Belgium GP: F1’s Algorithm Problem - Who's Really Driving?

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I don't make mistakes, I make prophecies that immediately turn out to be wrong.
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Anything can happen in Formula One, and it usually does.
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Welcome to another edition of the Formula One podcast, Two Stoff Compound to me, Rick, and him.
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Damien, how are you, Demo?
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I'm doing alright, Rick.
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I am actually looking forward to this weekend's next race in Hungary, based on what we saw last weekend in Spa.
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Yeah.
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We're a little bit late recording the podcast this week, so we are going to touch on what we saw at Spa Francochamp, and we are going to preview this weekend's race, the final one before the summer break in Hungary.
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So let's go back to Spa then.
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I mean, overall, to me as a purist, it was an absolute calamity that race.
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Total disaster.
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It's just brought out the biggest flaws in these regulations for this year.
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These regs, after what we saw at Silverstone and then Spa, and I think what we're going to see in Monza later on, these regs are making great circuits look bad, and crap circuits like Hungary this weekend will be looking good.
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It's not the way it's meant to go.
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It's turned the really exciting corners into snooze fest for drivers and spectators.
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Yeah, Martin Brundle at the start of the season basically called out Max Verstappen.
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He said, Listen, Max, you keep complaining about the regulation changes.
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If you don't want to be in the sport, then leave.
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And then after Spa, he said, I have tears in my eyes for the last two races here and in Silverstone.
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We've seen some of the world's best corners reduced to absolutely nothing, no driver skill whatsoever, no racing flat out, just uh an eye on the battery and an eye on the boost button, and that's about it.
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This is not racing.
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So even Martin Brundle has now started to turn against the FIA.
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And it looks as though obviously this year nothing's going to be done, and next year they might have a look, but it's just becoming ridiculous.
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I mean, Lap One, uh, we must talk about George Russell, who lost complete power on the Camel Strait and was tranced by everyone behind him and then was taken out by uh Lewis Hamilton, which I don't really think as a Lap 1 incident deserved the penalty that Hamilton got.
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Uh was very crowded going into that chicane, and I think Hamilton, you know, just lost a bit of uh well, had a bit of understeer, which caused caused the collision.
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To me, a racing incident, I don't think there was anything, you know, done on purpose there.
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Um George Russell almost in tears after he got back to the pit lane.
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Um we heard that there was uh an expletive laden outburst on the team radio with him saying, guys, this is just not effing acceptable.
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What's going on on George's side of the garage?
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Because this seems to be happening race after race after race.
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Yeah, I know.
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There's a couple of things going on there, and I think um obviously his confidence has been hit, and and you know, you can't take that away, but uh, but that's that's uh one of the factors.
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Um but the other thing is I genuinely think he has copped a bit of bad luck compared to Kimmy and the way the cars are running.
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I picked up on something really interesting this week.
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It was a video to put out that tried to explain something and just set off a little bit of a light bulb in my head as to might explain why everything this year is doing what it's doing, and that is, and they won't I'm sure F1 won't mention this, in fact I won't, but there's AI driving these cars.
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There's there's a there's an element of there's an element of AI driving these cars, which which is completely and utterly wrong.
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And my understanding, my takeaway from what I saw is is that the cars are developing algorithms every lap as they go around.
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And so they're predicting the next lap based on the last lap, on things like uh where to harvest, where to deploy energy, where to do all these things, which the driver has nothing to do with.
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And and now that's starting to make sense.
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So when you saw George Russell at Silverstone, for instance, where he just drove straight ahead, understeered, his feet were were wedged on the brakes, and yet the rear wheels were still driving, which means the car was driving despite his best intentions for it to not, um uh that was at a part of the track that had a headwind the lap before and a tailwind when he went off.
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So when because I went back and had a look at it.
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And so my understanding is that the algorithm, the previous lap, going, okay, this is the kind of resistance you'll get from the wind at that point.
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When he came around, the wind had changed, and so he's going faster, but the the the computer is still saying, Well, no, you still need to go harder.
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And hence why he went off.
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I think this is a real issue that would explain why drivers have been saying at some point during the year that it had an extra hundred horsepower I didn't even know about, or in George's case in in Spa, it just stopped everything on that first lap, heading down into Orouge.
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I just think it's a major issue that the sport's got right now.
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Yeah, Oscar Piastri said it's disappointing that qualifying uh and grids are decided on whether the computer's working satisfactorily in your car or whether it's not.
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And you know, you take all of those elements out of the driver's hands, there's no skill in the in the sport anymore.
