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Getting. Ships Registry Bahamas. Kirklees

1:17

Chance. And walk into shift

1:19

f one a podcast about speedy race

1:21

cars that by the way is Australian

1:23

slang for no chance. For.

1:25

Instance to the question: is anyone besides

1:27

Max are stepping in to win this weekend

1:30

One might respond. Berkeley's. Chance,

1:32

Andrew Scale and Joining Me Robs Agony

1:34

Harry Rob. Not. Bedroom etymology

1:36

for that? Let's say yes.

1:38

It's impressive. Yes, Buckley. Was.

1:41

A and escaped white

1:44

convict. Who. Went and

1:46

lived with. The. Aboriginal

1:48

people, In.

1:52

The. Eighteen hundreds. And it was

1:54

deemed that he would have no chance after

1:56

escaping prison. Living. With them.

1:58

out in the bush But it sounds like

2:01

that worked out okay. It did. He lived there for 30

2:03

years. Okay.

2:06

So in some ways, we

2:08

could say that that saying actually sort of

2:10

reflects like sometimes your racist

2:12

assumptions about who people are and how they

2:14

will react to strangers are like completely wrong.

2:17

And it turns out like things can

2:20

work out. So I think

2:22

it seems like Buckley's chance sort

2:24

of the true story is

2:27

like maybe people not recognizing

2:29

our common humanity sufficiently. And

2:32

honestly, if I'm talking using the casual context,

2:34

you're telling me you got Buckley's chance? I'm

2:37

saying you're saying there is a chance. Well,

2:39

that's what we like to do here, everyone. At Shift

2:42

F1 is tell you

2:44

there is a chance. If you're

2:46

new to this podcast, very well, I should mention

2:49

Daniel Dwyer on assignment this week.

2:52

He is missed. He'll be back soon. If you

2:55

are new to this podcast, a very warm welcome

2:57

to you. And if you are new to Formula

2:59

1 itself, we recommend listening to our preseason primer

3:01

episode, which assumes no prior

3:03

F1 knowledge and explains how the sport

3:05

works and who everybody is. So if

3:08

you'd like to go back and listen

3:10

to that, it's episode 257. Also, this

3:12

show would not be possible without our

3:14

audience over at patreon.com/shift F1, where every

3:17

week we release an ad free version

3:19

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3:24

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weird things. So if you would like

3:32

to support the show and get access

3:34

to all that fun stuff, head over

3:36

to patreon.com/shift F1 or click the link

3:38

in the show notes. This month, we

3:41

have been diving into Drive to

3:44

Survive season 6. We've

3:46

posted our reviews,

3:48

I suppose, our chats about episodes

3:51

1 through 5 already this month.

3:54

And then as soon as April rolls around, we'll

3:56

post our thoughts on 6 through 10.

3:58

I've had a

4:00

good time talking about this season. And

4:05

of course we could not do

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it without our title sponsors over

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you title sponsors. And

5:01

because we don't have a race to

5:03

talk about for once we're gonna

5:05

jump right into the news Rob. This

5:08

Christian Horner story is not going

5:10

away. No

5:12

and there's you know as always there's

5:14

parts of it that are about you

5:17

know Christian Horner and then there's the

5:19

weird Helmut Marko aspect of it all.

5:22

So in terms of like what is

5:24

the latest BBC has a story indicating

5:28

that the

5:30

woman who is accused Christian

5:32

Horner of misconduct and harassment

5:35

is mounting an internal appeal to

5:37

Red Bull and the gloss

5:39

on the story is that like if this

5:42

internal appeal does

5:45

not succeed or she does not feel like

5:47

she received a fair hearing that

5:49

is the point where there are legal

5:51

options now against Red Bull. And as

5:54

far as like how all this works

5:57

I couldn't begin to tell you like is this a

5:59

process that she is obliged to follow as

6:03

part of her own terms of employment with

6:05

Red Ball, I have no idea. I'm sort

6:07

of like, you know, I think

6:09

you'd also read it as this is

6:11

somebody who has maybe bent over

6:13

backwards to not end up in a

6:15

lawsuit with her employer

6:19

and is trying to handle it in channels. We

6:21

just don't know. But

6:23

either way, like, the next step she

6:25

is taking is, she and her legal

6:27

team are taking is an internal appeal

6:30

to have the decision to clear Horner

6:34

reviewed and possibly

6:37

overturned. That doesn't

6:39

succeed. The implication is this is probably moving the

6:41

court system. And maybe this

6:43

is like the reason I offer like why

6:46

maybe she has to do this to

6:49

sort of honor obligations to Red Ball

6:51

is it sounds like the

6:54

court action from here would

6:56

probably name Red Ball. As someone

6:59

she's suing in addition to Chris and Horner. So,

7:02

you know, it becomes

7:04

a thing where if Red

7:07

Ball is not going to make this

7:09

right or respond appropriately

7:11

as far as the alleged victim

7:13

is concerned, Red Ball

7:15

becomes sort of a hostile

7:17

party in the action. So

7:22

that is where things stand

7:24

on the legal front. You

7:27

know, as we noted the other week, you

7:30

know, there was, you know,

7:32

the, you know, the complainant

7:34

changed the legal team. So there

7:37

are a lot of indications that suggest

7:39

this is, you know, as

7:41

we might have all suspected, this is going to head

7:43

for court. This is not going

7:45

to end with an internal,

7:48

an internal slash third-party

7:50

subcontractor to Red Ball

7:53

clearing the matter. This

7:56

also leaves, you know,

8:00

at least a lot of people in an awkward position

8:02

with regard to this. In

8:05

particular, it leaves the FIA

8:08

with a bit of a dilemma

8:10

as well as to how to handle this

8:12

because an auto

8:14

support has the story. The

8:16

FIA has an

8:19

anti-arassment non-discrimination policy. And

8:22

so the question is whether

8:25

or not independent

8:27

of what Red Bull decides,

8:30

does the FIA also need to review

8:32

what has happened here to make sure

8:34

that Red Bull and again Christian Horner

8:37

have remained in compliance

8:39

with the standards that

8:41

the FIA has set

8:43

down before stakeholders in the sport?

8:49

This touches

8:52

on, I

8:54

can understand why

8:56

in particular this allegation would be

8:58

something the FIA would be really

9:01

hesitant to engage in because when

9:04

you're at this level, the difference

9:06

between again like politics and the standard

9:09

personal, like personal-professional conduct

9:11

review are kind of inseparable.

9:14

There is no way for

9:16

the FIA to do anything about Christian Horner without

9:19

also it being the FIA

9:22

as an organization is taking on Red

9:24

Bull as an organization and making them

9:26

subject to the FIA's

9:30

policies, the FIA's processes.

9:35

But the policy

9:37

exists. Just because it

9:39

is awkward, the FIA is going to

9:41

be obliged to look

9:45

into this. Now whether the FIA

9:47

has especially given various

9:50

flips with current leadership, who knows as

9:53

far as the standing or

9:55

credibility an FIA probe

9:57

would have. Either

10:00

way, it seems like there

10:02

is going to be some fallout

10:05

with the FIA. Yeah,

10:10

it'd be hard for them, the FIA, to not

10:14

do anything given

10:16

these existing standing

10:21

regulations for the

10:23

people that are composing the

10:25

F1. And again, this is sort of

10:27

the complaint that seems like forcing the hand

10:29

of the FIA as well. So

10:32

again, there's

10:36

the inquiry going on

10:38

at Red Bull that

10:40

the machine or team are

10:42

appealing. And

10:46

then there's also now a process start with the

10:49

FIA, forcing their hand with regard

10:51

to their own harassment and discrimination

10:53

policy. Now,

10:57

this has always been tied to

11:00

bizarre internal politics at Red Bull.

11:05

And do we really know what

11:09

the connection is besides just people not wanting

11:11

to listen to the question of order? Did

11:13

they have an agent currently? Yeah. I don't know

11:15

that we do. Well, so

11:21

it's tough because do you ever get

11:23

the feeling reading F Formula

11:25

One media that everyone

11:27

knows more than they're saying? Yes. But

11:30

there are sort of strategic leaks that reporters know they

11:32

are a part of and are

11:35

writing up stories. People

11:37

noted very early on with this

11:39

that there were political overtones to

11:41

the discussion. I'm kind of with you.

