Latest / Banter with the Boys / F1 2026 - Australian GP Recap & Chinese GP Preview | Banter with the Boys | Fast Laps

Transcript

F1 2026 - Australian GP Recap & Chinese GP Preview | Banter with the Boys | Fast Laps · Banter with the Boys

0:00
and laced up let's go it's time for banter with
0:04
the boys welcome back to banter with the boys
0:17
fast laps we are here to recap the australian
0:22
grand prix and look forward to the china grand
0:26
prix coming up this weekend i am here with Mike,
0:30
our one and only guest co -host. Spelty is out
0:35
today. We miss you, buddy. I'm going to miss
0:37
you because I have to talk to my good friend
0:40
Mike for the next hour. He doesn't like talking
0:42
to me. I mean, all right, listen, let's just
0:46
get it out of the way. There was a moment in
0:48
our last podcast where I freaked out a little
0:50
bit, but we could talk about it because this
0:53
was a very interesting race. So I think we should
0:55
just jump in. Yes, sir. And of course, Kev, our
1:01
producer, our main man, making it all happen
1:03
behind the scenes. Let's just jump into it. I
1:07
think we should start with some pre -race stuff,
1:09
maybe, because it was still an interesting pre
1:13
-race. Practices into quali, into... 40 minutes
1:20
before the grid lineup. It was quite a hectic
1:24
weekend. Where do you want to start? I did actually
1:32
watch all the practices, which usually I don't.
1:35
There was so much going on. So many accidents
1:38
and whatnot. So many issues with drivers keeping
1:41
all four wheels on the track and whatnot and
1:44
spinning out and going off into the gravel pits
1:46
and everything. So much so that the FIA actually,
1:51
I had mentioned that they were going to have
1:52
five straight zones. They brought it down to
1:56
four. And then right before qualifying, got yelled
2:00
at by enough of the fans and the drivers and
2:01
decided to bring it back up to five again. I
2:03
didn't know that. That's interesting. It was
2:05
literally like over the course of 24 hours, they
2:07
said, no more. Never mind. We're doing it anyways.
2:12
yeah it was it was kind of crazy and pre -testing
2:14
and like my my reaction i think you were the
2:17
one that messaged me that was like with the news
2:20
about oscar yeah that like i flew to my computer
2:25
yep you were like oscar crashed before the race
2:27
i was like what yeah literally the recon laps
2:31
they let them do some recon laps to kind of see
2:33
how the how the the road was uh and then just
2:36
go right into the pits and yeah just i mean It's
2:41
hard to say it was the car's fault. I think it
2:43
was probably a little bit of a mix of both. That's
2:45
what McLaren is saying. It's a mix of both. But
2:46
I think he just did something he shouldn't have
2:49
done. He got into the curb, applied a little
2:50
bit too much gas. He said that he wasn't expecting
2:52
the torque that it was giving him, which I think
2:54
can be fair. But also, he probably shouldn't
2:58
be on the curb. It's gutting, though. I was so
3:01
disappointed. Not just because I had him first
3:03
in my predictions. That also hurt. It's his home
3:06
race, man. It's his home race. And this is two
3:09
years in a row where he just is not going to
3:13
finish well. I mean, he didn't finish at all
3:14
this year, so that's pretty gutting. So here's
3:17
the question, though. So last year, Isaac Hadjar
3:20
went out in the formation lap. This year. Oscar
3:25
Piastri goes out in the pre -setup going out
3:28
to the track before the formation lap. So how
3:31
much earlier can we get next year? Yeah, I think
3:34
next year we're going to need like a fire to
3:36
happen in the garage. I think of one of the cars.
3:38
Like the morning of. Yeah, we just couldn't get
3:42
it out of gear. Just drove straight into the
3:44
pit lane. I have no clue what happened. Last
3:45
year I was pulling out of the pit and hit the
3:47
pit wall. I don't know why he was in the car.
3:50
He didn't have his suit on. Yeah, no, that's
3:53
it. it's pretty unfortunate. And before, before
3:56
that, even qualifying was kind of weird because
3:58
Max got out in Q1, which I, it, it has happened
4:02
before. It has happened before, but I think only
4:06
once before in my, in the last, you know, few
4:09
years, you know, memory serving me, obviously
4:12
when he first joined and he probably had a couple
4:14
of those, but. last year i think he had one and
4:17
then the year before that i don't think he had
4:18
any of those so very rare to see that especially
4:21
the first race of the season um this time however
4:24
very much not his fault um sounded like he he
4:27
he hit the brakes and it completely locked up
4:29
his rears and doing that while turning is just
4:32
going to send you into a crazy slide and it did
4:33
he hadn't even turned yet yeah literally like
4:36
if you watch his onboard his wheel was still
4:37
straight he hit the brakes and his back end came
4:40
out and then he turned immediately to the left
4:43
to try and counter counter too much of a snap
4:46
no yeah it was crazy yeah that was uh that was
4:48
pretty wild something i don't think we're going
4:50
to see a lot of um besides that though not a
4:52
ton of craziness coming from quali um that was
4:55
the big thing i think i think uh i did want to
4:59
get it into that i think we all or at least most
5:02
of us probably did it of like when we were watching
5:05
qualifying and it just the camera feed just snaps
5:08
and we see a red bull bouncing on the gravel
5:10
and then hitting the wall yeah but i think i
5:15
think i clocked it as max almost immediately
5:17
because it it cut to I think the first camera
5:20
cut to an on -board view, and I saw the white
5:23
helmet with the lion on top, and I'm like, wait
5:25
a second. Because there was a split second. I
5:28
was like, that's got to be Hadjar. But I think
5:30
we had just seen him completely in the lab, or
5:32
we saw him in the garage or something. But yeah,
5:34
that was wild. We won't see that very often.
5:38
No, no. But I think the only other weird things
5:42
was, or things of note in qualifying. There were
5:45
a couple things with Mercedes. Oh, yes. Like,
5:49
for example, Kimi Antonelli needing to get his
5:53
car fixed to even get out for qualifying. Crashing
5:56
an FP3, the mechanics doing what they do, getting
5:59
it ready for qualifying and getting it ready.
6:01
And then Max being a saving grace, crashing and
6:04
giving him the extra time he needed to get out
6:06
there. Holy cow. I was seeing jokes from people
6:09
online talking about the Mercedes drive or the
6:13
Mercedes mechanics and engineers just before.
6:17
Or, excuse me, just after fixing Antonelli's
6:20
car, and it's just, like, a line of white powder.
6:23
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, they're out here, like,
6:26
woo! We're ready, baby! Yeah. It was very interesting.
6:32
Strollin' Signs never made it out of the garage.