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It's about uh it's about these algorithms deciding uh the fate of each lap, and it's and like you say, you know, the wind changes and that affects everything.
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Even AI is not that clever.
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So uh just you know, I I think Spa in particular highlighted the uh the dreadful predicament Formula One finds itself in.
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I think, you know, casual viewers who tune in to see some action might quite enjoy it.
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Uh, but I think for purists like me and you, and well, probably everyone up and down the pit lane, they must have their head in their hands at the moment because it's just unacceptable.
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It's just, you know, and I I I wonder just how much financially it's going to cost the FIA and Formula One at the end of this season when they realise that the viewership's dropped off and that the sponsors are not as uh engaged as they once were because of the lack of viewers.
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I mean, they'll still get million millions of viewers, of course, but I think a lot of them will start going, you know what?
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Um, you know the people who used to say I don't watch Formula One because it's um it's all it's like a procession.
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Well, now they'll be saying I don't watch Formula One for totally, completely different reasons, and and they've got points there.
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I think sadly, you're right.
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And I think sadly for for the purists, whatever viewers they lose in the purists, they will pick up with people who are new to the sport just watching it.
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As I said to you uh last time we spoke, I I watched uh I watched one of the I watched Silverstone with some casual fans and they thought it was the best thing they've ever seen.
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Passes everywhere, but deep down I knew, and the purists knew that it was manufactured passing.
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Now, when we look at at Spa, for instance, there were two unbelievable overtaking moves that I saw on the TV.
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One was, and I replicated passes of about 10 years ago.
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One was um Oscar Piastri passing uh I can't remember who it was, but through Our Rouge on the outside.
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And I looked at that and and first take was wow, that's exactly what Mark Webber did to Sebastian Middle and Ferrari.
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Isn't that gutsy?
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And then I realised, no, it's not.
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He just got his energy deployed and he just had no choice but to take the line and keep going.
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And then we saw the two RBs battling it out, um, and Franco Colapinto coming up behind them down the Camel Strait.
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And I think it was uh I think it was Liam Lawson in the middle.
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Um Arber Limblad passed him on the left while Colapinto passed him on the right.
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It's exactly what I think I think it was Kimi Riken and did that with Michael Schumacher.
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Um going way back.
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And again, back then, gotchay move.
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Now it's just no, it's just deployment.
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And then you this is the thing, Rick.
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You just don't know now whether it's driver's skill or whether it's zeros and ones on a computer that's doing it.
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You just don't know.
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Yeah, the race itself, uh Kimi Antonelli got the victory, uh, well deserved.
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I thought he he drove impeccably.
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Charlotte Clerk in second place.
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I thought it was a really good drive from him.
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Uh Max Verstappen in third, which puts him on the podium for a second race in the run.
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Um, I thought they were good performances.
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I really like what they did with Isaac Hadger.
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Started right at the back of the race, uh, took advantage of starting on a hard tire, and then the early safety car, which came out for George Russell's uh trip into the gravel, meant that they could put him twice under the early safety car, go on to mediums for one lap, come back in again under the safety car and put the hards back on, eventually causing him to finish in sixth place.
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And it was a faultless drive from Hadjar, I thought.
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Really, really good.
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And I think this is Isaac coming to the full.
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I'm hoping that this is going to be the Isaac that we saw in in F2 and F3.
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Really aggressive go-getter.
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Um, he's been he's been a bit quiet, you know, a lot of pressure on him being being Max's teammate, huge pressure.
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And I remember having a chat with him back in December when uh when I was sort of launching the team for this year, and and I said to him, I said, mate, you've got an opportunity here because of brand new car, brand new regs.
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This is not Max's car anymore.
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And you're you know, it's it's kind of evens for both of you, and this is a chance for you to get rid of that hoodoo of being, you know, Max's teammate, which everyone's had alongside him, because it's we're back to square one.
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Um I wouldn't like to say listen to me because he's a smarter guy than that, but but he's certainly he's certainly proving that that you know he he can take it to Max, and I think he's seeing himself as a genuine equal and not a subordinate that every other teammate to Max Verstappen has been with since uh since he's been at Red Bull.
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Uh Lewis Hamilton uh finished in fourth.
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He had the unfortunate penalty after the lap one incident with George Russell, and then it looked as though he was going to get another penalty for later on in the race, and then I'm reading something today that suggests that he might have a five-second penalty in the uh Hungara ring uh for this forthcoming weekend.
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Yeah, I haven't picked up on that yet.
