Latest / Banter with the Boys / F1 2025 | Full Season Recap | Fast Laps with the Boys

Transcript

F1 2025 | Full Season Recap | Fast Laps with the Boys · Banter with the Boys

• 0:00
  please stop let's go it's time for banter with
• 0:04
  the boys oh welcome back to banter with the boys
• 0:18
  fast laps uh for the first time in like weeks
• 0:23
  it's been a moment that's why it was a horrible
• 0:26
  intro no it was great that was great that was
• 0:28
  flawless uh Joe's here. I'm finally here. Guys,
• 0:31
  I'm not dead. Joe's awesome. Joe's not dead.
• 0:35
  This is the first place I've been since my house
• 0:38
  for like three weeks. It feels good. Joe's been
• 0:41
  uber sick. I've been uber sick. Uber. Feeling
• 0:45
  good, though. Mega. Ready to be here. Mega sick.
• 0:48
  And then on the other hand, before he was sick,
• 0:51
  I was uber sick. I also was bedridden. Yeah,
• 0:54
  so I guess for the timeline, I suppose, because
• 0:57
  we've missed, I think we've missed three, two
• 0:59
  episodes. Yeah, and one of the ones in there
• 1:02
  I couldn't make. So we each missed a different
• 1:04
  episode. It's been a minute since you've seen
• 1:06
  us, but we're back. So we figured since the 2025
• 1:09
  season's been over for a minute that we'll just
• 1:11
  go ahead and not recap it anyway. Kev's here
• 1:15
  too, by the way. He's back there chilling like
• 1:17
  a villain. You already know. Yeah, yeah. Let's
• 1:22
  just go ahead and get right into our season recap,
• 1:26
  Kev. Before we start with our season recap, which,
• 1:39
  of course, will be starting with Smelty with
• 1:41
  Alpine. So before we get into that excitement,
• 1:45
  Joe has something going on. I don't know. Toss
• 1:48
  it over to Joe. Yes, it's been it's been weeks
• 1:51
  since Christmas. I've been sick as a dog. We
• 1:54
  have not met. So I have not been able to pass
• 1:56
  as I listen. You. have found a newfound love
• 2:01
  of a person and a team this last season yeah
• 2:04
  and you your team was so god -awful i just felt
• 2:08
  so bad yeah so i emailed a couple people and
• 2:12
  i got a couple responses so this one is for mike
• 2:23
  My name kind of smudged a little bit, but it
• 2:25
  should still be visible. Okay, hold on. If you're
• 2:27
  on YouTube, you have to check this wrapping paper.
• 2:29
  Yeah, this is some crazy wrapping paper. This
• 2:30
  is some freaking F1 wrapping paper. Yeah, there
• 2:32
  you go. Where do you get that? I believe it was
• 2:36
  Amazon. Oh, no. It was literally the hardest.
• 2:40
  It was not easy to find. And then Smeltsy. Someone
• 2:44
  for you as well. Use this to wrap Jenny's present
• 2:47
  next year. The Shaboosie CD. Wait a minute. Did
• 2:51
  you see who it was from? Who's yours from? I
• 2:52
  emailed a couple people. I emailed a couple people.
• 2:55
  Mine's from Zach Brown. There you go. They got
• 2:59
  back to us. Zach Brown and Helmut sent us some
• 3:03
  gifts for you guys. Notably, it's going to be
• 3:05
  great. Helmut Marko, good friend of mine. Can
• 3:08
  we open them? Who should we start with? Him.
• 3:12
  I'm already starting. It's a good idea. It's
• 3:16
  so funny that you're ending our season with this
• 3:19
  when this is the way I started the season. With
• 3:22
  your Max Verstappen t -shirt. Make sure to show
• 3:26
  my complete and full address to the camera. You
• 3:29
  got a note there at the top, too. I did, yeah.
• 3:31
  What does my good buddy Helmut say? Ich habe
• 3:35
  in Ihrem Podcast gehostt, dass Sie Max Grobster
• 3:42
  von sind. Vielen Dank für Ihr... So what does
• 3:47
  that translate to? Um, well, I'd love to translate
• 3:49
  it, but I will here. I actually took some German.
• 3:51
  Oh, yeah. Here we go. So Joe will help us. I
• 3:53
  mean, I mean, OK, he's got the English. So it
• 3:57
  was the same. It's the same. Same one. Clearly
• 4:01
  the same one. So while you're unwrapping that,
• 4:03
  while you're while you are unwrapping that, Kev,
• 4:05
  if you want to push to me, I'll go ahead. I heard
• 4:09
  from your podcast that you were Max's number
• 4:11
  one fan. Thank you for your support. I look forward
• 4:14
  to being your favorite Red Bull employee going
• 4:16
  forward. Helmet Marco. Let's go. That didn't
• 4:20
  age very well. That did not age very well. What
• 4:23
  did it get you? Let's take a look -see. It's
• 4:28
  a number one Max Verstappen fan. Number one Max
• 4:30
  Verstappen fan. That's awesome. What is this?
• 4:34
  What is this? Are those drink glasses? Unleash
• 4:37
  the lion. Stay hydrated. What is this? Oh, it's
• 4:41
  from Verstappen .com. Yeah, that's so funny.
• 4:43
  Are they drink glasses to drown your sorrows?
• 4:46
  That's awesome. Yes. Yes, finally. Oh, my God.
• 4:51
  You know, unironically, I will wear it. It is
• 4:53
  actually a good hat. Are you a flat brimmer?
• 4:55
  Huh? You can deal with the flap rims? I can do
• 4:58
  the flap rims. I do both. Fair enough. And then,
• 5:01
  of course, I'm so tilted about this. A Red Bull
• 5:07
  Lego set. Oh, you gotta build that. I wanted
• 5:09
  my first one to be Audi, but now my first one
• 5:12
  is freaking Red Bull. Well, it's Max Verstappen
• 5:15
  probably is more specific. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:17
  Is it Maxwell? Does it say? Hey, this says 6+.
• 5:21
  I'm not allowed to play with this. Oh, it's got
• 5:22
  the number 1 on it. Yeah, it's Maxwell. I'm not
• 5:24
  allowed to play with this. This says six plus.
• 5:26
  Yeah, we can. Well, I'll just send it back to
• 5:28
  you. I'm not going to work out. Well, I can't.
• 5:32
  Weirdly, I've tried emailing him back and I just
• 5:34
  keep getting like a. like a pushback email. That's
• 5:37
  weird. I could have sworn he's a core of Red
• 5:39
  Bull, right? Helmet .Marco at RedBull .com doesn't
• 5:42
  work anymore for some reason. This email is no
• 5:44
  longer receiving messages or being monitored.
• 5:47
  But that's great. Hey, Helmet really did you
• 5:50
  good. I'm sorry for your loss this season. That's
• 5:53
  rough. My good buddy who sent me these great
• 5:56
  gifts. Yeah, number one Red Bull fan. You traitor.
• 6:01
  You absolute traitor. I feel like you guys could
• 6:03
  match now with your red, with your max. With
• 6:05
  our, with our max stuff. Yeah. Hey, why don't
• 6:07
  you open up yours? Let me see what Zach Brown
• 6:10
  got me. Zach Brown. Yeah. This one was a tough,
• 6:12
  he was a busy guy. Yeah. I bet. You know, celebrating
• 6:15
  and, you know, and, you know, being cringed to
• 6:19
  his drivers and radio messages. Hold on. Sorry,
• 6:24
  I'm opening this. Is this the world champion?
• 6:27
  I realized how bad for the mics that probably
• 6:29
  is. Is this the world champion hotline? I don't
• 6:32
  think I taped it too difficult, so you might
• 6:34
  be able to just break it open. Just for my good
• 6:37
  buddy helmet, though. I'll continue to wear this
• 6:38
  hat. Ah, yes. What did he send you? There's some
• 6:44
  paper in here. And he heard... He heard that
• 6:49
  you. Yeah. Yeah. He heard that you love platforms.
• 6:53
  Let's go. Yay. Platforms are great. God, I really
• 6:58
  hope it fits. God, I really hope it fits. I am
• 7:01
  now a McLaren fan. Yes. He finally can wear something
• 7:05
  that isn't Alpine. Yes. Which is true. Hey. Actually,
• 7:11
  really good. Do I look good in orange? You look
• 7:14
  great. You look fabulous. The best you've ever
• 7:16
  looked. And you know what? This is so fitting,
• 7:19
  Joe, because I don't know if you overheard. I
• 7:21
  was giving him crap earlier about I am wearing
• 7:24
  a McLaren shirt. It's kind of hard to see because
• 7:26
  it's black on black. All three of us are wearing
• 7:29
  some amount of McLaren merch. Oh, me? No. Oh,
• 7:33
  man. Thanks to Zach Brown for answering Joe's.
• 7:39
  Email, because that seems like something that
• 7:41
  would be real. Since we're on the topic of getting
• 7:43
  the F1 gifts and stuff like that, you know, I
• 7:45
  was going to get you an F1 gag gift. And what
• 7:49
  was it, Qatar maybe or something like that? I
• 7:51
  was literally just about to buy it. And we were
• 7:54
  watching, and this was when Max was still potentially
• 7:56
  about to fight for the championship. And he goes,
• 7:58
  you said, I want you to know that if you get
• 8:01
  me anything Max Verstappen related, I will not
• 8:03
  find it funny. I will be so pissed. And I was
• 8:05
  like, cancel order, cancel order, cancel order,
• 8:07
  cancel order. I specifically said, if he wins
• 8:11
  and you get me anything, I'm probably not going
• 8:13
  to like it. I think if you would have given it
• 8:16
  to me now, though, when he won, I think I probably
• 8:17
  would have been fine. It's just right after it
• 8:20
  would have been tough. It's the funniest thing,
• 8:21
  too. I don't even care. it was like a it was
• 8:24
  like a throw it was a cover for a throw pillow
• 8:26
  but it was the sid verstappen oh no i would have
• 8:30
  loved that yeah it was hilarious i was gonna
• 8:33
  get you that but alas you scared me with your
• 8:35
  your comment i was i was it was i was in a dark
• 8:37
  place i think it was like yeah mclaren's were
• 8:40
  like it was like really close and i was when
• 8:42
  max actually had a real shot yeah that entire
• 8:48
  weekend i was yeah kind of Yeah, that was rough.
• 8:52
  Now that that's done. Amazing. Merry Christmas,
• 8:56
  guys. I appreciate that. It's only fitting that
• 9:01
  my first McLaren hat comes from a McLaren fan.
• 9:03
  I mean, Zach Brown. He's honestly the biggest
• 9:07
  McLaren fan. Yeah, big slammer. Yeah, okay. Well,
• 9:13
  I suppose let's start here. We're going to go
• 9:16
  ahead and start with... alpine now we're just
• 9:19
  gonna run through teams right yeah maybe just
• 9:21
  talk about some points touch on a couple things
• 9:23
  nothing too crazy um we'll probably still end
• 9:28
  up being shorter than a race recap but we always
• 9:30
  say that so that's true uh one yeah this will
• 9:33
  be a short one here so damn it my first note
• 9:38
  for alpine is just uh but B -U -T -T. But it
• 9:44
  was bad this year. I mean, they finished sixth
• 9:47
  in constructors last season. Felt pretty confident
• 9:50
  coming into this season. And now we know that
• 9:53
  if I'm feeling confident, you can't trust it.
