Latest / Banter with the Boys / F1 2025 | COTA Recap & Mexican GP Preview - Fast Laps with the Boys

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F1 2025 | COTA Recap & Mexican GP Preview - Fast Laps with the Boys · Banter with the Boys

0:00
Get laced up! Let's go! It's time for Banter
0:04
with the Boys! Welcome back to Banter with the
0:10
Boys Fast Lapse Digital Edition. That's right.
0:15
We're not in the studio. No studio today. We
0:18
are here stuck at home virtually. Just me, Mike,
0:23
the Audi behind him, and the F1 logo behind me.
0:27
Speaking of which, joining our only guest, Mike,
0:31
how are you doing? Hello. I'm happy to be here.
0:34
I am smelty today. Unfortunately, I'm not in
0:37
his chair. You are Smelzy today. Kind of getting
0:41
that out of the way as well. I don't normally
0:43
start these things, but Smelzy has a very busy
0:46
schedule as of late. We apologize for missing
0:49
the last one as well. That was on all of us last
0:51
week. We were all just like very busy. We should
0:54
be getting back to normalcy soon. However, we
0:57
are back to discuss the. Kota GP. Just you and
1:03
me today, Mike, talking about USA. So I say we
1:06
get into it. How about you? I agree. Let's go
1:10
ahead and do it. Right. Let's go ahead and get
1:17
into it. Now, as stated, we did miss, unfortunately,
1:21
a Singapore recap. There were a couple things
1:24
that happened in that race that may provide some
1:27
good context about the conversation we have today
1:29
and just would, in general, be fun to discuss.
1:31
So, yeah, Singapore, that race happened. Things
1:36
happened during the race, especially very early
1:38
on. I mean, your quick take, Mike? Yeah, so I've
1:44
got some of the results and everything pulled
1:45
up here. It was, yeah, it was crazy. Obviously,
1:51
George Russell won. I don't love that, but the
1:56
little bit of a little bit of a squabble and
2:06
piastre going out, right? So that was a big thing.
2:12
I would have liked to see Lando convert a little
2:16
more. Obviously, Lando would have liked to convert
2:18
more, maybe win the race. Kind of sucks for him
2:21
to not score more on such a great opportunity.
2:25
But it was kind of funny watching Oscar sit on
2:30
the sideline and watch the Rays' feet kicked
2:34
up. You're thinking of Baku. Oh, am I behind?
2:38
Yeah, you're a little far behind. Was that really
2:40
Baku, really? It was Baku, yeah. So Singapore,
2:43
lap one, we saw Lando go on the inside and bump
2:48
Oscar. Yep. God, it's been a little while. That's
2:52
right, that's right. Yeah, so that was... Oh,
2:54
yeah, and then there was all the talk about repercussions
2:57
between the two of them. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm
2:59
thinking of Baku. They came in three and four.
3:02
I'm looking at the results here. Yep. Yeah, that
3:06
was interesting. I was not super happy with Norris
3:11
doing that. It felt kind of wrong. It was...
3:18
Yeah, I don't know. It was a bold overtake. I
3:20
see why he wants to do it, but given all of the
3:23
papaya rule stuff that they go by, it feels kind
3:26
of weird. I don't know if you've heard any of
3:29
the talk about what they brought up, repercussions
3:33
for Lando after that incident. There's a lot
3:40
of talk about what those repercussions are. There's
3:42
been some stuff coming out about it. I don't
3:44
know if you've heard anything about that. I've
3:46
definitely heard them mentioning repercussions,
3:49
like Orlando specifically saying that there will
3:50
be, but I have not heard what they could be.
3:54
It's very ominous, just like him saying the word
3:58
repercussions. I imagine it can't be so severe
4:02
that they would just give Oscar like, I mean.
4:07
Like Oscar and Lando, like let's say next race,
4:10
they are like one and two Oscar in second. And
4:13
he's very close behind. They're not just going
4:14
to tell Lando to give him the position. Right.
4:18
But I mean, I don't know. Like I assume they're
4:22
probably going to favor Oscar maybe a little
4:24
bit in like some ways. But like if they're fighting
4:27
for like position, it's I don't know. I just
4:29
I think it's it's a bad look. no matter what.
4:34
Um, it could be off track, uh, repercussions
4:37
maybe. Um, I don't know. It's hard to say. Uh,
4:40
it's just anything that they do on track. We'll
4:43
just further like the papaya rules storyline.
4:46
And maybe people need, I don't know. Maybe I'm,
4:49
I'm of the mind. I'm still a McLaren fan through
4:52
and through. I'm not really angry with them,
4:53
but definitely making bad decisions. Don't get
4:55
me wrong, but like, I don't. I don't prefer one
4:59
driver over the other. And I think some people
5:01
are out for blood for Lando. Some people are
5:03
like hard defending him. Um, I'm really in neither
5:06
boat at the moment, I think. Uh, so yeah, I don't
5:10
know. I made, maybe they do need to favor Oscar
5:12
in a big way and that'll get people like feeling
5:14
better. Um, I'm of the mind that it'll just make
5:17
things worse for the iron. So the, the little
5:22
bit that I had heard, and this is not like official
5:25
word. This is that. I guess they had mentioned
5:28
something about like the potential of qualifying
5:33
being like leaning on Oscar. They're going to,
5:36
if you know, they're, they're going to favor
5:40
Oscar slightly more in qualifying, but that's
5:43
mostly going to be it. Aside from that, it's
5:46
when we get back out on the track, fire rules,
5:48
keep racing, do whatever you got to do, whatever,
5:50
you know? So, which we kind of saw moving forward.
5:54
Yep. Absolutely. Right. So that was probably
5:58
the biggest moment straight on. We saw Hadger
6:02
and Behrman were noted for causing a collision
6:04
through that race. Ocon had some brake issues.