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Well, there was something being held over, that's right, I think, from last weekend.
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But I mean the the first lap, the I I I kinda know theoretically to the letter of the law, if you read it, you know, verbatim, that he didn't have a hundred percent control of his car when he when he slightly understed into George Russell.
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But then you've got to take the circumstances into account that he he he did that because he didn't have any front-end grip because there was no air going over the car, they're all bunched together.
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Lap one and and and the last lap should be should be all gloves off and and and a bit of common sense.
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But that was to the letter of the law, and there's no ambiguity in it, it's it's the the the rule simply says that if the driver does not have a hundred percent control of their car, then they get the penalty, and that's that's why you always see whenever there's a contact and one car locks its wheels going into the contact, that's the guy that's gonna get the penalty.
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But now that we know that these cars, these drivers don't have a hundred percent control of their car anyway, that rule should the wording should be changed in that rule definitely, uh, anyway, because they don't have control of their car.
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And yeah, it's just I felt sorry for Lewis in that one because you know he was he was the innocent victim, and and and even George Russell said that.
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And if the drivers, both drivers agree with that, I don't know what's going on.
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And also, uh, you know, for Lewis Hamilton, he he drove the entire race bar lap one with damaged body works, he had um uh damage to the floor, damage to the barge board.
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Um, and then of course it was nice to see Ferrari getting back to Ferrari things by mucking up his pit stop.
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Um so the way I understand it was that they decided they were gonna give him a tweak of front wing, which is what he'd asked for on the radio.
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So when he came in, they changed the tyres, but no one had programmed the tweak of front ring into the computer system that sets the green light for the car to leave the pits.
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So basically, what happens is uh the wheel the the light that allows him to leave the pits is basically directed um directly linked to the wheel guns.
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And when the wheel gun of all four tyres uh registers that the wheel's on, that triggers the light, but they didn't override it.
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So when the guy went in to put his tweaker front wing on, uh Lewis ran him over because he saw seen the green light, so that was a Ferrari issue.
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That yeah, I mean the driver doesn't look at at all the people around his car, he's focused a hundred percent on that light going from red to green, and as soon as it goes green, it's like a start of a race.
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You you you you're out of there because that's your that's your go-ahead, that's your go from team management.
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So um just very, very unfortunate.
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And again, this all of this goes back to the turn one shenanigans because he had to change the he had to get the wing altered because of because of the the damage to the car.
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Then he had that incident, then they got fined.
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Um there was a penalty hanging over his head, which uh for the rest of the race, which turned into a monetary fine for the team, thankfully, uh for an unsafe release in Pit Lane.
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So, you know, um and he had to double stack as well behind Charles coming in under under the yellow flag under the VSC.
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So yeah, it was just one thing after another, it was a compounding uh effect that all goes back to that turn one incident with George Russell.
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Uh McLaren's had an interesting weekend.
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I thought they looked pretty fast all weekend long until it came to the race.
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Oscar Piastri coming home in fifth, Lando Norris in seventh.
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He would have had a higher finishing place than that had he not had uh some mistakes on the pit stop.
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I think seven seconds stop for his uh his second stop.
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So um it was interesting to see that the McLaren seem to have found pace from somewhere.
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They had a couple of very small upgrades, I think, for Spa.
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Um and it'll be interesting to see how they run this weekend in in Hungary.
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But they look as though they may have turned a sort of development corner in that McLaren because I think for many race weekends they've been frustrated that they couldn't just extract the uh maximum out of the package that they have.
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Um but yeah, Lando, I thought, could have put it on pole.
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Um and obviously had the grid penalty, which meant that he's he started in 13th place.
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That's the team I'm actually really looking forward to seeing on on Sunday.
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Uh, I think they might be the they might be the surprise package uh for a win on Sunday because you're right, the the upgrades, the small upgrades have been coming through.
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They did look good at Spa.
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Land, as you say, had that 10-place penalty anyway, then had the botch pit stop.
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Um Oscar was was was probably looking good for a podium as well, but he was carrying a very badly damaged floor after that uh incident with Charles Leclerc.
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Um incidentally, the drivers had a meeting about that this afternoon.
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I don't know the outcome of that, but uh uh so from so they're they're talking about leaving one car's width, you know, you know, um, and why, you know, why Oscar was was penalised uh for that one.
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So all the drivers kind of agreed with that except for Charles, of course.
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Um the the theory from the race control was Oscar was never gonna make the corner anyway.
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But that's kind of the wrong theory because you shouldn't be you shouldn't be judging on the on the cause, you should be judging on or the or rather on the effect rather, you should always be judging on the cause.
