Latest / The Undercut / On Nico Hulkenberg's 239th Try he Finally Gets his Podium! - 2025 British Grand Prix Review

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On Nico Hulkenberg's 239th Try he Finally Gets his Podium! - 2025 British Grand Prix Review · The Undercut

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:09
  Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2025 British Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the show. By being a racing driver, you are.
• 0:22
  Speaker A: At risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
• 0:34
  Speaker B: All right, guys, so we are back, the 2025 British Grand Prix, and we have Mark Torres back with us on the show. So I'm swinging it to you first off as we go. So what is the highlight for this race, Mark? Is it the Lando and Oscar controversy or is it Nico Hulkenberg getting the podium? What's, what's, what's the highlight of, of the weekend?
• 1:01
  Speaker C: I'll have to go with Nico's podium. I mean, 230, what, nine races?
• 1:07
  Speaker B: I think that's right.
• 1:08
  Speaker C: The guy finally gets to hold a trophy up. I mean, I just can't even imagine, I mean, none of us probably can what that would feel like after being so right. Like he's probably at a point where he's like, ah, I'm just waiting to get, hopefully that Audi seat or something needs to happen different for me to get a chance at this. And then out of nowhere, well, he started 18th, 19th, 19th. I mean, yeah, pretty incredible. What'd you guys think?
• 1:37
  Speaker A: Oh, if you, if you don't have a, if you didn't have a heart, maybe, you know, the McLaren is the highlight, but Jason, don't, don't ruin it. Jason. As a McLaren fan, you're like, oh, like I won't. Piastri is robbed. Nico should go to the back of the grid and give.
• 1:58
  Speaker B: No, even, even I agree that the Nico, I mean, he was out of the sport for two years, gets back, gets a seat with all the controversy with the rookies at Haas and back in the sport, and here he is finally getting a podium after so long. And I mean, he did have the record, right? For the longest, for the most race starts without being on the podium. I did look up earlier who now has that record.
• 2:22
  Speaker A: Oh, I haven't thought. I don't know who that is.
• 2:26
  Speaker C: That's a great point. They must have gone who. It was a couple glasses of wine tonight.
• 2:32
  Speaker A: Somebody's not happy. But unless it's somebody that's new.
• 2:37
  Speaker C: I did wonder, Yeah, I listened to Nico's post race interviews and obviously he sounded elated and all that. I did wonder though, like, at some point does that, you know, that that Eats away at the victory almost because you're like, there's so much talk about that versus just the fact that you got third place and a really difficult race. So I don't know, I wonder if there's a little bit of the ego that gets chipped away when it's so long. But either way, he was, he was thrilled.
• 3:04
  Speaker B: Adrian Sutil is now.
• 3:07
  Speaker A: Oh, well, that, that, he's not, that's never going to change Adrian.
• 3:11
  Speaker C: Right.
• 3:15
  Speaker A: He's been long gone. Yeah. How many Grand Prix did he start then without.128. Oh, okay. Okay. All right, there you go.
• 3:23
  Speaker C: Who's the 128? Not even close. Wow.
• 3:27
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so this is, I guess Adrian's looking at what the current active drivers now to see if somebody can pop above him. I mean, Hulkenberg, I mean, I don't, I don't know how much we can talk about him specifically, but amazing longevity for a guy that like hasn't had that much success. Right. He's had a couple of, he had like one or two pole positions, I think a couple of fastest laps maybe. But you know, compared to people like, you know, Bottas or Ricardo or Perez or, or others that are available to drive, you know, he must be a great teammate. He must really help the team, you know, develop the car, give great feedback, be a great teammate, all of that. I mean, you haven't yet hear people saying a bad thing about him, so I'm sure all of that is true and that, that keeps him in that seat. So, you know, fair play to him. Yeah, the ice guys sometimes do finish third. Yeah.
• 4:22
  Speaker B: And he had his, and he had his Haas teammate in the garage for him this weekend. So how crazy was that? Kevin Magnuson in the back of his. Yeah, in the back of his garage. So that was awesome. Obviously, you know, that was the, the, the heartwarming story for the weekend, but.
• 4:43
  Speaker A: Yes, I mean, it was quite a juxtaposition of emotions between the third place driver and the second place driver. Really didn't want to be on the podium at all.
• 4:53
  Speaker B: Right.
