We just brought the whole circuit.

[00:27:43] But that's a fairly strong drop in temperature with what happened then.

[00:27:50] But great battle or a great attempt for a battle.

[00:27:54] Max was also confident that with the rear wing that they had,

[00:27:57] he could have defended very well on the straights itself.

[00:28:00] So this begs us to ask the question.

[00:28:02] 28 minutes in, but let's ask the question.

[00:28:04] Are Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing,

[00:28:08] is their dominance under threat with this step-by-step,

[00:28:13] very cautiously, patiently upgraded McLaren?

[00:28:17] What do you think, Sundaram?

[00:28:18] I think the dominance of course is under threat

[00:28:21] because last year there was such a wide performance gap.

[00:28:24] Red Bull, in a year when they were penalized for Pintanel time,

[00:28:29] they still managed to come up with a rocket ship of a car.

[00:28:32] But they were so quick and the others were so slow.

[00:28:35] McLaren was completely elsewhere before the upgrades came in.

[00:28:39] Mercedes was struggling.

[00:28:40] Only Aston Martin was up there, so they made the best use of that.

[00:28:43] So the performance gap last year was a lot more.

[00:28:46] This year it's a lot closer.

[00:28:47] McLaren and Ferrari have gotten a lot quicker.

[00:28:50] It's not to say that Red Bull have not made strides,

[00:28:53] or they've not made improvements,

[00:28:55] but it's not as exponential as last year.

[00:28:59] And you also have to remember, Red Bull,

[00:29:02] when they have a very good weekend,

[00:29:03] when the pit stops and the balance and the setup is very good,

[00:29:06] they have a winning margin of 20 seconds.

[00:29:09] But on race weekends with three practice sessions

[00:29:12] and they have a bad weekend,

[00:29:14] they still manage to win, but it's by one, two or four seconds.

[00:29:17] So they still are a cut above the rest.

[00:29:20] McLaren is still challenging them,

[00:29:22] but it's going to take a lot more than that,

[00:29:24] especially when you have a Max Verstappen in the car.

[00:29:26] He's going to do everything to ensure that the team gets a tenth

[00:29:30] or two-tenths more from that car.

[00:29:33] So whenever they have some sort of a safety car interruption,

[00:29:37] an ill-timed safety car like Miami that went against them,

[00:29:40] or him having his engine blowing out,

[00:29:42] I think it wasn't his engine, it was his brakes in Australia.

[00:29:45] Unless that really happens, I think it's not going to be the case,

[00:29:49] at least for the next couple of races.

[00:29:50] McLaren still has to do a little bit more

[00:29:53] or beat them out on strategy.

[00:29:54] Like I said, there's no Paris, there's no safety net in these sort of races.

[00:29:57] Beat them in strategy.

[00:29:59] But it's going to be an interesting battle, I would say.

[00:30:02] They have not been challenged to this extent,

[00:30:04] I think probably since 2021.

[00:30:06] The last race where I remember Verstappen being challenged was Canada 2022.

[00:30:11] Sainz really putting the pressure on Verstappen for the last 10-15 laps

[00:30:16] and he did not buckle.

[00:30:17] Same happened today.

[00:30:19] But it's going to be an interesting next few races, I would say.

[00:30:21] And this is what we want, right?

[00:30:23] We want a battle.

[00:30:24] We want a battle at the front, right?

[00:30:27] And we don't really care who wins.

[00:30:28] Even if Max gets battled and still wins everything,

[00:30:32] at least we'll be like, yeah, he was made to work hard.

[00:30:34] Imagine everyone being like, oh, yeah, this is our weekend.

[00:30:37] Max has proved by his three-time world champion, generational talent,

[00:30:41] blah blah blah, right?

[00:30:42] That's what everyone's been saying.

[00:30:44] So I'm very glad we're going to hopefully see this trend

[00:30:47] that these kind of races come.

[00:30:49] My feeling is Red Bull and Max Verstappen,

[00:30:53] okay, I'm going to just say Red Bull in this case.

[00:30:55] They will have circuits where they have their weaknesses.

[00:30:57] Imola was one of those front-limited circuits, again,

[00:31:00] with a bit of a weakness, right?

[00:31:02] These kind of circuits with conditions and everything else falling in place,

[00:31:06] they are within reach.