• 9:56
  We all thought that Alpine was going to have
• 9:58
  a strong season. We really did. Gasly with only
• 10:00
  22 points this year compared to 42 last year.
• 10:05
  Franco, nothing. Franco had five points last
• 10:08
  year. Hey, but you know what? Take this and hold
• 10:12
  this with pride. They now have the record of
• 10:15
  the best -worst team. That was coming. Yeah,
• 10:17
  you're right, 100%. They do have... The best,
• 10:21
  they've earned the most amount of points as the
• 10:23
  worst team ever in F1. So there is something
• 10:26
  to be said about that, which means that our season
• 10:28
  was very competitive. That is really cool, actually.
• 10:30
  Yeah, I love that. But that proves that this
• 10:32
  season was actually more competitive. That record
• 10:36
  was last held by Haas. Of course it was. Of course.
• 10:40
  That's actually great. I love that. Yeah, because
• 10:42
  last season we had, did any teams not have any
• 10:46
  points at the end of the season? No, because
• 10:48
  I think Kicksauber did score. Oh, last season?
• 10:51
  Kicksauber scored two points literally at Abu
• 10:53
  Dhabi. That's right. So every team did have points.
• 10:55
  Okay, okay. But it was two, literally two. Literally
• 10:57
  two points. He came in, I thought, ninth, right?
• 11:00
  So yeah, Franco with nothing this year. Jack
• 11:02
  doing nothing. okon had 23 points in 2024 so
• 11:08
  there's at least some again some hope for the
• 11:10
  second car this season but nothing doing and
• 11:13
  alpine kind of gave up early in the season with
• 11:16
  upgrades and we're kind of like ah we're just
• 11:17
  gonna get ready for the 2026 car even with all
• 11:21
  that gasly still made his way into plenty of
• 11:25
  q3s uh and was as competitive as One could possibly
• 11:30
  be in that car, I would think. I'm really curious
• 11:34
  to see what 2026 brings to Alpine. Like what,
• 11:38
  our last two or three episodes in one of those,
• 11:40
  I was like, I'm done with Alpine. I'm only going
• 11:43
  to be a Pierre Gasly fan. They're going to be
• 11:46
  running Mercedes power units in 26. I'm kind
• 11:49
  of excited about that, at least. It's not going
• 11:51
  to be a Renault power unit, at least. No, I'm
• 11:56
  not hating on Renault. Give me a minute. I'm
• 11:58
  hating on Renault F1. So I don't know. You can
• 12:02
  only go up, right? From last place. It just wasn't
• 12:06
  a great season. I have bad news. They can actually
• 12:10
  do worse next season. They can score less than
• 12:13
  22 points, I guess. So they can do worse. At
• 12:17
  least they finished in the top 10 this time.
• 12:19
  They could potentially finish outside the top
• 12:21
  10 next year. So they could literally do worse.
• 12:25
  Shut up. If it's any consolation, I really don't
• 12:30
  think that's going to happen. oof man i really
• 12:33
  don't think it's hard to hear that bro yeah it's
• 12:35
  not a way to scare me out he was the first on
• 12:38
  the track yeah no um yeah all in all bad season
• 12:43
  for alpine but again i'm actually i'm rejuvenated
• 12:47
  on alpine a little bit looking forward to 2026
• 12:49
  uh of course i'm a big pierre gasly fan and no
• 12:52
  hiding that um yeah i you know gasly what a shame
• 12:58
  it's just given such a horrible car and you know
• 13:00
  he has he has true talent i really believe that
• 13:02
  and i think he's i truly believe he's getting
• 13:04
  better every single season and he's just he's
• 13:07
  just not you know what like i'm curious what
• 13:09
  what would he actually do in one of the top four
• 13:11
  cars i genuinely think be competitive with these
• 13:13
  guys i genuinely think that if you were to put
• 13:15
  him in a top car give him a few years to like
• 13:18
  make sure that he's like got the vibe down if
• 13:20
  he were in a top car he could be a world championship
• 13:23
  contender Yeah, I don't know if I'd go. I personally
• 13:26
  don't think I'd go that far, but I also just
• 13:29
  don't know. I think he could fight to be in the
• 13:31
  top five in drivers by the end of the year. I
• 13:36
  mean, if he's in a top car, then I sure hope
• 13:37
  he does. It's kind of a given. Wow. There was
• 13:40
  one top car missing from the top eight. If we're
• 13:44
  going to count Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, and
• 13:48
  McLaren as the top bona fide four teams, there
• 13:50
  was one car missing from there. And Gasly used
• 13:56
  to race for that team a long time ago, it feels
• 13:58
  like. But anyway, we won't go down that rabbit
• 14:01
  hole. Let's move on. Let's move to Kick Sauber.
• 14:03
  Actually, Micah's the next three. All three of
• 14:06
  his teams finished right. Boom, boom, boom. So
• 14:09
  Kick Sauber, though. Yeah, yeah. You really know
• 14:12
  how to pick them. Wait, Kick Sauber, didn't they?
• 14:15
  I thought Haas finished. No, Haas finished in
• 14:19
  front of Kick Sauber, didn't they? No. Yes. Did
• 14:22
  they? Nine points. Oh, really? Yep. Oh, well,
• 14:24
  I stand corrected. Dude, that's like your favorite
• 14:26
  team. What are you doing? That is like my favorite
• 14:27
  team. Listen, season's over. It's been a long
• 14:29
  time since season's over. I'm in the Audi waiting
• 14:33
  room. Haas says, I don't want to play with you
• 14:35
  anymore. Oh, jeez. Wow. So you're going to keep
• 14:41
  Aston and kick Sauber. Are you going to drop
• 14:44
  Haas, though? Oh, no, no, no. I mean, if anything,
• 14:46
  like, I have so much merch. My top three teams
• 14:49
  would be Audi, Haas, and would be Audi. Well,
• 14:54
  no, it's the same three teams. It's just Kicksauber.
• 14:58
  You're gaslighting. You had me for a second.
• 15:00
  You're gaslighting. And he did it well. And gosh
• 15:03
  darn it, he did it well. Okay, Kicksauber. Honestly,
• 15:07
  like. i'm satisfied with what i saw out of the
• 15:09
  season like i think most of the teams did well
• 15:11
  most of the teams really nailed their concepts
• 15:13
  for the car for this season um nico had obviously
• 15:17
  standing races nico on first ever podium with
• 15:20
  a sauber last time we saw the sauber on the podium
• 15:23
  was i think 2013 so like they probably partied
• 15:26
  all night it was yeah i mean they deserved it
• 15:28
  yeah so like it was super like super satisfied
• 15:32
  and this This team that we saw this season is
• 15:35
  basically what we're going to have, almost exactly
• 15:37
  what we're going to have for Audi next season.
• 15:39
  This was basically Audi in everything but name.
• 15:43
  So at this point, like, this is a good showing
• 15:46
  that, you know. They're prepared for next season.
• 15:49
  They're going to come in. They spent pretty much
• 15:51
  this whole season preparing for 2026. And again,
• 15:53
  coming out of the most competitive season we've
• 15:56
  seen in F1 in a while. Yeah. Very curious as
• 15:59
  to how 26 is going to go. They had last I heard
• 16:02
  they had the record for they won the pit stop
• 16:06
  championship or something like that. Like they
• 16:07
  had the fastest average pit stop on the grid,
• 16:10
  which is crazy to consider. Yeah. Crazy to consider
• 16:13
  from what they were. Sauber had 70 points this
• 16:16
  season. Yeah. uh alpine had 65 last season in
• 16:21
  sixth place that's how that's that's how crazy
• 16:23
  competitive it was yeah so like i'm super super
• 16:27
  satisfied with the season and super excited like
• 16:29
  audi is is super excited about next season they
• 16:32
  feel really good about their engine so i'm really
• 16:34
  looking forward to next season i'm happy with
• 16:37
  kicks albert really happy with gabby he He did
• 16:40
  a really good job for his first season fighting
• 16:42
  against Nico. Like, they were basically head
• 16:44
  -to -head in every metric. Nico just slightly
• 16:47
  eking him out in both qualifying and race finishes.
• 16:49
  Gabby was the only driver that Pierre Gasly beat
• 16:52
  in points. Other than his... Sorry. ...counterparts.
• 16:57
  So, yeah, it was... Sorry. Yeah, it was great.
• 17:02
  I'm satisfied with Kickstarter. Okay. Looking
• 17:06
  forward to not wearing green again next season.
• 17:08
  I think we all predicted them to be last. Oh,
• 17:10
  yeah, for sure. Pretty handily, yeah. Very, very
• 17:13
  good showing. But 70 points is not, I mean, even,
• 17:16
  yeah, I wouldn't even be disappointed. Like,
• 17:20
  and you're not, right? I mean, coming from a
• 17:22
  season where they didn't score any points until
• 17:23
  the very last race. No, this is, I mean, it's
• 17:25
  definitely progress. And to your point, above
• 17:27
  where Alpine would have been in six last year,
• 17:29
  that just blows my mind. And if they didn't,
• 17:31
  if they truly didn't focus on. I saw you looking
• 17:33
  at my hat. I mean, if they didn't focus, it just
• 17:36
  looks so good. If they didn't truly focus on
• 17:38
  this year's car the whole season, they started
• 17:40
  preparing for next. I mean, progression, right?
• 17:44
  Like it should be there unless they Alpine it
• 17:46
  somehow and go backwards. It's possible. I mean,
• 17:49
  new regs. It's, you know, I mean, new regs. I
• 17:52
  mean, that's a whole. Yeah, I'm really sorry.
• 17:55
  That's OK. We could also say that they don't
• 17:58
  Mercedes it and show up next season without side
• 18:01
  pods. That's true. They did do that. They could
• 18:03
  do that. Yeah. So, yeah. Nonetheless. Who knows?
• 18:07
  They could McLaren it and just wake up. Do I
• 18:09
  put the other hat on now? Yeah, just for Haas.
• 18:11
  Yeah, go for it. Just for Haas, yeah. Make sure
• 18:13
  I get him. Did you bring your Aston hat? Where
• 18:15
  is your uniform? No, I didn't. I thought about
• 18:17
  bringing hats for each one, but I don't have
• 18:19
  a fitting Ferrari one. I thought about bringing
• 18:21
  all my hats, too. Not yet. But I decided against
• 18:23
  it. I should have brought them all. Yeah. So,
• 18:27
  Haas, it was another good season. Like, again,
• 18:31
  satisfying. Like, we did better than Alpine did
• 18:34
  last season in sixth. And I feel like we can
• 18:36
  keep saying that for more of the teams as we
• 18:38
  go forward. It's crazy. So I had predicted that
• 18:42
  Haas was going to have a really good car going
• 18:44
  into this season. And, I mean, I was right in
• 18:46
  that regard. I was not expecting the other teams
• 18:49
  to also have rocket ships that they were going
• 18:51
  to have with them as well. Because how could
• 18:54
  you predict that? So, like, I'm satisfied. Esteban
• 18:58
  Ocon. I underperformed from what I had expected,
• 19:01
  but Ollie Bearman completely overperformed from
• 19:05
  what I expected. I expected him to be good and
• 19:08
  I felt like he did great. So as a Haas fan, I'm
• 19:12
  really, really happy and really excited and really
• 19:14
  depressed that this probably means that I've
• 19:16
  got him for one more season before he goes to
• 19:18
  Ferrari. Ollie. 100 % because what does Lewis
• 19:24
  do after next season? No. I don't think they
• 19:27
  get rid of Lewis. No, I don't think they're getting
• 19:29
  rid of Lewis either. This is my hot take. What
• 19:31
  if Lewis is done? What if he calls it done after
• 19:35
  next season? I don't think Lewis is done. Unless
• 19:37
  the car is truly awful next year, I think he'd
• 19:42
  look for a different seat before he'd. I think.