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So um, you know, you don't you don't judge the severity of the of a of a penalty based on what happened afterwards, it's what the incident was.
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So that's that's another issue that's been brought up with stewards across the course of this weekend with the drivers as well.
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But yeah, going back to your point, McLaren, um it was the one that got away, I think, at Spa.
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So I am kind of hopeful that they will be looking good this weekend.
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Yes, uh interesting to see how Ferrari fair this weekend as well, because they've definitely improved over the last couple of events, which is good.
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I want to go back, before we preview Hungry, I want to go back and talk about George Russell.
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I think I mentioned this on the last podcast.
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Uh there was a couple of comments from Toto Wolf.
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When he didn't do particularly well at Silverstone, uh, Toto Wolf uh came on, uh, was interviewed after the race and said, Yeah, we've definitely got some issues on his side of the garage.
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I remember, you know, Antonelli's got all of Lewis Hamilton's previous engineers, including Pete Bonnington, his race engineer.
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Uh so he's got an advantage in that sense, I suppose.
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Um they do have some sort of issue or gremlin going on with uh George Russell's car, but every time Toto Wolf is asked about this, he says, yeah, we need to figure out what's going on with George's car.
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But then he also makes a quip towards the end of those answers when he mentions something about George's attitude or driving.
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He did it after spa.
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For the world to see George had a recharge or boost problem on that camel straight, which led him to be trounced going up into uh into the chicane at the top of the hill, and the rest, of course, is history.
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Now the world could see that, but after the race, Toto Wolf said, yeah, we need to go back and figure out what's happening.
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We need to get the zeros and ones to line up properly so this sort of thing doesn't happen again.
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But then he added, he said, but sometimes it could be George's driving style that causes these issues.
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And I'm just thinking to myself, he gets a little dig in from time to time, Toto Wolf, about George Russell.
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And I'm wondering if that's laying the land for Max Verstappen to Mercedes next year.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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He's just applying the the the the flame to the feet of George at the moment, just to let him know, just to so he doesn't feel completely comfortable at the team, because they are still talking to Max as as is McLaren, that's that's for sure.
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Um so uh yeah, Todo is is is definitely just putting the flame to his feet just to sort of not let him get comfortable because uh obviously Kimmy is the is the golden child at the moment and he he's gonna be there forever.
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But um but George needs to be careful on this because uh you know we we saw um Max's manager and uh and Max's dad wandering up and down the the paddock in in spa, going in and out of various garages, and they went and spent some time in the McLaren motorhome and then they uh and uh Jos speaks quite regularly to Toto as well separately.
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So um yeah, it's not it's not as as comfortable and as rosy as it was 18 months ago, that's for sure.
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And uh and that's the other thing that's getting into George's head is he's thinking about okay, if that's the situation, what would be the options?
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And that there really aren't very many options if George was to leave and go somewhere else.
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Yeah, uh without a doubt.
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Now, moving towards Hungary this weekend, there's some exciting developments, but I want to talk about stats from Belgium, first of all, for the Aston Martin team.
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This is just an incredible stat.
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Uh so Aston Martin's lap times at Spa were way, way off the pace.
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I think 4.6 seconds off the pace at one point.
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And they compile compared the lap times to other formulas.
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So for instance, Formula 2 cars were faster than the Aston Martin F1 car round spa.
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Formula 3 cars were faster than the Aston Martin F1 car round spa.
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GT3 cars were faster than Aston Martin F1 cars round spa.
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Now when you look at that and you go, there's no point in racing.
00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:57.920
But of course, this weekend they're bringing their biggest upgrade ever.
00:17:57.920 --> 00:17:59.759
I do have a question for you though, Damo.
00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:05.440
There's not much change to the engine, the power unit from Honda, because they're still working on a solution for that.
00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:22.799
However, they come to the Hungero Ring with changes to the floor, changes to the front wing, changes to the barge boards, changes to the side pod, changes to the engine cover, changes to the rear wing uprights, and another load of aerodynamic tweaks in this car.
00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:29.519
So my question is, what the hell was Adrian Newy doing when he had a year to prepare for the 2026 season?
00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:36.400
Because everything they're bringing in this upgrade package is linked to his initial design just not being good enough.
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:37.680
Yeah, oh you're right.
00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.039
I mean, it's uh I I I still don't hold out a lot of hope for them.
00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:44.240
I think that might drag them into Q2, maybe, if they're lucky.
00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:45.440
But um I don't know.