6:34
Nope. Q1. Gabby got into Q3 and then stopped
6:38
in the pit lane before making it. Oh, sorry.
6:40
Before making it any further into Q3, had car
6:43
issues there. And because he was technically
6:45
on track, he could not get back in the car and
6:48
finish if they happened to fix it. So that would
6:50
have been interesting for Audi. Heartbreaking.
6:52
But at least he made it to Q3, which is a big
6:55
shout. yes so yeah well we can get into the race
6:58
and i guess this is still technically pre -race
7:00
um oscar obviously and then nico hulkenberg yep
7:04
going into the garage before the race starts
7:06
as well they were they were having problems with
7:09
i think they were saying like it was something
7:11
about like communications or something like radio
7:13
issues and so uh in the the exploratory lap they
7:20
found the problems they had him come in and they
7:22
were going to have him start from the pit lane
7:24
to see if they could get it fixed by the time
7:27
race start happened race start happened couldn't
7:30
get it fixed not worth taking the risk just retire
7:33
the car yeah so that is unfortunate unfortunate
7:38
um Considering Gabby did get into Q1, we can
7:44
just kind of talk about Audi for a second. He
7:46
also finished in ninth. So still a good showing
7:52
from Audi. I mean, I don't think Kik did that
7:54
on the first race. So that was pretty good. As
7:57
an Audi fan, I am happy. And that's out of Bortoletto,
8:01
objectively. He's a very strong rookie. Probably
8:04
the weaker of the two drivers. So the fact that
8:08
we were able to see Gabby put in such a great
8:11
performance is great. That only gives me more
8:13
hope going into the next race that we'll see
8:16
maybe this Audi put up even better performances.
8:20
So I feel good about that. Yeah, yeah. I was
8:25
not expecting them to be as strong as they were,
8:27
but they definitely surprised me, for sure. I'm
8:31
curious to see how they're going to do in the
8:33
long run for development, because I think that's
8:35
what's really going to shake up some things.
8:38
And I don't know if they're going to be as good
8:39
in that, but we'll see. You think so? I don't
8:42
know. Everything's been flipped on its head for
8:45
me. A lot of the... A lot of what we have for
8:48
the Audi team right now is basically the same
8:51
as we had for the Kick Sauber team last year.
8:54
Like Kick Sauber last year was effectively just
8:56
Audi without the name. So we saw what they were
9:00
able to do last year, how they started from basically
9:03
a back marker team to by the end and by the midway
9:07
point of the season and towards the end, they
9:10
were racing up. regularly four points they were
9:12
they were fighting for for sixth and seventh
9:16
place so um if they're able to do that again
9:20
then i think there's a very real chance that
9:23
we could see them I think they got some teams
9:26
ahead of them that they're going to have some
9:28
trouble with that we can kind of call out in
9:30
a few minutes here. But I think we have to kind
9:33
of talk about the elephant in the room, unless
9:34
you have anything else. No, no, no. I'm curious
9:36
if your elephant is the same as mine. We might
9:39
be looking at two different elephants. It might
9:40
be two different elephants. I mean, the elephant
9:42
is the one that got a one -two this weekend.
9:44
Okay, different elephant. Mercedes, dominant
9:46
race, really only had some trouble at the start,
9:49
and then just kind of took it away by halfway
9:53
point. they're kind of the ones to beat right
9:56
now right uh ferrari's uh clear second is what
10:00
smelty put here in my pre -pro right behind merc
10:02
um we could talk a little bit about who comes
10:04
after that because there's a little bit of a
10:06
mix up there but uh claire looked good starting
10:10
and the racing is so weird i do have a little
10:12
bit here i want to talk about the racing but
10:14
mercedes right like antonelli i this okay this
10:20
goes into your predictions a little bit you put
10:21
him in top five i discounted him because he's
10:23
a second year rookie he very much surprised me
10:26
oh yeah he he performed so i i was watching him
10:30
like cut through the field like like it was easy
10:33
for him yeah like gracing his way back up to
10:35
what did he finish in in second yeah yeah so
10:38
like watching him cut his way through the field
10:40
is like yeah it was unbelievable seeing that
10:44
and he he made it look effortless pretty much
10:46
every pass like yeah i'm even though i put him
10:50
high i'm still impressed yeah he yeah and he
10:53
he qualified second as well but had both of them
10:56
i mean we got there's so much to talk about i'm
10:58
just like reliving the race now in the moment
11:00
that start was insane we have so much to talk
11:04
about when it comes to the start because the
11:06
mercedes they both reported not having having
11:08
zero battery at the start which is We've learned
11:12
very bad. It'll make them very slow, and it did
11:15
make them very slow. Lights went out. Leclerc
11:18
just rocketed past them. Rocketed past three
11:22
cars. Antonelli, sorry, rocketed past. Yes, Hajar,
11:28
Antonelli, and Russell, all three of them had
11:30
just got in front. Hamilton, very close behind,
11:32
got a lot of reports that they would be the best
11:34
on the starts, and that looks to be true. Very,
11:37
very strong. When we heard they were going to
11:39
be the best on the starts, I was initially like,
11:41
sure, that'll probably give them an advantage
11:43
a little bit here and there. Holy crap! That
11:47
was night and day. Yeah, if this was last year
11:50
and T1 was as important as it was last year,
11:52
race would have been over. It would have been
11:54
done. It would have been done. Luckily, racing
11:56
is so different. now that we got a bit more fighting
11:58
but which i know you and i have talked a little
12:01
bit about it because we watched the race together
12:02
live yeah but like we can go over this a little
12:05
bit more how how have things settled with the
12:07
fighting that happened at the start are you are
12:10
you happy seeing all of that fighting were you
12:12
kind of are you still kind of so so mixed on
12:15
it or what are you yeah so for context we were
12:17
talking because we've watched the race together
12:19
we talked a little bit about it i i don't love
12:23
that the racing is just i don't love how it kind
12:27
of looked like for a little bit it was just like
12:29
one lap after the other the the person behind
12:32
was getting in front because it makes me worry
12:34
that we might get into a situation where it's
12:35
just like if you're behind on the right lap then
12:39
the every other lap after that you're going to
12:42
be ahead which means you might win just because
12:44
of that. Leclerc disproved that for me after
12:47
kind of watching some highlights back, because
12:49
he fought off Russell pretty well in some areas.
12:52
So I feel better about the racing. I definitely
12:55
think it's going to be more exciting. I mean,
12:57
we were pretty hyped just watching everything
12:59
happen. And it was very different. We did still
13:01
get into a little bit of a lull, I think, after
13:03
halfway, where I think Mercedes had clean air,
13:08
and it looks like they're really good in clean
13:09
air. So they just kind of walked away with it
13:11
a little bit. um but i am feeling better about
13:15
it i'm still a little hesitant i'm waiting to
13:18
see what china looks like and what maybe the
13:19
third race after that looks like but you like
13:22
it though i did like it i liked it a lot i I
13:25
really enjoy watching the fighting back and forth.