• 4:54
  Speaker A: He could have taken that trophy and smashed it. He might, he might have done so. Yeah.
• 4:58
  Speaker B: One and three. One and three were thrilled to be there. Obviously Lando, with all the controversy and the 10 second penalty, Lando was the one that benefited. Winning his home Grand Prix for the first time. He, he was elated, he was thrilled. But Oscar was just devastated. And it was like the first time that I can remember really seeing Oscar truly devastated about something and voicing his opinion on how he felt about it. He's usually pretty calm and cool, but seem, you know, the armor was. Was, you know, not as shiny today.
• 5:33
  Speaker C: It seems like a bit of the Max effect, you know, when I assume there's that, like, you know, everybody looks at Max as they get. He gets treated differently. And, you know, I have to believe that a bit of Oscar felt like that. Like, you know, this. This is the exact same thing that happened in what was in Montreal. I don't know. I think something having to do with the fact that Max is involved in that situation just spikes your anger, you know, even more. As a fan, I feel the same way. Right. When Max does that kind of stuff, you're just like, you want to kill him.
• 6:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, he was definitely. Piastri was definitely like self censoring, but he was like saying things by not saying things, you know, when you, when you're. When your quotes are like, I better not say anymore, you know, you. You fill in. Basically asking us to fill in the blanks with whatever we want. We. We know what he's. He's trying to say. Did. Did he. Did he self destruct a little bit though, Piastri. Did he. Did he do. Was the breaking egregious? It. It seemed like it. It seems like they. They said he did it twice. Jason, you're shaking your head already.
• 6:41
  Speaker B: I mean, I didn't feel that way.
• 6:43
  Speaker A: I mean, if it was. If he did break check, and I think he did, 10 seconds was quite a big. Quite a big penalty. Maybe five seconds would have been more. That's.
• 6:54
  Speaker B: That's where my issue is, the. How large the penalty was.
• 6:58
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker B: So they say that Max crashing into George on purpose is equal to this.
• 7:05
  Speaker C: Yeah, I. I did consider that the only. I get. I do feel it was definitely the harshest that they would go. I guess maybe the fact that it was under Safety Car, you know, like anything under yellow flags typically is looked at harsher. You know, that's the only kind of connection I could make as to why that might have been 10 instead of 5 seconds.
• 7:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. You want people driving predictably to some. To some degree under safety car. Right. But what was going through Piastri's mind anyway? Why was he hitting the brake so hard? Was he trying to give Max a little jolt so he could then pull away? I don't know. I mean, we're never going to find out. Maybe.
• 7:49
  Speaker C: But yeah, I mean, especially knowing that it was Max behind him, who was slower, probably didn't need to go as aggressive. You know, even if he didn't get a good jump. He'd probably be fine to pull away.
• 8:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, as. As it turns out, right on that very same restart, Max spun it out, didn't he?
• 8:06
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker B: Yes, he did.
• 8:07
  Speaker A: So, yeah, it was crazy. But, yeah, Lando was definitely the. The beneficiary. Another. Another race. Another race win for Orlando and his. And the first one at his home Grand Prix, which is huge.
• 8:20
  Speaker C: And. And similarly, as kind of what I was saying with Nico, where there's a little bit of. The focus is not just on the. The positive thing about it, you know, with Lando, that all that whole mess kind of takes away from his first home victory of this. You know, like, people in some other chats that I've read have been like, oh, he only won it because, you know, because of the penalty. I think Lando was catching Oscar. I think he at least would have had a battle with him to win it on merit, but it stinks. That takes away from that.
• 8:54
  Speaker A: Well, we all heard Piastri's radio message right towards the end of the race around lap 45, where he's talking to the team and he's saying, I don't think it was fair. You probably agree, let's switch back, and then we can just race till the end that I. I can't ever think of a time.
• 9:14
  Speaker C: Ridiculous request ever.
• 9:16
  Speaker A: I mean, you know, we. We've all heard that, like, you know, you know, Seb's faster than you or whatever. We've all heard those, you know, Alonzo's catching you, those kinds of things to, like, switch places. But that one just was way out there. I mean, I guess he was clutching at straws inside his helmet there, trying to get. Trying to recover something. But, I mean, even afterwards, that's a bit embarrassing. That was a bit cringey.
• 9:39
  Speaker B: Yeah. Even afterwards, he was like, I didn't expect them to do it, but you might as well try, I guess.