11:45

It kind of seems like there's

11:48

been high drama within Red Bull

11:50

politics maybe for a couple of years,

11:52

but that may have nothing to do

11:55

at all with

11:57

this issue except insofar. Whereas

12:00

people noted that there seem to be leaks

12:03

coming from the Red Bull side of things.

12:05

Yeah. I don't want to

12:07

insinuate that this is a, that

12:10

this like harassment claim is happening

12:12

because someone wants Christian

12:15

Horner out that, or

12:17

to suggest that it is fabricated in any way. That

12:20

is not what I'm saying. I'm saying that perhaps this

12:22

is someone has seen

12:26

this as a time to strike. Yeah,

12:30

that there, some of the leaks coming from

12:32

the Red Bull side indicated like a degree

12:34

of opportunism about like,

12:37

that there were people, and this is

12:39

not surprising, right? If you, if you take any

12:42

organization, even a really successful one, if

12:45

you were to have a powerful leading

12:48

figure suddenly look like

12:51

they might have done something wrong that could potentially

12:53

be fireable, there will be people who would be

12:56

thinking, well, one, they

12:58

should be fired too, could

13:00

be good for us

13:03

as a company, as a team, for them

13:05

just to be gone. So you have the

13:07

twofold, like that's sort of the opportunity, the

13:09

opportunism comes in. And maybe

13:12

that's, maybe that's all that's happening here. But

13:17

to that point about like sort of odd

13:19

things popping in the one press, Audisport

13:21

had this article that like, I'm

13:24

kind of curious where it comes from. If I had

13:26

to guess, it feels like coming from the Horner camp

13:29

almost, but it is about,

13:32

so the article is that secret

13:35

contract move open door for potential

13:37

Verstappen Red Bull F1 exit. And

13:41

this is, if this

13:43

story is true, it

13:47

kind of feels to me like Red Bull needs to fire everybody

13:49

at the top of the program, because

13:52

this seems like malfeasance,

13:54

if this story is

13:56

true, but it's so damning

13:58

you almost think it's coming from like the Horner side.

14:00

things to, you know, go

14:03

after the modishits, not the

14:06

modishits, the, you know, the helmet Marco

14:08

camp, and also, again, maybe

14:10

make the story not about Christian

14:12

Horner and harassment allegations, but either way.

14:14

So we

14:16

talked before about, like, there being weird

14:18

clauses in certain Red Bull contracts about,

14:21

like, a Horner clause that if he

14:23

goes, Adrienne Nui goes, etc., things like

14:25

that. Or if Marco goes,

14:27

then Verstappen goes. Well, that's

14:29

the interesting one. Because

14:33

specifically, yes, Max

14:36

had given really strong votes of

14:38

confidence for helmet

14:41

Marco. And obviously

14:43

you had Joost talking

14:45

about, or you

14:48

know, Verstappen talking about, you know,

14:50

quarters the one tearing the team

14:52

apart, things will be bad if

14:54

he stays. And, you

14:58

know, crucially, Max has

15:00

been a bit more tepid in his

15:02

support for for Horner since all

15:04

this started, which given what we know, I

15:06

don't know how you'd be anything but tepid. You

15:09

know, we just don't know any about the allegations. But,

15:14

so Verstappen has said that,

15:16

like, helmet Marco has

15:18

to stay. And

15:21

that's, that's sort of a major, that's

15:23

sort of a key thing for him.

15:26

But it would be odd that he would

15:29

be able to mandate that. Unless

15:33

there were like a contract break clause.

15:36

And when I heard that quote from

15:39

Verstappen, I kind of just assumed like

15:42

he was saying that as the one

15:44

who holds all the cards because he's the hottest

15:47

commodity in F1 and he's won a bunch

15:49

of championships and is on top of the

15:51

world. But you're saying perhaps there's something more

15:55

legal. Yeah,

15:59

well remember. Dr. Helmut

16:01

Marko, it's

16:03

a doctorate of law, but

16:07

okay, so quoting from the article now, in

16:12

Verstappen's case, it has emerged in recent

16:14

weeks that the Dutchman does indeed have a

16:18

break clause if there's a change of

16:20

senior personnel in his deal that would

16:22

allow him to walk if Marko is

16:24

dropped. That would

16:26

explain why he's been so clear in his comments that if the

16:29

Austrian veteran is no longer in the picture at Red Bull, then

16:31

his own future would likely be elsewhere. What

16:34

is most intriguing about this Marko

16:36

exit clause is that according to

16:38

sources, and I think sources are doing a lot

16:41

of work there, it was not

16:43

part of the original contract that Verstappen

16:45

and Red Bull signed back in 2022,

16:47

i.e. a

16:49

very recent, very lucrative new contract that

16:52

was signed after his championship. Instead

16:55

it is understood that the clause forms part

16:57

of an addendum to the contract that was

17:00

added more recently. And even

17:02

more intriguingly, it has been revealed by

17:04

insiders that this addition to the original

17:06

contract was put in place unilaterally by

17:09

the Verstappens and Marko without Red Bull's

17:11

F1 team nor Horner knowing

17:13

anything about it at the time. Marko

17:16

was able to do this because he is one of

17:18

the two directors of Red Bull Racing, so was able

17:20

to act on the team's behalf. If

17:23

this is true, this is one of the

17:25

most holy shit things I've heard in this

17:27

whole story.

17:31

That is, first of all, the

17:35

separation of church and state here has

17:38

gotten them into trouble if this is true. Unless

17:44

it's a case where, like, I

17:49

don't know enough about the

17:52

inner workings of this stuff to know where

17:54

the motivation comes from. Because if Marko is

17:56

employed by Red Bull as their talent Agent

18:00

effectively. How does he

18:03

get swayed into I am

18:05

all in on Max for Staphon? Well,

18:08

I think so for me I Like

18:13

when I read the story of the apartment, I was like There

18:17

are times This

18:21

is a story also makes me feel bad for max Because

18:24

I don't think there's any way That

18:27

a deal like this serves anyone but like

18:30

it doesn't serve max right? These deals do not

18:32

so like I don't see what max for staff

18:34

and gets out of these deals unless he values

18:37

Stability around him and having the same cast

18:39

of like characters around

18:41

him so highly Because I

18:44

understand why Marco would want this deal You

18:47

know, you can't get rid of me

18:49

without losing your championship winning star driver.