13:28
It's very exciting. It's very action -packed.
13:30
It's fun watching them so close, and especially
13:33
after the last couple seasons where it feels
13:35
like a driver will take away in turn one and
13:38
we'll just start watching the midfield because
13:40
there's no point in watching the leader anymore.
13:42
And that wasn't the case this weekend. It was
13:46
very exciting, and we had made a mention, or
13:49
I think you had made mention when we were watching
13:51
or after the race about... And Hamilton coming
13:56
up and catching up to the two of them because
13:58
the two of them were fighting so much. And I
14:00
was like, I love that. Because these two are
14:03
fighting so much, it opens up opportunities for
14:05
the third racer to come in. And then it falls
14:08
back to whoever's in second place has to start
14:10
making split decisions. Am I defending on this
14:14
corner or am I attacking on this corner? There's
14:18
just more intricacies. You'll see more moving
14:20
from all the cars. And that sort of stuff really
14:22
gets me excited because it takes more cars into
14:25
play for first, which is always fun. So good
14:28
to view, but good to drive. I think still up
14:31
in the air a little bit. I don't know if you've
14:32
heard after the race how drivers felt. I didn't
14:34
look too deeply into it. But before the race,
14:36
I don't think they all loved it. There's a lot
14:38
more management involved. The cars are a bit
14:41
more unpredictable in some areas. I did love.
14:45
I didn't. They didn't say it during the race
14:48
or whenever it was, but there was a point where
14:51
Charles called it Mario Kart, like using a mushroom.
14:54
So if we had any calm call -outs, that would
14:56
be mine, right? I didn't hear any. I didn't really
14:59
hear anything other than that after the race.
15:01
Yeah. Other than that, it was pretty light. But
15:05
yeah, so Mercedes, George Russell, I mean, showing
15:09
he's lead driver, just taking it home. I mean...
15:14
He gave it to Leclerc for defending as long as
15:16
he did, but got to give Russell his flowers.
15:19
He deserved that win. He was obviously so fast
15:22
in qualifying, just the fastest person out there
15:24
by a mile. Antonelli, not too far behind. Jumping
15:30
into Ferrari, though. Hamilton's kind of back,
15:33
and that's exciting. That is exciting. I completely
15:35
discounted him after the first three races last
15:38
year. And now I'm like, I mean, once again, to
15:42
bring in your predictions, the two people that
15:43
I was like, you're crazy on were Antonelli and
15:46
Hamilton. And I mean, second and fourth. Was
15:50
it fourth? Fourth, yep. second and fourth yeah
15:53
i mean it's the dreams alive and hamilton was
15:56
talking about like he mentioned in post -race
15:58
interviews that if there were just a few more
16:00
laps he felt confident that he would have caught
16:02
charles sure so i mean like he's he's looking
16:06
he's feeling good i don't know if melbourne is
16:09
one of his better tracks or not i don't yeah
16:11
um but when we start getting to places like uh
16:16
like great britain when we get to silverstone
16:18
i mean there's a real world we see him on my
16:21
podium i'm already called i mean i'm already
16:22
calling it i did it last year i'm doing it again
16:24
all all brit podium at this time maybe bearman
16:28
maybe maybe arvid lindblad who knows duty okay
16:33
so can we can we talk a little bit about arvid
16:35
because this is a good segue can we talk about
16:37
yeah let's talk about it yeah you know yeah let's
16:38
do it let's do it i i went into this i holy crap
16:44
so we talked in our last pod i gave my top five
16:48
i did write down all of the drivers in whatever
16:52
order i thought they were going to score yeah
16:54
uh all 22 and arvid lindblad was one of the drivers
16:57
i put down would score no points this season
16:59
yeah part of that was because i wasn't expecting
17:02
the v carb to be good the other part was because
17:05
i just didn't know anything about him he's very
17:07
new he did so -so in formula 2 last year I just
17:11
didn't think there was going to be much to get
17:13
out of him. But holy crap, that guy drove the
17:17
brakes off of that V carb. He drove that V carb
17:20
like no one's ever driven it before. Yeah, he's
17:23
pretty good. I got to give it to him. He's rapid.
17:26
And then Liam was nowhere, but that's okay, I
17:28
guess. I don't know. I don't really have much
17:30
to say about Liam because Arvid just did so incredibly
17:34
well. Right. And that's like. I have no words.
17:39
It's just insane. I already didn't know. I mentioned
17:42
this in the preseason. I didn't know where to
17:44
put V -Carb. So I put them pretty much in the
17:46
middle just because no one said they're bad.
17:49
No one said they're good. They seem there. And
17:51
I feel like I'm fairly correct. But it leads
17:53
us into the question, who's best of the rest?
17:57
It's kind of a little hard to tell at the moment.
17:59
It is a little hard to tell. I mean, that also
18:02
kind of leads me to the other elephant in the
18:04
room that I was looking at. Alpine. Alpine. What
18:08
happened to Alpine? All three of us were in agreement
18:11
that Alpine was going to come out swinging. And
18:14
we did say that they were going to score points
18:15
this race. And they did. They did. They scored
18:18
a singular point from Pierre. But it kind of
18:22
expected better when you consider the other midfield
18:25
teams that they were racing against. Oliver Behrman
18:27
up in... Was it 7th? He was 7th, yes. And Arvid
18:32
Lindblad in 8th. So you've got that, and then
18:36
you've got Audi right ahead of them in 9th. So
18:40
the other midfield teams that they realistically
18:42
should be beating, they made the Alpines look
18:47
bad, honestly. And so I genuinely feel like that
18:52
Alpine got dragged into 10th just by sheer force
18:55
of will from one Pierre Gasly. I mean, yeah,
18:59
I will say I think the only one he pretty much
19:03
replaced Lawson. I mean, no, Behrman fought into
19:07
the top 10, though. He did. Who else did we lose
19:10
from the top 10 in qualifying? Piastri. That's
19:13
who we lost. So, yeah, it was Behrman and Gasly
19:17
who made it in the top 10. Otherwise, the rest
19:19
of the field was in the top 10 for qualifying.
19:23
Yeah, I mean, I would say, just to channel Smelty
19:26
a little bit here, I'm not going to count this
19:29
as their benchmark. I think maybe they just had
19:31
a bad race. Going back to the start, Franco had
19:35
a horrible start. Actually, no, sorry, sorry.
