Azerbaijan GP: Baku's Big Nothing

WEBVTT
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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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Hey, welcome to another edition of the Formula One podcast, Two Soft Compounds, with me, Rick, and him, Damien Reed, and we're reflecting back on the weekend's action or lack of in Baku.
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Let's start demo with a positive.
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Lance Stroll managed to do a full seven laps before he parked up and went home.
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That was quite impressive.
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I was counting the laps down, and um I didn't think I'd get to using more than one hand.
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So that was good.
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But you can almost set your strategy that you can go out on maybe a soft tire and just wait for the Lance Stroll safety car to come in.
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Yeah.
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No safety car triggered a Baku for Lance.
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He actually, for once, pulled up in a sensible position and got out of the colour and yeah, basically went home.
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Uh the Aston Martins, though, really show their lack of pace on street circuits like Baku.
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It's going to be the same for them in Singapore as well.
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I mean, both cars, slower than Formula Two cars, uh, and only moderately faster than the Cadillac.
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Yeah, it's ridiculous, isn't it?
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And you know, Fernando Alonso is not pulling any punches.
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He he sort of said that it's it's an engine issue.
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And uh Honda have come out saying, well, it's not an engine issue, all our figures are looking good.
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So yeah, look, I I mean, the team is a basket case.
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There, they've got all the resources in the world when you look at how much money Lance Stroll's uh Lawrence Stroll has poured into the team.
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They've got Honda as a factory, they've got a two-time world champion, they've got one of the biggest uh facilities out in uh in the Formula One paddock in terms of factories there at Sulliston.
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And the guy who owns the team owns the car company.
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I mean, it's just it just shows that money can't buy talent, unfortunately, and it's and it's holding back the real talent, which is Adrian Newy, and there's another one, throw that one in there as well.
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Um, and Fernando Alonso, I mean, it's just yeah, I don't know.
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I I can't see any positives coming out of that situation.
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No, and it doesn't look good for them for for next year.
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Continuing on the positives, George Russell, man.
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I mean, he had the whole weekend sewn up.
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He was brilliant in free practice, one, two, three, qualifying, and then the race itself.
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Yeah, phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
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I think that's probably one of the George's best weekends ever.
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He said his qualifying pace, the the his pole position gap to P2 was the biggest gap that he's ever got pole position in any form of racing in his entire life, which is phenomenal.
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And um he must be a little bit niggly about Max Verstappen, though, because if it wasn't for Max, as you say, he would have got fastest time in FP1, FP2, uh pole position, race lap, you know, he he he he he got everything that was there on the table except for that FP3 fastest time that went to Max.
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So almost had the clean sweep because it was just that niggly little Red Bull driver who just kept niggling away.
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For me, he was probably the standout driver with George on the weekend.
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I mean, he didn't put a foot wrong.
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He came back from three races out of action, and it was very mature driving.
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He was, you know, I'll be honest with you, I think he was driving better than Max over the weekend.
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He was smooth, he was flowing, whereas Max was smashing it over the curbs and crying about his tires going off.
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And Isaac was just playing the consummate team player.
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Like he knows he's with his points by missing those three races that he's out, so he's there just to pick up the pieces, obviously with his freshly signed new contract in his back pocket uh to be the team player.
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And and I just thought his level of awareness behind the wheel when they said, Look, you're quicker than Max.
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Do you want to go past him?
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We'll swap the position, Drew.
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And he said, No, no, no.
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Um, if that's not going to help the overall situation, I'll just sit back here and and and wait till you really need me.
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And then he did get on the phone and say, Look, I think I'll probably be a little bit quicker now, and then put it on the podium.
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It's the first Red Bull double podium in a very, very long time.
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And boy, what a way to come back from a wrist injury.
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I the only way I can compare that to was if remember, a certain Larch Stroll also came back and was off for a couple of races with a wrist injury from tennis or something.
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And it was nowhere near the level of competence that Isaac had you is when he came back.
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I just thought Isaac just absolutely smashed it out of the park.
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I loved it.
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Yeah, I thought it was uh a really, like you say, a mature display.
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I liked it when he got on the radio and said um ask Max to push a little harder, which is basically uh uh a code for I'm faster and should therefore overtake, but I'm not gonna play that.
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I'm gonna play the team game and just ask him to push and I'll keep up with him.
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I just thought it was an amazing display from Hadjar.