• 19:46
  I think he sticks around because Charles has
• 19:48
  already said that if Ferrari drops the ball again
• 19:50
  next year, he's in the driver market. Charles
• 19:53
  has already said that he's like, I know I'm capable
• 19:58
  of winning a championship. And if Ferrari can't
• 20:00
  bring that to me, as much as I love Ferrari,
• 20:03
  I want a world championship. So Charles is kind
• 20:05
  of waiting to see who comes out of this 2026
• 20:08
  season. Interesting. And if somebody in that
• 20:11
  second car slacks. Interesting. Ferrari doesn't
• 20:16
  bring it this next season. I'm not worried about
• 20:18
  Ferrari changing Lewis for Ollie. They're going
• 20:22
  to change Ollie for Louis and Louis is going
• 20:26
  to be more comfortable. I got that super bad.
• 20:29
  So do you think you mean that they're going to,
• 20:31
  they could. demote lewis to haas no no lewis
• 20:34
  no i'm sorry lewis is gonna stay at ferrari okay
• 20:37
  lewis is gonna stay at ferrari and ollie's gonna
• 20:39
  go up to ferrari and then charles will go wherever
• 20:41
  he goes and lewis is gonna stay because now lewis
• 20:44
  will be the lead driver at ferrari instead of
• 20:47
  having might be lewis instead of dealing with
• 20:49
  charles and lewis can really spearhead where
• 20:52
  that car is going in development so that it's
• 20:55
  better suited for him as opposed to right now
• 20:58
  where they're kind of They've got two lead drivers,
• 21:00
  effectively, so they need to really kind of split
• 21:03
  the burden between the two. That's probably his
• 21:06
  best chance to be in a top four car. I don't
• 21:10
  think that's what the issue is right now. I don't
• 21:12
  think it's because they have two talented drivers.
• 21:14
  I think it's because their strategy in their
• 21:16
  car is bad. True. That's right. But to bring
• 21:19
  it back to Haas, you kicked it off by saying...
• 21:23
  You're sad because you might not be rooting for
• 21:26
  him anymore because he's going to go to Ferrari.
• 21:27
  I worry he's not going to get the chance. Oh,
• 21:30
  really? What other seats can you go to? I just
• 21:34
  don't see. It's hard for me to see a world unless
• 21:37
  somehow, somehow, you know, Charles finds himself
• 21:42
  in maybe the second Red Bull seat. So that ran
• 21:44
  through my mind. I don't see a seat opening.
• 21:47
  Where's the hat? I don't see a seat opening that's
• 21:52
  going to be competitive enough for Charles to
• 21:53
  be like, yeah, I'm going to leave Ferrari. When
• 21:55
  Ferrari's like, they could maybe come back. I
• 21:58
  just don't think Red Bull, like, I mean. The
• 22:01
  tinfoil hat's on. For who? For me. So the thing
• 22:07
  that's, and a lot of people are speculating this
• 22:09
  online right now, is that Aston is braiding it
• 22:13
  next year. Aston is seeming like they're going
• 22:15
  to be a team. For the love of God. They're not
• 22:18
  necessarily going to win the championship next
• 22:21
  year, right? But they are probably going to have
• 22:23
  a really strong design, and they're going to
• 22:25
  have really strong departments. Why am I blanking
• 22:30
  on his name? Fernando has said that if he gets
• 22:32
  a car where he can get some race wins again and
• 22:34
  he he gets a strong car, he wants to retire on
• 22:37
  a season where he has a good car. So if this
• 22:40
  next Aston model is good, then we'll see Fernando
• 22:43
  leave at the end of this next year. And if Fernando
• 22:47
  leaves, then that seat opens up. And Aston has
• 22:49
  already opened up and said the fact that they
• 22:51
  are very interested in Charles Leclerc. Who wouldn't
• 22:55
  be? Who wouldn't be interested in Charles Leclerc?
• 22:58
  Alpine's interested in Charles Leclerc, FYI.
• 23:01
  This is crazy driver movement. You've seen the
• 23:03
  always sign. We need to get the whiteboard with
• 23:07
  all. Yeah, that's what I feel like what's happening
• 23:09
  right now. Charlie from freaking. Yeah, exactly.
• 23:11
  Pepe, Sylvia. Yeah. There's some crazy stuff
• 23:15
  going on. That's why I said my tinfoil hat. None
• 23:17
  of this stuff may happen. There's a lot of predictions
• 23:19
  that the driver market next season is going to
• 23:21
  be crazy. Is it? But I just. We just feel like
• 23:24
  there's not going to be seats. But, you know,
• 23:26
  we'll see what happens. Maybe we can talk about
• 23:27
  that later. So, yeah. Well, since you brought
• 23:31
  up Aston. I mean, do you want to touch on Ocon
• 23:33
  at all? I mean, I kind of did. I was a little
• 23:36
  disappointed. He didn't fully disappoint me.
• 23:38
  Like, I feel like there were some people who
• 23:40
  were claiming that he was going to be just completely
• 23:42
  terrible and just not do anything. And, I mean,
• 23:45
  he did fine. Like, he didn't really, like, screw
• 23:48
  the pooch or anything. But, you know, he also
• 23:50
  didn't blow me out of the water. Yeah, I think
• 23:53
  he finished below Ali. He did. Oh, yeah, he did.
• 23:57
  Yeah, for sure. Like, pretty handily, I believe.
• 24:00
  And I think Ali beat him. Only by three points.
• 24:04
  Okay, sure. Not too bad. I do know that Ali did
• 24:06
  beat him in almost every metric. Like, yeah.
• 24:12
  I was first year with Haas, so, you know, there's
• 24:15
  some kinks to work out there, too. Exactly. And
• 24:16
  there is also the point that Oliver Behrman currently
• 24:19
  has 10 penalty points on his license. He is in
• 24:22
  the Kevin Magnuson position. Damn. Shoot. Yep.
• 24:26
  So maybe it's the second Haas seat. The second
• 24:29
  Haas seat gets lots of penalties. Yeah, maybe.
• 24:34
  So yeah, Aston, I suppose. I don't really have
• 24:38
  a whole lot to say about Aston. I feel like they
• 24:39
  kind of were under the radar most of the season.
• 24:42
  I think they could come out of the season pretty
• 24:45
  hot to start 26. I think they're going to be
• 24:47
  super crazy good at the start of the next season.
• 24:51
  So I think if there's any, like I, I've had some
• 24:54
  crazy predictions going through my head for next
• 24:56
  season. It's wild. Some of the stuff that I've
• 24:59
  been hearing. So like, yeah, I think they really
• 25:03
  spent this whole season just trying to eke by.
• 25:07
  And that's really all it came down to. Like Lance
• 25:10
  had the best start he's ever had to a season.
• 25:13
  Lance also managed to pick up his record for
• 25:15
  the most Q1 exits out of any driver in F1 history.
• 25:19
  So, I mean, ups and downs. I feel like for as
• 25:23
  badly as I perceived Aston and Lance, they really
• 25:26
  didn't do a bad job this year. They had obviously
• 25:28
  bad showings, but they got to seventh. Like I
• 25:33
  said, it was super under the radar. It was a
• 25:35
  bunch of kind of middling performances, but they
• 25:37
  were consistently middling. So it's fine, I guess.
• 25:42
  so i really don't have a whole lot to say about
• 25:44
  his fine you guess okay i was like is that the
• 25:46
  best season lance has had but no in 23 he had
• 25:50
  74 points which is which was good for 10th and
• 25:53
  driver standings at that time which blows my
• 25:56
  mind that lance was 10th and driver standings
• 25:58
  ever at the end of the season was really strong
• 26:01
  but probably this okay nope in 2021 he's got
• 26:04
  34 points so But a decent season for his career
• 26:07
  in general, so it's not like it was horrible,
• 26:09
  which we like to crap on Lance here. He's easy
• 26:13
  to crap on. He don't move. At the start of the
• 26:15
  season, we were giving him his flowers. I tried
• 26:18
  doing less, so it's just he goes from it seems
• 26:22
  like he cares to it seems like he not cares.
• 26:24
  It was nice seeing interviews where he had good
• 26:26
  showings and how hyped he was. He definitely
• 26:29
  goes and spurts it. I'm less just like, I don't
• 26:33
  want to dog on him anymore because it's so easy.
• 26:36
  I just want to be like, if you don't want to
• 26:38
  be here, leave. Give him the seat up. That's
• 26:41
  what everybody wants. I'm not telling you to.
• 26:44
  I'm just saying, what do you want? I think he
• 26:48
  wants to win is what he wants. He's not there.
• 26:52
  He's not going to do it. He was pretty even with
• 26:54
  Alonzo all season. uh for the first half of the
• 26:58
  season he was in the back half of the season
• 26:59
  not so much no not even i guess you're probably
• 27:02
  right i uh i thought i heard this statistic was
• 27:05
  like alonzo outqualified lance like 14 races
• 27:08
  straight oh yeah so yeah it was just straight
• 27:12
  up wrong yeah a like at the at the beginning
• 27:15
  of the piece i feel like they were pretty neck
• 27:17
  and neck but that's because fernando was having
• 27:19
  a bunch of bug bears and dfq or dsqs and and
• 27:24
  And, like, car problems. And everything was going
• 27:26
  wrong for him at the beginning half of the season.
• 27:28
  And the back half, everything was just normal.
• 27:30
  And he was Fernando Alonso again. Yeah. Right,
• 27:35
  all right. Let's move on to the old Racing Bulls.
• 27:42
  This season was an interesting one for the Racing
• 27:45
  Bulls, Red Bull in general. The Racing Bulls
• 27:49
  more specifically, they doubled their points
• 27:51
  from last season exactly. They had 46 last year.
• 27:55
  They came out with 92 this year. That's pretty
• 27:58
  outstanding. Where did they come from? Great
• 28:00
  question. Finishing sixth in Constructors. Haji
• 28:04
  with 51 points, which is pretty solid. Kev's
• 28:09
  boy. Was this the year that they basically just
• 28:11
  took Red Bull's car? I think so, yeah. Which
• 28:15
  could be why it was fast. But Hadjar tying Nico
• 28:19
  Hulkenberg in points this season, tied for 11th.