18:51

I Understand completely

18:53

how that serves Marco I

18:56

don't understand how it serves max. I don't

18:58

understand Why you

19:00

would tie your tie

19:03

your fate your future to to

19:05

this guy Like

19:09

it just doesn't it doesn't make a lot of sense

19:12

to me unless you know You're playing really like fourth

19:14

dimensional chess and you're like, well, they're gonna fire Dietrich

19:17

is dead. They're gonna fire helmet. This is how I

19:19

get out of this contract if I want to but

19:22

Why would you been thinking about leave about getting out

19:24

of the contract given how strong the car was to

19:27

me the thing that I find really shocking about it is Like

19:33

So if this I don't know when this came to light if it

19:35

was added secretly, I know we talked

19:37

about it. I Do

19:40

think this is the sort of thing that if you find

19:42

out like a a person with Signatory

19:44

capacity your company did without

19:46

telling anyone and

19:49

they are specifically involved in the in the addendum

19:51

And they have a clear conflict of interest in

19:53

this particular matter That

19:56

to me is like that's probably that's probably it

19:58

right like this is like I

20:00

just went through a bunch of like starting a

20:02

company and figuring out like all the legalese and

20:04

shit and the part that like Involves

20:07

a lot of trust that somebody does have

20:09

to have sanitary capacity, you know I like

20:11

there's something you can't go around every stakeholder

20:13

to have them sign every single piece of

20:16

paper somebody needs to have the ability

20:18

to be like a Filled

20:20

out these forms. I took care of this thing. I

20:23

committed us to this. I signed us a contract Somebody

20:25

needs to have the power to do that Even

20:28

a small company is useful in a larger

20:30

one. It's it's mandatory The

20:34

responsibility there is like The

20:38

other part of that agreement is that you're

20:40

just not gonna go rogue and start doing

20:42

shit that like other stakeholders Would

20:45

say like hold up there put pump the brakes That's

20:48

that's that that comes with the deal If

20:52

you find out that helmet

20:54

Marco Has

20:56

obligated the entire Red Bull

20:59

organization F1 team To

21:01

tying their ability to retain their Star

21:03

driver to them keeping this 80 year

21:05

olds like

21:08

Austrian lawyer as

21:10

a part of their foreign program and He

21:13

did it on the sly without letting anyone know

21:15

probably because people have questions and would say

21:17

like absolutely not That

21:20

to me is like your affiliation with the

21:22

team Is that man like you're

21:24

done like you're done. This is that that is a

21:27

that is a thing that doesn't get walked back and So

21:31

when I when I when I see a story like this if this is

21:34

all real I totally

21:36

understand why suddenly Christian

21:40

Horner Would be trying

21:43

to get deeper the helmet Marco out of

21:45

the company I think anyone

21:47

would if you discovered that

21:49

somebody you delegated like Executive

21:51

capacity to was just like yeah,

21:53

I made myself on Fireball using

21:55

this kid I've known for ages

21:57

as part of our F1 like

21:59

training program, like

22:01

I completely understand now why like there's

22:05

a battle for control at the top.

22:08

Somebody misused control and probably

22:10

needs to go. And I think

22:13

concurrently with this, probably

22:15

like something

22:17

has happened between Hoarder and employee

22:20

that might also render him unfit to remain in

22:22

his post. And

22:25

if you're Red Bull, at this point like both

22:27

these leadership figures might be so badly

22:29

compromised, you need to like figure out

22:32

who is going to be taking

22:34

this on a batting cleanup. But

22:37

it's already too late because

22:39

if this clause

22:41

exists, like

22:45

Marco has destroyed your relationship with

22:47

Max. Yeah,

22:50

and himself. I mean he has burned

22:52

the shifts. Yep.

22:56

It is. It's wild to me.

22:58

I just don't. The other

23:00

thing is, and again this is

23:02

where I, the

23:05

reason I think this is really bad for Max, can

23:09

you imagine being a team

23:11

principal any team that Max or Stappan would want

23:13

to go to and

23:15

learning about like business being conducted

23:18

in this fashion and being like

23:20

I want to bring that. Yeah, bring

23:22

the Verstappans into the tent. Toto

23:24

sounds like he's game. If

23:30

I were Toto, I would sound like I'm game right

23:33

up until the divorce is finalized and

23:35

then I would like extend

23:38

Russell and bring in somebody else. Like

23:40

I would absolutely be like, yeah we'd

23:42

love to have Max as a driver

23:44

right up until that team is cratered.

23:47

And then I'd be like, but

23:49

you know there's some other good

23:51

drivers out there too. Well,

23:54

if if Horner does go

23:56

somehow, I know

23:58

a team principal

24:00

who just laid off looking

24:03

for a job. That

24:06

is very true. Get Gunther Steiner

24:09

in there. I don't think

24:11

he has the most Red Bull energy

24:13

or leading that team

24:15

energy but I think he does love

24:17

the spotlight in a fashion that's

24:20

similar to to Horner

24:22

but yeah I don't know my overall like I

24:24

think he pointed out something really key there though

24:27

earlier which is just that I have

24:30

yet to see a compelling case to

24:33

be made that any of the allegations

24:35

about Horner are

24:37

inherently political or are tied

24:40

to the struggle for control

24:42

at Red Bull except

24:44

in so far as some other people at Red Bull may

24:47

have tried to exploit the situation to sort of short

24:50

shortcut around you

24:53

know having out who's gonna run this team but

24:55

I think it probably

24:57

does some injustice to the the

24:59

accusations to say like

25:01

well they're part of this political they're part of

25:03

this political battle they're part of this political battle

25:06

probably because opportunistic people who have been

25:09

misbehaving on a lot of axes grabbed

25:12

for them as a cudgel but

25:14

I don't think we can evaluate the claims but

25:16

I don't think like all this other

25:18

stuff really bears on how we can evaluate the claims we

25:21

fundamentally don't know yet again

25:23

we'll know a lot when when things go

25:25

to court but yeah

25:28

like if this story is true to me

25:30

it increasingly sounds like it

25:34

was a really successful program these

25:37

are enormously powerful and arrogant

25:39

people been running the program

25:42

for a long time and

25:44

sometimes these things cause people to rot and

25:46

well and as you mentioned the the king

25:49

has died you know Robert Baratheon has been

25:51

gored by the bull he's

25:54

done in 2022 right yeah it was around that

25:56

time like I wonder if it was immediate

25:58

like holy shit we need to start Yeah, if this

26:00

is like, if this

26:03

is Renly and Ned Stark basically trying to like

26:05

plot the night before but

26:07

but yeah, I To me

26:09

this this does this this completely feels

26:12

like is possible that every

26:14

senior leadership figure at this team Started

26:18

to get started to feel like they were

26:20

indispensable and Way

26:23

too big for the britches as it were And

26:27

yeah, it seems like a big mess. It's gotta be cleaned up Well

26:30

speaking Rob of secret documents

26:36

Yeah, I mean I think This

26:38

isn't really a news story per se But

26:42

I but I did enjoy I guess I'll listen to this

26:44

podcast performing the one calm

26:46

wrote up a Interview

26:49

that James all did on the

26:51

high-performance podcast talking

26:54

about how

26:57

Mercedes had a Basically

27:00

created a set of rules To

27:03

govern how they would handle Lewis

27:07

and Nico Rossberg During

27:11

during the during the seasons that they

27:13

were that they were battling for for

27:15

the championship You

27:18

know culminating with with Nico winning

27:20

the championship and then promptly promptly

27:22

retiring And

27:24

so where you know where this guy if

27:27

this comes like James Hall's was asked about

27:29

his methodology his the approach he takes With

27:32

with managing drivers and

27:35

sort of to illustrate how he approaches

27:38

Sort of open and honest and fair leadership He

27:41

starts telling the story The

27:45

biggest thing we got into with the drivers in

27:47

2014 was that both of them knew both Nico

27:49

and Lewis knew that it Was one of those

27:51

two winning the year. They knew by

27:53

the way before we turned the first wheel in the first

27:55

race It Took quite

27:57

a while, but my role in this was I can.

28:00

Directed a document the created some very clear guidelines

28:02

and how are we going to work with each

28:04

other? How we're going to fight each other? what

28:06

at times called ruled and rules of engagement chains

28:08

later tune up from his was military but racing

28:10

and. Ah but

28:12

irrespective, it was some really clear boundaries on

28:14

this is how we're going to behave and

28:16

this is how we're going to perform in

28:18

there is a lot to do. Adios answered

28:21

of describe like so you like. The

28:24

most important like the how the most important thing with

28:26

like making sure the entire thing thought squeaky clean. In

28:29

terms of just how drives comport themselves in

28:31

terms of like. The. Quality of

28:33

championship that they would win whoever

28:35

won it. How

28:37

it to be regarded as a

28:39

part of their legacy Ice or

28:41

talks about been up Schumacher having

28:44

that year where he is disqualified

28:46

from the championship for. You.

28:48

Know complete unsportsmanlike behavior

28:50

on the racetrack. But

28:53

I more think like. I.

28:58

Do feel like this is the thing. That

29:01

I have seen screwed up more often and

29:03

maybe only is workable income as he my

29:06

mercedes with characters like Me Go and Louis

29:08

Idol now but doesn't always feel. Like.