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And I'm really glad he's back in that Red Bull.
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Liam Lawson, of course, uh left the Red Bull to go back to racing bulls.
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We'll talk about him a little bit later on.
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The first half it was a race of two halves this in Baku.
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Uh, we're used to the Baku circuit producing some amazing action, some decent overtakes, and the odd safety car or red flag.
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The inaugural race in 2016 didn't produce any of that, and I think it left many of us disappointing, but the following year was just amazing.
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You remember Alonso bringing his car back on three wheels?
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Yeah.
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Uh Raikkonen uh jumping out of the car in the red flag and then them realising that they could get it back out on circuit and him screaming for his steering wheel.
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We're used to action at Baku, and I love that.
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And the first half of this race, I think, was probably the most dull Formula One race I've ever watched.
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At one point, I considered going and doing the dishes.
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I mean, it was it was dull as dishwater.
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And when we had the uh once the initial laps had passed with some overtakes from the the the front five, it settled down, and we had this this train of cars that couldn't close the gap on the on the one in front.
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It was ridiculous.
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It was just like watching a procession for the first half of the race.
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Would you agree?
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Yeah, and you know what, I mean, how many times have we said that this season so far?
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And it's been at all at the the classic great tracks as well as as Baku, one of the newer ones on the calendar, but the tracks haven't changed.
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The car has changed, the car has ruined some really good racing opportunities.
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And uh, you know, and and he just like I don't know.
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I was I was watching, I noticed one thing on the in the in the practice and qualifying that they didn't put the speed trap, uh they didn't put the speed up on the graphics on the cars going down the straight.
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And they also didn't um like to use the in-car shots on the straight because you could hear them literally dying uh before even one third way down the straight.
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Now I I did find some footage and I watched it when they came out of uh the second last corner, so you're on you're on the gas full throttle from about the third last corner onto the front straight.
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You just keep it flat, nail it all the way through there.
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And on the second last corner, when they're at still at 100%, uh where when they're when they're they're coming through that second last corner, the battery is already down to 50%.
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And by the time the first line appears for the pit entry, so I'm not even talking about pit entry, I'm talking about the the solid line on the left, the battery's dead.
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And that's one third the way down the straight.
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Then after that, it's just a very long, depressing run for the drivers, just in the s, just cruising down like sitting ducks, listening to that engine just get lower and lower and lower, um, and just counting the seconds until they come to turn one again so they can top up the battery.
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It's that's not how you go racing.
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I mean, that's ridiculous.
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Yeah, it's just crazy.
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Singapore's gonna be virtually the same, I would imagine.
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Seipang may be uh similar with the two long straights that they've got there, the start-finish straight and the back straight.
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Yeah.
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Um, so that remains to be seen this coming weekend if we get a similar sort of situation.
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Uh but Baku kind of came alive.
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Now, I've got some comments to make about Lando Norris.
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At the end of the race, he basically in the media pen was saying that Franco Colapinto should be banned uh because of his uh outbreaking himself into turn one, which caused the crash into his teammate, which then took Lando Norris out.
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I think though, Lando Norris must have forgotten that on lap 29 he outbreaked himself into turn one in exactly the same fashion and ended off in the runoff.
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Yes.
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If there had been another car there, he would have hit it, but there was no other car, so he just went into the runoff, lost a couple of positions, and rejoined the race.
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I think he kind of forgot that.
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Yeah.
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And then on the same lap, lap 29, uh, Alex Alban puts it into the wall, and this brings out the safety car.
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And then it starts to get a little bit interesting.
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Uh, multiple pit stops.
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Uh, it was clear that the medium tire wasn't the one to be on, it was the soft tire, and we've talked about tires so many times uh this season with the disparity between compounds not really working as well as it should.
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Uh, but it was definitely the soft tyre that was better.
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So all the drivers who started on the medium then had these fresh soft tires to go on to uh for the restart.
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Um, Ferrari doing a typical Ferrari thing.
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Did you hear the team radio, which wasn't televised, but it was released yesterday?
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Did you hear it between uh Hamilton and his engineer?
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No, I didn't pick up on that one, no.
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Okay, so this is what happened.
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I I wish I had the audio of this, but I don't.
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I'm gonna uh dictate it to you.
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So safety car came out with the album crash.
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Lewis could see the safety car boards had gone up as he was coming down uh the start-finish straight.