• 9:45
  Speaker A: Yeah. If you don't ask, you don't get. Maybe.
• 9:47
  Speaker B: But, yeah, he was like, you guys felt like it wasn't a fair penalty, so tell him to back up and.
• 9:53
  Speaker A: Let me get in front of him, and then we'll. Hey, Lando. Hey, Lando, it's Zach Brown here. Piastri got a penalty, and Max spun out. So now we want you to, like, let Oscar past. He'll be fine. Lando will be like, what are you guys talking about? Yeah.
• 10:12
  Speaker C: Team crumbling.
• 10:13
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:15
  Speaker B: I mean, given all that, with Max spinning and everything, he still had an incredible recovery race. Getting back up to P5 I mean his championship odds, I mean anything can happen. But it seems pretty far fetched that he's going to be able to catch up at this point the way it's going. But the, the, the battle at the top is, is it eight points now?
• 10:37
  Speaker A: Oh between the two McLarens? Yeah, super close. But you're right, Max, I mean Max's car was a real handful. I mean they set it up I guess for, for obviously for the dry conditions in, in qualifying and that, that got him on pole position, but it was a real handful. And what was that? Which was it like lap 8 or something in the wet when Max basically almost like power slid around one one car. He did that.
• 11:02
  Speaker C: I think it was like a few laps later. I think he did it again and it was almost like he was doing it intentionally.
• 11:07
  Speaker A: Well when he did it the first time he did it, Piastri got through. That's right. But yeah he was, he was battling that car and of course yeah he went, he went off. Piastri took the lead. Well not off but he power slit, lost momentum. Piastri st lead and then he went off again under pressure from Lando but ultimately got that place back. Right. Because Lando had a slow pit stop putting on new inters.
• 11:36
  Speaker B: When they double stacked right there was enough gap between Oscar and Lando that they were able to double stack. And the second one was slow.
• 11:44
  Speaker A: The second one? Yeah, I think is one of the tires. Yeah, I think front left or something was just slow. So it was like four point something seconds. But you know that was that one, one or two second difference was enough. That was it a double stack though or was it? No, it wasn't.
• 11:57
  Speaker C: It was the next lap.
• 11:58
  Speaker B: I think they did they a lap.
• 12:02
  Speaker A: 11.
• 12:05
  Speaker B: Maybe when the rain started coming down right after Max went off, Oscar came in and then they had already built up such a gap between the two that by Orlando had come in, Oscar was already back out like a.
• 12:21
  Speaker A: Back to back pit stop. Lando wasn't waiting for Oscar to be serviced in the pit.
• 12:25
  Speaker B: No, no, no, no. But they, they served it on the same lap.
• 12:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah that, I mean, yeah, like I said Max was just like battling the car the whole time. I mean, I think all, I mean all the drivers were, I mean you saw once again we had a wet race what early on in Australia or whatever and the rookies just had a nightmare right in this race too.
• 12:50
  Speaker C: Like, I mean it was what was the lap. They were almost all out before halfway point of the race. I think it was like, it was a. I mean, there's so much talk about how good these rookies are and they are. And they're all coming in so fast and some of these guys are doing incredible things. But then like you put them in the rain or you put them in the conditions and like you said in Australia, it was the theme. Like, the rookies just can't handle the car. So I look at that as a good thing that at least we know the car is that hard to handle because sometimes it looks just so easy and it's like, right, you shouldn't be able to just come in at age 17 and just destroy enough. One race.
• 13:29
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because what had your. Because right at the beginning on the formation lap, it was mostly dry on the circuit except for like the last few corners, which was still very wet. But which fools? Well, leclerc had job, bought a letter and Russell all came on, came in like before. The rates to put on slicks, but it didn't work out for any of them. I. It was just an absolute disaster.
• 13:55
  Speaker C: It almost worked out for George. He looked like he was going to make some. Some something happen. But then the other, the VSC came out and then another VSC came out and it just squashed it. But I think George, because he got past him and LeClaire were behind who for a little bit gastly. No, I can't remember who they were stuck behind. But George ended up getting around that car. I think LeClaire struggled for a while. They just couldn't fire up the tires. Ferrari.
• 14:25
  Speaker A: I mean, it was. It was nuts. I mean, what happened at the. At the beginning. So we had one side of. It was weird. I think all the guys that came in were also on the same side of the grid. So one side of the grid was like, well, it's almost empty.