29:13

You. Can just detect over team

29:15

radio. Did so Rarely do

29:17

the drivers trust that they are being

29:19

given instructions, they're genuinely to the best

29:22

benefit of the team and that they

29:24

have taken. You know it's it's yeah,

29:26

it's it's. It's. Are

29:29

slanted toward toward one driver. Another so

29:31

often to me feels like you can

29:33

hear the drivers. The second the

29:35

here instruction and call it requires any

29:37

sort of like conceding anything to their

29:40

teammates. Used.

29:42

Attack that. They seem to fix

29:44

isn't that they're terrified that the signals

29:46

that like I'm being downgraded number two

29:49

and is never gonna stop. Gap.

29:53

I think this assassinating especially

29:55

because you know having. Cosine,

29:58

Some insight on. Val's personality

30:03

from Drive to Survive, the fact

30:05

that he made a document

30:09

just makes so much sense. And it's not like I think

30:13

it sounds pretty

30:15

effective, frankly. You can get sign off on both

30:17

of your hotshot drivers

30:19

that like here's how we're going

30:21

to behave. And you can say

30:23

like, listen, when things go south,

30:25

we will have at least one

30:27

person to blame. And

30:31

I think the other part of this is you

30:33

have to be able, I

30:38

think the drivers would have to have the

30:40

confidence that you will also make sure those

30:42

rules are adhered to. The

30:44

second it was like, here's

30:47

a big document with all our rules. But

30:50

then if the driver sensed

30:53

that like, what if Kodo feels like the moment has

30:55

come to strike and go in for the kill or

30:57

something, it's not going to work. The minute they feel

30:59

those rules can be thrown out based on

31:02

a whim, so there has to be that

31:04

buy-in that

31:07

the team's commitment to operating this way is

31:10

ironclad. Yeah,

31:12

it seems like a good

31:15

fit for Val's. And

31:17

it does sort of speak to we often noted that

31:21

when difficult things had to be said over the radio at

31:24

Mercedes or things had to be tamped down, Lewis'

31:29

James was like the end

31:31

of the discussion. And

31:35

it says a lot about how you conduct yourself

31:38

if that has

31:40

the sort of moral authority to like, no, this

31:42

guy's saying this is how it is. Everyone's

31:44

going to get on the same page now. This is just

31:46

how it has to be. That is

31:49

a reputation and a level of like trust

31:51

and authority that sort of earns

31:53

not granted. Well,

31:55

as this, as

31:58

a Val's stan. I will have to

32:00

go listen to this podcast. All

32:03

right, well that is it for news. We are

32:05

gonna take a break, and then we'll be back

32:08

with the Track Walk. Does

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33:10

we're back with the

33:12

Track Walk. The

33:15

Albert Park Circuit, located

33:18

in Melbourne, on

33:20

the southeastern coast of Australia,

33:23

is a 3.3 mile or 5.3 kilometer track that

33:29

uses public roads that

33:31

run around a lake, Albert Lake.

33:34

The Australian Grand Prix has been here every

33:36

year since 1996, bar 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. In

33:42

fact, the 2020 race was called off

33:45

at pretty much the last possible minute,

33:47

just a few hours before free

33:49

practice won. I don't know if you

33:51

remember that, Rob, but I remember pretty clearly it being

33:54

very strange. Track

33:58

has 14 corners currently. four

34:00

DRS zones, the only two

34:02

detection points. It's one

34:04

of the faster tracks on the calendar. Hamilton's

34:06

pole lap in 2019 saw an average speed of

34:10

146 miles per hour, or 235 kilometers per hour. Normally,

34:16

the streets have a speed limit

34:19

of 40 kilometers per hour, which is

34:21

25 miles an hour. And because

34:23

it's a temporary circuit, it can be pretty bumpy,

34:25

though it was resurfaced in 2022. Along

34:29

with that came

34:31

a reprofile of a few turns, most

34:33

notably smoothing the old turns 9

34:36

and 10, which are now the

34:38

third DRS zone, to

34:41

try and improve passing. Because what was happening

34:43

was there were a lot of

34:45

these kind of tight right-hand corners, and

34:48

not a lot of long zones

34:50

to speed up into

34:53

them. So they've

34:55

created much longer runs

34:57

with this new layout. The

35:00

pit lane was also widened during this,

35:02

that increased the speed limit from 60 to

35:04

80 kilometers an hour. And

35:07

it's a track that kind of has everything. So

35:09

to hear Hamilton say it, quote, it's fast flowing,

35:11

and you really have to attack it. The car

35:13

has to be set up in a balanced way.

35:16

Too much aggression, and you'll damage the tires,

35:18

but too cautious, and you won't go fast

35:20

enough, end quote. So

35:23

from the first corner, you've got a sharp

35:25

right-hander, followed by a quick back and forth

35:27

that turns 3 and 4. And

35:30

then you get into the back half of the track,

35:32

which has those two

35:34

back-to-back straights. Last

35:37

five winners have been Verstappen in

35:39

2023, then Leclerc, Botas,

35:43

Fettel, Fettel in 2017. Apparently,

35:46

I just learned this, Bernie

35:49

Eccleston wanted to make it a night race in

35:52

2007. But

35:55

the lighting that the

35:57

circuit needed, was

36:00

deemed to be too expensive. That

36:03

would certainly make the times

36:06

a little more watchable. I'll get to

36:08

that. I also

36:10

wanted to put together sort of after

36:13

two races, we've kind of had a better

36:17

look at teams

36:19

cars and how they're doing and the

36:21

teams have been a little more forthcoming

36:24

with maybe some of

36:27

their things that they're trying to improve.

36:29

So I'll

36:31

start with Aston Martin here.

36:33

Otto Sport has a quote

36:35

from performance director Tom McCullough,

36:37

who he's explaining why they've

36:39

looked Aston Martin has looked better in

36:41

qualifying than the race, which is kind

36:43

of the inverse of how they did

36:45

last year. And

36:48

it's I just thought this was a little counterintuitive. So

36:50

he says the efficiency of the

36:52

car, the DRS switch

36:54

is something we really worked hard on

36:57

last year as we saw how strong

36:59

the Red Bull was. That's part

37:01

of the reason we've qualified well. I was

37:03

looking at the difference between qualifying last year

37:05

and this year with nearly identical wind direction

37:08

and wind speed. The difference was

37:10

quite big. We gained a lot of lap time

37:12

from that. So because the

37:16

cars, the drivers can open DRS

37:19

at any time in a DRS zone,

37:21

regardless of whether they are within one

37:24

second of the car in front during

37:26

qualifying, thus

37:29

the DRS wing opening

37:31

can have an outsized

37:34

effect on qualifying.

37:37

I just thought that was interesting. So

37:40

it's not that they've gotten better

37:42

necessarily in qualifying. It's that they

37:46

he's chalking it up mostly to the DRS

37:49

or rather they haven't gotten worse in the

37:51

race. They've gotten better in qualifying. It's

37:54

an interesting way to look at it. Alpein,

37:56

we've talked a little bit about

37:58

why it's Why

38:01

it's what they have really plummeted

38:04

so far We've

38:07

got some it's another Auto Sport

38:09

article They note that

38:11

the power unit is one area.

38:13

It's down Between

38:16

15 and 30 horsepower which

38:18

in the very tight

38:20

midfield makes a lot of difference Yes,

38:24

Rob? Well, I'm

38:26

just like 15 20 like I

38:29

feel like last year they were conceiving. They were maybe

38:31

down seven or eight Well,

38:33

maybe there's a bit of working in the refs here Maybe

38:36

they're gonna try to renew that like we're just so low

38:38

on power You've got to slow the other teams down so

38:40

that we can we can be competitive

38:42

but like Man,

38:44

that is that's debilitating.