[00:31:08] But when there are circuits that come where Red Bull has the absolute strength,

[00:31:11] we'll still see him winning by 10-15 seconds is my guess, right?

[00:31:15] I don't think that the winning margins will then beat this less.

[00:31:17] So let's see how this whole thing turns around because the Mercedes is the only one

[00:31:22] that's not in this whole upgrade cycle just yet.

[00:31:25] But McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari are all three in a very, very strong development war.

[00:31:33] They're trying to be the one that's getting these upgrades

[00:31:37] to take the battle to each other.

[00:31:39] We've seen how especially McLaren, like you pointed out last year and this year,

[00:31:43] very steady but slow and measured strides.

[00:31:46] And now they're there.

[00:31:48] The whole communication strategy around McLaren has changed.

[00:31:51] Everyone, Zach Brown, Andrea Stella and whoever else you ask,

[00:31:54] they say, yeah, I think now we are probably going to challenge Red Bull Racing.

[00:31:58] And this has actually happened only after Miami

[00:32:01] and after these upgrades that have come in, right?

[00:32:04] And you see the upgrades Oscar Piaz III also delivered on a track he's never driven before, right?

[00:32:10] So, you know, the delivering with both the drivers.

[00:32:13] I know you put up a very interesting story.

[00:32:15] McLaren has scored more podiums in the last two years

[00:32:18] than they did in the last 200 races or some stack that you put out as well.

[00:32:23] And, you know, phenomenal stuff as you always do.

[00:32:26] But we should probably move on to talking about Ferrari

[00:32:30] because Charles Leclerc finished third was not pleased, but very interesting.

[00:32:35] He actually turned around and said, I was very pleased with the upgrades.

[00:32:38] I was very pleased with the race execution because he's got two new engineers in his team,

[00:32:45] a performance engineer and then of course, a new race engineer.

[00:32:48] And then he finished third.

[00:32:50] He said the upgrades actually delivered what the data would tell us.

[00:32:54] They would. But again, a very interesting insight.

[00:32:57] He said, Imola is about riding the curbs.

[00:32:59] And the Red Bull and the McLaren were riding the curbs better than we were.

[00:33:05] And which is why it's not the ideal place to check if our upgrades actually delivered or not.

[00:33:11] There's a very good point that you mentioned over there.

[00:33:13] And what's also important to remember is that sometimes upgrades might not start showing gains straight away.

[00:33:20] It might take a couple of races for them to fine tune it.

[00:33:23] I think Ferrari also went on to say that their ERS management wasn't as good as how Red Bull and McLaren were able to do it.

[00:33:29] So that's the thing. Sometimes when you bring in upgrades, it really works in your favor.

[00:33:34] A very good example of obviously is McLaren.

[00:33:36] So last year Aston Martin, I think they went a little behind with their upgrades.

[00:33:41] Mercedes has been a little slow with their upgrades.

[00:33:44] But this Ferrari upgrade in specific has been really hyped up for quite some time.

[00:33:50] I think there were even figures of three tenths or four tenths turning up on the Internet.

[00:33:55] Carlos Sainz was actually quite defensive, I think, after qualifying yesterday.

[00:33:59] He said, I don't know, the upgrades are not as effective as it's been rumored on social media or within the media.

[00:34:07] But it's going to be an interesting thing to keep an eye on as well around Monaco and Canada,

[00:34:12] the next few races, different tracks, different demands and how their upgrades work and how they're able to, you know,

[00:34:18] iron the issues that they've had in this thing.

[00:34:21] But I think they'll be largely happy that they at least got onto the podium.

[00:34:25] That was the one thing that was really missing.

[00:34:28] And I think they'll take that. Taking a P3 at Imola, I think they'll take that.

[00:34:33] Missing since 2006 since Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari at Imola,

[00:34:39] that famous race him battling alongside or against Fernando Alonso.

[00:34:45] But talking of Leclerc, right?

[00:34:49] He finished third, but he remains the only driver to have finished in the top four at every race this season.

[00:34:57] Carlos Sainz on the other hand, who by the way, I think Ferrari, Pitwall and Carlos Sainz himself being the chief strategy officer at Ferrari,

[00:35:05] forgot what they were supposed to do because Sainz was undercut by PS3,

[00:35:10] which is not something Sainz would normally take kindly.