6:11
Alonso was a little snippy with his engineer.
6:14
Just a couple of comms that I have written down.
6:16
So funny. And not to kind of keep the story on
6:20
McLaren, but they also won constructors in Singapore.
6:23
True, yeah. They wrapped that storyline up. Did
6:29
you go like this? A little important. It was
6:34
this close. I'm really hopeful that going forward
6:43
that now they've won constructors. They're done.
6:46
Now we can just forget about all the papaya rules
6:49
nonsense and just let the drivers do their thing.
6:54
Just leave it to the drivers. Let them race.
6:57
They don't need to worry about winning constructors
6:59
anymore, so just let them go at it. That would
7:03
be nice. I do think they still want one of their
7:06
drivers to win, right? Of course. They still
7:10
have to keep that in their mind, right? So you're
7:12
right, though. I'm hoping it also takes away
7:14
some of those team orders a little bit, but they
7:17
probably still have the mandatory, when you fight,
7:21
you don't crash, right? That's like baseline.
7:26
If you're going to fight, it can't be... to one
7:29
of the car's expenses. It's just you can't have
7:32
it because you both are fighting for WDC, and
7:34
now you have Max that's fighting too. And we
7:38
will definitely be getting into that. So with
7:40
that, I think we can move on from Singapore,
7:41
get into COTA. As we do with all of our recaps
7:46
nowadays, we kind of start with the pre -race
7:49
shenanigans. So we had, of course, one practice.
7:52
It was a sprint weekend. I have a laundry list
7:56
of things that happened, but I don't know if
7:58
there's anything you want to kind of rattle off
8:00
on that happened pre -race. No, I don't remember
8:05
anything major happening pre -race aside from
8:08
sprint quali, which I'm sure you probably have
8:11
listed anyway. Sure. Right. So, yeah, I'll go
8:15
ahead and get into it. Also, pre -race, Russell
8:19
and Antonelli were confirmed for Mercedes. That
8:22
did happen, I think, last week. Right after Singapore
8:26
-ish. So that's out of the bag now. We had that
8:31
question for a little bit. But going into the
8:33
weekend practice, we did have a red flag. Stroll
8:37
lost some debris from the car going over a curb.
8:41
Carlos had some gearbox issues, and Charles also
8:44
had some car issues. But that's it from practice.
8:47
Sprint quali, there were a lot of traffic near
8:50
the end of quali one. And many drivers were noted
8:53
for slow on out lap. I do remember the end of
8:55
quali one being crazy. Crazy with traffic. Everyone
8:58
just trying to get out, sprint quality being
9:00
so short. But that's all I got for sprint quality
9:03
notes. The sprint race itself, of course, lap
9:08
one, T1, again, the McLaren boys getting into
9:11
some trouble. The biggest story coming out of
9:14
that being Oscar's move into, I mean, into Hulkenberg
9:22
a little bit. So Hulkenberg took an inside line
9:26
that technically really wasn't his, but Oscar
9:30
should not have driven into him at the end of
9:31
the day. It was considered a racing incident.
9:34
I definitely view it as if we're going to put
9:37
blame somewhere, it's got to be on Oscar. He's
9:39
the one that moved into Hulkenberg, subsequently
9:42
spinning, hitting his teammate, knocking him
9:46
out of the race as well. So a double DNF for
9:48
the sprint. Points that would have been very
9:50
nice in their fight for World Championship are
9:54
now gone. And Max wins that race handedly. There
9:58
was no contest after that. But that little shakeup
10:02
at the start definitely threw a few names at
10:04
the front. We don't typically see signs with
10:05
another podium race, which is pretty cool to
10:08
see. And George Russell, I think. George Russell
10:13
was second. Yeah, that's correct. Just stumbling
10:16
his way into a top three finish again. Absolutely.
10:20
Absolutely. We also saw, I believe there was
10:24
another collision between Ocon and Stroll. I
10:27
do remember that. Yes. So I know my couple of
10:33
quick remarks. I don't know if you heard. So
10:36
obviously during the sprint. they spoke to Zach
10:41
Brown about what happened. And Zach Brown was
10:46
basically attacking Nico Hulkenberg about, you
10:49
know, he shouldn't have been there really. He
10:51
used the word amateur when talking about one
10:54
of the most seasoned drivers on the grid and
10:58
going into. after the race since then, um, Zach
11:04
Brown has been talked to about that again. And
11:06
he said, after reviewing the tapes and everything,
11:08
he goes, I don't think that was on Nico. He goes,
11:10
that was, we looked it over. He goes, it was
11:13
a racing incident. Oscar shouldn't have been
11:15
there. He go and Zach Brown completely took,
11:18
took it back. Everything that he said, he goes,
11:20
I shouldn't have said that it was not an amateur
11:22
move. It was a good drive. It was a good race.
11:25
Like it was a good move from Nico, but it just
11:27
didn't pan out. I personally think that Oscar
11:30
took like a, A 50 -50, maybe somebody will be
11:34
here, maybe they won't. And unfortunately, there
11:37
was a Hulkenberg on his left. Yes. Yeah. It's
11:40
very unfortunate. I do remember that during the
11:42
race. And I remember, uh, we didn't watch the
11:44
sprint live together, but I remember that your,
11:46
your chats right when it happened. Yeah, it was,
11:48
it was very much, it was just bad timing for
11:51
Zach. Cause obviously he was on comms that weekend
11:53
for commentators. So like they just caught him
11:55
at like, of course he's gonna, he's gonna say
11:58
some stuff just based on his very limited knowledge.