19:39
Liam had a horrible start. Franco had an amazing
19:42
start. I'm almost asking you to look at this
19:48
right now. It's crazy. Franco makes just an incredible
19:55
save. Kev is going to watch it live. We're not
19:58
going to see his reaction, but I'll explain his
19:59
reaction. Colapinto dodges Lawson. At the start,
20:05
lights go out. Lawson does not move. Colapinto
20:08
drives through and is sending it almost basically
20:12
into the back of Colapinto and just into the
20:15
back of Lawson and just narrowly avoids him.
20:19
Yeah, this was crazy to watch. And we didn't
20:21
see this until after the race was done. We saw
20:24
this in the cool -down room when we saw the podium
20:29
react to this. And we see Colin Pinto. Whoa!
20:32
Yeah, so Liam does actually is not completely
20:35
stationary. He just gets an incredibly slow launch,
20:37
which also sends him way back. Colin Pinto is
20:40
going way faster. Like I said, sends it into
20:42
the back of him and just narrowly avoids him.
20:45
I'm saying like... Truly centimeters wheel -to
20:48
-wheel. That would have been amazing. For a second
20:51
year, that's a crazy good reaction. I'm not a
20:56
huge fan of Colopinto. I don't think he's going
20:58
to do crazy good, but Kev, that's insane. That's
21:01
crazy. He has the technology. Will you have a
21:07
Kev mic today? That was crazy. I didn't expect
21:09
it to be that close. It reminded me of the Hadjar
21:11
incident in the tunnel in that one race where
21:13
he was just slowly coming around the corner and
21:15
he just like... last second just missed yes in
21:18
the tunnel yes yeah i don't know who was in the
21:19
tunnel or not but he was like slowly creeping
21:21
around that blind right corner was that was that
21:23
f2 right i don't know if it was f2 or not but
21:25
i know it was hajar who did the like the the
21:27
juking out sure there was another f2 moment i
21:29
think in that same it was monaco the same tunnel
21:31
yeah that was yeah insane in insane that's what
21:35
it reminded me of hajar monaco tunnels the first
21:38
is the first thing like yeah it was f2 yep Yeah,
21:41
slow moving. He's cooking around this corner.
21:43
Yeah. Rotomo Miata slow moving in the Monaco
21:45
tunnel. And then in comes Hadjar directly behind
21:48
blind corner. And then just a crazy good dodge.
21:52
That's exactly what that reminded me of. You
21:54
guys can't see this, even if you are watching
21:57
the video, because it would be bad to show it
21:58
to you. But look it up. Hadjar, Monaco tunnel.
22:02
And then, I mean, if you haven't watched the
22:04
race, go watch it. It was a great race this weekend.
22:07
What were we talking about? Best of the rest.
22:09
So, yes, Alpine, I'm not going to place them
22:14
super low at the moment. I think it's just it's
22:17
been one race. I want to see how they do in China.
22:20
But, I mean, the best of the rest really kind
22:22
of line up the bottom of the top ten, right?
22:26
We have Haas, V -Carb. Sorry. Haas, V -Carb.
22:35
Audi and Alpine. I had Audi much lower. I think
22:42
the team that I might be missing, Williams had
22:45
a horrible weekend. Which I think was kind of
22:49
to be expected from what we've been hearing.
22:51
I would say, though, those bottom 10... or rather
22:57
bottom of the top 10. Those four teams are kind
23:00
of our best of the rest at the moment. Aston
23:02
Martin isn't going to be anywhere for a while
23:04
or maybe at all. But yeah, I mean, so like, who
23:08
do you put it? Who is best of the rest of you?
23:09
Is it Haas? Behrman had a crazy, I mean, he got
23:12
up there. He was not in the top 10 at the start
23:14
of that race. So after race one, and obviously
23:17
it's super early to really tell, I want to say
23:21
Haas in part, you know, there's some bias. Sure.
23:24
There's a little bit of bias, but like, Also,
23:27
just like Oliver Bearman killed it, Esteban Ocon
23:30
kind of sweating his job prospect. I don't know
23:35
if you heard, but Haas did sign Jack Doohan as
23:38
a reserve driver. I heard. I'm so stoked about
23:42
that. Ocon might be sweating. That's a good point.
23:45
I even think that he could maybe. It would be.
23:48
Now, it would be an insane move for Haas to kick
23:50
out a driver, right? Like, who gave them the
23:54
right? Imagine the world. Who gave them the right?
23:57
Esteban Ocon is over here like, did I just get
23:58
kicked out of Haas? Yeah, that's insane. But,
24:02
oh, man, that would be great. I like Jack Duane.
24:05
I don't love Ocon. I don't love Ocon either.
24:08
Honestly, a lineup of Duane and Bearman, I'm
24:12
kind of down for it. Is Duane also British? No,
24:16
he's Australian. You're right. He is. Same thing.
24:20
Anyway. I'm just joking. So, yeah, no filter,
24:26
no bias. Who are you putting in your best of
24:28
the rest? Probably at the moment, Haas, right?
24:30
Yeah. So it's kind of hard to say. I would love
24:34
to see Audi get up there, but I don't think they're
24:37
quite pushing there. But we'll see. I know. I
24:40
think the big deciding factor for Haas right
24:42
now is the fact that historically they're bad
24:45
at developing through the season. Sure, yeah.
24:48
But last year we saw that that wasn't the case.
24:51
They did develop well through the season. And
24:54
I think the biggest changing factor for that
24:55
was Toyota, them taking TGR on. TGR has been
24:59
doing so much to help them, so many more facilities
25:02
that they have now that they didn't have before.
25:05
So I think that's a huge boon. TGR can help push
25:11
Haas forward. Haas could very reasonably get
25:13
best of the rest. I'm pretty close with you,
25:17
I would say. If I had to make any changes, I
25:20
said Haas, Alpine, and then V -Carb. I mean,
25:22
they're qualifying Lawson and Lindblad in Q3.
25:26
Right. Neither of the Haases were. True, yeah.
25:31
But then again... We say that Arvid's race pace
25:35
was obviously pretty good, but Liam's was nowhere.
25:37
And that's where it really matters, right? Yeah.
25:40
But the qualifying, I would say it's between,
25:42
I would put it Haas against V -Carb at the moment.
25:45
And then I'm not giving up on Alpine quite yet.