[00:35:13] You know, he takes his you know, it's like if science is a bad race strategy, he takes it very personally.

[00:35:18] He's like, not only did the team mess up, but I didn't read the race correctly.

[00:35:22] Right. That's how it usually goes. Right.

[00:35:24] But Carlos Sainz has finished fifth for the third consecutive race.

[00:35:29] So the first three races that he rode, he was on the podium and then the next three races, he's been fifth at best.

[00:35:35] Right. So that's that.

[00:35:37] And you mentioned something very interesting about Leclerc and the ERS strategy.

[00:35:41] Leclerc has actually been saying this, that he should have qualified ahead.

[00:35:46] And everyone's talking of track position, not only because of Imola,

[00:35:50] but the very fact that there are less than a tenth or there is less than a tenth between Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren.

[00:35:57] Right. And Leclerc actually explained saying that McLaren and Red Bull have a better launch.

[00:36:04] Right. On their qualifying lap.

[00:36:07] And I presume he means the exit of the final corner leading on to that curved front straight,

[00:36:14] going into what we call his turn one, but is actually classified as turn two.

[00:36:18] Right. And he said they just have a gain on us, which we are then left chasing for the rest of the lap.

[00:36:24] So it's always strange that Ferrari is always the ones, at least in these situations,

[00:36:30] the ones who are playing catch up rather than the ones who will innovatively just have.

[00:36:36] OK, we just have the best energy deployment that we anyway do.

[00:36:39] But that's about Ferrari.

[00:36:42] We should talk about, I guess, Mercedes, because you mentioned Mercedes are just slow with the upgrades.

[00:36:48] Frankly, I thought you'd stop at Mercedes are just slow because that's what it seems like.

[00:36:54] And for, you know, for I think it's just going to be a season where, you know,

[00:37:00] they will bank on their customer team McLaren, you know, flying the honors at the front while they keep talking of catching up.

[00:37:08] But, you know, they had a they had one of their best results since their opening round in Bahrain.

[00:37:13] So it's not that bad. But George Russell actually pitted and he lost a track position to Lewis Hamilton.

[00:37:21] And interestingly, there was a lot of exchange on the radio before it happened, which didn't play out on the world feed.

[00:37:26] And George was very honest. He said, I need to know that I'm not just aimlessly,

[00:37:31] pointlessly giving up track position to Lewis.

[00:37:34] And then he pitted, of course, to take the fastest lap of the race, the extra point that he wanted.

[00:37:42] So that's how close this battle that they also see that they want to keep that extra point if they have the chance.

[00:37:48] But can you imagine he had a free pit stop or Checo Perez at that point?

[00:37:54] That's how much pace that the top three teams and, you know, McLaren, sorry, Mercedes also had that they had a free pit stop they could utilize.

[00:38:03] Yeah, actually, I mean, I think Perez was a good 26, 27 seconds, which is a very good point that you mentioned over there

[00:38:10] because the Imola pit lane is the longest of the calendar, takes a good 25 to 27 seconds by the time you're out of the pit lane.

[00:38:18] And Perez was 29 or 28 seconds behind Hamilton, if I'm not wrong.

[00:38:23] And they made a very good choice of obviously Russell being the one who had to pit and then go for the fastest lap.

[00:38:28] It's still one important point for the team, especially since they're in the midfield.

[00:38:32] But obviously drivers wouldn't want to lose out to their teammate more than anyone else.

[00:38:37] You kind of lose that psychological edge, especially if you are one place behind him.

[00:38:43] That too, it's not for it's not his fault at all.

[00:38:46] So eventually at the end of the season, you'll probably look at the head to head and you'll say that Hamilton has won race more against Russell.

[00:38:54] But when you look into the context of today, Russell was supposed to stay up ahead.

[00:38:59] But yeah, little things here and there. And I'm sure he's not going to be very happy with it.

[00:39:02] But at the end of the day, he's going to come out and say that, yeah, we had one extra point for the team.

[00:39:06] And that's what matters.

[00:39:08] I do think Sundaram that Maceres are actually the best of the rest now amongst the whole feed, because Aston Martin has sort of dropped back the last couple of races.

[00:39:16] Their upgrades haven't delivered what they were wanting.

[00:39:19] And you explained very well that the minute you bring upgrades doesn't mean you automatically deliver.