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He slowed at the pit entry, thinking they were about to call him in.
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They didn't.
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He went past the pit entry, and that's when they announced safety car deployed, 20 laps to go.
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Hamilton responds, yeah, I've just passed the pit lane.
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Um his engineer ignores him on that.
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A few um uh few seconds later he says, Mode safety car.
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Hamilton replies, Have you seen something like a crash?
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Like what?
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Is there an incident?
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His engineer ignores him until he's virtually three-quarters away the track, about to approach Albon, who is in the wall.
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His engineer then comes on and says, Double yellow, four to five, Alban in the wall, double yellow.
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And then Hamilton says, Okay, so was no one watching the race.
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And that's the thing for me.
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It was fairly clear that no one was watching the race because if they had seen Alban go into the wall like the rest of the world did, they would have called him in for a pit stop because he was in the ideal position on circuit.
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They didn't.
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Yeah.
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And then they have an argument about which tire he's gonna go on to.
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It's just typical Ferrari strategy being absolutely useless.
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I mean, Ferrari is in the, I don't know, I mean, they they threw away a a really good possibility and opportunity, especially for Charles Leclerc.
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I mean, he he started on in P2 on the front row of the grid, on the soft tires, the good tyres that were going to last the distance.
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They lasted over half the race distance for other people, and they were better than the medium tires, and he couldn't still couldn't do anything.
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He finished fourth.
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I mean, the the the soft tires seemed to be the logical start tyre with the hope of a of a safety car or a red flag soon after, then switch to the mediums.
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But, you know, I mean, he threw to it.
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I all I was watching that and I was thinking, could you imagine if Max Verstappen had have started on the softs and finished on the on the mediums?
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Um, he would have won the race.
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You know, I'm sure I'm I'm confident he would have won won the race if he hadn't been on a Charles Leclerc strategy.
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And there's no reason why Charles Leclerc shouldn't have won that race.
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And and you know, I'm just hearing what you're saying now about the the the radio chat with with uh with Lewis.
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There's some yeah, that adds fuel to the fire about the discussions and the the rumors and stuff coming out about Christian Horner talking to Ferrari and and Freddie Vasur being on notice and all that kind of stuff.
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And uh, yeah, something's got to happen, that's for sure.
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Yeah, uh just to get back to that radio conversation, Hamilton starts asking after the uh initial um to and fro between him and his engineer about what sort of position he's gonna feed back into after the pit stop and he's gonna lose positions.
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The engineer says, No, no, you're gonna you're not gonna lose position, it's gonna be fine.
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At the end of the conversation, Hamilton says, Okay, how and then he stops and he says, Ah, you know what?
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Don't worry, I'll have a look at the big screen TVs on my way round the next lap.
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That's how bad the communication has become in Ferrari.
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It's ridiculous.
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I did hear that part.
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Yeah, I did hear that part.
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I just want to get back in touch on what you're talking about with with with Lando as well, because I've got a bit of a theory that that sort of emerged when I was watching all that unfold.
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Now, sure Lando's on the outside, and and and and I have to say that he's he was not totally the 100% innocent party out of that, because he firstly, you know, he first thing he did was he buried himself in the midfield with a poor qualifying and and and race base.
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So he was in an area he shouldn't have been in anyway, to be fair.
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And then secondly, turn one at turn one of Baku on the outside is one of the most vulnerable positions you can be after a safety car restart.
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And if you know that there's a guy like Color Pinto on the inside, you're not gonna take those risks.
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You roll out of the throttle and then watch it all unfold in front of you.
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And he could have picked up two positions as the two Alpines took each other out, which brings me to a bit of a theory that I've got with modern drivers.
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And that is they're so focused on the rule book and on the penalties and what can happen if someone does something wrong.
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They're on the radio saying he did this and he did that, that they no longer react instinctively to a driver's behavior.
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Now, if you knew Franco was dive bombing down the inside, you'd back out knowing that he's that is a super risky situation.
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A bit like if you saw Liam Lawson beside you as well.
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But instead they act reactively, saying that, oh, he hit me, so that's a grid penalty, or that's a drive-thru, or that's a race ban.
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And they act in reaction to a potential penalty and not in advance, knowing how a few drivers behave.
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And I think that's a that's endemic of of all the drivers now, is that they're they're they're acting like footballers on a pitch trying to pull a penalty rather than go, this guy's a bit dodgy next to me.