• 14:36
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:37
  Speaker A: With all the cars on the outside lined up, everybody got a decent start at the front. Nobody changed places. And Gasly, I think, had an amazing start. Got up like three. Three places.
• 14:49
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker A: Until turn four or five when Lawson is going around the outside of Ocon. And to me it looked like Lawson just turned into Ocon, like. Yeah. And took him out.
• 15:02
  Speaker B: There's three guys trying to go into a tight corner that, you know, Lawson was on the outside of three, so.
• 15:09
  Speaker A: But then Lawson looked like he was turning for the apex. He was two cars there. But then he blamed Ocon for the crash, like taking him out, like, what the hell? He just drove into the side of me.
• 15:19
  Speaker C: I'm like, I. I gotta be honest, I Looked at that and I, I think Yuki was on the inside, right?
• 15:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, Yuki was there, I think, on the very inside.
• 15:29
  Speaker C: I didn't. I haven't seen a good camera angle to see like, how quickly Yuki got on the inside, but he was. I think he was the first person that should have backed out. Secondly, Okon, because it did look to me like Lawson was giving a cars with not knowing that there was a third car and Okon just couldn't turn in. So I think Okon's left tire was going to hit like the outside of the white line or some, you know, somewhere around there. So I didn't blame Lawson in that situation. I think Yuki, like, you just can't have your nose. Like, he would have seen Okon's front wheel being at the halfway point of Lawson and then he's coming in with his front wheel like basically at the rear of Lawson. He has to know nobody's going to see him.
• 16:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, but that brought out what that was a virtual safety car, I think. Right. They're just tooting around slowly whilst they cleaned up Lawson's car. Right. And then Bortoletto is on slicks on the fourth lap and he. He crashes, which brings out another one.
• 16:29
  Speaker B: Safety car, a virtual safety car on the same lap that the last one ended.
• 16:34
  Speaker C: I so badly wanted those to be full course yellows for Leclair. I'm like, please.
• 16:40
  Speaker A: Yeah. But then Stroh took the opportunity to go onto slicks, which was strange decision.
• 16:47
  Speaker B: He made up a lot of ground, but.
• 16:49
  Speaker C: Yeah. But it ended up being a genius decision. That definitely looked like a bad idea.
• 16:54
  Speaker A: Look, I was like, what is he doing? But, yeah, it worked out for a few laps until. Yeah. Then the rain came bucketing down and they had to like, bring out a safety. Another safety car just for four laps to let it go. So what? So. So I think you said in the chat, Jason, what's the point of wet tires? The blue tires.
• 17:15
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 17:15
  Speaker A: Do we.
• 17:16
  Speaker B: There isn't one, apparently, is it?
• 17:19
  Speaker A: I mean, is there. There's just. No. It's too dangerous to drive when it's raining that much. You could drive in the wet, but it's. They're just going too fast. Visibility is too minimal, I guess. Yeah.
• 17:33
  Speaker C: Rain X on their visors. Yeah. I thought the same thing during the race. Like, will we ever. You see wet tires again? Because the spray is just crazy.
• 17:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 17:42
  Speaker C: That crash with Antonelli and the video speed was insane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, if anything, I. Not that I would fully expect this during an F1 race, you have to kind of be going, just looking forward and going. But I did wonder, like Sid Antonelli have tried to give some, like allow his break, his flashing lights to go off earlier, knowing that there was this wall of mist behind them. But I mean, I'm just looking for things that could have been done differently to avoid that. But aside from that, it was just. You couldn't see anything.
• 18:20
  Speaker A: Yeah, that was, that was nuts. I mean it looked. When they showed the picture of Hajar's car, it was all smashed up. It looked like a massive accident. In the end it all kind of worked out how it's supposed to. It was a bit more like bit to the car breaking off as it hit the wall a few times. And yeah, he was un, unhurt, thankfully.
• 18:39
  Speaker B: He kind of like slid into that position off the track as opposed to like crashing into the wall. But yeah, it looked bad from, from the first shot.
• 18:48
  Speaker A: So they were, I guess. So the race director was looking at the weather and they decided that the rain was going to go through on its own. So rather than red flag the race and wait, they just said we'll wait. The 10 minutes should ease on its own and then we'll go. Go back to racing. So they lost another four. Lost four laps, I think there and.