38:47

Yeah we also I

38:50

believe had talked previously that they They

38:54

had to pass a specific crash test

38:56

over the winter and that meant adding

38:59

an extra 15 kilograms

39:03

Over what was originally intended which pushed

39:05

it quite up above

39:07

the minimum weight limit They

39:09

say that it might not that

39:11

figure might not be accurate as it seems

39:14

quite excessive but

39:18

From the article asked if some crash test failures

39:20

had played a part in the extra weight the

39:22

team's former Technical director Matt Harmon

39:24

said before he was let

39:26

go just after Bahrain If

39:29

it played some part or

39:32

if some crash test failures had played a

39:34

part He says not some it was one

39:36

in particular It has played a bit of

39:38

a part in some of that We know

39:40

exactly where the weight is and we

39:42

know how to take it out. So Look

39:45

forward to that. I guess also

39:50

This article points out that and

39:52

this is more recently that we've

39:55

the team has talked about this Harmon

39:58

is talking about Last year's

40:00

car saying that midway through we started

40:03

to find it more and more difficult

40:05

to find performance So we

40:07

thought let's try and unlock that potential and try

40:09

to get ourselves back to where we were in

40:11

2022 It

40:14

was a courageous decision to take because

40:16

fundamentally we need potential for two years

40:18

with this car And if we

40:20

don't do that then we may be struggling

40:23

later on that was the whole point

40:25

of this and this he means they

40:27

or at least what I'm taking from

40:29

this is that they Drastically redesigned

40:32

the car from 2023 since they had

40:34

hit a ceiling For

40:37

this 2024 car and it really has not

40:39

paid off Last

40:44

one here is Mercedes so they

40:47

noted this is Trackside engineering

40:49

director Andrew shovelin in an

40:51

article from racer magazine They

40:54

apparently did different setups for the driver in

40:56

Jetta, but they showed

40:59

the same thing So he's saying

41:01

that tells you it's not a small difference. It's

41:04

not a tiny bit of camber or a spring

41:06

bar here and there It's something more fundamental that

41:08

we need to dig into and understand otherwise they

41:10

would see a difference right because they set the

41:12

cars up differently Balance

41:15

is one big thing. He says in Regards

41:19

to Jetta those are very fast corners

41:21

the walls aren't particularly far away So

41:24

there are ones where the driver wants a

41:26

lot of confidence and quite often we were

41:28

snapping to oversteer if they really leaned on

41:30

The tires you can easily imagine how unsettling

41:33

that is for the drivers So

41:36

it's not just about Overall

41:39

speed it's about you know

41:41

can the driver feel

41:43

confident to put the speed into the

41:45

car without crashing He

41:48

goes on to talk about porpoising and grip In

41:52

qualifying we're also suffering a bit with the bouncing that was

41:54

less of a problem in the race There's more more fuel

41:56

in the car So you're going and you're going a bit

41:58

slower and that seems to calm down

42:01

and wasn't such an issue. The big one

42:03

is we don't really have enough grip in

42:05

high speed corners. So that's one of the

42:07

things that we were working hard on

42:10

this week because Melbourne has similar nature of

42:12

corners. We are doing a lot of work

42:14

to try and understand why we did not

42:17

seem to have the grip of some of

42:19

our close competitors. So,

42:24

that is what people are working on. And

42:27

perhaps we will see the fruits of all that

42:29

labor soon. Just

42:32

to talk about porpoising, it reminded me of

42:35

a news story we don't need to get into

42:37

too much, but Landon Norris was

42:39

talking to media this week about the next

42:41

redesign of the F1 cars needs to take

42:43

driver comfort into account more. And

42:46

what he specifically was talking about was these

42:48

things are grueling to drive because of

42:51

porpoising stop being a story that we talk about week

42:53

after week, but they're still really

42:56

physically punishing cars to drive. And

42:59

Landon was talking about just a growing

43:01

number of back

43:05

problems, need to do more

43:07

therapeutic type exercises. He's 20-point. That's

43:11

the thing, it seems real. It

43:13

was concerning when back in 2019, 2020 or something, you'd

43:18

see Lewis, there seemed to be evidence that there was

43:20

growing stiffness in his back when he was

43:22

getting out of the car, but you sort of expect that for a

43:24

dude racing cars through his 30s. Landon

43:27

was really young and to be like, kind

43:31

of sounds like he's talking around having a bad back, which

43:33

sometimes you just get unlucky with that. But yeah,

43:37

it sort of seems like these

43:40

cars, you don't

43:42

have the dramatic like porpoising that nobody

43:44

could tolerate happening as much anymore, but

43:46

it still sounds like it's

43:48

not a great spec car for, you

43:52

know, drivers physically. The

43:54

other thing, just to talk about helping in that crash

43:57

test, man, like, what's the last

43:59

thing you heard about crash? Like a car designed

44:01

being completely compromised because we failed crash tests and having

44:03

to add a bunch of weight I've

44:05

never heard that in in

44:07

modern f1. No me neither Like

44:10

the crash I don't think crash Standards

44:12

like have shifted that much since the introduction

44:15

of the halo Maybe there's little like things

44:17

that we just don't hear about there

44:20

in the roles the change year to year But like man

44:22

if you're telling me like our cars messed up because we

44:24

failed a crash test Like one

44:27

like yeah, it's good. You know, obviously it's good.

44:29

We have standards make sure everyone can race

44:31

safely, but I Don't

44:35

know it You're

44:37

not doing great job designing the car

44:39

till he's really like no basic specs

44:42

Yeah, I quit it a little bit too. It makes me

44:45

think of You know game

44:47

design like you can't you can't ship

44:49

a game without like, you

44:51

know controller support For

44:54

yeah, the Xbox version, you know, there are

44:56

certain things that just have to be in

44:58

there. Yeah, it's It's

45:01

an alarming place a lot of teams feel like they're in a bit of

45:03

an alarming place Right now

45:05

some maybe only relatively based on just how

45:08

badly Red Bull's kicking their butts, but Yeah,

45:11

some of these teams just don't sound like they're

45:13

they're in an amazing spot with regard to their

45:15

with a ride to their car Yeah

45:19

Well, maybe an amazing spot the Albert Park

45:21

circuit this weekend we're looking at 68 degrees

45:26

Fahrenheit or 20 Celsius

45:29

on qualifying day just a few

45:31

degrees higher on Race

45:33

day at 70 or 21 Precipitation

45:38

looks to be about five

45:40

zero to five percent across

45:42

the weekend although

45:44

looks to be Maybe

45:48

some significant wind 14 miles an hour out of

45:50

the south on qualifying day and

45:53

then same speed out of the Southwest

45:56

that is 23 kilometers an hour

46:00

on race day. They

46:03

are right on, it's not

46:05

the sea, it's a bay. So

46:08

the wind could be whipping across

46:10

the water there. So

46:13

look out for that, I guess, if you're forming the one car.

46:17

2024, driver standings. Here

46:19

we go, heading into Australia, Max Verstappen is on

46:21

top with 51 points. Sergio

46:23

Perez, his teammate, with 36, is

46:25

in second. Then we've got Charlotte Clare

46:27

with 28, George Russell

46:29

with 18, Oscar Piastri with 16

46:32

in fifth, and we've got

46:34

Carlos Saenz in sixth with 15, Fernando

46:37

Alonso and Lando Norris with 12 each, Lewis

46:40

Hamilton with eight, and Oliver Behrman

46:43

in 10th with six points.

46:46

Then Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll

46:48

all have one, and the rest,

46:50

Alex Albon, Joe Guan Yu, Kevin

46:52

Magnuson, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Yuki

46:54

Tsunoda, Logan Sargent, Valtteri Bottas, and

46:56

Pierre Gasly all have zero.

47:00

In the constructor standings, Rebel Racing is on top with 87, Ferrari

47:03

is in second with 49, McLaren's

47:05

in third with 28, Mercedes close behind

47:07

in fourth with 26, Aston

47:10

Martin's in fifth with 13, Gene

47:12

Haas and team have one point, and

47:14

then Williams, Sauber, RB,

47:17

and Alpine all have zero. If

47:21

you'd like to join standings yourself, you

47:24

can do so with the official Shift

47:26

F1 Fantasy League. You

47:28

can join it using the link in the show notes.

47:31

Don't have to start from the beginning. You can

47:33

win individual races and have your preferably

47:36

punny team name read out

47:38

on the show. You

47:40

can also send us an email

47:43

at [email protected] or through the web

47:45

interface at f1.cool slash emails.