12:00
But yeah, you're right. He, he, he took it all
12:02
back. So props to him for doing that. Um, too
12:05
bad for Nico. He had a really good quality. I
12:07
mean, qualifying for both sessions. were really
12:09
good so yeah right um overall good weekend he
12:12
qualified 11th for the race so not incredible
12:15
for the race but yeah fabulous qualifying i take
12:19
11th you know pretty good pretty good definitely
12:22
not bad uh but yeah meanwhile uh i did want to
12:26
bring up stroll as well something else that i
12:28
um I saw in the post sprint interviews that like,
12:33
it was almost weird was Lance stroll was took
12:37
a hundred percent accountability for his crash
12:39
said that was totally my fault. I thought there
12:43
was an opportunity there and there wasn't, I
12:45
locked my front left and completely took Ocon
12:49
out. I'm so sorry to Ocon. That's not his fault
12:53
at all. And I was sitting here watching this,
12:55
like, wait. Did three men visit Lance Stroll
13:00
in the middle of the night? It's a pretty nice
13:04
accountability, I will admit. It's good to see
13:07
that happen. But yes, he did get punished. He
13:12
got a five -place grade penalty for the race
13:14
as well. So speaking of the race, I guess let's
13:20
get into it, shall we? Just kind of a reminder
13:23
of the starting ten. We had Verstappen, Norris,
13:26
Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Piastri, Antonelli,
13:29
Behrman, Sainz, and Alonso. And the top three
13:32
finished the same after a little bit of movement
13:35
between two and three. Hamilton did make up a
13:38
place. Russell lost two. Piastri gained one.
13:41
Sonota from downtown getting into points. Hulkenberg
13:44
getting into points. Behrman keeping them. And
13:47
Alonso holding on to tenth. Let's go ahead and
13:49
go through the list. Who do you want to start
13:50
with, Mike? Well, do we just want to start from
13:57
the top and work our way down? Let's do it. Start
13:59
with Red Bull. Can I just say, another day in
14:05
the office, am I right? Truly. It kind of felt
14:10
like 2023 Max again. They finished, GP was like,
14:13
good job, Max. I'll see you in Mexico. I got
14:17
to go catch a flight. See you. And Max was like,
14:20
yep. Good job, guys. Yep, that was it. Super,
14:24
super monster drive from him. Really only seen
14:27
another car in lap one. And super dominant weekend,
14:34
almost getting the Grand Slam. Didn't get fastest
14:37
lap, unfortunately. He closed the gap in drivers
14:43
by quite a bit. He is now only 40 points to Oscar
14:48
Piastri in fourth. And 26 points to Lando Norris
14:52
in second. So, I mean, he's definitely back in
14:59
the ballgame. If people weren't worried about
15:02
it before, they should be now. He's definitely
15:04
back in the ballgame, but it's not going to be
15:06
an easy road. He's definitely going to have to
15:09
win every single race. Like, you know, I mean,
15:15
unless the McLarens just decide that they're
15:18
not going to show up anymore, which I mean, I
15:20
don't know anymore. But yeah, he's he's definitely
15:24
there to much, much to my chagrin. I think you
15:28
and most of F1 fans are rooting for Max at this
15:30
point because the comeback would be legendary
15:32
and everyone's angry with McLaren, which I think
15:34
is fine. That's finally placed. I'm still in
15:37
the orange Kool -Aid. I still want one of them
15:39
to win. That being said. That being said, I've
15:43
said this already. If Max wins, he deserves it.
15:45
Obviously he did like he had to do, he had to
15:48
work, but I'm not going to root for him. Right.
15:50
I want it to be hard for him. I would really,
15:53
I really need it to be hard for him. I don't
15:55
want him to just like, yeah, I just won every
15:57
race and they just couldn't, they couldn't keep
15:58
up or they just kept messing up. And that was
16:00
it. And I was like, well, great. Good job. That's
16:03
great. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't know.
16:06
I would be happy if somebody like Oscar won,
16:10
that would be great. But also I'm happy if Max
16:14
wins because I love a comeback story. And like,
16:17
I must prefer the underdog and the McLarens have
16:20
been the dominant car all year. So seeing the
16:23
McLarens be dominant all year and then slowly
16:26
start to fall off at the end, it's just all that
16:28
same hype that we had around Lando this time
16:30
last year, where we were all so excited. We're
16:32
like, maybe Lando could do this. Right. And so
16:35
it's kind of the same thing, except now it's
16:37
with Verstappen. I'm drinking the Verstappen
16:41
Kool -Aid at this point. Fair enough, fair enough.
16:44
And then Sonoda. crazy right in the winters yeah
16:48
he's good he's good i mean we we know he loves
16:51
coda he had horrible qualifying just god awful
16:54
quality but like he made it bro 13th to 7th is
16:58
a drive in the second second red bull probably
17:00
the unfortunately it might be the last good drive
17:03
we see out of him like that um i'm hoping not
17:06
that'd be cool i think he's historically pretty
17:09
good around mexico too he definitely wasn't last
17:12
year but uh Yeah, I think historically he's been
17:17
pretty good around Mexico too. So given that
17:20
they're kind of working out some of the bugbears
17:22
in this Red Bull and actually making it drivable
17:26
for the second driver, I think we could see Yuki
17:29
continue to put up some more points and maybe
17:32
not be completely dead weight for the rest of
17:33
the season. I mean, you have the notes up or
17:36
the list up. Is Red Bull even in contention for
17:39
second at this point? Let me double check. Contractors.
17:47
Where is... Contractors. Let me see here. Red
17:56
Bull is currently... Yes. Yes, absolutely. They
18:01
are three points away from Ferrari in third and
18:05
ten points away from Mercedes in second. I didn't
18:08
realize it was that close. It's that close! It
18:11
is a three way fight for second. That's crazy.