• 28:23
  Nico technically gets the nod. I don't know how
• 28:25
  that works. But either way, almost cracking the
• 28:29
  top 10, Fernando Alonso with 56 points this season.
• 28:31
  So he almost put his name in there for the top
• 28:34
  10, which out of a racing bull doesn't seem that
• 28:36
  crazy. All in all, a good rookie season for Hajar,
• 28:42
  hence why he's moving up. Liam, though, 38 points.
• 28:49
  He only got two races, I believe, in the Red
• 28:52
  Bull before Yuki came into play. Literally two.
• 28:56
  And Yuki didn't race well either. We'll get to
• 29:01
  it. But, yeah, we'll get to it. But Racing Bulls
• 29:05
  had a couple good races. Monaco and Baku were
• 29:07
  pretty great races for the Racing Bulls. Hadji
• 29:10
  with a freaking podium. It's the first podium
• 29:13
  for Racing Bulls in a minute. That was at the
• 29:16
  Netherlands. So a lot of good things, actually,
• 29:19
  to look at for the Racing Bulls and whether or
• 29:22
  not they can repeat at sixth or can they get
• 29:24
  better. They're a pretty good chunk behind Williams
• 29:27
  in fighting with Aston and Haas most of the season,
• 29:30
  which is still wild to say to me. I fully expect
• 29:36
  them to do whatever the heck Red Bull can do
• 29:38
  coming out of the season, but just at that touch
• 29:41
  lower. I don't know. That's all I have for the
• 29:45
  Racing Bulls. I wasn't that excited about him.
• 29:48
  But it's fun to see what Hajar was able to do.
• 29:53
  Who's in that second racing bull seat? I forget
• 29:56
  now. Is it the new guy? Oh, yeah, my boy, Arvin
• 29:59
  Limblad. Or whatever I used to call him. Oh,
• 30:04
  man, the amount of times I've corrected you.
• 30:07
  Already doing some press stuff with, I think
• 30:10
  I just saw a press release. They were standing
• 30:12
  next to some Mustang. I think they're GTDs, Max,
• 30:16
  Arvid, and I think Danny Rick was there, too.
• 30:18
  Yeah, my boy. I mean, he had a pretty good F2.
• 30:24
  I heard he had an okay F2, right? I think he
• 30:27
  came in third or fourth. But I mean, as of late,
• 30:30
  the rookies from Red Bull have been decent. So
• 30:36
  more to come from Racing Bulls in 26. And who
• 30:38
  knows? Maybe he'll get up to Red Bull mid -next
• 30:41
  season. Who knows? I'm very... I really hope,
• 30:45
  since we're still on Racing Bulls, I really hope
• 30:47
  Hatcher has a good season next year. I'm very
• 30:48
  concerned. I'm very concerned about the trajectory
• 30:51
  of his career with the move to Red Bull now.
• 30:55
  I wish they would have kept him in Racing Bulls
• 30:57
  for the first year of 2026, but maybe it's a
• 31:01
  good thing because they haven't had... They've
• 31:03
  only had so much time to tool the car to max,
• 31:05
  so maybe he is able to give them some good testing
• 31:08
  as well, and they can make some tweaks for Isaac.
• 31:10
  Isak, specifically. Excuse me. I didn't mean
• 31:15
  to just cough right now. I do agree, though.
• 31:16
  He is very emotional, and I feel like if this
• 31:20
  Red Bull car chews him up and spits him out,
• 31:22
  he's just retiring. I wouldn't say he's retiring.
• 31:26
  I feel like it's going to hit him super hard.
• 31:29
  I think it's going to be tough for us to watch.
• 31:31
  I think he did grow up a lot this season, though.
• 31:34
  He got used to the ups and downs. Not everything's
• 31:37
  going to be freaking perfect in F1. There's going
• 31:38
  to be a lot out of your control. You're allowed
• 31:40
  to be emotional. He's trying to be Helmut right
• 31:44
  now and just tear him apart. I just think it'll
• 31:47
  be sad. I will. I just know what that Red Bull
• 31:57
  second seat does. I just know what it does. He's
• 32:01
  so young. For Kevin's sake, I hope that he does
• 32:04
  well. Hamilton Senior can't beat every race.
• 32:08
  So you'll be there. You ready for some Williams?
• 32:12
  Yeah, let's talk about Williams. What a good
• 32:15
  season for Williams, bro. Fifth. place you know
• 32:19
  the last time they got that high of a position
• 32:21
  2017 fifth place for williams carlos signs maiden
• 32:26
  season with them albon the veteran of the team
• 32:29
  i mean i truly don't think you could have hoped
• 32:32
  for anything better they were solidly in fifth
• 32:35
  like no one was really touching them for sure
• 32:37
  they weren't touching fourth obviously but they
• 32:39
  weren't like six wasn't touching them so They
• 32:42
  were the Aston of last year, kind of. Yeah, pretty
• 32:45
  much. Just kind of dominating the best of the
• 32:47
  rest, if you will. Yeah, and having some really
• 32:49
  kind of random but really good placements to
• 32:52
  really kind of solidify their place. It felt
• 32:54
  like Sainz and Albon could never race well in
• 32:58
  the same race, but it was one or the other that
• 33:01
  was constantly in the top ten, though, almost
• 33:03
  every race. Oh, man, I feel like I'm just reliving
• 33:06
  the trauma of it's always one Williams car that's
• 33:09
  just not doing very well in a race. and it's
• 33:12
  like mostly and it's usually not driver controlled
• 33:14
  no yeah truly they had they both had some real
• 33:17
  science had some really bad luck both of them
• 33:19
  had some really early on a lot of races um but
• 33:23
  uh alas they persisted their the driver lineup
• 33:26
  really strong yeah he did the driver lineup is
• 33:28
  really stacked it's and it's obvious that james
• 33:30
  vowels really kind of took the team and is and
• 33:32
  is running it well um so uh just kind of go through
• 33:36
  the drivers and some quick points albon eight
• 33:38
  eighth with 73 points um he gained most of those
• 33:41
  in the first season he did dnf four times and
• 33:44
  three of those were back to back to back so that
• 33:46
  was a kind of rough run for him um his highest
• 33:49
  finish was fifth in australia miami amelia Romania,
• 33:52
  and Hungary. Pretty stable season. I think he
• 33:55
  did exactly what was expected of him. I don't
• 33:58
  really think he had any crazy moments or a crazy
• 34:01
  season just overall. What season are you talking
• 34:02
  about? This one? Yeah, this one. He finished
• 34:05
  fifth in Australia? Yeah. Fifth in Australia,
• 34:08
  Miami, Emilia, Romania, and Hungary. At least
• 34:10
  that's what I read. You can just call it Imola.
• 34:13
  That's okay. But it's not Imola. Emilia, Romania
• 34:16
  is not. Oh, is it Imola? Yeah. Oh, it is Imola.
• 34:20
  You can just call it. Why didn't I call it? It's
• 34:23
  because I like saying Amelia. Yeah, you do just
• 34:24
  like saying Amelia. Yeah. So I got consistent
• 34:29
  year. You know, the car, he drove the car that
• 34:32
  was given to him. Uh, aside from the three DNFs,
• 34:35
  he really only had one race where he wasn't scoring
• 34:37
  points in the first half of the season. And then
• 34:39
  he struggled a little bit more in the second
• 34:40
  half. Um, and then Carlos finished. Sorry. No,
• 34:44
  you're good. Carlos finished right after him
• 34:46
  in ninth with 64 points. Um, most of those points
• 34:49
  coming from the latter part of the season. Um,
• 34:51
  he took the first half to acclimate to his car
• 34:54
  and he, and he stuck with it after that. Um,
• 34:57
  I think, uh, And we already touched on this.
• 35:01
  A lot of his like low to no point scorings were
• 35:03
  just really bad luck. or, you know, something
• 35:06
  happening that just kind of knocked him out.
• 35:08
  I think he got hit in one race that sent him
• 35:11
  tumbling down the grid, or he got, like, a really
• 35:13
  bad penalty or something like that. He didn't
• 35:16
  score in a lot of races in the second half, but
• 35:18
  when he did, he scored quite big, taking home
• 35:21
  two podiums, one in Azerbaijan and one in Qatar.
• 35:26
  So I'm really looking forward to seeing him kind
• 35:28
  of grow. Come out of the gate strong. I think,
• 35:31
  I mean, just like you say, Aston coming out,
• 35:33
  I think Williams has a really good shot to be.
• 35:34
  i agree maybe not top three or four but maybe
• 35:37
  sticking at fifth you know what i think we're
• 35:39
  gonna see some surprises i would love that at
• 35:41
  the top of the standings mix up within the first
• 35:43
  five races and then things will level yeah maybe
• 35:45
  leave the first team at the top but the rest
• 35:47
  of the grid you know mix them up you know fix
• 35:49
  up the bag a little bit you know what i'm saying
• 35:52
  right You get it. Yeah, I understand. The trend
• 35:56
  I've been hearing from a lot of people online
• 35:59
  and especially a lot of content creators, people
• 36:01
  are saying that with the reg changes and everything
• 36:03
  and how teams have been handling the reg changes
• 36:05
  is that this could be a season where we could
• 36:08
  potentially see a shakeup with some teams working
• 36:12
  their way further up into the grid, finishing
• 36:14
  in top five positions and potentially maybe a
• 36:17
  team or two finishing below top five that are
• 36:20
  there. You know, there's a chance that, like,
• 36:23
  we could see some crazy changes. We know Williams
• 36:26
  really is firing off on all cylinders for this
• 36:28
  next season. We know Aston is firing off on all
• 36:30
  cylinders for this season. It'll be interesting.
• 36:34
  It will. Red Bull spent a lot of time working
• 36:36
  on their car this year. And Ferrari is Ferrari.
• 36:39
  And I'm about to talk about Ferrari. Might as
• 36:42
  well head into it. Yeah, 100%. I just want one
• 36:44
  last point on Williams. Just an interesting fact
• 36:46
  that I found. Really, really quick. I'm sorry.