25:47
It's a smelty in me. I got to give them a little
25:50
bit more credit. This might have just been a
25:51
bad weekend. You're right. They might come back
25:53
in China. I'd like to see what they can do a
25:55
little bit more. We'll see. So we will see. Let's
26:00
see. That's best of the rest. We talked about
26:02
the race. racing um i guess really quickly not
26:06
it doesn't have to be really quick but any surprises
26:08
from the teams or the drivers that you kind of
26:11
kind of take away from this weekend like i think
26:14
the only real major surprises that i really had
26:17
was like what what was kind of going on with
26:20
aston we knew aston probably wasn't going to
26:22
finish the race but like nothing hit me quite
26:25
as hard as halfway through the race us like is
26:29
alonzo on the track again yeah yeah it's like
26:32
i'm stealing i'm stealing this meme from someone
26:34
but yeah it's like elden boss elden ring boss
26:37
music turns on when you see the alonzo lights
26:40
flick back on it's like that's exactly right
26:44
yeah no that was i knew that they weren't going
26:47
to have a race and i knew that i mean everyone
26:49
was saying that they were going to pit and retire,
26:52
was not expecting Stroll to actually finish the
26:54
race. Granted, after retiring, but after boxing
26:58
once and being in the garage for a while. They
27:01
did what they should have done. They treated
27:04
it as a big test session, which was really good.
27:07
They needed that. This is the closest that Aston
27:12
has gotten to a full race distance this entire
27:15
season. They have not done a single race distance
27:18
across the shakedown. Or Bahrain. Or practices.
27:22
Or practices. They have not done a single full
27:24
race distance yet. And obviously they didn't
27:27
do a full race distance on Saturday. Do you know
27:28
if the laps that they did on Saturday got them
27:31
there? No. Wow. I mean, well, if you were to
27:33
put the two cars together, yes. But no one car
27:36
did a full race distance. That's disheartening.
27:39
That's disheartening. It was not where you want
27:45
to see a team just completely not being in the
27:48
race even a little bit. Holy cow. Um, what was,
27:52
wait, we, and also for whatever's with Joe and
27:54
I, we like to watch these races together. Typically,
27:56
if we can, we going into this race decided to,
28:00
uh, make a small little wager between us of guessing
28:03
over under on how many DNFs they were going to
28:05
be. Yeah. You said, so you, you initially said
28:08
three. Yeah. I think you're like, oh wait, but
28:10
we have to account for us. So I guess five. Yeah.
28:13
I was assuming there would be five DNFs. Under
28:16
five. And I said over five. And I think. Because
28:19
Stroll technically finished, we got exactly five
28:21
DNFs. And we were counting DNFs and DNFs together.
28:24
So Oscar was included and stuff like that. And
28:27
Hulkenberg was included. But I mean, first race,
28:29
new regs. I was like, yeah, it's going to be
28:31
crazy. It's going to be all over the place. It's
28:33
going to be all over the place. We didn't talk
28:36
about him. I have to do it for my boy Kev. And
28:38
just in general, Hajar. Listen, really bad luck
28:42
with this car breaking down. But I'm going to
28:44
say it. Second seat curse might be over with.
28:48
strong and qualifying uh and he was strong i
28:53
mean third place in qualifying yeah crazy good
28:55
phenomenal and then very strong in the race up
28:57
until uh kev is kev is up in the air very strong
29:01
until his car decided to die yep um which is
29:04
i mean honestly if you've ever owned a ford it's
29:06
gonna happen eventually so i have a ford kev
29:10
i should know my car's never died anyway starts
29:16
panicking a little uh i mean yeah hajar a knock
29:21
on wood uh hajar crazy good showing great i would
29:25
i once again completely discounted because second
29:28
year but he's at man you know god i mean liam
29:32
yuki uh Pierre, they're all punching the air
29:37
right now. Danny, all punching the air. Since
29:40
we've brought up my predictions and all these
29:43
predictions that I've been correct about so far,
29:45
when I went through and I read my entire 22 drivers,
29:49
Hajar was in sixth. And I think both Smelty and
29:54
Joe were agog when I said that. They were like,
29:57
oh, and I was like, yeah. So I'm feeling pretty
30:02
good about that one, too, you know? That's for
30:04
you, Kev. That's for you. You said Hadjar in
30:07
six. Yeah, you did. I did say Hadjar in six.
30:08
But that doesn't count. But speaking of predictions
30:12
a little bit, we can kind of just touch on our
30:15
predictions a little bit because we made them
30:16
last year for the whole year, our last race,
30:19
last pod. I need to just slow down a little bit.
30:23
I don't usually do this. This being hosts, just
30:31
to be clear. Okay. I mean, I've been talking
30:35
about it all pod so far. You were right. Hamilton
30:39
and Antonelli in the top five is incredibly likely.
30:43
We didn't even talk about them, but we probably
30:45
should. McLaren. Lando did not qualify well,
30:49
but he held his position. Honestly, good. One,
30:53
two, three, four, five, six. Okay, so Piastri
30:56
went out, so fifth. Started in sixth position,
31:01
technically fifth, and ended up holding off Max
31:05
Verstappen, who we also didn't talk about. Max
31:08
Verstappen from 20th to sixth. That's just what
31:13
Max Verstappen does. We should not be counting
31:15
him out for the rest of the season. Which is
31:17
another one where we were joking about Lando
31:20
Norris just driving and all of a sudden, why
31:23
do I hear boss music? Not to speak for your predictions,
31:27
but Russell was third. How do you feel about
31:29
that? Well, I don't know. We'll see. I still
31:34
think the Mercedes is probably the best car.
31:36
I kind of took a gamble. I was saying when I
31:40
made these predictions that I won last year,
31:44
so I'm going to do something a little more fun
31:45
this year and maybe throw a little bit more of
31:48
a Hail Mary and see. Like, my gut was telling
31:51
me that Mercedes was going to be the best, but
31:53
I'm not a big George fan, so I didn't feel super
31:55
good about putting George on the front. And I
31:57
do like Charles, so I was like, yeah, let's just
31:59
do it. And no one but me likes George. I don't
32:02
get it. That's not true. smelter likes no that's
32:05
true he really likes george you don't like george
32:07
though i'm not a big fan of george he's the only
32:09
other person besides another person that i also
32:11
likes f1 that i work with likes george everyone
32:12
else hates george for some reason man yes he's
32:15
just a silly little guy he's a silly little guy
32:17
his t -pose is iconic his t -pose is iconic and
32:19
we might be seeing it a little bit i'm not gonna
32:21
lie um Let's see. The only kind of ick on my
32:26
predictions for WDC is Piastri Norris. It's not
32:30
looking good right now. They develop well over
32:33
a season. We've seen that happen before, so maybe
32:35
there's a fighting chance. And also, listen.
32:38
He crashed before he got to the grid, but Piastri
32:40
did qualify well. He did. Yeah, he was rapid.
32:43
We didn't get to see how well he does against
32:45
the Ferrari and the Mercedes. Lando set it himself
32:48
nowhere near them, so that's fine. Right. But
32:52
I feel like Lando was kind of struggling all
32:54
throughout the qualifying session. Yeah, he was.