18:13
I had no idea it was that close. All within 10
18:16
points of each other. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy.
18:20
I didn't realize either. That's, that's, that's
18:23
nuts. Yeah. So not only is it possible, it's
18:26
almost plausible. It's, it's almost, it's almost
18:29
likely if Matt continues to win. Yeah. I think,
18:32
I think he could, he could once again, carry
18:34
the team to like a good constructors finish.
18:37
That's, that would be unreal considering that
18:39
they've got. Sorry, go ahead. They've got 331
18:43
points. And Max, as a team, they have 331 points,
18:48
and Max alone has 306. Yeah, yeah. So you can
18:54
correct me if I'm wrong or tell me I'm crazy.
18:55
I almost think it might be better if... if Red
18:58
Bull stays in third or fourth, because then they
19:01
get the extra time on the win, like a really
19:04
important year. So like, obviously they need
19:08
Max to win. So if Max keeps winning, they're
19:10
like, all right, well, if we're just going to
19:11
get second and we'll take the money, I guess.
19:13
The only caveat is that, yeah, if they, the higher
19:17
they place in constructors, the more money they
19:18
get for, for the championship. That is great.
19:22
But yeah, going into Red Bull, the energy drink
19:25
company of the world. going into a new regulation
19:30
cycle all about aerodynamics, like having more
19:34
time in the wind tunnel, probably a good thing.
19:37
You know, maybe Yuki lets off the gas a little
19:41
bit and stays below 10th just to ensure that
19:46
they stay low. Team orders, Yuki, crash the car.
19:49
Yeah, just team orders. Please, Sandbag. Wow.
19:53
All right. We've been on Red Bull a little too
19:55
long. I think let's go ahead and move on to second
19:59
place and fifth place. McLaren. I mean, I don't
20:04
know about you, but first of all. Lando, I think
20:08
a fairly good race, could not get past Leclerc.
20:11
And we'll talk about him in just a second, so
20:13
I don't want to leave on him too late. But he
20:15
does lose out right away. He gets stuck behind.
20:18
If that weren't the case, I mean, just seeing
20:21
his pace behind Leclerc and seeing how bad he
20:23
is in that dirty air, I don't think he's catching
20:25
Red Bull anyway. Would have still been kind of
20:28
fun to see a fight, but we still got to see it
20:30
between Leclerc as what it is. He still got second
20:34
at the end of the day. Good points for him. Piastri,
20:36
I think he looked to be struggling most of the
20:38
weekend, but I think he definitely made a little
20:41
bit of a comeback. He made two places in the
20:43
race, got him up to fifth. Definitely not great
20:45
points, but points nonetheless that he definitely
20:47
needs. Any points to touch on, McLaren, from
20:51
you? No, I don't think I've got much. You pretty
20:54
much touched on everything. We're not happy with
20:58
the results. I would love to see Oscar a little
21:00
bit higher, but on the flip side, less points
21:03
for Oscar means closer for Max Verstappen. With
21:06
that, let's jump into Ferrari. Why don't you
21:09
lead us into them? Honestly, monster drive from
21:13
Leclerc. Such a good drive. The rare genius strategy
21:20
call from Ferrari. Don't see that every day.
21:24
Starting Leclerc on the soft so that he can find
21:26
an early overtake. Took those softs. 26 laps
21:30
is crazy. And then the mediums for the second
21:36
stint were really good. And yeah, super, super
21:41
good drive for Leclerc. Good drive for Hamilton
21:45
as well. For a little while, I was almost concerned
21:47
if Hamilton was going to... was going to catch
21:51
up to the rest of the pack, but he didn't. He
21:53
fell behind in that second stint, but still a
21:56
really good drive. If you're a Ferrari fan, I'm
22:01
sure you're generally happy with this weekend.
22:04
It's not the best result, but... better than
22:06
what we've seen so i think three fourth is probably
22:08
the best you can ask for the short of leclerc
22:10
maybe winning obviously he won last year so maybe
22:12
you'd open for a repeat but right um yeah uh
22:16
well -deserved driver of the day from leclerc
22:18
uh and then yeah i think again with hamilton
22:21
arguably one of his best races maybe uh just
22:25
he kept it pretty clean didn't have any issues
22:28
he got a position or two like Pretty good. He
22:31
did have some troubles at the end. I think this
22:33
is the second race and maybe a row where he had
22:35
just like really bad troubles at the end of the
22:37
race. I don't know if that's a bad car or if
22:39
he's just super unlucky or maybe he's just running
22:42
the car really hard. Not sure. I'm just kind
22:45
of something to keep in your mind for future
22:48
future reference. Nice. So that's third and fourth.
22:53
At fifth, we are looking at that was Leclerc.
22:57
So sixth is Albon. what no not albon why did
23:02
i put albon here who took six so and fifth was
23:04
oscar sixth was russell yeah i don't know why
23:07
i put albon wishful thinking i guess yeah russell
23:11
at sixth um and kimmy antonelli was uh 13th yes
23:17
yes so um russell uh Caught out in the front,
23:22
loses two places, never makes them back up, just
23:25
kind of coasted to the end, essentially. Wasn't
23:28
really able to put any pressure on Piastri. I
23:31
think he was a little close at one point, but
23:33
never really in striking distance. And then,
23:35
unfortunately, Antonelli did have an incident
23:37
with signs that sent him down the field and out
23:40
of the points. He did have a pretty decent fight
23:43
up the bottom field, just unfortunately not close
23:46
enough to points. So overall, I'd call it probably
23:50
a little disappointing. pointing of a weekend
23:51
um you know on both your drivers losing places
23:54
never where you want to be especially when you're
23:56
fighting for second in the constructors um but
23:59
what are you going to do and given the track
24:02
given the heat and how hot it was at coda um
24:06
yeah i mean this is almost the best they could
24:08
ask for like they kind of ended up kind of where
24:12
we all expected them to be so Absolutely. All
24:16
right. Seventh brings us to Sonota, which then
24:20
brings us... Not Sonota. Oh, I know. I was looking
24:23
at the sprint. That's what was going on. Ah,
24:26
yes. Seventh is Sonota. Seventh is Sonota, and
24:28
then Hulkenberg in eighth. Perfect. So now I
24:32
get to do this. Oh, no. Okay. All right. All
24:36
right. I have my... Since we're doing this virtually,
24:40
I have the full suite of hats tonight. Yeah.