• 36:48
  Really, really quick. The head -to -heads, I
• 36:52
  just noticed this because it was probably the
• 36:54
  most interesting head -to -head that I saw for
• 36:56
  everyone. The quality head -to -head was given
• 36:58
  to Sainz, Albon with nine and Sainz with 14,
• 37:02
  but the race head -to -head was Albon 14 and
• 37:04
  Sainz nine. So it's kind of interesting. That's
• 37:08
  crazy. Yeah. Great. Very good. All right, it's
• 37:13
  time to talk about the red team. If you are a
• 37:17
  true diehard Ferrari fan, this is probably a
• 37:19
  season to forget. One that you'd really want
• 37:22
  to remember. You get Lewis Hamilton joining the
• 37:25
  team, and then the car just isn't there. The
• 37:27
  strategies are not there, and Lewis is just taking
• 37:29
  a second to acclimate. Bad luck. Uh, no wins
• 37:34
  in Ferrari this year. Um, you know, solidly in
• 37:38
  fourth. So again, there's no, no, like they weren't
• 37:41
  really being touched by fifth and they were never
• 37:43
  really close to third, at least in the latter
• 37:45
  half. Um, yeah, it's, it's rough. I haven't been
• 37:50
  a big supporter of what Lewis did in the Ferrari
• 37:52
  this year, but looking at the season as a whole,
• 37:55
  you know, you see even like, let's take Lando
• 37:59
  Norris, for example. Different car, obviously,
• 38:02
  right? Blah, blah, blah. He did not finish three
• 38:04
  races. Well, so did Lewis Hamilton. Only three
• 38:06
  races he didn't finish. And he started the season
• 38:09
  13 races in a row in points. I mean, I hope he
• 38:14
  can bounce back this year. And I'm real curious
• 38:16
  to see how Ferrari does coming out to start the
• 38:18
  gate. But to be able to finish in points 13 races
• 38:21
  in a row in a car that you're still kind of unfamiliar
• 38:24
  with. Originally, I was like, he's not finishing
• 38:27
  high enough. this this is kind of bs you know
• 38:30
  this is sir lewis hamilton he should be doing
• 38:32
  better than this but looking at it now after
• 38:34
  the season you're right it should be a season
• 38:38
  to forget as ferrari as a whole but i'm i actually
• 38:40
  don't hate what he did now now it's about what
• 38:44
  what can he do next year is not a bad spot and
• 38:46
  everybody wants to talk how how poorly lewis
• 38:49
  hamilton did in general you know with with ferrari
• 38:51
  but It's really not. I mean, getting six compared
• 38:54
  to Charles. Yes. Getting six should mean that
• 38:58
  you're at the bottom of the top three teams,
• 39:00
  which is not a bad place to be. It's not exactly
• 39:03
  what's happening here, but six is not bad. Like
• 39:07
  you said, only coming out three times with nothing
• 39:09
  during a week, no points in a weekend. But. consistently
• 39:13
  grabbing points on every other weekend so not
• 39:15
  a horrible showing but definitely not what we
• 39:18
  were expecting um his highest race a finish in
• 39:21
  a race was fourth in coda not including his best
• 39:24
  moment this year which was definitely a sprint
• 39:25
  win in china yeah and the roughest moment came
• 39:29
  probably the same week when both ferraris were
• 39:31
  dnf or disqualified for plank wear Or was it
• 39:36
  the fuel? No, you're right. Another issue with
• 39:39
  the Ferrari Lyco was a big issue this year. But
• 39:42
  yeah, I think it was plank wear, I believe. I
• 39:44
  think it was plank wear, too. Yeah, and then
• 39:46
  some really rough radio calls to listen to between
• 39:48
  Lewis and his engineer this year, too. To start
• 39:50
  the season for sure was rough. I mean, just like
• 39:53
  the contrast. And it's not fair, but the contrast
• 39:55
  between Bono and Hamilton versus them. Somebody
• 39:59
  you've been working with for a very long time
• 40:00
  and one of your brand new co -workers you're
• 40:02
  still getting used to working with. Yeah, I just
• 40:03
  feel like Lewis is telling me. to be quiet more
• 40:05
  than anything else yeah i mean at least in the
• 40:07
  ones that they showcase to us and maybe those
• 40:09
  are just i wonder how many i wonder how much
• 40:11
  is behind closed doors that we don't get to hear
• 40:13
  or they're not like and they're not even behind
• 40:14
  closed doors they're just not highlighting them
• 40:16
  like we could yeah we could just like tune into
• 40:18
  hamilton and listen to his radio all race long
• 40:20
  if we really wanted to but yeah That's not where
• 40:22
  the action is. And then Leclerc, honestly, with
• 40:26
  the car he was given, good year for Leclerc.
• 40:28
  Not a great year. No wins, unfortunately. However,
• 40:32
  he did get three. uh no he actually picked he
• 40:36
  picked up second in two races and picked up five
• 40:38
  other podiums for the rest of the year so pretty
• 40:41
  decent run um cursed by the car and the strategy
• 40:44
  carrying the majority of the team on his back
• 40:46
  i would say um hamilton did pick up some of that
• 40:49
  weight but it just wasn't enough for them to
• 40:51
  keep ahead of mercedes or max unfortunately um
• 40:55
  i kind of wrote here and we talked about this
• 40:57
  a little bit um earlier but like the dream of
• 41:00
  like driving a ferrari it's got to be a painful
• 41:02
  one right now because they're just like last
• 41:05
  year the end of the season really like pretty
• 41:07
  good i would say and then this year it's just
• 41:10
  they're like there but they're not yep they're
• 41:12
  not where they they're just so close but they're
• 41:14
  just not where they want to be they're the worst
• 41:16
  of the best yeah they're the worst of the best
• 41:18
  and that's honestly gotta hurt because i mean
• 41:20
  right now the grid is divided by four and six
• 41:23
  teams essentially and yeah it's it's a hard place
• 41:27
  to be in i think uh you can correct me if i'm
• 41:30
  wrong i feel like last year fifth was like the
• 41:32
  no man's land a little bit like it was one team
• 41:35
  and no one else uh this year it was fourth yeah
• 41:38
  and then fifth and so fifth and fourth and fifth
• 41:41
  were in their own no man's land across the continents
• 41:42
  or something and then yeah the top three so yeah
• 41:46
  tough one for ferrari um i don't know how they're
• 41:50
  gonna do next year um i don't know if you guys
• 41:52
  have heard if they've been working on their car
• 41:53
  or anything but It doesn't look... Your expression
• 41:57
  isn't... It doesn't look good. Okay, well...
• 41:59
  Well, I don't know anything about, like, the
• 42:00
  aero departments and stuff like that. That stuff
• 42:02
  hasn't been talked about a whole lot. There's
• 42:04
  a whole lot of news about engines because that's
• 42:08
  the big thing with the new engine regs. And Ferrari
• 42:11
  has been... They are struggling. They are screaming
• 42:15
  and crying to the FIA, asking for rule changes,
• 42:19
  changing the allocation of battery versus engine
• 42:24
  and things like that. And it's tough. And I actually
• 42:28
  heard a story. I don't know how true this is
• 42:29
  because it comes from engineers who, you know,
• 42:32
  maybe just are blowing smoke. But a bunch of
• 42:36
  Renault engineers, when they left Renault, when
• 42:39
  Renault closed down their operations. They went
• 42:42
  to different teams, and a handful of Renault
• 42:44
  engineers went to Ferrari, and they got their
• 42:47
  hands on the Ferrari engine and said, this looks
• 42:49
  worse than what Renault was building, than Renault's
• 42:53
  concept engine. This looks worse than what Renault
• 42:55
  had in line. And Renault stopped developing their
• 42:58
  engine a year before Ferrari did. So that looks
• 43:02
  really, really rough. So I'm worried about...
• 43:06
  So here's to a good 26 for Ferrari. I'm worried
• 43:08
  about Ferrari and their customers next year.
• 43:15
  Let's see. It would be the Max Bowls up next.
• 43:19
  The old Red Bulls. The old Red Bulls. You know,
• 43:22
  Max. Max. Giving himself a freaking chance at
• 43:28
  WDC late in the season. Yeah, big fan here. Big
• 43:31
  fan. I'm just going to come out and say it. The
• 43:35
  best driver on the grid this year. Crazy performance,
• 43:40
  crazy comeback at the end of the season. He grabbed
• 43:42
  421 points of Red Bull's 451 points. Oh, my God.
• 43:49
  It's hard not to just, like, watch this. I will
• 43:54
  never forget watching him get out of that. grass
• 43:58
  in that incident in Mexico. It was Mexico, right?
• 44:01
  I will never forget. He almost kept it pinned
• 44:04
  just through the grass, narrowly missing the
• 44:07
  wall. He is just a monster. He's a monster. At
• 44:11
  least, obviously, I didn't get to watch Hamilton's
• 44:15
  run. I didn't get to watch the people before
• 44:19
  that. He was pretty perfect. In my viewing history,
• 44:24
  the greatest of all time at the moment. Crazy,
• 44:28
  crazy work from Max. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, he
• 44:31
  gave us something we knew we were going to probably
• 44:33
  get. It's that second seat, the second Red Bull
• 44:36
  car that gave some problems. Yeah, Liam only
• 44:39
  got two races, I believe it was, before Yuki
• 44:42
  was swapped in. And Yuki was only able to grab
• 44:45
  30 points the rest of the season. He grabbed
• 44:47
  three early on from Racing Bulls. But then he
• 44:50
  was only able to get 30 the rest of the season.
• 44:52
  That's really low for a second Red Bull car.
• 44:55
  And actually, Checo just came out, I think it
• 44:57
  was today, and said something like, the second
• 44:59
  seat at Red Bull is the worst seat in F1. Yeah,
• 45:04
  clearly. Which brings me to being concerned about
• 45:09
  Hajar starting 2026 massively, other than the
• 45:13
  fact of new regs. That's the only thing that
• 45:15
  could possibly save him. max is elite we know
• 45:20
  that um the second red bull seat the verdict's
• 45:24
  out we'll see yeah we'll see um we talk about
• 45:27
  red bull all the time so we can go ahead and
• 45:29
  move on it's fine um before my computer dies
• 45:31
  so i can talk about mercedes quick because it's
• 45:32
  about to so one of you guys might have to pull
• 45:34
  up the oh no i can pull it up on my phone too
• 45:36
  i got it um mercedes my the first thing i put
• 45:39
  down was uh Because in constructors, they finished
• 45:44
  P4 in 2024. This is the first season without
• 45:48
  Lewis Hamilton in a very long time. And they
• 45:51
  were still able to get two wins out of it, out
• 45:53
  of their senior driver now in George Russell,
• 45:56
  Canada and Singapore. And then finishing ultimately
• 45:59
  in second in constructors. So I think that was
• 46:01
  a big win for Mercedes. Kimi becoming the youngest
• 46:06
  driver to ever claim a pole in a sprint quali
• 46:08
  was pretty cool. I think he had a... He had a
• 46:10
  really good start to his rookie season, then
• 46:13
  kind of got up and down a little bit, which kind
• 46:17
  of hurts his chances for Rookie of the Year for
• 46:18
  me personally, and I'm actually kind of big into
• 46:21
  Kimmy right now. I like what he brings. George
• 46:25
  finished fourth in driver's points at 319. He
• 46:28
  finished sixth in 2024, so moved up a little
• 46:32
  bit. Kimmy finished seventh. in points with 150
• 46:37
  points. In 2024, Lewis Hamilton also finished
• 46:42
  seventh in points with 223, though. So a little
• 46:46
  different, a little different. But Kimmy still
• 46:49
  finished seventh, you know, which is still better
• 46:51
  than the Red Bull's second car for me. So that's
• 46:55
  something, right? That Red Bull car, no matter
• 46:59
  who's in that car, that Red Bull car should be
• 47:01
  finishing probably above a rookie driver in a
• 47:04
  Mercedes right now. So that's kind of stuck out
• 47:07
  to me. Let's see, let's see, let's see, let's
• 47:10
  see. And Albon, who was eighth, was quite a bit
• 47:13
  behind Kimmy. So Kimmy truly had a really great
• 47:17
  rookie season. I mean, Mercedes is just going
• 47:22
  to keep up with McLaren either. Every time they
• 47:24
  had a chance, George was driving the absolute
• 47:26
  crap out of the car, just to even have a shot
• 47:29
  at keeping his place. the couple opportunities
• 47:33
  he was in front of a mclaren it just wasn't going
• 47:36
  to happen you know the car just couldn't mclaren
• 47:38
  was in a league of their own and we'll talk about
• 47:40
  them in a minute but but multiple podiums and
• 47:43
  sprints and gps i mean it it's not a bad season
• 47:46
  all in all for mercedes i would be happy if i
• 47:49
  was them again moving up two spots in constructors
• 47:51
  your senior driver moved up two spots in wdc
• 47:54
  let's see how you come out with the with the
• 47:57
  new regs next year if you're mercedes you know
• 48:01
  um yeah i feel like russell i mean he only he
• 48:06
  never dnf'd and the only time he didn't score
• 48:09
  points was in monaco and he scored 11th so i
• 48:12
  feel like i mean russell had a really good season
• 48:15
  like and he usually does get one or two dnfs
• 48:17
  a year he does yeah i mean no he has some struggles
• 48:21
  i can't even say it with the wdc at the moment
• 48:23
  so like i feel like russell really drove he took
• 48:27
  He took the first seat and he grabbed it. And
• 48:30
  I think he's doing a really good job. He's obviously
• 48:32
  growing. I've always seen Russell's like a, I
• 48:36
  guess less so because of how the car's been acting.