32:57
He was. He completely missed FP1, so I'm sure
33:01
that didn't help. Right. I think Lando needs
33:04
three practice sessions. Yeah. But, yeah, he
33:07
was. he right he was i feel like almost consistently
33:11
five tenths away from piastri so he definitely
33:14
was struggling um because he was struggling i
33:17
think good result at the end of the weekend probably
33:20
best i mean he fended off max i don't think you
33:22
can be any happier right you know um that being
33:25
said though i might I might boot Norris off my
33:29
top five if I had a chance to now. And I might
33:33
replace him with Hamilton because the Ferrari
33:34
does look really good. And I think the other
33:37
thing to keep in mind is obviously the Mercedes
33:40
engine right now is still using the... I forget
33:46
how to describe it. The compression ratio thing
33:50
that they're doing. And that will be taken off
33:53
by August. That will have to be changed by August.
33:56
And so we don't know how much of a dip in performance
34:00
that's going to create. but pretty much every
34:04
Mercedes powertrain is probably going to take
34:07
something of a hit for that reason. I'm predicting,
34:10
and we all know how bad my predictions are, I'm
34:12
predicting that it probably won't be too bad
34:15
of a hit, but we'll find out. I think it'll be
34:18
noticeable, but I don't think it's going to be
34:20
like a... Championship breaking? Maybe. Probably
34:24
not. Oh, that'd suck. Because Ferrari... Ferrari's
34:30
not going to lose anything out of it. Well, we
34:31
need Ferrari to win because that's our top constructor,
34:33
right? Out of the constructors, I think the only
34:37
one that I'm... i think i would i should have
34:40
put down lower and maybe raised up williams and
34:43
audi i probably would would switch now seeing
34:45
how bad williams was this weekend they have a
34:48
long way to go i think however we could see williams
34:50
bring it back once they get their weight thing
34:53
figured out when they get weight figured out
34:55
i mean williams does have the better drivers
34:57
right or the better lineup of drivers i should
34:59
say yeah yeah so like when we when we take that
35:03
into account They've got the Mercedes powertrain,
35:06
which is a huge boon for them. Once they get
35:09
their weight figured out, they could be a real
35:10
contender. So who knows how long that'll take.
35:13
Do you still feel good about your top 10 constructors?
35:16
Or top 11? Or just 11? They're only 11. I don't
35:20
know why I say top. No. No. I have Red Bull in
35:24
second. that's probably have red bull oh you
35:26
have red bull inside you would move them down
35:28
i would probably move them down yeah the four
35:30
or the mercedes is obviously i that's a good
35:33
point i'd probably move mclaren behind red bull
35:35
now i think too it's been it's only been one
35:39
race though And the qualifying and the race are
35:42
both crazy. Anything could change. Anything could
35:44
change. I mean, we could see Haas jump up. Who
35:47
knows, man? Who knows? Cadillac could actually
35:50
do something. You mean that? Okay, well, let's
35:52
not get too ahead of ourselves. So that's our
35:53
recap. I'm calling it there for that. We have
35:56
a little bit of a new segment that we're going
35:58
to do here. I'm calling it, without any permission,
36:01
Kev's Corner. We're going to kick it to Kev to
36:03
ask a couple questions that he had. He's going
36:05
to get himself on mic for the second time ever.
36:08
Let's go. I think, right? No. you've been on
36:09
mike before in other shows but maybe not this
36:11
one not not enough so yeah uh we have no idea
36:14
what these questions are so apologies uh we're
36:17
just gonna win we're bad at the answers oh i'm
36:20
never bad all right kevin back on mike you guys
36:24
so um first question that i have for you guys
36:27
was kind of a generalized question but with the
36:29
new active arrow and boost modes how do you guys
36:32
feel that that impacted the race i'll take it
36:35
first i guess um i guess i can i i don't know
36:42
how i feel about it because it does like the
36:45
new active arrow thing is is interesting it's
36:47
it's creating more opportunities for fighting
36:50
i guess because it's easier to to pass with the
36:54
active arrow and the boosts um i don't like the
36:58
comparison of it being like a video game i think
37:02
Like Antonelli also said that he felt like he
37:03
was playing a video game. Like when he hits the
37:05
boost button, it just feels a little goofy. So
37:08
I, yeah, I'm not a big fan of that, but I think
37:11
so far I'm okay with it. I think it's, I'm going
37:15
to need to give it a few more races. I know there's
37:17
a bunch of people who are like pitchforks and
37:19
torches against it, but I'll take this over a
37:23
DRS train any day. Yeah, that's a good point.
37:26
I think the active arrow is very interesting
37:28
because whereas we would only see a car part
37:32
move if they were one second behind someone during
37:35
certain places. Now we see the car parts move
37:38
always, no matter who they're behind or no matter
37:42
where they are. And it's at five places instead
37:46
of maybe two or three. So it's a bit different
37:49
seeing that. The boost mode is interesting. I
37:54
think... um it's very interesting because if
37:58
you get it wrong one lap you're just kind of
38:00
screwed for the rest of the lap or if you get
38:01
it wrong at a part of the lap you might be screwed
38:03
for the rest of the lap um we saw that i mean
38:05
like and like they have to worry about it at
38:07
the start there was that delayed start as well
38:09
uh i also don't love how it how like you said
38:12
it feels like a video game i also mentioned earlier
38:13
how there was a lot of back and forth lap after
38:16
lap and i'm i'm holding my judgment for now i'm
38:20
still worried that it might lead to well if he's
38:23
ahead of me this lap and it's the second to last
38:26
lap i can get ahead of him next lap and we'll
38:27
be good i'm hoping there'll be more defense opportunities
38:30
and maybe the drivers will learn how to defend
38:32
from it a little bit more using boost so we'll
38:35
see we'll see i like it that kind of transitions
38:39
nicely into my secondary question here so uh
38:42
with the new car designs and wrecks the season
38:44
here uh and the vehicles themselves being smaller
38:47
in comparison to years past. Do you feel that
38:49
there was a drastic difference? An example, did
38:51
anybody take a chance or make a move this race
38:54
that you wouldn't have expected in a previous
38:56
year? Ooh. Well, I think at least one driver
39:01
took a move, and that was George Russell when
39:03
he tried to dive on the inside of Leclerc and
39:05
had no chance and locked his tires. Oh, yes.
39:08
So I guess that happened. But outside of that.