24:44
You can quick, quick change. Yeah. I've got them
24:47
set to the side. So yeah. Yeah. So Nico Hulkenberg,
24:51
truly a rapid weekend from him. Super exciting.
24:55
This is his first point finish since his, his,
24:59
his podium, which is kind of a bummer. kind of
25:06
made the podium feel like a monkey's paw you
25:08
know like we're gonna give you a podium but you
25:10
aren't gonna get any more points the rest of
25:12
the year so uh so i think like it was a good
25:15
drive from him he worked his way up the field
25:17
um continuing to show that he's really really
25:21
fast in this car and making things more exciting
25:24
for this team uh audi so that was that was great
25:29
very happy with that uh and then Bortoletto in
25:34
18th had, I mean, I won't beat around the bush,
25:38
a bad showing. He struggled. It happens. I think
25:42
he was one of the few drivers who started on
25:45
the hearts. Yeah, I think so. And those were
25:47
tough. Those were tough, yep. So what'll he do?
25:52
Aside from that, great showing from Nico. Yeah,
25:55
no, really good weekend for Nico. After kind
25:58
of some bad luck in the sprint, he comes out
26:00
with points, and you love to see that. We'll
26:02
kind of leave the microphone on you because we're
26:04
going to Haas. Better switch to that hat back.
26:06
Quick change, quick change. Quick change. Oh,
26:09
no. I got the sweatshirt on and everything too.
26:13
So I'm like already halfway there. That was faster
26:16
than the pit stop that I think was a Lando had
26:19
or Piastri had. I can't remember, but Lando.
26:21
Yeah. Lando had a second pit stop. I've seen,
26:24
you know, second pit stop. It's always the second
26:26
pit stop for McLaren. I don't know why you're
26:28
right. Yeah. It's, I don't know. I've already,
26:30
I don't want to talk about it anymore. Yeah.
26:33
Haas, Behrman ninth, Ocon 15th. Yeah. So Ocon.
26:37
Having some issues in the race, struggling. He
26:42
was kind of having a rough weekend all weekend.
26:45
The team has talked about it. They know about
26:48
it. They're going to try and make some changes,
26:50
make some fixes, and see if we can get Ocon up
26:52
to pace with where we see Oliver Behrman, who
26:55
had another great race in his home race. Well,
26:59
not his home race, but our home race, which is
27:03
great. Haas loves getting points in America.
27:07
This is our stomping grounds. So considering
27:12
I think this is his first time driving around
27:14
Kota, being in a Haas, which is historically
27:18
a boat, pretty good, pretty good finish. They
27:24
brought a couple upgrades, and they provide fruits.
27:28
There's a little bit of pace in that car. Yeah,
27:29
no, it's really nice to see Haas get some points
27:32
on their home down. Really cool to see that happen.
27:36
Going on to Aston, I don't really, I mean, Alonzo
27:39
just kind of existed in 10th for a little bit.
27:41
Yeah, okay, yeah. It was kind of a three -peat,
27:44
a lot of quick changes. I swear I'm out of hats.
27:49
Yeah, yeah, that's it. Alonzo holds on to the
27:52
10th position. He was fighting for it a little
27:54
bit, I feel like. He was kind of under pressure
27:56
the entire time. But really, I mean, no points
27:59
for Stroll, but 19th to 12th, kind of a decent
28:03
drive from Stroll, honestly. Surprisingly, honestly,
28:06
yeah. He, and I think he was another one of the
28:08
drivers that started on the soft as well. I think
28:10
so. It was, it was a strategy to be on. I think.
28:12
Yeah. Yeah. He started on the soft. Yeah. He
28:15
started on the soft and he took them. Um, I think
28:17
he picked like a lap or two before LeClaire.
28:21
So, so yeah, it was, yeah, really good showing
28:24
on a stroll in race. Um, and Fernando, you know,
28:30
picking up a point. Not exactly what he wants
28:34
to see, considering that the teams that are behind
28:36
him picked up more points being Haas and Sauber.
28:39
But, you know, at the very least, they don't
28:42
have to worry about VK. VK didn't score any points
28:47
today. So, you know, one point brings them one
28:49
point closer to VK. Speaking of E -Carb, they're
28:52
up next. Hajar, bad luck during quali, not really
28:55
making up a ton of moves in the race. And Lawson,
28:57
the one battling Alonso, right? I mean, I don't
29:03
really have much to say about them. It was an
29:05
uneventful race, I think. Yeah, Hajar really,
29:09
really struggling. And Lawson, actually, all
29:11
things considered, I think Lawson had a good
29:13
drive. Just struggling with the car, was not
29:17
able to... perform under these conditions and
29:20
not get past Alonso. Those two have a bit of
29:24
a history to begin with. So it's probably for
29:25
the best that they didn't squabble too much.
29:29
Yes. Agreed. Agreed. I'll go ahead and touch
29:35
on Williams. Very unfortunate for Sainz. Just
29:37
another classic Williams day. It was, I don't
29:42
know. I kind of see the incident with him and
29:45
Antonelli, at least at first, very akin to what
29:48
Oscar did. Granted, Oscar was lap one, T1, so
29:52
that's kind of where they put the racing incident
29:54
of it all in it. But Sainz essentially did the
29:57
same thing. And he did get punished for it. Yeah.