47:48

Rob, you've selected some emails here. You

47:52

wanna kick it off? Yeah, Aaron

47:54

writes, a recent episode of the Escape

47:56

Collectives, a relatively new entrant in bike

47:58

racing media, performed. Performance Process podcast

48:00

featured an interview with Jack Aitken,

48:03

former Williams Reserve driver and current

48:05

IMSA driver of Cadillac. Many

48:07

similarities and transferable skills between bike

48:09

racing and F1. It's an

48:12

illuminating discussion not only on the affinities

48:14

between the sports in terms of aerodynamics,

48:16

racecraft, cornering, greenwashing, etc., but also on

48:18

many aspects of the physical and mental

48:21

endurance required to race cars door to

48:23

door for hours on end. It

48:25

seems that, with the notable exception of Vlad

48:27

Stroll and his broken wrists, riding and racing

48:29

bikes has substantial

48:32

benefits for driving and racing cars. The

48:35

benefits probably carry over to fans as well.

48:37

If this year ends up being another Max

48:40

Verstappen show, with most races decided within the

48:42

first three laps, I'd recommend F1 fans supplement

48:45

their sports diet with some pro

48:47

cycling. It's got all the

48:49

strategy, high speed corners, dubious sports

48:52

washing sponsors, fragile machines, and equally

48:54

fragile egos that an F1 fan

48:56

craves, plus races with countless plot

48:58

twists that often come down to

49:00

a photo finish. I started

49:02

getting to cycling last year, and

49:05

one, do you

49:07

love beautiful aerial photography of parts of Europe you

49:10

can never afford to live in? I do. I

49:13

do. But also, the more

49:15

I started to watch it, the more I started dialing

49:17

the strategy, and I was like, holy shit, this is

49:19

a fascinating sport. How

49:21

does one get into this, Rob? Is

49:24

there a Shift F1 equivalent? Not

49:28

that I found. I mean,

49:30

I mostly, I watched, it sounds like this

49:32

might be, the Skate

49:35

Collective. Maybe

49:37

that's it. But I

49:39

didn't find anything. The

49:42

nice thing is, you watch Tour de France, you'll pick

49:44

up a lot because they explained it as if you'd

49:46

never seen it before, because that's

49:49

a good assumption. Some of you will tune into

49:51

that one, and they don't tune into anything else. Yeah. There's

49:54

the Netflix show, though, right? I've

50:00

lost track of all of them. Full swing is

50:02

their golf one. Quarterback, I think, is their... What

50:06

is Netflix Cycling Show? Are you into pro

50:08

cycling? I feel like I asked this last

50:10

year. Only

50:13

on a very high level. Tour

50:15

de France, unchained? Yeah,

50:18

yeah, yeah, unchained, yeah. Yeah,

50:20

so I've watched a

50:22

few hours here and there of the Tour de France. I

50:26

agree that it's the right

50:28

mix of depth and

50:31

esoteric sport that

50:38

really captures my attention. Yeah,

50:42

it's really fascinating. I think the other

50:44

thing that I used to, I knew

50:46

enough to know that there's

50:48

your guy who's riding for the overall win, then

50:51

there's guys who are really good at climbing the

50:53

hills and there's dudes who are

50:55

really, really fast. I

50:59

think I hadn't fully realized that setting

51:03

those guys up to succeed though, if it's a mountain

51:05

stage or you're trying to get your overall winner, rider

51:09

into position to win, still requires

51:11

all those other dudes. Like in

51:13

some ways, like a cycling team

51:16

is like the machine you are

51:18

building is made of people, right?

51:21

Like the car you were sending

51:23

out there is a

51:25

platoon of riders that

51:27

on the given day are going to set things

51:29

up to let one driver strike

51:32

at the right moment and have a shot of

51:34

winning. And everything has to be choreographed around that.

51:36

And it's just a wild amount of strategy because

51:40

you think, it's an athletic

51:42

sport. The

51:45

guy who's gonna be fat, like the guy

51:47

who's strongest and most durable, can

51:49

handle about the best, he's gonna win the mountain stage. No,

51:52

he isn't. Not unless like a bunch

51:54

of people set it up for

51:56

him to do that because otherwise, all

51:59

those. It's a

52:01

really fascinating sport. I'm starting

52:04

into it last year. I'm on the

52:06

verge of sicko territory with it. Nice.

52:09

You want me to take this back one? Sure. I

52:12

thought initially we were talking about motorbike racing, but

52:14

we are bicycle racing.

52:16

I didn't know Jack Aiken was a

52:18

cyclist. I didn't know either. I

52:21

was all about ready to go like, well, there

52:23

were always rumors that

52:26

Valentino Rossi was going to come over

52:28

to F1. I

52:31

think he and Lewis actually did like a

52:33

media day where they swapped cars and bikes.

52:36

Yeah, the next one,

52:39

Elizabeth writes, Hi, shifters. Do you find

52:41

it surprising that Lewis Hamilton didn't wait

52:43

until seeing the on track performance of

52:45

the 2024 Ferrari to

52:48

sign over to them? Writing

52:50

this just after testing, the

52:52

SF24 does seem to solidly be the

52:54

second best car, but

52:56

was it that clear to him just from

52:59

the SIM data the team gave him or

53:02

was it more to do with what they've

53:04

got cooking for the 2026 car? I

53:08

wonder how much information they

53:12

are allowed to give or

53:14

want. I'm not sure they can. Yeah.

53:18

Yeah. F1

53:23

is so paranoid about controlling this material. And

53:26

God, Ferrari especially. Yeah.

53:30

I don't know that they can. For

53:32

me, this came up a

53:34

little bit. People hear a conversation about the

53:37

second half of the drive to survive season. But

53:42

we came away from an episode that sort of

53:44

centers on Lewis and Mercedes and all that, feeling

53:46

like it obviously is 2020 hindsight.