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.440
I I just don't know with Lud Stroll.
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:49.200
No, no, I'm not talking about Stroll.
00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.359
He's he's no no.
00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:54.799
I'm just it's a one it's a one-driver team in my in my eyes.
00:18:54.799 --> 00:19:14.000
Um and uh you you got you've got to wonder how how Lawrence Stroll, with the amount of money that he's that he's poured into that team, and he's got Adrian Newey there, and he's he he went out and bought an entire car company and and he went and paled up to a to Honda Motor Company to become the factory team for them.
00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:21.039
He's tripled the size of the land where they're building stuff or he's got a replica racetrack of Silverstone there, they're building their own wind tunnel.
00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:31.759
Can you imagine what someone like say Paul Stoddart back in the Minati days or uh um or Eddie Jordan would have done with that kind of budget?
00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:39.440
I mean he's he's turned he's he's got a team with Ferrari money um and he's delivered another spiker.
00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.720
It's just it's it's just utterly ridiculous.
00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:49.519
And and the other bit of bad news for for Lance Rell in particular is that they're releasing it, they they're gonna launch a new safety car this weekend.
00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:58.240
It's the Mercedes um gone as the Black Series AMG GT comes out comes the AMG GT63 Pro Matic Pro 4 Matic to give its full name.
00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:02.319
Four-litre twin turbo V8, 612 horsepower, 850 newton meters.
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.160
It'll be quicker than Lance's car, man.
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:04.880
I guarantee you.
00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:05.839
Yeah, without a doubt.
00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:14.960
I mean, uh obviously Spa's the longest lap of the entire season, and Fernando Alonso, who finished in last place, uh finished a full two and a half laps down.
00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:19.359
It's difficult to do at Spa in a Formula One car to finish that far behind the leaders.
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:21.359
So they've got this new package this weekend.
00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:22.720
I've seen different reports.
00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:31.279
Um Fernando Alonso was asked today, actually, what he thought uh the upgrades were going to produce, and he said, Well, I'm not really holding out too much hope.
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:38.319
He said, I'm not basing it on finishing positions or where we'll finish in qualifying, I'm just gonna wait and see.
00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:45.759
There is a tweet to the power unit, but it's not the big one that Honda have got coming, which they say should give them 50 extra horsepower.
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:54.880
Uh, but obviously they've changed virtually everything else on the car, which baffles me why Adrian Newy didn't get it right in the first place, but still, uh, they've changed all this.
00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:56.079
I'm hearing different things.
00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:59.039
People are saying it might make them two seconds a lap faster.
00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:02.720
If it does, they'll still be two and a half seconds off the pace.
00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:08.319
What I don't get is the narrative is already changing.
00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:09.279
It's already changing.
00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:16.720
I think Adrian Newy said back uh in Spain, uh he said, look, we're not going down the path of of micro upgrades here and there.
00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:20.720
It's gonna be one huge upgrade for everything in Hungary.
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:23.440
Now the narrative has changed in the last couple of days too.
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.359
Well, it's gonna be an aero package and the power unit upgrade comes later.
00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:31.279
I don't hold out much hope for for this whatsoever.
00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:35.599
Um I Fernando needs to get out of there, I reckon, and and and look around.
00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:42.000
He's he's only got another year, two years max left in him left in him physically to do something.
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:46.000
Um and and he just doesn't have the luxury of time on his side.
00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:54.640
Yeah, they're talking about uh Fernando maybe going back to Alpine, which I fear would be a rather dangerous and backwards move at this stage of his career.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:22:07.039
Um I d in the interview today, actually, at Spa uh not Spa the Hungero Ring, he was Talking about his contract and saying that he's got a contract and he's here for the moment and he's very happy to uh remain focused.
00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:14.720
He feels uh the fittest he's ever been, he feels as though he's the fastest he's ever been, he just needs a car underneath him that's gonna deliver.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:19.920
Uh Ferrari are debuting an extreme Macarena wing for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:28.079
You've seen the pitcher's demo, they've got this sort of three-slatted shark's fin on the back of the rear wing, which looks bizarre.
00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:35.920
And to the humble man like myself, I can't see how that's gonna improve things radically, but obviously they think it's gonna give them an advantage.
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:36.960
Yeah, you never know.
00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:38.079
Why not give it a try?
00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:43.519
Back on the Alonso thing, it it kind of doesn't surprise me that he would be talking to Alpine.
00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:47.039
For a start, it's not Aston Martin, so that's some that's an improvement.