• 19:07
  Speaker B: Then ultimately that's where, that's where the incident after the safety car. This is where the incident with Oscar and Max ends up happening.
• 19:18
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's after the Hajar. Yeah, after the Hajar safety car. We didn't mention the Russell Hamilton battle after the initial safety car from the previous accident, where through goes Hamilton moment.
• 19:34
  Speaker B: Kind of.
• 19:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. So Russell took. Overtook Hamilton out of nowhere, like right on the restart. But then, yeah, Hamilton gets Russell and Ocon back just a few corners later, which is nice.
• 19:45
  Speaker C: And that was a very courageous move around the outside. The wheels were so close as they were both moving to the left there. But he, he got through. I mean, I'll give credit where credit's due. That was a great pass. And then they couldn't. And then Russell couldn't get back around him, right?
• 20:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, it was just, just stuck there. And then it wasn't until. It wasn't until like lap 30, like into the 30s that I even started paying attention to Hulk. Like he was never even mentioned. And then all of a sudden he's right there, right behind Stroll, who's in third of all places. Hulk overtakes him with Hamilton right behind. And suddenly like where did he come from?
• 20:29
  Speaker B: Like the Drs benefit.
• 20:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 20:31
  Speaker B: And the Drs just happened to get turned on like right as he's pulling up behind, behind Lance and he's able to just kind of make the move right as he gets there.
• 20:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. But it did look like it looked, I mean Mark, come on. As Ferrari guys. I was dead set that Hamilton was just going to overtake Hulkenberg. There was no question.
• 20:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, I know. I definitely was like, okay, he's going to get the 13th or 12th or whatever the next number in the streak was.
• 20:55
  Speaker A: Yeah. Consecutive podiums in Great Britain. Yeah. Insane. So what happened? Did his tires just go off or. Well, because in the end he came in for slicks, didn't he? Maybe a couple laps too soon.
• 21:09
  Speaker C: Yeah, his intermediate just. Or intermediates. Right. I think he was on.
• 21:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, he was on inters.
• 21:14
  Speaker C: Yeah, just they went off. I mean that's what the commentators said anyway. I, I, we can't see the lap times or I didn't go back and look at them. So I assume his lap times just dropped and then. Yeah, he had to come in for the softs but yeah, that was shocking. I mean that was, that looked like a clear podium for Hamilton when, yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker A: When things unfolded and then when Hamilton came back out on, on the soft tires he went, he went off immediately. Right. He didn't crash, but he went off the track and lost himself a bunch of time. So when Hulkenberg came in a lap later, all he had to do was a clean stop, keep it on the road. Right. And his pit stop was a little slow, but just keep it on the road. And he was, he was miles ahead and that was that turn three.
• 21:59
  Speaker C: It just, the replay of Hamilton going off was pretty hilarious. As you see Hamilton sliding one way, LeClaire sliding the other way in the background.
• 22:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, look. Oh my God, the cleft.
• 22:10
  Speaker C: Oh yeah, I know. Jason, this is probably why you wanted me to show up today. What a day he had. Oh, brutal.
• 22:20
  Speaker A: He was, he cut the corner at Beckett's right when across went like 200 meters across the grass there.
• 22:25
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 22:26
  Speaker A: He was in, he was into the, into the gravel like late on in the race. Dropping him down to 14th or something. And that's 14th when like five cars are already out. So it's almost dead last.
• 22:38
  Speaker C: So that I don't know, I didn't catch a lot of the post race interviews, but I have to believe that's his worst F1 race to date. I mean that was from start to finish. Bad decisions and mistakes and I think most of it was him. Yeah, yeah, for sure. At least at Ferrari. Yeah. Even some of the. I don't know who made the final decision to make that, you know, start lane.
• 23:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:04
  Speaker C: At the beginning, but I would think he was probably the one. You know, he typically demands his tires and whatnot. So he was just, you know, I. I don't know. We haven't seen Hamilton really have a better weekend than him to this degree. It looked like Hamilton was just better, truly on pace during practices.
• 23:24
  Speaker A: Right.
• 23:24
  Speaker C: I don't know if that shook him because he hasn't had really much of that. Well, that's not true. He dealt with Carlos all last year. I don't know. It was. It was a bad day for him.
• 23:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. On the. On the top. I'm sorry.