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I'm just gonna let him go.
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They don't do that anymore.
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They let the hack crash happen and they go, ah, he should be banned.
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You know, and I don't know, it's just a something I've noticed in the in the last couple of seasons, especially with with TV commentary and and and radio coming through on the TV.
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Yeah, I thought it was uncharacteristic for Lando to make that he should be banned comment.
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You know, as I mentioned before, he'd locked up on lap 29 himself in exactly the same corner uh by doing exactly the same thing.
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It was unfortunate because at the restart, Lando had made up a two or three places going into turn one, and then, like you say, chose to put himself on the outside, knowing that there was there was danger from people making dive bombs down the inside to try and get gain trap position.
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Um Lando since apologised to Color Pinto for his comments after he calmed down, which is a good thing, but I just thought it was out of character for him.
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Uh he's normally more happy-go lucky, and I think it was just a summation of the weekend, really, for Norris.
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Like you say, just wasn't fast enough in qualifying, had a poor qualifying session, uh, couldn't extract the best from the car.
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Um, you know, Oscar Piastri did better than Lando in getting results from that car, but the new upgrades they brought to Baku just didn't seem to work, did they?
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No, no, not at all.
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It didn't quite come that way.
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And Oscar Piastri, you know, he he said in the lead up, he said I think on Thursday or Wednesday, he said uh uh Baku was the scene of my of my of my best performance, and also the scene of my worst performance, or worse to that effect, meaning that his uh, you know, he his his his great result in 2024 was one of his best races ever.
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And then then he really blotched his copy book with a couple of uh own goals last year, too, that ended up in the wall.
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And I think this weekend, he could probably say it was the best and the worst in the same race, because you know, he was, as you say, he was he's probably quicker that he was quicker than than Lando right throughout the weekend in practice and qualifying, having a great race, and then just did something incredibly silly.
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I don't I don't know.
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I think maybe he perhaps wasn't informed about how bad those cold medium tires are in terms of like just don't jump on the anchors too hard because they there's just zero grip because it was straight after he came out on a cold set of mediums, which was not the optimum tire, and uh and completely misread the situation and and locked up and threw away a beautiful, you know, um uh bunch of points and fell back to the back.
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So I'm sure that everyone at McLaren is having a big debrief about how that weekend played out.
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It had a lot of potential, particularly for Oscar, but it's unfortunately it started out brilliantly and ended with zero points.
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Yeah, let's talk about Kimmy Antonelli then.
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Finished the race in fifth place, having started from 16th with his qualifying woes.
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Parbmy thought he might pull another Monza out of the bag where he started from 19th and ended up winning the race.
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It just didn't work out that way for Kimmy, but he was doing a decent job um making some passes on some pretty big players like Lewis Hamilton and um Arvin Limbad and Oliver Berman.
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Um I think he did a pretty good job.
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I you must have been disappointed with that finishing place, though.
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Yeah, you know what?
00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:10.319
I'm not actually so sure whether he would be disappointed.
00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:12.799
I think he's an incredibly mature young guy.
00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:24.559
And uh, you know, after I mean that effort in Monza, of course, you you you're driven on by the by the home crowd, it's his home track, and and it was just one of those, one of those fairy tale moments.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:31.119
But, you know, he he going into the race, he had an 81-point buffer to to George Russell.
00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:38.000
So, in effect, all he had to do going into the weekend, he didn't have to win another Grand Prix until the end of the season.
00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:42.240
He would if he finished second for every Grand Prix, he would still be world champion.
00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:51.680
And I think he just went in with a very mature head and he said, Look, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna stick it down the inside because you'll end up with being Lando Norris and in the wall.
00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:55.920
You know, just take it back, take it easy, pick up the points where you can.
00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:57.680
He's not gonna catch George.
00:17:57.839 --> 00:17:58.799
George is out there in front.
00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:08.720
And I was actually I was really curious to see what the team situation was going to be after qualifying with uh with with with Kimmy down the back in 16th and George up the front.
00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:14.960
Would they ask Kimmy to support George to get his win or would they just let them play as it was?
00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:24.160
And I thought they managed to quite well, they didn't need to manage it because there was never a situation, but yeah, I just thought it was a very mature drive by um by Kimmy Antonelli.