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:53.119
Um, but secondly, is that Flavio is still his manager, so uh and Flavio wants him in that team.
00:22:53.119 --> 00:23:05.039
And let's not forget um that next year they'll be the the the richest team on the grid in terms of sponsorship when Gucci comes on board, so there's no shortage of money to offer that whatever he wants, he will get.
00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:07.599
Um and it's got the Mercedes Power Unit.
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:13.920
So uh to me it it ticks more boxes than not for him to get out of the Aston Martin situation.
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:24.000
Uh and and Flavio will look after him and it'll it'll create it will create a a nice retirement ambassadorship with Gucci after he retires and then off he goes.
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.359
Um but I know he wants to do something um and get on there.
00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:36.799
Now the question then would be it's it's it's a tougher question you may think about who he would replace because um Franco Colapinto also brings lots and lots of money.
00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:42.880
Um and Pierre Gasly is French and they want to keep that Alpine connection, so it it would be a tough one.
00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:49.759
I'm guessing probably Colapinto would be the still the one at risk despite the money he's bringing, because money's now not an issue with that team.
00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:53.680
So yeah, that's it that that'll be an interesting one to see how that plays out.
00:23:53.680 --> 00:24:02.079
But I think finish his career at at Alpine with with Flavio, the what almost the way he started it after his Minati season.
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:02.880
Why not?
00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:12.559
Uh so the Hungaro ring this weekend, it's a mixture of slow and fast corners, it's not really a power-dependent circuit, so this should be a good race, as we said at the top of the show.
00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:19.759
Uh Ferrari's chassis on paper should be the car to beat this weekend, but it all depends what Mercedes turn up with.
00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:26.799
And again, you've got the uh the sort of uh third and fourth fight between McLaren and Red Bull at the moment.
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:31.440
Um I haven't read that the uh those teams are bringing significant upgrades.
00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:35.359
Obviously, Ferrari have tweaked their rear wing, uh, but it'd be interesting to see what happens.
00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:37.039
Antonelli's on fire.
00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.440
Uh he can do no wrong in my eyes at the moment.
00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:48.079
He's obviously looking forward to trying to take another place closer to the uh top step at the end of the year for the World Championship, and he could definitely do that this weekend.
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:49.599
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
00:24:49.599 --> 00:25:08.160
It's so hard to predict now as to these cars are good for this track and not for that, because you know, you you'd normally think, okay, Mercedes are uh are great on the on the faster tracks because they're power units, but then you look back, and as they say, the Hungarian is like Monaco w without the walls, and it was Kimmy who won in Monaco.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:14.319
So it it sort of swings back in his favour again, and George had a good run until it all came unstuck as well.
00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:22.960
But I think out of this one, because it's not a power-dependent circuit, it it is more about aero and uh and slicing away through traffic.
00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:30.079
So um, in terms of slicing away through traffic there, I think this would be a good one for Max if if everything is working on his car.
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:41.359
Um and in terms of aero and not worrying about the power unit side so much, this is why I think McLaren, I think I think you look at you look at Lando's qualifying has been really good this year, and he's always made it through to Q3.
00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:46.559
He's been at the top of the timesheets quite often in Q3, only to get pipped right at the end.
00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:49.920
And so the car does have one lap pace and he and and he can steer it around.
00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:52.799
And if Oscar you know gets a bit of luck on his side as well.
00:25:52.799 --> 00:26:01.039
I think they might be the cars, the the the orange cars that'll upset the grid and and get away from everyone saying, well, it's either going to be Mercedes or Ferrari.
00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:02.640
That's that's the way I see it anyway.
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.759
Okay, well, we've got the Hungary race to look forward to.
00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:13.279
It's the last one before the four-week summer break, so uh that's when me and Damo get our deck chairs out and uh slap on the sunscreen.
00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:15.039
Uh looking forward to it this weekend.
00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:17.279
We'll be back next week to uh review it.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:19.200
Uh Damo, thanks very much for joining me.
00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:20.240
Always a pleasure, mate.
00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:21.119
Looking forward to this one.
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:22.400
Yeah, it should be a good weekend.
00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:24.960
Thanks for being here and enjoying the podcast with us.
00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:31.759
If you have friends and family or colleagues that are Formula One fans, point them in the direction of Two Stuff Compounds for now from Demo and Me.
00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:32.720
Have a great weekend.
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:33.599
See you next time.
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:45.839
Two Stuff Compounds was presented by myself Rick Gorton alongside Damien Reed, the executive producer with Ian College.
00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:52.640
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00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:56.960
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