• 23:37
  Speaker B: I was just gonna say I feel like Lewis has kind of had the upper hand the past three or four races, though. Right. Hasn't it kind of switched a little bit over the last couple weeks?
• 23:48
  Speaker C: Seems like he's been chipping away and getting, you know, closer. I feel like on race day, Charles is usually making it up, you know, over. Over the length of the race. But, yeah, Hamilton's definitely seeming like he's, you know, certainly better than the beginning of the season compared to leclerc.
• 24:10
  Speaker A: Talking about tire choices, if you go back, there's a couple of videos showing, you know, Hulkenberg's progression through the race. You know, he says in the formation lap, yeah, it's too wet for. For slicks. He's. So he stays on inters. And then Salva call him in on lap three and lap four to put on slick tires. And Hulkenberg says, no, both times, which was the right call.
• 24:36
  Speaker C: So I did not hear that. That's. That's awesome.
• 24:39
  Speaker A: So, yeah, they're like, box. They're like box for slicks. And he's like, no, it's still too wet. And then I think on the lap four, they said box. But he was literally passing the pit lane entrance at that moment. So he's like, it's too late. I can't. And then the rain was. Was falling, what, just two laps later? So he sort of avoided. Avoided the problems there, but. Or they were predicting that rain was going to come two less later. It was clear that it was going to get wetter before it got drier. So.
• 25:08
  Speaker C: Right.
• 25:09
  Speaker A: There was no call for slicks after that. But, yeah, it all could have gone away for Hulk just at that very moment. You don't. All these little tiny things that make.
• 25:16
  Speaker C: A little bit of luck, a little bit of skill, a good combination.
• 25:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. The other. The other feel Good. Or the sort of heartwarming part for Hulk was apparently you saw this news that Sauber didn't have any champagne. You see that?
• 25:32
  Speaker B: No.
• 25:32
  Speaker A: So they had no champagne, like in their, like, I don't know what you call it. The, the temporary buildings that they put up. Sure. So I think Mercedes and somebody else sent down a bunch of champagne for them to celebrate and spray around, which is. Which was awesome.
• 25:49
  Speaker C: I mean, the odds were 50,000 and one, like you said, Jason. Yeah, literally.
• 25:54
  Speaker A: That would have been a great bet.
• 25:56
  Speaker B: Yes, it would have.
• 25:57
  Speaker C: Can you imagine $10?
• 26:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, that would be nice.
• 26:01
  Speaker B: That would have been great. I mean, we've pretty much. We've talked about a lot of the race here now. I mean, the only real like highlight that we haven't spoken about, I guess, is Pierre and the, you know, juxtaposition with him and whoever is in the other seat at the Alpine team at the moment. I mean, Franco's been worse than doing, really.
• 26:26
  Speaker A: So what happened to Francois Franco then? He just didn't start race.
• 26:31
  Speaker B: He went around for the formation lap and came back in to retire.
• 26:35
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Gastly did great. He ended up what, sixth? He took stroll on the last lap. Yeah, Stroll had a bit of a shocker. He was up in third and he ended up seventh. He just dropped off. But people aren't talking about kicking him out of the sport at the moment. Anyway, stroll for now and. Yeah, ghastly. A great, A great weekend, you know. Another ex Red Bull guy still showing that he's got some talent.
• 27:01
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Red Bull must be kicking themselves that they can't put him back in the seat. Probably because he seemed. I mean, the outpain car, Alpine car seems to be pretty terrible. And he's sometimes, not always, but sometimes making some miracles happen. I mean, qualifying, you know, forget the race. Obviously the race was amazing, but just what he did in qualifying is incredible. I mean, they were nowhere in the free practices. They were like. I forget what their times were, but I'm pretty sure they were like bottom of the, of the brackets every time, every practice.
• 27:34
  Speaker B: They were not on my coops lineup, that's for sure.
• 27:39
  Speaker A: I think I had gasoline in mind actually. We'll take a look in a minute. But yeah, I mean, and. And Tsunoda. What? Just, just driving slowly. Right. He didn't necessarily have crashes or anything. He didn't have any botched pit stops. He did the same kind of stops that everybody else did. Just can't get any performance out of the car.
• 27:58
  Speaker C: Yuki's interviews, which is Surprising because he's always like a hothead. He looks so broken if you listen to his answers. I mean, he's just like every other rest. You know, individual go. You know, answering these questions. It's a pretty sad situation.