[00:39:23] It takes you a certain number of hours and sessions.

[00:39:25] In fact, Max was very candid in saying sometimes it just takes you a few more races to extract more from the setup in itself.

[00:39:31] Because just because you bring an upgrade doesn't mean you go quicker.

[00:39:34] You could actually go slower as well. Not all upgrades deliver.

[00:39:37] Case in point, Aston Martin and their struggle, especially with Fernando.

[00:39:42] But at this juncture, I believe Maceres are the best of the rest.

[00:39:46] And the best of the rest is classified as just after the top three.

[00:39:49] Do you also share the same opinion or do you think what Lewis Hamilton thinks?

[00:39:54] Lewis Hamilton at this just before the start of the race said, I have Yuki Sonoda with me and I need to make sure that I'm able to beat him.

[00:40:01] Or is racing bulls the best of the rest?

[00:40:05] It's a really odd question because I mean, first of all, Maceres fall as a little disappointing.

[00:40:11] Firstly, they finished second at the constructors last year.

[00:40:15] They finished second and we're speaking about Maceres being the best of the rest at a time when they really don't understand their car.

[00:40:24] They're taking it literally session by session or race weekend by race weekend.

[00:40:27] And they're trying to understand where that car actually belongs and how it performs.

[00:40:32] And we're calling them the best of the rest, even when they're not performing at their best.

[00:40:37] Aston Martin has been a bit disappointing these last couple of races.

[00:40:41] They've kind of fallen backwards.

[00:40:44] Fernando Alonso especially has had a couple of disappointing weekends.

[00:40:48] But what's really working at RB and Haas, I would say, is individual drivers are really being the flag bearers over there.

[00:40:56] Yuki Sunoda doing exceptionally well.

[00:40:58] I think five Q3 appearances and Nico Hulkenberg, I think four Q3 appearances.

[00:41:03] They're really single handedly taking that team forward.

[00:41:06] Ricardo had one good sprint.

[00:41:08] Magnusson's had a couple of very aggressive defensive races that I would say.

[00:41:13] But so far, yes, it does look like Maceres are the best of the rest.

[00:41:18] I have to say Magnusson is my driver of the weekend.

[00:41:22] For once, he did not pick up a penalty point.

[00:41:25] And he finished 12th, his best result of the season.

[00:41:29] But since you mentioned Mercedes and their context of Aston Martin and McLaren,

[00:41:35] very interestingly, Mercedes had 79 points.

[00:41:38] McLaren is almost double of them at 154 points.

[00:41:42] And Aston Martin is almost half of them at 44 points.

[00:41:47] And Aston Martin in the last three races have scored seven, two, and two points.

[00:41:53] The maths, that's 11 points only.

[00:41:55] Can you imagine?

[00:41:56] That's just how bad it can get for them if Fernando Alonso is not doing the whole heavy lifting that's there.

[00:42:04] But I think it's also interesting.

[00:42:07] Maybe we can just switch to talking about Aston Martin

[00:42:10] because Strollers outperformed Fernando Alonso the last couple of races.

[00:42:16] And Fernando Alonso, two bad qualifying sessions in the race,

[00:42:20] made a setup change, started from the pit lane and then very interestingly said,

[00:42:23] I'm waiting for the team to tell me what data they found

[00:42:26] because they have a comparison of two different setups on my car.

[00:42:31] And then it's not just us who can't handle a slow Fernando Alonso.

[00:42:36] The Aston Martin, the front left brake decided to catch fire

[00:42:39] because the Aston Martin is not used to Fernando Alonso driving slowly.

[00:42:43] Yeah, very uncharacteristic of Alonso actually crashing.

[00:42:47] I think this happened a couple of years ago in Belgium as well.

[00:42:51] And the moment that happened, everyone was saying the same thing.

[00:42:54] It's very odd to see Fernando Alonso making a mistake in one of the other sessions

[00:42:59] and then crashing his car.

[00:43:00] It's very odd, very unlike Fernando.

[00:43:03] But that's the thing when he's not there or when he and the car are not at one,

[00:43:08] these are sort of weekends.

[00:43:10] His body language in general this weekend was very off.

[00:43:14] He seemed pretty miffed even after qualifying today.