30:02
He is going to be picking up a, I'll just kind
30:04
of, this is the only news I really had. He is,
30:06
he is going to pick up a five place grid penalty
30:08
in Mexico. Bummer. It is what it is, I guess.
30:13
And then Albon, kind of an impressive weekend,
30:16
unfortunately. I think Williams is... I honestly
30:19
do feel like the Williams pace is pretty decent.
30:21
I just think they're making mistakes or they're
30:25
just getting in some weird situations that just
30:28
don't really help them excel. So, unfortunate
30:31
race for the Williams. I don't know if you have
30:32
anything else to touch on with them. I don't
30:36
exactly. I know I heard Albon talking about how
30:39
he was... disappointed. He felt like he had a
30:44
lot of pace around here and just wasn't able
30:46
to utilize it, wasn't able to extract it, whatever
30:49
the case may be. I've got a good feeling about
30:53
them in Mexico. I hope so. I would like to see
30:57
him do a little bit better. Finally, wrapping
31:01
up with the best team on the grid, Al Peen. My
31:04
first little comment I have in the outline is
31:07
yikes. Colapinto, on like, what was it, like
31:13
five laps before the end, told to hold position
31:16
behind Gasly, ignores that. And then gets past
31:21
him and effectively pushes him down two positions
31:23
because it left him under pressure from Bortoletto.
31:27
So Gasly 19th, Colapento 17th. Is that something
31:31
he should be doing right now? Like, listen, I
31:34
know you want to, like, show you can drive, right?
31:37
And I also want to ask you, have you heard anything?
31:39
Like, was there another message that was like,
31:41
you're right, go ahead and pass him? No, I didn't
31:44
hear anything. Yeah, so. yeah without intel knowing
31:48
i'm there might be a like i didn't like i wasn't
31:52
listening to their comms the entire time that
31:54
aside unless that did come out not something
31:56
he should be doing he should be following team
31:58
orders especially when he's on a leash as short
32:00
as his like it's it's not I don't know. It's
32:04
not a good look for a team. I mean, first of
32:08
all, why are you fighting in 19th and 17th anyway?
32:11
Like, what's the point? Like, I understand you're
32:14
faster, but getting that one position on your
32:16
teammate. And, you know, I'll even go one further.
32:18
Now that I'm kind of like my brain cells are
32:20
firing a little bit. They probably had him in
32:22
18th to protect Gasly. Could be. Yeah. Yeah.
32:28
That could be. I was kind of wondering why they
32:31
told him to hold position anyways. It's like,
32:32
why if he's faster, why would they not just tell
32:35
them to swap? It doesn't make sense. And I guess
32:39
in his mind as a racer, he's like, Hey guys,
32:42
you hired me. You've, you brought me on to be
32:45
fast. Don't make me go slow intentionally. Yeah.
32:49
Like clearly Colapinto was just faster than Gasly.
32:54
So I mean, I guess I can kind of see that. It
32:58
is a really bad look for Alpeen, though. It's
33:01
not great. It's not great. Right. All right.
33:04
That brings us to our recap. Really quick, do
33:06
you have any con call -outs for Coda? Oh, God.
33:11
I could have sworn there were a few funny call
33:12
-outs, but, yeah, they're not coming to me right
33:15
now. I got to one of them after Lando overtook
33:20
Charles in the long, long back straight and then
33:23
found out that he had black and whites or already
33:26
knew. Oh, no, after he found a black and white
33:29
flag, his engineer came into the radio and said,
33:34
hey, you got black and white flags. It doesn't
33:36
look like they're going to call Charles out on
33:38
pushing you off the track. Lando went to respond,
33:41
and William Joseph came right back on and was
33:42
like, I know, I know, I know, and then just cut
33:45
him off before he could really talk. So that
33:49
was kind of a little funny moment. Second one
33:51
is from Crofty, who said there are more black
33:54
and white flags than the Pirates of the Caribbean.
33:56
That was awesome. That was a good go. It was
33:58
like, yeah, nice. Good job. Oh, and then, of
34:01
course, all of the comments about Shibuzi as
34:04
well. Oh, my gosh. There was some really funny
34:05
bits about Shibuzi. Right. That's it for Calm
34:11
Callouts. I think we're ready to go ahead and
34:14
get into our news and finally get up to speed
34:18
for the Mexico Grand Prix. Yeah. Love Mexico.
34:29
Right. We are back for news and our Singapore,
34:31
not Singapore, our Mexico Grand Prix. Yeah, I'm
34:36
messing up, too, man. It's been only Monday.
34:38
All right. So a little bit of news, nothing crazy
34:41
here. I already kind of touched on signs getting
34:43
that five place and the Russell and Antonelli
34:46
kind of news. This is kind of sort of not really
34:50
on track news, but Apple has now made a deal
34:53
with F1. So F1 TV is effectively being turned
34:56
into an Apple TV variant. So if any of you don't
35:00
know about that, just be aware that if you have
35:02
F1 TV, that's going away a little bit. You're
35:06
going to have to. succumb to the apple um move
35:09
on over if you want to watch your f1 there or
35:11
catch it on espn at the ocho or something like
35:14
that so that's all i really got for that so with
35:17
that um unless you have any news mike nope all
35:21
right we'll jump into our mexico grand prix preview
35:25
of the formula one grand premio de la ciudad
35:29
de mexico 2025 I'm putting you on the spot a
35:34
little bit here, Mike. I'd like you to find weather
35:36
if you can. That'd be sick. Go ahead and put
35:39
on weather. And I'll say a fun fact while he's
35:42
looking up weather. Due to the air pressure reduction
35:45
at 7 ,200 feet above sea level, Mexico has the
35:50
highest top speeds on the calendar. In 2016,
35:54
Botas set the fastest ever speed trap in history
35:57
at... 231 .46 miles per hour, even though his
36:01
Williams telemetry said Max had reached a speed
36:05
of 231 .96 before breaking at turn one. Fast
36:10
track that turn one. Fast track. Yep. I am trying
36:16
to pull up the weather. Now to Mike with the
36:20
weather. It's going right. Thanks, Mike. All
36:25
right. Okay, so it looks like... I'm trying to
36:30
find Sunday. It looks like it is supposed to
36:36
be... Do I see 66? I think I see 66 degrees Fahrenheit.