• 28:18
  Speaker B: I mean, we've seen this for every driver in that seat since Danny left, right?
• 28:22
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 28:24
  Speaker B: I mean they just. Every driver that goes there ends up looking like a dejected mess afterwards.
• 28:30
  Speaker A: Yeah. It just shows how good. I mean, again, we're all. We're all. We have to hold our hands up and apologize once again, if we haven't enough already to Sergio Perez. Right. How much we were bashing him like season after season for not helping out Max or being right next to Max and.
• 28:46
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 28:46
  Speaker A: Yeah. Nobody else can even come close. Yeah.
• 28:50
  Speaker C: Max Verstappen's contract negotiations right now must be like he literally has all of the leverage.
• 28:58
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 28:59
  Speaker C: All of it.
• 29:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's crazy.
• 29:02
  Speaker B: We'll be seeing. I mean, I, we talked about this a couple weeks on ago on the episode. If, if Max is going to be going to Mercedes and it's looking more and more likely that this is going to be a. A possibility.
• 29:14
  Speaker A: I, I still can't imagine that happening. And you would definitely feel terrible for a se. Like I said last time, it be that if Russell is the one who loses his seat because of it. Like, Russell's done nothing wrong apart from show them like all giving them all of his loyalty. But I don't know. That's. That's 4:1 when Max Verstappen is available. Why wouldn't you take the best driver if you can afford it?
• 29:38
  Speaker B: Just like Carlos last year.
• 29:39
  Speaker A: Right.
• 29:40
  Speaker B: Or coming into this year.
• 29:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Carlos getting. Getting dropped by. By Ferrari.
• 29:45
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, definitely different with George getting dropped from Mercedes, but it is Max Verstappen. So. Yeah, you. You take him no matter what. He's ridiculous.
• 30:00
  Speaker B: Well, I mean, I, I can't think of much else that we. That we haven't spoken about yet. I mean, I guess William Williams, they did they both get up. Back up into the point somehow.
• 30:10
  Speaker A: They.
• 30:10
  Speaker B: They were having an awful weekend. I don't know.
• 30:13
  Speaker C: They were having an awful weekend. And I guess the real point is like, that they're just like they're on a. A bad streak right now.
• 30:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. They lost it a little bit.
• 30:23
  Speaker C: Right. Like they had such a good start to the season. They were clearly that next team behind the front runners.
• 30:30
  Speaker A: The best of the rest kind of thing.
• 30:32
  Speaker C: Yeah. And they're just four or five races in a row. It Just they're tripping over themselves big time. I, I, it's pretty sad to see, like, who wasn't rooting for them, right?
• 30:42
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Science is like a non entity. Albon was in the mix for a, a hot minute there. I mean, I think he ended up seven.
• 30:51
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, because of all the eight.
• 30:53
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:54
  Speaker C: Retirement. They, they, they had an okay weekend, but they, they definitely did not maximize performance by any means. They, they got to get back on track.
• 31:04
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 31:05
  Speaker B: And Haas didn't have a very good weekend either. I mean, there's, they're very up and down, but, you know, that seems to be one of their better seasons so far coming into this.
• 31:15
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And of course, the two of them crashing in. 2 Crashing into your teammate.
• 31:20
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 31:21
  Speaker A: That's right. And they both spin out simultaneously on the same corner. Like, I mean, looks makes great tv, but doesn't.
• 31:31
  Speaker C: And they both, they both had like, like a, you know, matrix glitch moment when you watch the replays of getting passed by Charles LeClaire, who's like, literally identical.
• 31:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a video game where they use the same animation for the car spinning simultaneously, like off the track. Yeah.
• 31:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I think that's, that's pretty much all the teams. And I guess that leads us into Coops F1. It was going to be a tough moment for me, I thought, you know, yesterday, until the, until the scores changed around, that was interesting.
• 32:08
  Speaker A: Yes, I did.
• 32:09
  Speaker C: I like Oscar. And then you felt like Lando.
• 32:11
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 32:12
  Speaker A: I, I made a mistake. I somehow flipped around Alonzo and Albon, I guess, I don't know, in the, in my initial scoring, so somebody emailed me and pointed it out, so I was able to fix it. So for a hot minute there, but not really, you know, Nick took, took top spot away from you, Jason, but it was never real. You don't have to worry about it. It never actually happened.