[00:43:17] He said, I think after the race that this was the most boring race of the season

[00:43:21] or most boring race for me in a while.

[00:43:23] And that's the thing where you don't want to have an angry

[00:43:26] or an annoyed Fernando Alonso within your team.

[00:43:29] So Aston Martin really have to pull up their socks

[00:43:33] and figure out what's really not working within that team

[00:43:35] and ensure they give him a good package for the next couple of races.

[00:43:38] I really liked what you said, the boring race.

[00:43:41] And we'll get to that because we've got a lot of bottom team runners

[00:43:45] who actually said this was a boring race.

[00:43:47] We'll tell you why we think that probably has, of course, happened.

[00:43:50] But talking of Fernando Alonso, since you were already there,

[00:43:53] Fernando Alonso got overtaken by Lewis Hamilton for eighth place

[00:43:56] in the Constructors or Drivers Championship.

[00:43:59] And so Fernando's got 33, Lewis has now got 35.

[00:44:04] Also Lewis is eighth in the Drivers Championship.

[00:44:10] Nine points behind George Russell,

[00:44:13] which is where the story has always been in the last couple of seasons.

[00:44:17] But if we can just briefly move on, 45 minutes into this episode,

[00:44:23] we could probably just discuss racing bulls, right?

[00:44:28] Because both the drivers in Q3, which is great for Ricardo,

[00:44:32] Yuki Sunoda, like I said at the earlier part of the episode as well,

[00:44:37] brilliant outlap, did undercut Hulkenberg.

[00:44:40] And then after that, Hulkenberg said there was nothing I could do

[00:44:42] to get that place back.

[00:44:43] And that's how close it is between them on track,

[00:44:47] especially on this track where overtaking is difficult

[00:44:50] and track position is everything.

[00:44:52] But this brings me to ask the question because Alexander Albin,

[00:44:58] who didn't finish the race because of a cross wheel nut, right?

[00:45:03] Like you said earlier, actually said we didn't lose too much from the race

[00:45:07] because the midfield teams did not score much.

[00:45:10] And he's right because it was just racing bulls that scored a point.

[00:45:13] The other nine positions were all by the top five teams, right?

[00:45:16] Do you believe that there is a larger gap between the top five

[00:45:22] and the bottom five teams and it is sort of increasing

[00:45:26] because as the Barnao Khan said,

[00:45:28] we deserved a point in Miami, we did not deserve a point today.

[00:45:32] Albin, like I said, has already said the midfield didn't score much.

[00:45:36] The top 10 drivers or rather the bottom 10 drivers,

[00:45:40] I'll put it that way, right?

[00:45:42] The top three drivers, so that was Max Verstappen, Lando Norris

[00:45:45] and Charles Leclerc actually lapped drivers all the way up to P10, right?

[00:45:50] So do you think that the gap between the top five

[00:45:53] and the bottom five is actually increasing?

[00:45:56] I think that's been the theme of this season so far

[00:45:59] and also why Sonoda and Hulkenberg's performances are that rated

[00:46:05] and also probably why there's been this discussion

[00:46:09] about more drivers or more teams getting points,

[00:46:13] is it the top 12 or the top 15?

[00:46:15] For the fact that largely you would expect the top five teams

[00:46:19] to lock out all the points paying positions.

[00:46:21] And on the odd occasion when you have a driver

[00:46:25] not having a very good day and what's been the case in this season

[00:46:28] has been a Mercedes car or an Aston Martin car

[00:46:31] or a Landster in specific having an off day,

[00:46:33] that's when Yuki and Nico have been able to steal points off of them.

[00:46:38] And I think that's where that's what their target is.

[00:46:41] When one of these cars or these teams have an off day,

[00:46:44] we will be there, we will be present to take off those points.

[00:46:48] And they've been doing well actually.

[00:46:49] They've not been missing out.

[00:46:51] They've not been making mistakes.

[00:46:52] So Sonoda and Hulkenberg have been just waiting patiently

[00:46:57] to see one of these cars stumble and they've been doing that.

[00:47:00] But yes, the bottom teams, especially Williams,

[00:47:03] they've not scored a single point this season.

[00:47:05] It's very odd considering the sort of season they had last year.

[00:47:08] Alex Alpern actually.

[00:47:09] This is his longest pointless streak in Formula One.

[00:47:13] So he is on a very bad streak at this point in time.