• 48:40
  But like, I've always seen him as, you know.
• 48:43
  possible wdc you know future wdc a lot of people
• 48:46
  say that it's 27 years old he's kind of getting
• 48:49
  into his prime here 27 yeah yeah starting to
• 48:52
  get up there but i mean i think lando's pretty
• 48:54
  close to 27 if not 27 he's 25 isn't he is he
• 48:57
  i think he's in his mid -20s i suppose 27 is
• 49:00
  technically your mid -20s too huh he's 26 yeah
• 49:05
  so yeah uh but it's not like george has done
• 49:07
  anything to not continue racing in f1 and again
• 49:10
  yeah had a great season yeah i mean he's I mean,
• 49:14
  if there's anyone to talk about, you know, I
• 49:17
  think there's no way he should leave Mercedes
• 49:19
  because they're just so, if they're not the top
• 49:23
  car, they're still, you know, fairly competitive.
• 49:25
  They're part of that top four, though, still,
• 49:27
  right? But they could just be fourth out of the
• 49:29
  four, you're saying. He did win Canada, but that
• 49:33
  was, oh, he won Singapore. Yeah, he had two wins.
• 49:35
  Yep. In a season that it seemed like only McLaren
• 49:40
  or Max Verstappen was winning. Yes. Yes. I'll
• 49:43
  take it if I'm Mercedes. Go for it. We didn't
• 49:48
  have a recap of the final race. So I was obviously
• 49:54
  much more jovial. Like, I was very excited. You
• 49:59
  seem not excited. No, I'm very happy. Very, very
• 50:02
  happy with the season. But, like, I've calmed
• 50:04
  down since then. I haven't had F1 in weeks. So,
• 50:06
  like, you know. Blood pressure is down. It was
• 50:10
  pretty clear. Oscars leaving after 26. Don't.
• 50:13
  Don't do that. And blood pressure goes right
• 50:15
  back up. It's back up. All right. It was pretty
• 50:18
  clear who had the dominant car all year long,
• 50:21
  right? It was McLaren. From very early on in
• 50:24
  the season. pretty much going like we like we
• 50:28
  could see they were going to win constructors
• 50:29
  by half season like they were so incredibly dominant
• 50:32
  if one if lando wasn't on the podium or if lando
• 50:35
  wasn't winning oscar probably was like that's
• 50:37
  kind of how it was going in the first part of
• 50:39
  the season a little bit um their biggest issue
• 50:42
  i feel like was a good one having you know two
• 50:44
  alpha drivers you know in the scene and needing
• 50:46
  to make the really difficult calls that they
• 50:49
  got a lot of hate online for and probably rightfully
• 50:51
  so in some situations um but i'd rather be in
• 50:54
  that situation making a tough call on two good
• 50:56
  drivers than, say, Alpine situation or something.
• 51:00
  Yeah, truly. So I think the papaya rules really
• 51:03
  sucked this year, but I think it was probably
• 51:06
  a little worse last year, or at least it showed
• 51:08
  its fangs a little worse last year. I think some
• 51:11
  people may argue that it cost one driver or the
• 51:13
  other a championship, and I don't think that's
• 51:15
  fair, even a little bit. I would agree. I don't
• 51:17
  think it's fair. I do feel like... one of the
• 51:21
  driver's days in a mclaren is numbered and i
• 51:24
  do feel like it's oscar but at the same time
• 51:27
  the argument for oscar to stay would be at the
• 51:30
  moment mclaren is your best opportunity to win
• 51:32
  a wdc and you just got to beat out one other
• 51:34
  driver at this point yeah and you know how he
• 51:36
  races on the track so it's you know i don't know
• 51:40
  if i'm i'm 50 50 on it yeah i like if i'm oscar
• 51:44
  you know i'm like it's a great team great car
• 51:46
  we know that but am i ever gonna beat lando though
• 51:50
  are they gonna keep upgrading his car over mine
• 51:52
  you know who gets the upgrades they say it's
• 51:54
  even but you know we all know that's not how
• 51:57
  that works i feel like so there were there were
• 52:00
  more instances where McLaren was like pulling
• 52:03
  quote unquote team orders to help Lando than
• 52:06
  there were Oscar. And I think that was mostly
• 52:08
  just because Lando put himself in more positions
• 52:11
  where, you know, it would happen. Either Oscar
• 52:13
  was either ahead or so far back that he like,
• 52:16
  there was no situation based. It was, but it's,
• 52:20
  it's hard for Oscar to see that and to look at
• 52:23
  it and think and see like, well, he got his WDC
• 52:27
  and he drove great, but also there were all these
• 52:29
  opportunities that were thrown away that I could
• 52:32
  have had as another driver, as the other lead
• 52:36
  driver, and it feels like it becomes easy to
• 52:41
  feel like they're picking him over me, you know?
• 52:43
  100%. And I feel like a lot of fans feel that,
• 52:46
  and that's why we see a lot of that anger coming
• 52:50
  out online is because they see that and they're
• 52:53
  very passionate. And so. F1 fans are very passionate.
• 52:57
  It was tough to be online for a while there.
• 52:59
  It was. Yeah. I bet. Yeah. Hilarious memes though.
• 53:04
  i i i couldn't look at them i watching what after
• 53:10
  the after the last race ended the first thing
• 53:12
  i did is i went to twitter yeah it was you were
• 53:15
  you told me he's like you should probably stay
• 53:17
  you should say i did it i warned you i was like
• 53:18
  you should probably stay off twitter yeah yeah
• 53:21
  um but yeah so orange prevailed at the end of
• 53:24
  the day like a lot of other teams they stopped
• 53:25
  developing the card mid -season and it really
• 53:27
  did become apparent by the end of the season
• 53:29
  um Max and the Mercs started catching up a little
• 53:32
  bit easier by the end there, but kind of talking
• 53:35
  about the drivers quick, Piastri third with 410
• 53:38
  points. Fair to say early in the season, Piastri
• 53:40
  was definitely dominating. He had a rough start
• 53:42
  in Australia, but very quickly found his pace
• 53:44
  in China. His first win of the season there.
• 53:46
  Straight dominating. He took seven wins this
• 53:49
  season, was only off the podium eight times the
• 53:51
  entire season. I feel like he's grown tremendously,
• 53:54
  and we were kind of talking about this is probably
• 53:57
  his best option, but he's also close to go. say
• 54:00
  this year this year norris and piastri evenly
• 54:04
  matched i think either of them could have won
• 54:06
  this thing and it was just i i can't say it was
• 54:08
  just like it was just lando was a bit more consistent
• 54:11
  and that's kind of the word of the day i'm gonna
• 54:13
  give for lando is he was consistent through the
• 54:15
  year it feels like a marathon right to me and
• 54:17
  it feels like lando just had just enough more
• 54:20
  stamina than than oscar did you know um i absolutely
• 54:23
  agree and i'll even go as far as to say with
• 54:25
  seeing how oscar's kind of trajectories if we
• 54:28
  have a car that's as dominant or as competitive
• 54:31
  as it was this year for McLaren, I'm putting
• 54:33
  Oscar at top. And I'll still say that if they
• 54:37
  look good in testing, I'm putting Oscar to win
• 54:38
  next year. I think that he has that drive, and
• 54:41
  I think he's proven to excel year over year way
• 54:46
  more than any other driver that I've seen. So
• 54:49
  I'm putting him there. There's a lot of exciting
• 54:51
  things to actually look at for next season. So
• 54:53
  exciting. A lot of storylines already. A little
• 54:55
  on the down. little more somber i guess uh second
• 55:00
  half of the season was really rough for him he
• 55:02
  dnf'd in baku and like he had a string of races
• 55:05
  that just weren't very good um but last two races
• 55:08
  he he got second he kind of built up a little
• 55:11
  bit and finished the season i think in a really
• 55:12
  good spot unfortunately he did lose second which
• 55:15
  hurts yeah don't get me wrong um and then to
• 55:19
  finish ahead of your teammate but to still kind
• 55:21
  of lose out probably not the best feeling in
• 55:23
  the world i'm sure I'm sure Abu Dhabi wasn't
• 55:25
  a great night for Oscar, but he had a good season.
• 55:31
  I mean, knowing that the not great night part
• 55:33
  is knowing that you could have been in that situation.
• 55:35
  Exactly. That's the not great part. But the great
• 55:37
  part is you still helped win constructors for
• 55:40
  the second year in a row, right? Second year
• 55:43
  in a row. And you finished third pretty close
• 55:46
  to first, honestly. Within 20 points. And you
• 55:48
  only got beat by the eventual WDC. and a guy
• 55:54
  who's won multiple WDCs. And one of the greatest
• 55:57
  drivers of all time. You're battling with champions.
• 55:59
  And you are the most rookie of them all. I think
• 56:03
  he has so much good to take from this season,
• 56:05
  and I really hope he does, and I really hope
• 56:07
  he is taking this time to kind of relax and just
• 56:10
  get his head ready, because I think he's going
• 56:12
  to make a drive for WDC next year. And Lando
• 56:15
  said it himself that same night. He looked at
• 56:17
  him, he says, you're going to be next. I don't
• 56:19
  know if he said next, but it's your time soon.
• 56:21
  He knew... Oscar was on the level. I think Lando's
• 56:24
  just happy that he's got one. He just wanted
• 56:27
  to get one. I think Oscar could win more WDCs
• 56:32
  than Lando. I agree. I 100 % agree. But we have
• 56:37
  to talk about the man. We have to talk about
• 56:40
  it. Lando Norris. First place with 423 points.