36:44
So on the chilly side... Yeah, a little chilly.
36:49
For what I would expect to see out of Mexico,
36:54
you know? Here we go. What is... Yeah, so, yeah,
36:59
it looks like in the 60s and 70s, partly cloudy.
37:02
Otherwise, should be good. No crazy weather by
37:11
the looks of it. No crazy winds either. How about
37:16
that? All right. Now, instead of doing our normal
37:21
up to speed that we normally do, I'll kind of
37:22
rattle off the entirety of the race. Instead,
37:25
I just have some points that I want to touch
37:27
over for the race, just because we're on a little
37:29
bit of a weird schedule at the moment. We're
37:31
virtual. So last year's starting grid, we have
37:34
Sainz, Verstappen, De Norris, Leclerc, Russell,
37:37
Hamilton, Magnuson, Gasly, Albon, and Hulkenberg
37:41
taking up your top 10. Qualifying, Carlos Sainz
37:44
did grab pole position in his Ferrari ahead of
37:46
Max Verstappen. This race ran for 71 laps around
37:51
the 4 .30 kilometer circuit. At the very start,
37:56
there was a collision between Yuki and Alex,
37:58
which resulted in both retiring early. And Sainz
38:01
initially lost the lead to Verstappen, but did
38:03
regain it on lap nine. We had an intense battle
38:07
between Verstappen and Norris, where Verstappen
38:10
forced Norris off the check. twice at turns four
38:13
and seven and was penalized for each of those
38:16
moments, leaving the track, gaining an advantage.
38:18
As a result, he gets 20 seconds to his pit stop
38:23
on lap 27. That was crazy. I was so unreal. I
38:28
was too. I was nuts. Yeah, I mean, like, I mean,
38:33
a damage is race beyond repair. So mid to late
38:36
and late race developments, Sainz built a comfortable
38:40
lead eventually to take the win. Norris chased
38:42
but couldn't quite catch him. Meanwhile, Charles
38:45
recovered well to take third and even grabbed
38:48
fastest lap at that point. Mercedes had a solid
38:51
showing. Lewis finished fourth ahead of George
38:54
in fifth. And then local hero Sergio Perez had
38:57
a poor home race, penalized for a false start.
39:01
that involved contact with Liam Lawson. Oh, I
39:05
remember that too now. I remember the Liam and
39:09
Sergio kind of fight. I was cheering on Liam
39:11
too. I was like, yeah, get your elbows out. I
39:15
was watching this. I was like, what is he doing?
39:18
We were all like, what is he doing? But I was
39:20
here for it. I was here for the interest. Listen,
39:24
any moment where I can see Red Bull fighting
39:26
each other, I'm here for it. They have four cars
39:29
on the track. Come on. Let's get going. I think
39:34
it was two laps later or something like that,
39:36
too. Lance Stroll almost did the exact same thing
39:40
to Perez that Liam did. Perez was not happy.
39:46
Perez was not happy, and he did end up in 17th,
39:49
the last classified finisher, which is just par
39:53
for the course for Sergio at home. Unfortunately,
39:55
he never does well here, which is sad because
39:57
he's so excited to go here every single time.
40:00
I hope he does better. I would love to see him
40:03
win Mexico in a Cadillac. Hey, that won't happen.
40:08
But I would like to see him play Swell in a Cadillac.
40:11
I would be more than happy to see him do that.
40:13
Counterpoint, you don't know that. I do. I do
40:16
know that. I'm willing to put money on it. Yeah,
40:18
maybe Cadillac comes out and is crazy next year.
40:22
Yeah, okay. All right, so Lafayette always signs
40:24
to Norris to LeClaire, leaving our Mexico Grand
40:28
Prix in the dust and looking forward to the one
40:30
this upcoming weekend. You love Mexico, Mike.
40:34
It's one of your best tracks on the game. You
40:37
love this track. It is so much fun. It is a great
40:41
track. It's really good for racing and it's really
40:43
good for watching too. There's a bunch of really
40:45
good overtaking opportunities. It's a very clean
40:48
track. It tends to be very grippy. And so, yeah,
40:54
it's just generally really good track. It's very
40:57
fun. And I'm really looking forward to the race
40:58
this weekend. Me too. I think it will be a good
41:00
one. And, hey, we don't have to wake up crazy
41:02
early for it. We get to do that in a couple more
41:05
weeks when we go to Vegas. I tell you what. That's
41:09
crazy. Okay. I don't have to complain about that
41:13
quite yet. We'll complain a little bit later.
41:15
But Mike, you extend your lead. You are. I mean,
41:19
you do. Actually, no, I'm sorry. That's a lie.
41:22
You don't extend your lead. You gain the same
41:24
amount of points as Smelty did. I extend my.
41:28
My gap, essentially. I'm not winning this thing.