00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:30.880
Um I saw an interesting stat that George Russell with that win on the weekend has now matched Kimmy Antonelli for Grand Prix wins.
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:32.559
Yeah, that's bizarre, isn't it?
00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:33.359
That's really bizarre.
00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:41.680
When you think when Antonelli's first season in Formula One, where everyone was like, Whoa, this kid's been promoted too quickly, he had a disastrous European campaign.
00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:45.519
And then from the start of this season, he's just been a like a totally different person.
00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:46.960
He's been fired up.
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:51.839
The energy that he's putting into uh his driving style is just amazing.
00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:54.160
The maturity that you speak of, just amazing.
00:18:54.559 --> 00:19:01.599
And yeah, considering how long George Russell's been in the sport, uh the fact that he's just equaled Kimmy's win total is uh is quite frightening, really.
00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:23.359
Yeah, and I think, you know, I think his dad has been a very good influence on him, uh Marco uh Antonelli, yeah, who's a who's a very experienced GT driver himself, GT3 uh racer, and and I think he's probably got a very cool head on his shoulders as well, knows how to play the long game, having you know, spending his whole career doing six, eight, twelve, and twenty-four-hour endurance racing.
00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:29.759
And just having that having that level-headed person in your garage, I think has probably been a great thing for him.
00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:37.759
He you know, he speaks to him often and and uh and he probably gives him some some very wise advice to say, listen, you're still young, you've got to it's all ahead of you.
00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:41.119
Take your time, do what you can do, and and bring the thing home.
00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:44.160
Yeah, I want to talk about some of the other teams uh in brief.
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:46.799
Uh Haas, for instance, had a double points finish.
00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:49.920
Ock on in eighth place with his future uncertain.
00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:55.200
Um I did giggle a little bit at the weekend when it when Ockon said he was one of the best drivers on the grid.
00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:57.119
I was like, nah, nah, not really.
00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:01.920
Uh and Oliver Berman, who finished in ninth in the Haas car, so both scoring points.
00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:03.440
So improvements for them.
00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:08.400
Uh Limblad in the Racing Bulls finished in seventh, his teammate not doing as well.
00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:10.480
Liam Lawson back down in twelfth.
00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:13.599
But it was Williams who brought upgrades to this race.
00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:16.400
Unfortunately for Alburn, it ended up with a crash into the wall.
00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:22.400
But Carlos Sainz finished in the points for the first time this season in his Williams, and it looks as though it's much improved.
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:27.839
Looks as though Williams now um could be slightly faster than Audi and the racing bulls.
00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.200
Yeah, I mean, really, really encouraging to see how that played out.
00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:34.240
Carlos had a had a great qualifying and a great setup.
00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:38.240
Um and finally, for the first time, the Williams cars have hit weight.
00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:44.799
It's uh a very heavy car on the grid, um, and I believe most of the weight came out of the cockpit area.
00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:53.599
And so now what that means is that Williams, now that they've hit that target weight, is that they can move the weight around to optimize the balance and the setup.
00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:56.480
They didn't have that advantage up until this weekend.
00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:09.920
And I think that, just quietly, is going to be a huge difference for the team that they can start shifting a few ounces, a few grams here and there as the car plays out over the course of the weekend because they've they've they've hit their target.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.960
They're not carrying five kilos or eight kilos more than they've been doing up until now.
00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:16.000
Okie doke.
00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:24.000
So I think we're gonna uh round off the podcast this week by saying that we're in Sepang this coming weekend as part of the triple header we're currently in.
00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:30.880
Uh Seppang's a circuit which hasn't been used for many years, but we know it's a good driver's circuit and plenty of overtaking opportunities.
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:31.839
I hope so.
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:40.079
I was watching a lap today to sort of remind myself, and I can see potentially up to four areas where the cars may run out of power, unfortunately.
00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:47.680
The front straight, obviously, the back straight, but then there's also some windy parts uh the exit of turn two, and again from turn four to turn six.
00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:51.519
So whether, you know, yeah, I'm really hoping it'll be a great race.
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:57.519
There is a bit of rain predicted, light rain all day Friday and Saturday, a bit of patchy overcast weather on Sunday.
00:21:57.680 --> 00:21:58.799
But really looking forward to it.
00:21:58.960 --> 00:21:59.839
Found an interesting little fact.
00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:05.839
Or some facts, the last time F1 raced in Malaysia, Max Verstappen only had one race win.