39:12
I don't really think I saw anything out of the
39:14
ordinary in terms of moves, dive bombs, anything
39:17
like that. It was more... Actually, I did see
39:22
some overtaking in a couple of different places
39:24
on this track. Because of the extra DRS zone
39:28
and whatnot, there were a couple of other corners
39:30
or bends and stuff like that where I saw Leclerc
39:33
overtaking George. And I was like, oh, okay,
39:35
that's a different place to overtake. Yeah. I
39:39
would agree. I think most of the overtakes I
39:41
saw were like, I've seen similar things to that.
39:43
Nothing really caught my eye. If I had to say,
39:47
there was a really good overtake from Charles
39:49
on Russell on the back straight that was already
39:51
a DRS beforehand, right before that chicane.
39:55
That was amazing. Probably one of the highlights
39:57
of the race. So to answer your question, I don't
40:01
think I've seen anything different. It all seemed
40:03
like just overtakes. There just were more of
40:05
them all over the place. That's Kev's Corner,
40:10
baby. That's Kev's Corner. Thank you, Kev. Amazing
40:14
questions. Didn't have any questions about Hajar
40:16
while we were here? Yeah. Anything? I'll let
40:19
you ask. Amazing. All right. Well, that should
40:23
bring us right into our final segment. We're
40:26
going up to speed. I'm here to bring you up to
40:38
speed for the China recap. We'll bring you up
40:42
to speed here. We'll talk about what's coming
40:44
up, what happened last year a little bit. We're
40:48
looking forward to the Formula One Heineken Chinese
40:50
Grand Prix 2026. A fun fact, as always. In 2005,
40:56
Mike, China was hosting the final showdown of
40:59
the Constructors' Championship against Renault
41:01
and McLaren. And Juan Pablo Montoya hit a loose
41:04
drain cover, destroying his car and losing the
41:07
Constructors' Championship for McLaren. Oh, that
41:11
feels so bad. Doesn't that suck? That sucks so
41:14
much. Remember when they were like, it was 18
41:15
years. It could have been. It could have been.
41:19
Do the math. 10. 10. No. 18. No. Never mind.
41:26
Mike, do you have a weather update for us this
41:27
weekend? Oh, I didn't get the weather. You can
41:29
keep going through your things. I will go and
41:31
pull weather up. While Mike is looking up the
41:33
weather, we'll just kind of talk over what happened
41:35
last year. We saw Lewis Hamilton win the sprint
41:39
race last year. He had a tough time during the
41:42
race after qualifying fourth. Leclerc did injure
41:45
his front wing on Hamilton's back wheel, but
41:48
actually outclassed him through the rest of the
41:50
race. So good race from Leclerc. And in the race,
41:54
like most of the year, incredibly strong showing
41:56
from the mclaren specifically oscar who fended
41:59
off russell while his teammate got ahead of him
42:00
at t2 they would go on to fight for some positions
42:04
18 laps later after their pits alonzo experienced
42:07
a break fire during his race and had to retire
42:10
only after only four laps We saw a fun moment
42:13
from Ocon, who overtook Antonelli with one wheel
42:16
in the dirt. And we saw a ton of highlights of
42:19
overtakes being made by the Haas, specifically
42:21
Behrman. After each pass, he spoke out on the
42:24
radio saying, ciao. His efforts rewarded him
42:28
in the points, second race of the season. I don't
42:31
have the finals for the race, but I believe it
42:34
was Oscar and then Lando won two. Yes. Hey, you
42:43
know, last year also was the sprint. It is a
42:46
sprint weekend again, by the way. And this was
42:49
the sprint that Lewis won. Yes, I said that.
42:55
Yes. This could be a good sign for Lewis. Sorry,
42:58
I was looking up the weather. That's okay. You're
43:00
right. That's my bad. I shouldn't do that. The
43:02
results, Oscar, Lando, George, Max. Okan? That
43:06
can't be right. Hey, he finishes well sometimes.
43:10
Okan finished fifth in China last year. Yeah.
43:13
I mean, Haas might be good at this track. Who
43:16
knows? Who knows? Who knows? What's the weather
43:19
look like? Oh, yeah. So it looks like it's going
43:23
to be no rain throughout the weekend. Pretty
43:26
balmy between... The lowest appears to be practice
43:32
one is going to be 11C. Two, the Grand Prix is
43:36
19C. So that's like 50 to 65 degrees, give or
43:41
take. So a little cooler. The Grand Prix is supposed
43:43
to be mostly cloudy, but only like a 10 % chance
43:46
of rain. Cooler race then. Okay. Yeah. So cooler
43:48
race, probably cooler track temperatures. Interesting.
43:52
So there are certain teams that benefit from
43:54
that. All right. Which that might affect my predictions.
43:58
Well. I think that brings us into our predictions.
44:01
Oh, no. I'm not ready. Last week, I got no points.
44:06
Oh, my gosh. It was a rough week. I said Piastri,
44:11
Verstappen, Norris. Piastri crashed before the
44:13
race. Verstappen crashed in qualifying. And Norris
44:15
just didn't show up. You know, we were talking,
44:19
I think, what was it, before qualifying or something
44:23
like that? Or maybe it was when we were watching
44:25
FP3. We were talking about how, thank goodness
44:28
we have Max Verstappen. It's our free point.
44:34
Whoops. Yep. That didn't happen. Mike. That's
44:39
me. You got away with one point because you put
44:41
Leclerc in your top three. He was followed by
44:44
Verstappen and Piastri. That did not happen.
44:46
And then Smeltsy. was the genius of us all he
44:49
also put piastri but he also put leclerc and
44:51
russell but in flipped positions so he only got
44:54
two points but that does mean he's in the lead
44:56
smelty with two you with one and me as always
45:00
leading the rear with zero yay so smelty isn't
45:05
here but we did get his predictions in so i'll
45:07
have you read those off for me if you don't mind
45:09
i did go pull this up real quick so uh smelty
45:12
has in order in first charles leclerc okay To
45:16
George Russell. Okay. And then Lewis Hamilton
45:20
finishing out the podium for his first ever podium
45:23
with Ferrari. Ferrari. Ferrari. I like that.
45:27
I like it a lot. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Mike,
45:29
you were up next. Oh, boy. So I'll hand you the
45:38
bag. I mentioned that colder track temperatures
45:42
help certain teams. Okay. So I'm going to. pick
45:45
a mostly boring podium okay i'm gonna put george
45:49
russell in first okay i'm gonna put kimmy antonelli
45:52
in second okay and then in third i'm putting
45:56
lewis hamilton because i also think lewis will
46:01
do well here yeah i also think hamilton will
46:03
do well here but it's just in what order do i
46:06
want to put them in do we mix it up you mentioned
46:09
cooler tracks i know last year cooler tracks
46:11
helped the Mercedes a ton you still think that's
46:14
true according to George in this last race after
46:17
the race in post race interviews George did comment
46:20
track temperatures were a little bit cooler than
46:22
normal that does tend to benefit us and those
46:25
were straight from his straight from his mouth
46:27
okay well I need to make up some points. I know
46:32
we're only second racing. But I want to do something
46:35
a little bit different. And I was thinking of
46:37
this guy from the beginning. Max Verstappen.