41:31
So as a quick point check, I'm at 45. Four points
41:36
beneath Smelty at 49 and six points beneath you
41:40
at 51. You crossed a 51 point, but still points
41:44
the game. Still a championship to win between
41:46
all three of us. It's looking a little bleak
41:49
for me. Get a six pointer. Huh? Get a six pointer
41:53
and you're crazy with it. Get a six -pointer,
41:56
but, like, I mean, you could also get a six -pointer.
41:58
There's no way I'm picking the same thing as
41:59
you. That'd be crazy. All right. I have not thought.
42:03
I've thought about this a little bit, but I have
42:06
smelties. You know what it is a little bit, too.
42:09
But you are first. I don't think this would have
42:12
changed. I don't think his prediction would have
42:13
changed anything because his prediction is a
42:15
little crazy. So we are starting with you. Yes.
42:19
So I'm going first. So first things first, in
42:22
first place, I'm putting Max Verstappen. Shocker.
42:25
I want my boy to win the championship. Also,
42:27
he's rapid around here. In second place, I'm
42:32
going to get a little weird. I'm taking a bit
42:35
of a gamble. I'm going to put Oscar Piastri.
42:39
Okay. And in third, I'm going to put Charles
42:45
Leclerc. Okay. That's interesting. That's really
42:50
interesting. Smelzy's podium is Max, Charles,
42:53
and George. A completely McLaren -free podium.
42:59
All right, which leaves me. That's a very interesting
43:03
podium. I think you probably shake up my answer
43:05
just a little bit. Nice. I'm definitely having
43:10
Lando somewhere on the podium because I do think
43:12
he's also good here. I did want to put... I did
43:18
want to put Charles on the podium because he
43:20
was really good here last year as well. I'm not
43:24
sure. Man, this is tough. I'm just trying to
43:33
look. I had this up somewhere, but I can't find
43:35
it. The race results last year. George Russell
43:39
finished fifth. I got him up now. Lewis Hamilton
43:43
in fourth. man wouldn't it be interesting you
43:47
know what i said do you remember what i said
43:48
to you during the race this weekend when we were
43:50
watching it near the end after you were kind
43:52
of talking about points i said to you because
43:55
i'm so far behind it's time to get crazy so yes
43:59
in third place lewis hamilton is taking the podium
44:02
first ever ferrari podium uh no i've had charles
44:06
oh have i had charles before no i mean i mean
44:09
lewis's first yes yes Minus the sprint in China,
44:14
yes. And then I am going to stick with the crowd
44:19
and go Max in first and Lando in second. So I
44:23
think Lewis is a bad choice over Charles. I think
44:26
I'm in to lose a lot of points, but I need to
44:29
do something a little crazy that just in case
44:31
I can gain a little bit more points, I'm kind
44:33
of just like, you know, gasp for air. I think
44:36
Smelty's a little crazier for not having at least
44:38
one. McLaren up there. That's wild. I... just
44:44
kind of thinking this through, if I were to pick
44:46
a McLaren, I mean, this is what I did. I picked
44:48
Lando because Lando definitely was better than
44:50
Oscar last year. Oscar struggled. But I understand
44:53
why you pick Oscars because you hate Lando's
44:55
guts. Anyway, I think that's all the time we
44:57
have. We can't talk. I'm getting gaslit. This
45:01
is crazy. Oh, man, Mike. I actually, I also,
45:05
so for whatever it's worth, I also think Lando
45:07
is probably going to be on the podium over Oscar,
45:09
but like. I don't know. I'm taking a gamble with
45:13
it. I've got some points. You're in a good position
45:18
to take. We're all in a good position. You're
45:20
in a good position to take a little... Actually,
45:23
not really. You're not that far ahead. Two points
45:26
ahead, but that's okay. Melty made a crazy guess,
45:29
so you're probably better off doing whatever
45:31
you want, to be honest. To be fair, if we're
45:35
being real, then he took... George Russell and
45:40
I took Oscar. And if we're going to be real,
45:42
probably neither of those drivers are going to
45:44
be on the, it's possible. Yeah. Because you want
45:47
to know why? Cause Lewis Hamilton's going to
45:49
be up there. All right. No? Okay. Well, Mike,
45:55
it has been a pleasure digitally talking to you
45:59
about F1 today. We've done this once or twice.
46:02
We've done this once or twice. I'd also like
46:04
to thank Kev for a little bit of support off
46:07
-camera, off -meeting. He's somewhere out there.
46:09
He'll see this. Thank you, buddy. We appreciate
46:11
you. We're looking forward to talking to you
46:13
soon about this episode and the race and the
46:16
Mexico race. We do not have an episode next week,
46:19
but we will be back in two weeks to talk. Mexico,
46:23
and then Qatar? Yes. Yeah. No, Sao Paulo. Brazil.
46:33
Brazil, yeah. Brazil. Yeah, so we go Mexico to...
46:36
We go Brazil to Vegas to Qatar. Yes, we will
46:40
be back. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe
46:43
wherever you listen to the banter, whether that's
46:45
YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio,
46:49
your grandma's Walkman. We're everywhere, man.
46:52
You can listen to us, and you should be listening
46:54
to us. Especially on Grandma's Walkman. Especially.
46:57
Mike, once again, it's been a pleasure, man.
46:59
I'm happy you could be here. Happy we could talk
47:01
some F1. It's a good time. I'm always happy to
47:05
talk about F1. I am perpetually yapping about
47:08
this. Perfect. You are. I'm surprised we're able
47:11
to get on here and have a full pod when we already
47:14
talk about F1 all the time, right? This is just
47:17
a little bit more formal, I think. Yeah, right.
47:19
All right. We'll go ahead and sign off here.
47:22
Thanks again, everyone. We'll talk later. See
47:24
you. Bye -bye. Don't forget to follow, like,
47:28
and subscribe. Tune in next time for more banter
47:33
with the boys.