53:49

We know that Lewis is going to leave for Ferrari, but at

53:51

the end of the episode, you feel like that

53:53

relationship is still not on healthy footing. And

53:57

it feels like a lot of it stems from

53:59

the fact that They

54:01

built Lewis a bad car

54:03

in 2022, and then they

54:05

doubled down on it against his will in None

54:09

of that worked out. I

54:12

kind of wonder if he

54:17

just wanted out, you know? He

54:20

didn't have faith that Mercedes were going to pull it together

54:22

on a timeline that worked for him. Yeah,

54:24

and interestingly, in this article

54:27

from formula1.com, so asterisk state-run

54:30

media, he was

54:32

asked kind

54:35

of about this. Like, did you leave

54:38

Mercedes because you don't believe in it? And he

54:40

said basically no. He

54:44

says that, I'm

54:46

excited about this year, and I know this team is

54:48

going to win another championship and I will be proud

54:51

to know that I've been a part of it. As

54:55

I said, it's all about a new

54:57

chapter in my life, and I really

54:59

feel like I've done everything I could

55:01

possibly do with this team. Mercedes

55:04

has such an incredible history, and

55:06

from the board down, they are really ultimately

55:10

heavily invested in racing in so many areas,

55:12

regardless of whether or not this is a

55:14

championship-winning car. That won't have any

55:16

bearing on how I feel about the next stage

55:18

of my career. It's an incredible

55:20

group of people, and it's really well-run. I'm on

55:22

the back end of my career. I

55:25

love a challenge, and this is the

55:27

ultimate challenge, really. This is maybe the

55:29

opposite of what Elizabeth was saying. This

55:33

is the ultimate challenge, really, to go to

55:35

a team that is incredibly iconic, has also

55:37

amazing history, but also has not had as

55:40

much success, I guess, as they would have

55:42

hoped in the past decade or so. My

55:44

goal is to beat them this year, and obviously

55:46

that switches next year on. Well,

55:49

one, I feel like some of what he's saying there

55:51

is a bit like, it's very Call Your Girlfriend. And

55:55

so far, it's like, and then you tell Mercedes

55:57

that you know they're going to win a championship

55:59

again. But just not with you

56:01

and you're gonna be somewhere else

56:04

and to like it would be

56:06

the most Lewis Hamilton Thing in

56:08

the world like if the blessed

56:10

if the blessed career continues with

56:14

He's like Man,

56:17

I just hope I can help Ferrari get

56:19

back to where that iconic team belongs as

56:23

they are on the upswing and like

56:25

Surpassing we're Sadie's and like he steps

56:27

into a car. That's like ready to

56:29

rock for a championship. Yeah, I

56:33

believe him though Yeah,

56:36

I mean I still fundamentally think it's like Your

56:39

bucket list item is it's Ferrari. Yeah, like

56:41

you said, I'm on the backstage in my

56:43

career. Yeah Like

56:45

this is your one chance to answer that question Like

56:47

what would it like what would it be like to

56:49

Ferrari driver? And I think like that is a priceless

56:51

question. It is a different like it is a You

56:54

know, you know what winning a championship is like

56:56

you can win more races But like driving Ferrari

56:59

is gonna be special. I think fundamentally that's the

57:01

reason But I do think

57:03

like just the way that they miss That

57:06

Mercedes fumbled the development of the car since

57:10

You know 2021 basically Probably

57:15

burned through some of that patience Yeah

57:20

Scott writes this weekend we

57:23

got a few emails along these lines but

57:27

Scott writes this weekend Ollie Behrman

57:29

filled in for Carlos Sines who had

57:31

a pen beside us and finished the

57:33

race in seventh This led

57:35

many to exclaim what an amazing drive It

57:37

was earned him driver of the day and

57:40

opened the discussion of how he deserves an f1

57:42

seat as soon as possible time

57:45

travel back to 2022 at Monza

57:47

where Nick DeVries filled in for

57:49

Alex Albin who also suffered from

57:52

appendicitis Nick finished in

57:54

the points ninth and also one driver of

57:56

the day Nick's performance at Monza led him

57:58

to getting an f1 seat in

58:01

2023, which ended up lasting

58:03

less than half a season before he was

58:05

replaced due to poor performance. So

58:07

while Ollie's performance was pretty astounding to

58:09

watch, why should we believe this isn't

58:11

going to be another different situation? That

58:16

is a great question. So

58:19

I'll say this. Jeddah

58:23

has a reputation for being a bastard of track.

58:26

And Monza, Monza is nuanced. It

58:28

takes a lot to get a

58:31

perfect laugh at Monza. There's a lot of

58:33

nuance to what

58:35

is otherwise a pretty simple track layout. It

58:38

is a pretty simple track layout. Come on,

58:41

when it comes up in the racing game, how

58:44

many break points do you really need to nail? How

58:47

many ones do you need

58:49

to remember? Not that many. You

58:51

know them really, really well. And

58:55

if the car is doing well, you can succeed. Jeddah

59:00

apparently is kind of a really

59:02

tricky track. A little margin for

59:05

error. Endless

59:07

lap. Lots of visually

59:09

indistinct corners. So like

59:11

turning into good performance there I think does go a

59:13

little bit further. But I did

59:16

know, yes, people are very kind

59:18

on the air. People love a good heartwarming story. But

59:21

it did sort of seem like people

59:25

were like, yeah, he deserves an F1 seat. Man,

59:27

we'll see him in F1 seat soon. But

59:31

I also noted that people weren't

59:33

saying immediately this is

59:35

going to change our plans for how we're going

59:37

to distribute F1 seats. That was great. But I

59:40

didn't see a lot of movement to rush

59:44

him forward. Beyond kind

59:46

words, I'm not sure he

59:49

materially moved

59:51

up in the pipeline. Yeah,

59:54

I mean, I'm

59:57

not making these calls for the teams.

1:00:00

I think what stood

1:00:03

out to me was the fact that

1:00:06

immediately he was

1:00:08

making moves. He was

1:00:10

making, you know, challenges

1:00:12

to overtake instead

1:00:16

of just like trying to hang on to

1:00:18

the end of the race. I honestly don't

1:00:20

remember much about Nick DeVries' race. I do

1:00:22

remember that happening. I

1:00:24

don't remember, you

1:00:28

know, his actual performance in that

1:00:30

race. I think you're right about the track. I

1:00:33

think with, you know, such little

1:00:36

time also, just

1:00:40

the fact that he just exuded

1:00:42

a stability that

1:00:46

I think was surprising given his young

1:00:49

age. But

1:00:52

yeah, I wonder if it's less about

1:00:55

like who are we going

1:00:57

to fire and more of like more

1:01:01

of a perspective

1:01:08

setting for like, okay,

1:01:10

do we really need to hang

1:01:12

on to these guys

1:01:14

that we've hung on to for so long?

1:01:17

Or is there a

1:01:19

possibility that these up and comers would

1:01:21

actually be as good

1:01:24

or better than them from the

1:01:26

get go? Because we've

1:01:29

also seen the opposite, right? We've

1:01:31

seen, you

1:01:33

know, rookies come in and be

1:01:36

not great. Yeah, I don't

1:01:40

know. I just

1:01:43

thought it was fun. Yeah,

1:01:46

these are heartwarming stories.

1:01:49

And somebody else wrote in, the other point

1:01:51

they made was, are we sure it isn't a

1:01:53

testament how good that Ferrari is? That

1:01:55

like, you know, setting a decent pace

1:01:58

in it means you sort of move. well

1:02:00

up the table into the

1:02:02

points. I think that's probably a fair read. But we've

1:02:05

seen ample evidence that like just being able

1:02:07

to extract like the par performance

1:02:10

from an F1 car

1:02:13

requires some real craft. Like we

1:02:15

see a lot of guys who weren't able to do it in the time of

1:02:17

the sport. So you know who knows. Drew,

1:02:20

you want to read this last one? Yes,

1:02:23

Zach writes, I hear a

1:02:25

lot of talk about getting rid of practice

1:02:27

or it not being essential watching. But let

1:02:30

me take you back to Monaco 2023.

1:02:32

Fernando Alonso takes provisional poll

1:02:34

with a stellar lap. Max

1:02:37

is the only one who could beat him but

1:02:39

he goes yellow in sector two. Alonso

1:02:41

seems a lock but at my F1

1:02:44

viewing party with my friends around I

1:02:46

say Max has got this by a

1:02:48

tenth. Seconds later Max is

1:02:50

on pole. Flashback to FP2 and FP3.

1:02:53

Max improves on his time by consistently

1:02:56

sacrificing sector two to go all out

1:02:58

in three. The commentators don't mention it

1:03:00

and it's not on the practice highlights

1:03:03

video but it's consistently purple, yellow, purple.

1:03:06

You'll note in Q2 and Q1 Max

1:03:08

doesn't do this. He saves it for

1:03:10

when it matters most. You

1:03:12

only know this by watching all FP sessions

1:03:15

like a hawk and taking notes so that

1:03:17

you can be the most annoying person at

1:03:19

your F1 watch party and isn't that the

1:03:21

goal we are all striving for. Yeah

1:03:26

absolutely. Look,

1:03:29

is Zach basically telling us a story about how

1:03:31

they were once the smartest person in the room

1:03:34

about like what was happening in an F1 weekend?

1:03:37

Yes. Yeah but

1:03:39

this is a pretty cool insight to pull

1:03:41

off that like sort of clocking the fact

1:03:43

that Max was basically

1:03:45

dumping performance in one

1:03:47

sector to gain

1:03:50

more and more performance in the last one that

1:03:52

all pays off in the qualifying. I

1:03:54

think for me that is less an

1:03:56

argument for like you should watch practice than

1:04:00

Maybe we should expect more of our F1 commentary teams. Like

1:04:04

I'm not paid to notice this shit. I'm certainly not

1:04:06

paid to watch practice. But

1:04:09

like that is the sort

1:04:11

of thing I would sort of expect

1:04:13

somebody in the you know

1:04:15

the constellation

1:04:17

of analysts they bring with them, who admittedly

1:04:19

have a whole lot of stuff to analyze.