• 32:31
  Speaker C: And he didn't even text you to gloat. I know.
• 32:37
  Speaker A: But to him too. So top score this week was Cappy 61, 223 points, followed by Tio1 Cholin, if you pronounce that correctly, 220 points. I mean, again, tough, tough week to, to predict, you know, when you got some, some big names like the, like Leclair, not, not in the top, top 10. And Russell, you know, finishing low down. But then, yeah, overall. But Nick closed right up on you, Jason. Yeah, he's only four points behind overall, so it's tight. Very, very tight. Much like Lando closing In. On, on Oscar at the top of the standings. I had a decent week, actually. I got 196 points. So I was close to.
• 33:29
  Speaker C: That's a great. I was gonna say like anybody that got around 200 or more points in this weekend, that's. I couldn't believe how many people scored as much as they did. It was a crazy weekend.
• 33:40
  Speaker A: I actually did have Hulkenberg. I mean I had him 10th, so he got me three, three, only three points. But I had him in the top 10. So I believed.
• 33:48
  Speaker C: Yeah, I also, I've had him in my top 10 a few times in the last several races. He keeps figuring out even when he starts a race in a low position because this wasn't the only time he did that. I think it was another one he seems to get in the top 10. The last race, was it the last.
• 34:04
  Speaker B: One he started in dead last and finished in like P6 or P7 or something like that.
• 34:10
  Speaker A: Yeah. So you, you slipped down mark 10, 10 spots to the correction.
• 34:15
  Speaker C: Did not help.
• 34:16
  Speaker A: 60Th. Yeah. But we're like now we're officially halfway through the season, right?
• 34:24
  Speaker B: Is that right?
• 34:26
  Speaker A: We got like a mini break now until Belgium. So three weeks until Belgium and then it's back to back, I guess Belgium, Hungary and then the full like one month break or four week break between Hungary and the Netherlands.
• 34:42
  Speaker B: So which one did you say is after Belgium?
• 34:44
  Speaker A: You said Hungary. Hungary, yeah. So they can, they can do this in this three weeks. They can do work on the car. Everybody's working and improving and stuff. But then between Hungary in the Netherlands, for basically the all of August, everybody has to be on. It's like a forced break. Right. You're not supposed to. Nobody's working.
• 35:04
  Speaker C: Right. Holiday, as they call it.
• 35:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, Holiday. Give everybody a break. And then, and then, yeah, then it's a push, push to the end. But there's still plenty of racing to go. I mean it does really look like it's a two horse race now. Who, who's it's gonna, who's it gonna be? Is anybody's guess.
• 35:23
  Speaker C: Yeah, they can only get in their own way.
• 35:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. They still seem to be letting them race McLaren. Right. They're not calling out what that publicly anyway. And from what you see on the track, they, they're mostly racing, they're fighting hard.
• 35:36
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 35:36
  Speaker A: So long. May it continue. Let's see.
• 35:38
  Speaker B: Yeah, I guess the only thing to look forward to over the next couple weeks is if Baltas is going to be a driver for Alpine in Spa.
• 35:48
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, you think that yeah, they just cut Colapinto and.
• 35:52
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.
• 35:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. Botas has been very active on social media anyway, hasn't he's putting out all sorts of funny videos of looking at seats, drinking coffee, signing autographs, walking around the pit lane. He's a man comfortable in F1 and comfortable in his own skin, so I enjoy him.
• 36:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think it would be great.
• 36:16
  Speaker C: Nobody wants Doohan back. Doohan Duhan?
• 36:18
  Speaker A: Yeah. Nobody's talking about him.
• 36:20
  Speaker B: Are they over Boltas? No. I feel bad for the kid. I mean, we all felt bad for him when it hap when they replaced him with Franco, but, yeah, he didn't perform.
• 36:33
  Speaker C: I'm not. I'm certainly not arguing for his stats.
• 36:35
  Speaker B: But still feel bad for the guy.
• 36:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you get a chance. Now, sometimes they don't give you long to show your worth, do they? While they pull the rug out from underneath you. The pressure is crazy high.
• 36:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, he has to give up the corner.
• 36:54
  Speaker A: I had the nose ahead. What is wrong with these people?
• 36:58
  Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the undercuts review of the 2025 British Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time for our review of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix at SP BA. We'll see you there.
• 37:14
  Speaker A: Get a.