• 56:47
  Two points ahead of Max in second. He got the
• 56:50
  bare minimum he needed to get in that last race
• 56:53
  for him to win. A new WDC. Really tough moments
• 57:00
  to deal with this season. That's our first new
• 57:01
  WDC in what? Eight years then? because ham no
• 57:05
  because i mean max was a new wgc in 2021 dumb
• 57:09
  dumb man that's a dumb take yeah good call good
• 57:12
  call because i was like we had max and lewis
• 57:14
  well how did max become wgc ding dong you have
• 57:17
  to be the new champion idiot yeah sorry but this
• 57:19
  is the first had to beat myself up internally
• 57:21
  the first different team other than red bull
• 57:24
  and mercedes that we've had for sure for sure
• 57:27
  that's a good point um Yeah, because Vettel was
• 57:32
  winning before Lewis. Because Lewis, yeah, you're
• 57:36
  right. And then Lewis won one with McLaren, I
• 57:38
  think. Yeah, a long time, 2010. That was a while
• 57:41
  ago. Anyway. Wait, no. Really tough moments to
• 57:45
  deal with that put Landon under pressure, namely
• 57:47
  crash into Piastri at Canada, the double DNF
• 57:49
  at Vegas, and a huge strategy gender in Qatar.
• 57:52
  But season isn't won by a single race. Um, it's
• 57:56
  won by an entire season. He missed out on points
• 57:59
  in only three weekends this season. And despite
• 58:02
  the one showing in Baku, if he was finishing
• 58:05
  a race, he was finishing it in the top four.
• 58:08
  Think about that. Yeah. Like he, in Baku, bad
• 58:12
  race for him, but every other race that he finished
• 58:15
  top four. Consistency. That's all it was this
• 58:19
  entire season. It wasn't like a crazy run to
• 58:22
  the end right next to the end like Max, or it
• 58:24
  wasn't a really, really strong first. It was
• 58:26
  just throughout the entire season, he was there.
• 58:29
  He was taking points, taking seven wins, 11 podiums,
• 58:32
  now counting the wins. Watching him celebrate
• 58:35
  was so special. It's so cool. You can say you
• 58:39
  cried. I was very emotional. I can't. Hearing
• 58:45
  him is one thing, but then... them panning to
• 58:47
  his parents. Oh, that was that. Oh yeah. That
• 58:49
  was tough. That was tough. That was great. Yeah.
• 58:52
  And I had to give, like, just, like, best moments
• 58:54
  of, like, very, very quickly because I know we're
• 58:56
  getting on time. We're very on time. We're very
• 58:58
  on time. Piastri had really crazy overtakes this
• 59:01
  season. I think the best overtake was given to
• 59:04
  Max for his overtake on Piastri in Imola, I believe.
• 59:09
  No, it was, like, turn one of Imola, like, on
• 59:12
  the outside of that. Yeah, yeah. That was crazy.
• 59:16
  Crazy, crazy. But I want to say Piastri had some
• 59:19
  really good overtakes. He had two on Hamilton
• 59:21
  and Australian Jetta in areas you should not
• 59:24
  be overtaking. Which is like Max Verstappen.
• 59:28
  Yes. I'm telling you. And then his overtake on
• 59:30
  Lando and Abu Dhabi for second was also very
• 59:33
  good. But besides that, Lando's championship
• 59:36
  celebrations, yeah, it took me out. Yeah. I think
• 59:39
  for me, it's got to be Charles winning in Monaco.
• 59:42
  That was the one time. I know. That was the one
• 59:45
  time where I was like... That was the best moment
• 59:46
  this season that I remembered. He's still thinking
• 59:50
  about it. Still thinking about it. Well, we know
• 59:52
  what mine was. It was Nico. Which was so badass.
• 59:56
  Nico's was awesome. That was so awesome. Okay,
• 59:58
  so if I got to pick one from this year, it would
• 59:59
  be whenever Pierre didn't finish last. Okay.
• 1:00:03
  Nice. Not many. Not many. Yikes. Yeah. All right.
• 1:00:09
  So real briefly, we've already touched on it
• 1:00:11
  on most of these teams. And when I say brief,
• 1:00:14
  we do got to move on. But rookie of the year.
• 1:00:18
  Who's your who's your rookie of the year? Who
• 1:00:20
  do you want to start with? I want to. Yeah. Well,
• 1:00:23
  you you and I, we both. Yeah, I'm not going to
• 1:00:26
  go through the whole list. It's already late.
• 1:00:28
  You and I said that we were arguing over, over
• 1:00:31
  who could be, who could be in it. It's between
• 1:00:33
  Hajar and Ollie. I mean, Kimmy drove great, but
• 1:00:38
  like, he's also the way he ended for me. It's
• 1:00:40
  he's in the best car. He should be driving great.
• 1:00:43
  And like, in comparison to what Hajar and Ollie
• 1:00:45
  were capable of doing in significantly worse
• 1:00:48
  cars, like, Holy crap. And yeah. Um, it's, it's
• 1:00:54
  so hard for me to pick. I feel like. I need to
• 1:00:58
  pick Hajar, but my heart wants me to pick Ali.
• 1:01:04
  Well, naturally. So I feel like, I feel like
• 1:01:06
  Hajar had the better season, but I think Ali
• 1:01:08
  has the better outlook. That's my, that's where
• 1:01:11
  I'm feeling. That's where I'm sitting. Wow. I,
• 1:01:15
  man. Yeah. Cause I mean like, I, I can't, I don't
• 1:01:18
  think I can choose between Ali and Hajar, but
• 1:01:20
  they're right there for me as well. They're right
• 1:01:22
  there, man. Ollie had the most overtakes, but
• 1:01:25
  he had more opportunities to do so because Hadger
• 1:01:28
  qualified better typically. Hadger had great
• 1:01:31
  quality. Hadger had a higher finish in a race.
• 1:01:37
  Hadger had 10 more points than Ollie. So they
• 1:01:39
  were like, I mean. i wouldn't i mean this isn't
• 1:01:43
  apples to apples i do think the v carb was probably
• 1:01:45
  better than the haas yeah and only being 10 points
• 1:01:48
  away is not is not like something to just like
• 1:01:50
  kind of you know look away from yeah uh both
• 1:01:53
  out finished their teammates it's it's a really
• 1:01:55
  hard one i i was gonna pick ali until you said
• 1:01:59
  i'd be picking with my heart instead of my head
• 1:02:01
  yeah i think you're right yeah It's hard. You
• 1:02:04
  know, for a little bit of difference, I'll pick
• 1:02:06
  Ali anyway. Okay, I respect that. Just because
• 1:02:09
  I do think they could be on the top step. They
• 1:02:11
  could be on the top step together, 100%. They
• 1:02:13
  had great seasons. I want Antonelli to be in
• 1:02:15
  the conversation, but it's really hard when he
• 1:02:17
  just has a dominant car. He definitely had a
• 1:02:20
  great season. And he didn't end poorly. He just
• 1:02:24
  had a really poor middle. That's what it was,
• 1:02:26
  really poor middle. I think the rookie of the
• 1:02:28
  year was given to an F3 driver just for some
• 1:02:30
  other reasons. I think technically Antonelli
• 1:02:35
  probably gets it, like, officially. Yeah. It's
• 1:02:38
  hard to argue with him going out there and getting
• 1:02:40
  150 points, getting in seventh. Yeah. You know,
• 1:02:43
  but my argument for Hajar would be beating that
• 1:02:48
  second Red Bull car. You know, you beat the second
• 1:02:51
  Red Bull car all season fairly consistently.
• 1:02:53
  So it's just like, that's what it is for me.
• 1:02:56
  I mean, I beat the second Red Bull car. Good
• 1:02:58
  for him, dude. He didn't beat the Ferraris, though.
• 1:03:02
  You know what I mean? Oh, I see what you mean.
• 1:03:03
  But yeah, but although he did overtake Hamilton
• 1:03:06
  multiple times this season. There were a couple
• 1:03:08
  of times. Hamilton's still finished above Holly.
• 1:03:12
  No, but I... He's in a Ferrari. So you can't
• 1:03:16
  have it one way or the other? My gut does want
• 1:03:18
  to give it to Kimi, though, because, yes, he's
• 1:03:21
  in a better car, but he did well in that better
• 1:03:23
  car. Give it to Kimi, then. Give it to Kimi,
• 1:03:24
  yeah. I feel better. I feel better. Awesome.
• 1:03:27
  That's great. All right, so real quick. And Kevin,
• 1:03:30
  of course, picking Gabrielle Bortoletto. Weirdly,
• 1:03:32
  because he loves Hadjar. It's so weird. I don't
• 1:03:35
  know why you picked Gabby. He said that, I swear.
• 1:03:36
  No, he didn't pick her. No, I'm putting words
• 1:03:39
  in his mouth. I was like... I did not hear him
• 1:03:40
  say that. Okay, real quick. I just saw this.
• 1:03:44
  It might have been a couple days ago, actually.
• 1:03:46
  Joe, to be the Cadillac reserve driver. I think
• 1:03:50
  that's a money move for him because Botas and
• 1:03:53
  Checo are both up there in age for F1 standards.
• 1:03:56
  So it's like you chill there for a couple years.
• 1:03:58
  You might have another opportunity. Botas and
• 1:04:00
  Joe have some good chemistry already. It's also
• 1:04:03
  great because he's a Ferrari. academy driver
• 1:04:07
  he was ferrari reserve driver he was sauber reserve
• 1:04:11
  driver which used a ferrari engine and cadillac
• 1:04:13
  is going to be using the ferrari engine so he's
• 1:04:16
  going to be really useful for cadillac to help
• 1:04:18
  them with the development of their car in the
• 1:04:20
  simulator because he's already very accustomed
• 1:04:22
  to what the ferrari engine can do sure so i think
• 1:04:25
  it's a great look for him to be a part of the
• 1:04:27
  team i would agree a hundred percent um let's
• 1:04:31
  see here Helmut, yes, because we didn't talk
• 1:04:34
  about it, steps down from Red Bull after 20 years.
• 1:04:39
  Thank God. 20 years. I don't really know what
• 1:04:42
  else to say. Good riddance. Finally. I don't
• 1:04:46
  know. There's no secret. We don't care for him,
• 1:04:50
  okay? I don't care how many hats you send me,
• 1:04:54
  Helmut. Yeah, I did not like the guy. And obviously
• 1:05:02
  Red Bull. I think we figured the primary reason
• 1:05:06
  is that we think he offered the seat to Alex
• 1:05:10
  Dunn. And he did so wrongfully because they were
• 1:05:14
  already eyeing Arvid. He didn't clear it with
• 1:05:18
  the board. He didn't clear it with the Red Bull
• 1:05:19
  board. He simply just went up and provided a
• 1:05:22
  contract to Alex Dunn. Alex Dunn signed the contract.
• 1:05:26
  And then Red Bull came out and said, hey, buddy,
• 1:05:28
  we didn't tell you you could do that. We were
• 1:05:30
  not prepared. We did not agree on Alex Dunn.