[00:47:16] So they really have to do a lot more to be closer to 12th, 11th, 10th

[00:47:21] and have luck go their way.

[00:47:23] Very interestingly, and I'm going to read out a stat.

[00:47:28] Nico Hulkenberg has finished 11th three times this season.

[00:47:34] And apart from Bahrain, 11th has actually been Hulkenberg's worst finish in 2024.

[00:47:42] So that's how good he's been.

[00:47:45] We also spoke of, I think you picked Oscar Piastri.

[00:47:48] I forgot mentioning this, but Piastri has either finished eighth or third.

[00:47:53] Oh sorry, eighth or fourth.

[00:47:55] That's it.

[00:47:56] And then of course he's the only Ferrari-McLaren driver to have not scored a podium yet in 2024.

[00:48:04] But which actually brings us to the question.

[00:48:09] Any other facts or stats that stood out for Mr. F1 stats guru from this weekend's

[00:48:16] MSC Grand Prix, since that's what I said.

[00:48:19] I'm going to call it in the preview.

[00:48:22] I did have a couple, but actually something that really baffled me was McLaren this year are the only team to not be eliminated in Q1 or Q2.

[00:48:31] They've made it to Q3 every single time and they are the only team to do that this year.

[00:48:37] And if I'm not wrong, Lando Norris has the most P2s since the start of 2023.

[00:48:44] He was actually tied with Sergio Perez.

[00:48:46] If I'm not wrong, I'm actually going to have to look back into this.

[00:48:48] But I think Lando Norris has the most P2s since the start of 2023.

[00:48:53] And yeah, this kind of goes to show the sort of season that he's had since Austria last year.

[00:49:00] Wow, incredible.

[00:49:02] One of my favorite stats, Alexander Albin has qualified 14th for four consecutive races.

[00:49:09] Three or four consecutive races, I can't remember.

[00:49:11] Yeah, yeah.

[00:49:12] And then lots of drivers from different teams have actually finished in 11th and I'm going to read that out.

[00:49:18] So in Bahrain, we had Joe Guan Yu who was 11th.

[00:49:22] They had slow stops.

[00:49:23] By the way, Sauber slow stops could just be a thing of the past because they brought their pit stop equipment, the upgrades this weekend.

[00:49:31] Right.

[00:49:32] So we probably didn't see them having a slow stop because they probably didn't have a slow stop.

[00:49:36] Right. So it was Joe Guan Yu who finished 11th in Bahrain.

[00:49:39] Then it was Alexander Albin in Saudi and Australia.

[00:49:42] OK, then it was Nico Hulkenberg in Japan.

[00:49:45] It was Okon in China.

[00:49:48] And then it's been Hulkenberg in Miami and Imola.

[00:49:52] Right.

[00:49:53] So that's literally every team on the bottom part of the grid that has finished 11th.

[00:49:58] And this is interesting to always say what you said, you know, that it's either Sunoda or Hulkenberg who actually scored the point if the top five are not scoring.

[00:50:08] But it's the driver who comes 11th.

[00:50:10] There have been so many different drivers who have come 11th.

[00:50:14] Right. But 50 minutes in, that's almost an hour that everyone has spent with us.

[00:50:19] I'm sure you all missed.

[00:50:21] For a race that was supposedly boring.

[00:50:24] I think we had a lot to speak about though.

[00:50:26] Yeah. And everyone whom I'm pretty sure you'll miss, Soumila Rora, because I realized that he is so bloody good.

[00:50:32] But after 350 odd episodes that he's probably done at the front, he's just on a holiday in the northeast part of India.

[00:50:41] So if anyone's listening in from the northeast in Sikkim, Gangtok or even Darjeeling, he's probably hanging around some of those streets somewhere.

[00:50:48] Give him a shout.

[00:50:49] But thank you very much.

[00:50:50] It is a double header race weekend, which means we will be back soon with the Monaco preview.

[00:50:57] And that's always a race that excites.

[00:50:59] Even more so on the Saturday.

[00:51:02] And thank you so much for your time, Sundaram.

[00:51:04] Thank you everyone for listening and you will hear from us in a few days.

[00:51:29] Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Inside Line F1 podcast.

[00:51:33] Before we ended, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Amazon Music once again for partnering with us on this episode of the podcast.