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:08.319
Lewis Hamilton had three drivers' championships.
00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:10.480
Lando Norris was in Euro F3.
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:12.799
Oscar Piastri was in British F4.
00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:16.720
And Fernando Alonso was just a very young, 36 years old back then.
00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:17.519
Brilliant.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:19.200
Well, watch the line's holding up.
00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:21.759
Let me ask you one last thing about Baku before we go.
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:25.519
Valteri Bottas into the wall on the final lap.
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:31.119
Difficult decision for race control because if they red flag it, then it just ends with a damn squib.
00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:34.160
If they put the safety car out, then the order remains the same.
00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:35.920
We don't get the final uh final push.
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:39.519
Verstappen was pushing uh Russell all the way towards the end.
00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:45.119
So they just put out a double yellow, which drew some criticism from some of the fans I've been reading about on X.
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:46.799
They've been talking about, well, hang on a minute.
00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:49.279
If that had happened at any other time, it would have been a safety car.
00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:53.599
But they're kind of damned if they do and damned if they don't in that situation on the final lap.
00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:54.240
Yeah, totally.
00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:59.599
I mean, I mean, uh a double waved yellow was doing its job, uh, and that is a single-waved yellow.
00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:04.960
You as you know, you slow down, double waved, you should be prepared to bring the car to a stop, and then you then it's a clear track.
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:11.599
Safety car and a VAC is is more of a recent thing, but the the rules are still there for the yellow flag, so why not use them?
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:27.920
And it I hate to bring this up, but it's going back to the Michael Massey Abu Dhabi 2021 thing where he was Michael Massey, to be fair, was painted in the same corner because the rules state in the in the rule book is that the race must finish under a green flag as much as you possibly can do.
00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:32.480
They do not want the race to finish under a safety car or a VSC.
00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:46.160
Um, so it's it's the uh there's an awful lot of pressure on race director to make sure that the race finishes under a green flag, and and they did pretty much the same thing that Michael Massey did in Abu Dhabi in 2021 with uh slightly less controversial results.
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:48.319
But but yeah, I mean I thought that was fine.
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:52.319
Every driver from car karting up to Formula One knows what yellow flags mean.
00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.160
You back off and you cruise through it, you're on the and you see the green and you go again.
00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:02.160
Michael Massey in Abu Dhabi 2021 should have red flagged that race and then had a restart with everyone able to change tires.
00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.000
That's exactly what he should have done if he didn't do it.
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:05.200
Anyway, that would have been good.
00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:06.559
Water under the bridge.
00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:13.839
Um the uh the lift-off from George Russell um for the double year waved yellow flags meant that he lost turbo.
00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:23.359
So when he put his foot back on the gas, the turbo wasn't spooling up, which is why Max Verstappen uh crossed the line just 0.1 second behind George Russell.
00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:24.400
Yeah, phenomenal.
00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:27.599
I mean, you know, like you said, you never rule out Max Verstappen ever.
00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:31.359
I mean, he's just he's always there, he has a sniff, he goes for it.
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:42.640
Obviously, he did uh uh stick to the rules because I think there would have been a notification coming up saying he didn't lift off far uh you know enough, uh, but that didn't come up, so I guess what he did was all above board.
00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:43.759
Uh just unfortunate.
00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:52.319
I think George was probably hoping and praying that it was going to be a safety car and maybe anticipating it, in which case he could coast across the line, but unfortunately it just didn't come his way.
00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:54.480
But he deserved the win, regardless.
00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:56.319
I thought that was a great effort by George.
00:24:56.400 --> 00:25:01.200
And I would have been a little bit disappointed, to be honest, if if Max had have stolen it from him at the last minute.
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:02.000
Yeah, okay.
00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:03.039
Well, uh that's great.
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:04.319
We'll be back next week.
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:11.279
Uh have a great uh Malaysian Grand Prix, which is the Bahrain Grand Prix, renamed, of course, because of the uh troubles in the Middle East.
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:14.160
Damo, thanks as ever, once again for your input.
00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:15.440
Always, no problem at all.
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:15.839
Love it.
00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:19.039
We'll see you next time on Two Soft Compounds.
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:28.640
Two Soft Compounds was presented by myself, Rick Horton, alongside Damien Reed.
00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:30.880
The executive producer was Ian Carlos.
00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:37.920
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00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:42.240
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