46:39
Max Verstappen. Putting him in first. And then
46:41
I'll go Russell. And I will also go Hamilton.
46:44
So we're all putting Hamilton in third. I do
46:46
think Hamilton's going to come in clutch here.
46:49
Kev, do you have any predictions that you want
46:51
to shout out? Yeah, shout out. Hadjar, Hadjar,
46:54
Hadjar. Okay, we're putting him on the board.
46:58
Imagine. Hedger's the only one to finish. How
47:00
did Hedger do last season? Let's get it. Hedger
47:02
last season. He did pretty darn well, didn't
47:03
he? Let's see. Let's see. Where did Hedger? He
47:06
got 11th. He was two seconds off of signs in
47:10
10th. I feel like I remembered him doing pretty
47:13
well. I remember talking about him, like how
47:17
he came back super hard after his DNF and proved
47:21
really well. Maybe it was just because he'd finished
47:23
11th. Oh, both. And Ferrari's disqualified from
47:27
the Chinese Grand Prix. I did not mention that
47:29
in my recap. That did happen for skid plate wear.
47:31
Because for skid plate wear. Yeah. I don't think
47:34
they're going to do that again this year. Oh,
47:35
no. Oh, no. Ferrari's might be riding extra high
47:41
this year. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to make
47:44
a wing that turns to generate even more lift.
47:46
Yeah. Actually, do you think there's any chance
47:49
that they could bring that wing out? No. In fact,
47:51
I saw a little bit of news that they had reached
47:54
a decision. regarding the upside down wing and
47:56
i think they decided that they probably weren't
47:58
going to be using it okay i want to see uh yeah
48:06
i don't think i think they were thinking about
48:09
it but i don't think i don't think they're going
48:12
to do it but maybe we might see something that'd
48:14
be cool right because i i thought i'd heard that
48:17
they are um the ferrari wing is really good in
48:22
um in long straights that's particularly where
48:28
it's at its best and shanghai notably the longest
48:34
straight on the grid so that's true i mean there's
48:40
there is a world like if they were going to do
48:42
it on any track it would probably be here and
48:45
what baku are probably the two tracks that it
48:50
would be best at you know I might be eating my
48:52
words. So here on this article, Fred did say
48:56
that there would be aerodynamic updates to the
48:58
car in China. He did not say it was going to
49:00
be this wing, but you make a good point that
49:02
really long straight. We might see it. That would
49:05
be incredibly exciting. I thought that that was
49:08
the best thing from testing. I thought it looked
49:09
so sick. Just so different, right? I'd be into
49:13
that. I do think that it was funny that they
49:15
showed that off in testing. And without really
49:17
even any evidence to prove that it helped at
49:19
all, Mercedes still came out like, that can't
49:21
be allowed. Well, of course. You have to. I don't
49:24
blame them. They're playing the game. It's different.
49:27
We don't like that. Yeah, I mean, it didn't come
49:29
out with a ton, but I mean, like, it should.
49:31
it should produce lift and give a serious reduction
49:35
to drag. So it should work, but who knows? I
49:39
imagine if they're going to use it, they're going
49:40
to probably test it first, like in, in, in practice.
49:42
Sure. Um, but yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. I
49:47
think that's, uh, I think that's all I have.
49:51
Oh, I did have some slight news, I guess, since
49:54
I forgot to bring this up a little bit earlier.
49:55
The only little bit of news that I had outside
49:59
of Jack Doohan going to Haas, which is awesome
50:01
and we love that, was more of the talk of Christian
50:07
Horner going to Alpine, right? And now it sounds
50:11
like Toto Wolf is trying to abolish that. He's
50:15
trying to get his fingers in between them because
50:18
he doesn't want Christian anywhere near Mercedes
50:21
power unit. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, that's
50:26
really interesting. And I suppose he might have
50:29
a bit of say into that. He might have a bit of
50:31
say. He's providing them their engines. I don't
50:33
know. I kind of hate that, though, because it's
50:34
like, why are you any different? from like v
50:38
carb and red bull then if you're like making
50:40
decisions i've heard well it's all speculation
50:42
right now yeah yeah it's i've i've been hearing
50:44
that there's some talk that some people like
50:47
and i don't actually think this is going to happen
50:49
myself but there are some people who are talking
50:50
about the potential that you know alpine has
50:53
been trying to sell a major stake of their company
50:55
um and so people are wondering what are the odds
50:58
that toto goes and buys alpine and turns alpine
51:01
into v carb for mercedes that's crazy i was just
51:06
saying that i was just saying that i didn't even
51:08
think there was legitimacy to it that's crazy
51:10
and then similar to how that's interesting because
51:13
i would i would always assume williams was v
51:15
car for mercedes like but williams is trying
51:18
to do their own thing now they're trying to return
51:20
back to being a top four team maybe winning the
51:23
championship and i mean that goes against what
51:25
mercedes wants because mercedes wants to be a
51:27
winner yeah so they don't want a team that's
51:29
going to show up and beat them they want a team
51:31
that's going to be best of the rest tona has
51:33
also been very close to the reno or something
51:36
like that i feel like he's always had his fingers
51:38
on the reno pulse a little bit a little bit right
51:40
yeah or if not reno then like alpine like he's
51:43
had a lot of friends over in that area reno yeah
51:46
i just feel like i mean because he mean like
51:48
the whole ocon thing like yeah kind of was reserved
51:50
and he got him into reno yep so yeah it was all
51:53
interesting but that's very very interesting
51:55
news and something we need to look out for it's
51:57
it's something to keep an eye out for i don't
51:58
i personally don't think we're gonna see anything
52:00
come out of it but you never know never know
52:02
well mike thank you so much for joining me today
52:04
yeah this was fun smell tea smell tea Kev, as
52:09
always, thank you so much for everything you
52:11
do, man. Thank you for Kev Corner. It was a lot
52:13
of fun. We got to hear you. Folks, don't forget
52:16
to like, comment, and subscribe wherever you
52:18
listen to us, whether that be YouTube, Spotify,
52:21
Apple Podcasts, or iHeartRadio. I've been Joe.
52:26
He's been Mike. We've been Bantu with the boys.
52:29
And we'll see you next time. That's not an outro,
52:32
by the way. Peace. Don't forget to follow, like
52:36
and subscribe. Tune in next time for more banter
52:41
with the boys.