1:04:22

But like that's the sort of thing that you might

1:04:24

like see drawn out as

1:04:27

a point, as a talking point a bit more

1:04:29

often. But you know it's not

1:04:31

like covering 20 cars. Yeah it

1:04:33

sounds like something that you would see

1:04:35

Julian Palmer talking about after the fact.

1:04:38

Yeah. Or Sam Collins pointing out something

1:04:40

on the screen. And

1:04:43

for that I suggest if people are really interested

1:04:45

to look at the F1

1:04:48

TV stuff that those guys

1:04:50

post. Highly recommended the Julian Palmer show is

1:04:52

great. Drew I hate their new set.

1:04:54

I hate the set they've got Julian Palmer. Oh I don't

1:04:56

know that I've seen it.

1:04:58

It's a huge, it was like it's a bigger set.

1:05:00

And he's like it's a bigger and better set. It

1:05:03

looks like it's got

1:05:05

their, it's all their neon color scheme. And so it's

1:05:07

just kind of like hard to look at. And

1:05:10

it's going for that like illusion of depth

1:05:12

that the like inside the NBA set goes

1:05:14

for. But it's

1:05:17

just like man it

1:05:19

is hard to watch. It's like

1:05:21

staring at a migraine. Oh

1:05:24

man. Oh yeah.

1:05:27

Okay. And also is

1:05:30

there any complexion and any wardrobe

1:05:32

you think will look good against

1:05:34

that backdrop? I

1:05:37

mean it's it's gamer purple. Yeah.

1:05:39

That I'm seeing. Right. And

1:05:43

he is very tiny. It's all

1:05:46

a virtual set. Yeah.

1:05:50

Okay I could see why on paper

1:05:52

this would look interesting but yeah. All

1:05:58

right. Some

1:06:00

of it, so I'm looking at Formula One's YouTube channel,

1:06:02

some of that stuff goes to YouTube,

1:06:05

in case you don't have a subscription to F1 TV.

1:06:08

So check out Julian Palmer's email. We can't easily

1:06:10

get into F1 TV because we never accept the

1:06:12

cookies, but then we never accept the cookie that

1:06:14

allows our credentials to be saved through the sessions.

1:06:16

That's true. Alright,

1:06:20

that's it for emails. You could, again,

1:06:22

email us at shiftf1podcastagmo.com or go to

1:06:24

F1.cool slash emails. You can also hit

1:06:26

us up on the socials using the

1:06:29

links in the show notes. That's

1:06:31

us around the internet. It's time now

1:06:33

to take it around the world of

1:06:35

racing. The Repco

1:06:38

Supercars will be supporting Formula

1:06:40

One at the Albert

1:06:42

Park Grand Prix circuit this weekend.

1:06:46

Uh, oh gosh, Thursday through

1:06:48

Sunday. There are four

1:06:50

races. Um,

1:06:52

that's a lot of supercars. I like supercars. Uh,

1:06:55

we've also got MotoGP. They are

1:06:57

back at the Autodromo Internationale

1:07:00

do Algarve in Portimao,

1:07:04

Portugal. The

1:07:06

World Superbike Championship is

1:07:08

at the Barcelona Catalunya circuit.

1:07:12

Uh, F2 and F3 are also supporting

1:07:15

F1 in Albert

1:07:17

Park this weekend. We

1:07:19

got those craftsmen trucks at the

1:07:21

Circuit of the Americas for

1:07:24

the X-PEL 225. The

1:07:28

NASCAR, NASCAR. NASCAR Xfinity Series

1:07:31

is also at COTA for

1:07:33

the Focused Health 200. Uh,

1:07:39

what else we got? IndyCar is

1:07:43

at, what is this, the Thermal Club?

1:07:47

Rob, do you know what the Thermal Club is? Well,

1:07:49

Thermal is the famous race one. Oh,

1:07:53

I didn't know that. Where

1:07:55

is it? Uh,

1:07:59

is it California, maybe? Little

1:08:01

intradermal California Nice. Never heard

1:08:03

of thermal. Ah

1:08:05

Anyway, the races called

1:08:07

the One Million Dollar

1:08:10

Challenge is a reality

1:08:12

show One Million Dollars.

1:08:16

Ah, optimal references to get on

1:08:18

sofa. Who is really really is.

1:08:23

The an hr a. Lucas.

1:08:26

Oil Winter Nationals Parentheses:

1:08:28

Pomona. Is. At

1:08:30

the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona,

1:08:32

Calif, That when I have heard of. And

1:08:36

we're gonna score. Also.

1:08:39

At Circuit of the United States

1:08:41

of America as. For.

1:08:44

The Echo Park Automotive

1:08:46

Grand Prix. I'm

1:08:52

in. I'm always here was stuff. It's at

1:08:54

Cota last year that races on watch more

1:08:56

than a real Us by I was like

1:08:59

cannot. Yeah.

1:09:01

I mean is these use Could not

1:09:03

get the race restarted without some the

1:09:06

go hawks and classy another like twenty

1:09:08

minute delay. well rob somebody right turns

1:09:10

young. For

1:09:13

real one also this weekend. maybe you've

1:09:15

heard of it. It's a normal weekend,

1:09:17

not a sprint, although it's an Australian

1:09:20

time, so watch out. These are Eastern

1:09:22

time's. Free Practice One kicks

1:09:24

off. Thursday March March March

1:09:26

Twenty First. It's later. It's

1:09:28

Ttc week. I'm tired. March

1:09:30

Twenty First at Nine Thirty

1:09:33

Pm on E S P

1:09:35

N News. Ah, A

1:09:38

few hours later a one Am on

1:09:40

Friday March twenty second on E S

1:09:42

P N Two is free practice to

1:09:44

followed by I guess at nine thirty

1:09:47

Pm free practice three on E S

1:09:49

P N. Newest Ah than Saturday March

1:09:51

Twenty Third. Qualifying is. At one am

1:09:54

Eastern time. On E S P

1:09:56

N Two and the Race every one

1:09:58

Sunday March twenty fourth at. Well,

1:10:00

midnight. Eastern.

1:10:02

Time on E S P N to

1:10:05

the deuce. Ah we

1:10:07

will post as usual the. The.

1:10:10

Schedule for this weekend. Ah,

1:10:12

case you can't parse our that, I'm having

1:10:15

trouble pressing and I'm looking at it right

1:10:17

now. so. Stay.

1:10:20

Tuned to the social for that final thoughts.

1:10:22

Rob ahead of Australia. Ah

1:10:25

yeah I'd like. It's a great track,

1:10:27

always looking forward to it. Ah,

1:10:30

hopefully I'm still hoping somebody is

1:10:32

going erbil were bring a package

1:10:34

of competitive for when, but gather

1:10:36

seem like that's the thought in

1:10:39

the cards this year, but I'm

1:10:41

hopefully really see. An

1:10:44

abatement a survey for Danny noticed early

1:10:46

on was assisted. Some

1:10:48

of the mid past actions dying off and

1:10:50

becoming a bit more processional. the Drs trains

1:10:52

are harder to break. Yeah,

1:10:55

last year's what a good action in

1:10:57

the back if it starts turning into

1:10:59

bit more deterministic. Ah in terms of

1:11:01

how they run. Gonna.

1:11:03

Be gonna be rough season cause

1:11:06

yeah. Max. To the

1:11:08

runway would lead by last year and a lot

1:11:10

to talk about the those what's happening behind. Local.

1:11:13

Races has definitely felt like well and then

1:11:16

the running order kind of gets sorted out.

1:11:19

A you can hang and I help with my mother

1:11:21

A fiber. Ah,

1:11:24

or of Australia going to be

1:11:26

it, but Iraq is. A

1:11:29

business changes that they made to the villa increase.

1:11:33

We'll see, We'll see, We'll see if he

1:11:35

likes for the show and get access to

1:11:37

order bonus episodes, the ad free version of

1:11:39

the podcast and the official shift that when

1:11:41

discourse you could is over a teacher and

1:11:43

a com/it's f one Have a good race

1:11:45

weekend every one. We will see you all

1:11:47

next week. you