• 1:05:32
  And so they're like, you know what, Alex, you're
• 1:05:34
  gone. And they had to give Alex Dunn a hefty
• 1:05:37
  payment because they broke his contract. Yes,
• 1:05:40
  because that's messed up for him. Because now
• 1:05:42
  he doesn't have a seat anywhere. Anywhere. Yeah,
• 1:05:44
  which he should. There's been a lot of talk that
• 1:05:46
  it sounds like he could be going. He didn't get
• 1:05:47
  picked up. I think he did get picked up. Alpine,
• 1:05:49
  right? Yes. No, I thought Paul Aaron. Paul Aaron
• 1:05:53
  is still there, I believe. Alpine has like a
• 1:05:55
  dozen reserve drivers. This is kind of what they
• 1:05:58
  do. He got... Or there's talk of him going to
• 1:06:04
  Alpine. Maybe it hasn't been finalized yet. Yeah,
• 1:06:08
  we're waiting on loading on computers and stuff.
• 1:06:10
  Anyway, while we're waiting, Jack Doohan was
• 1:06:12
  kicked to the curb. Yes, Jack Doohan. He's out.
• 1:06:14
  He was recently released by Alpine. To, quote,
• 1:06:18
  pursue other opportunities. So it looks like
• 1:06:21
  he's going to IndyCar. I heard he... Did it test
• 1:06:24
  in IndyCar and did really poorly? Since we're
• 1:06:26
  talking about IndyCar, just very, very quick,
• 1:06:28
  a lot of F1 names coming up in the next IMSA
• 1:06:32
  and WEC and I think some IndyCar showings as
• 1:06:36
  well. A lot of F1 names. We're talking KMAG.
• 1:06:39
  We're talking Grosjean. Well, KMAG and Grosjean
• 1:06:42
  both race in some of the 24 -hour stuff, don't
• 1:06:44
  they? Yeah. Oh, man, I can't remember. There
• 1:06:48
  was another name that was pretty big. If I remember
• 1:06:50
  it, I don't want to. We're already so over time.
• 1:06:53
  Oh, 100%. Were you looking up again? I don't
• 1:06:58
  know. It was just like a random. It wasn't a
• 1:07:01
  factory. It wasn't an F1 team. It was just another
• 1:07:03
  team. It wasn't anything crazy, I don't think.
• 1:07:07
  Okay. Quick look, early predictions. We didn't
• 1:07:13
  have a final race, so we couldn't do this, but
• 1:07:15
  Mike. 65 points. One point above Smelty. I also
• 1:07:21
  calculated the bonus points. It didn't matter,
• 1:07:25
  though. It didn't matter, unfortunately. Does
• 1:07:27
  it move him to second? No, not even close. I
• 1:07:30
  was trying to completely cut myself from the
• 1:07:35
  conversation. I was like, yeah, it was you and
• 1:07:36
  Smelty, and that was it, and it was great. You
• 1:07:38
  guys had a really close fight, and no one else
• 1:07:40
  was fighting. twist the yeah i ended with 56
• 1:07:44
  points another year where i'm last or second
• 1:07:47
  to last i think i ended last last season too
• 1:07:49
  if i remember you and i were in a race for last
• 1:07:51
  last year yeah and it was uh tyler and uh what's
• 1:07:54
  his name Cole. Was it Cole? Yeah, it was Cole.
• 1:07:59
  I couldn't remember Cole's name. This confirms
• 1:08:01
  that I am the best at picking McLaren drivers.
• 1:08:06
  That's funny. That's funny. So way too early
• 1:08:09
  predictions before we wrap this up. And we got
• 1:08:12
  to make this quick because we're definitely over
• 1:08:14
  time. But who is... Who's winning constructors
• 1:08:19
  next year and who's winning WDC? Don't need to
• 1:08:21
  put too much thought into it. Incredibly early
• 1:08:22
  predictions. This is not official. This is not
• 1:08:24
  your official pick by any means. Yeah. I mean,
• 1:08:27
  come on. It's McLaren. It's McLaren all the way.
• 1:08:30
  McLaren's winning constructors, hands down. I
• 1:08:32
  could be Mercedes, but I don't know. They've
• 1:08:33
  got Kimi. It's between those two teams. And,
• 1:08:38
  yeah, I'm putting my money on Oscar. On Oscar?
• 1:08:41
  Okay. I'm putting my money on Oscar. Similar,
• 1:08:44
  but flip? Oh, Oscar too. I said it earlier. This
• 1:08:48
  year, I think it's his year. That progression,
• 1:08:52
  I think he's going to outlast Lando a little
• 1:08:54
  bit. I'm about to mess you guys up. Thank God
• 1:08:57
  these aren't official. Charles Leclerc. I made
• 1:09:01
  that mistake. We need to watch what happens in
• 1:09:04
  preseason testing before we make any kind of
• 1:09:06
  prediction. My unofficial prediction. Constructors.
• 1:09:10
  Mercedes. Nice. Love it. WDC. Hey, George. Max
• 1:09:16
  Verstappen. Hell yeah. Oh, man. Okay. I kind
• 1:09:21
  of hate that. I kind of don't like it. I wanted
• 1:09:23
  to say something crazy like George Russell. Like
• 1:09:26
  how I said Charles was going to finish, what,
• 1:09:28
  third or something? Did I say he was going to
• 1:09:30
  win it? WDC? You said he was going to win. Do
• 1:09:32
  I even watch F1? That's crazy. Did I really say
• 1:09:36
  he was going to win? Yeah, you said he was going
• 1:09:37
  to win. Anyway. I don't want... I like Charles.
• 1:09:41
  I don't want Max or Lando to win next year. I
• 1:09:44
  want someone new again because that is so much
• 1:09:47
  fun. It was so much fun. I would love it if Charles
• 1:09:51
  won next year. I'd be so stoked. Don't get me...
• 1:09:56
  I'm truly serious. I don't want to see Lando
• 1:09:58
  or Max win next year. I would love... Would you
• 1:10:01
  like to see Lewis Hamilton get his eighth? I
• 1:10:04
  think it'd be pretty sick if Lewis got his eighth,
• 1:10:06
  too. No, not over a new driver. I think it's
• 1:10:08
  probably on the same level. But over, like, would
• 1:10:10
  you rather see Lewis win over Landl, which is
• 1:10:13
  crazy, and Max? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right.
• 1:10:15
  All right. With that, my craziest tinfoil hat,
• 1:10:18
  which obviously this could very well change once
• 1:10:20
  we get more information that we see. And not
• 1:10:21
  official tinfoil hat because it's not on. Not
• 1:10:23
  official. But, like. Obviously, this opinion
• 1:10:26
  could change once we get closer to the season
• 1:10:29
  starting. But my crazy idea right now is with
• 1:10:33
  everything we're hearing about the engines and
• 1:10:34
  everything going on is that this could be a potential
• 1:10:37
  season where we see Ferrari finish in fifth or
• 1:10:40
  worse. Whoa. Fifth or worse. I agree that I think
• 1:10:46
  Williams is going to come out swinging next year.
• 1:10:48
  I also think Aston is going to come out swinging
• 1:10:50
  next year. Not even a tinfoil hat moment. It's
• 1:10:52
  just like sad. It's just bad. them are like so
• 1:10:56
  so gung -ho about this next season and they're
• 1:10:59
  firing on all cylinders alpine's gung -ho and
• 1:11:02
  let's be real settle down okay the ferrari engine
• 1:11:05
  is just looking so bad that like i'm so worried
• 1:11:10
  like there's should i be worried about cadillac
• 1:11:12
  then yes oh damn it super quick then super quick
• 1:11:14
  uh who comes out on top cadillac or audi As a
• 1:11:20
  new Cadillac fan, I'm going to have to agree
• 1:11:22
  with him. The way they ended the season and if
• 1:11:26
  they've already been working... Now, I love the
• 1:11:30
  driver lineup of Botas and Checo just because
• 1:11:32
  it'll be fun to have both of them, those characters,
• 1:11:35
  back on the grid. I think I got to lean Audi
• 1:11:38
  as much as I don't want to. It'd be fun to see
• 1:11:40
  a new team come in. First new team since we've
• 1:11:42
  all been fans. New 11th team. I just, my gut
• 1:11:49
  actually leans out. You guys are totally right.
• 1:11:52
  And that's exactly why I'm picking Cadillac,
• 1:11:53
  baby. Let's go. I'd love to see you. I think
• 1:11:56
  Cadillac's goal for next year is to score some
• 1:11:59
  points. For sure. Score points. Score points.
• 1:12:02
  And then the next two seasons after that, develop,
• 1:12:04
  develop, develop. So by the time you get your
• 1:12:07
  own engine in 2030, you can start competing.
• 1:12:11
  yeah i mean you're right i think i'm just a little
• 1:12:13
  delusional at the moment because you're right
• 1:12:15
  you're 100 correct i just i just i'm just like
• 1:12:18
  there's like a part of me that's like what if
• 1:12:20
  they finish 10th and not 11th how crazy would
• 1:12:22
  that be my argument would be 11th but that would
• 1:12:25
  be crazy like a lot of people are saying like
• 1:12:27
  oh but they're gonna have such an experienced
• 1:12:28
  lineup and i'm i'm looking back i'm like yeah
• 1:12:30
  but like how did or how did botas do in salbert
• 1:12:34
  He scored zero points across two seasons. But
• 1:12:37
  both these drivers contributed to WDC winners.
• 1:12:41
  Once upon a time. when they were in top cars.
• 1:12:44
  But they've also lost their seats, and now they're
• 1:12:46
  getting them back. And if we look back to K -Mag
• 1:12:48
  and Nika Halsberg, that's something that happens.
• 1:12:51
  You're getting me all excited. I am really excited
• 1:12:54
  to see what Checo's going to look like in a lower
• 1:12:56
  -tier car. Love Checo. You're going to have to
• 1:12:58
  buy the F1 game this year because you're going
• 1:13:00
  to have a new team. You've got to have it. Actually,
• 1:13:01
  I'm going to have to buy the F1 DLC because they're
• 1:13:04
  not making a new game this year. That's right.
• 1:13:05
  I heard about that. How much is the DLC going
• 1:13:07
  to be? It's probably going to be a full -price
• 1:13:09
  game. 70 bucks. Knowing EA. And you know what?
• 1:13:13
  I'm going to buy it because I'm a chump. All
• 1:13:15
  right. Because I'm a chump. Outro us out. Please.
• 1:13:19
  Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Mike, thanks for being
• 1:13:23
  here, of course. I'm glad we could finally get
• 1:13:25
  this opportunity to end the season. What a season.
• 1:13:28
  What a season. I hate that it's done. Joe, your
• 1:13:30
  mom is here. She texted me a little bit ago.
• 1:13:32
  She's waiting outside. For like an hour, actually.
• 1:13:34
  We're way behind. Kev, obviously, thanks for
• 1:13:38
  being here. Kevin, thank you so much for everything
• 1:13:39
  you do. All season for doing everything. Don't
• 1:13:42
  forget to like, comment, subscribe wherever you
• 1:13:44
  listen to the banter, whether that's YouTube,
• 1:13:45
  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or iHeartRadio. And
• 1:13:49
  as far as we know, Fast Labs will be back for
• 1:13:52
  2026. But that's a wrap on 2025 F1 season. McLaren,
• 1:13:57
  your champions. Lando Norris, your WDC champion.
• 1:14:01
  Pierre Gasly up next, 26. That's an outro. That
• 1:14:05
  is an outro. Don't forget to follow, like, and
• 1:14:09
  subscribe. Tune in next time for more banter
• 1:14:14
  with the boys.