Episode #15: 2023 Singapore & Suzuka GPs Part One

Join us as we talk (a lot) about the Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda races of Singapore and Suzuka.  So much, there's a second part coming, oy.

In Singapore, Red Bull coulda extended their historic winning streak, but they didn’t .  George Russell woulda been on the podium if he hadn’t stuck his car in the wall, but he did.  And the stewards shoulda given penalties to Max Verstappen for any of three different impeding offenses during Quali - but they didn’t.  

In Suzuka, Checo Perez coulda improved on his poor performance in Singapore but he really didn’t.  George Russell woulda seemed like less of a tool if he hadn’t decided to pick a fight on track with his teammate repeatedly and then whine about it on the radio, and Mercedes’ pit wall shoulda known what to do with a driver on fresher tires with better pace fighting to stay ahead of one of the Ferraris, but they didn’t. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Greetings and welcome to Formula XX, a podcast by two
Gen X women about Formula Oneand other motorsports, usually
with adult beverages and alwayswith adult words.
Today we're talking about theKuda-Wooda-Shiitarraces of
Singapore and Suzuka.
In Singapore, red Bull Kudaextended their historic winning
streak, but they didn't.
George Brussel would have beenon the podium if he hadn't stuck
his car in the wall, but he did.

(00:22):
And the Sturz should have givenpenalties to Max Verstappen for
any of three different impedingoffenses during Kuali, but they
didn't.
In Suzuka, checo Perez couldhave improved on his poor
performance in Singapore, but hereally didn't.
George Brussel would haveseemed like less of a tool if he
hadn't decided to pick a fighton track with his teammate
repeatedly and then whine aboutit on the radio.
And Mercedes Pitball shouldhave known what to do with a

(00:43):
driver on fresher tires withbetter pace finding to stay
ahead of one of the Ferraris,but they didn't.
Lots done back after these tworaces and luckily, as always, I
have Gen here to help do justthat.
Gen, how are you?
Where are you and, importantly,what are you drinking tonight?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
I'm doing fairly well .
I am in Campbell River, whichis on Vancouver Island, about
two-thirds of the way up on theeast side.
I am visiting my parents and Iam drinking Shelter Point, smoke
Point.
Shelter Point's the localdistillery here, and it is an
amazing whiskey.
It is smooth, it is caramel-y.
They char the insides of thebarrels with various driftwood

(01:24):
that comes up on their beach andit is fantastic.
Heather, where in the world areyou and what are you drinking?

Speaker 1 (01:32):
I am in Seattle, washington.
I am still recovering a littlebit from my very first shiny
bout of COVID.
I have to say that was a lessenjoyable aspect of my recent
vacation.
That said, I can actually tastethings for the first time in
about 10 days and I'm happy toreport that I can taste my Maple

(01:53):
Hays cider from Incline, aSeattle area cidery.
It is a very tasty fallbeverage.
So nice to be here with youtonight With two races to cover.
I know there's a lot that wewant to talk about.
Say we should just jump rightin with Singapore, which was
definitely a little bitunexpected after a seemingly

(02:15):
endless streak of Red Bulldomination.
Kick us off with free practiceAre 30 words?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
or less for free practice.
Lizards causing yellow McLarenbig updates that work.
Mercedes, briefly, the fastestcar.
Red Bull teasing, they mightnot get P1.
Ferrari doing well.
How will the Ferrari themselves?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Interesting right Because right out of the gate it
wasn't Red Bull domination.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
For all that I said in my 30 words or less about the
lizards, they never showed upagain to cause any sort of
mayhem, which was both, as atree hugging vegetarian, very
happy for me that lizardsweren't getting hurt or in any
way stressed out, but also dudethe size of the lizards that
were in free practice.
There were several of them.
I can't remember now if it wastwo or three yellow flags

(03:02):
because of lizards and differentlizards in different sessions.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I hate to be the one to tell you, but Alonso did
drive over a lizard.
That was sort of the runningjoke.
The joke was that his badboo-doo was because he'd run
over one.
I didn't know that at all.
Which got us to Kuali Kuali inthree minutes or less.
New layout, singapore, fasterlap times.
Ocon kisses the wall, maxbitching about traffic Straw,

(03:28):
massive shunt and Q1 causing along red flag.
Lucky not to collect Piastry,who is out together with VB
Sargent and Joe Russell, wasvery quick For Stapin and Piede
Sinoda.
Both Red Bulls were out in Q2,to the delight of everyone who
is completely sick of them.
Max, for Stapin stomps off likethe awful brat that he is.

(03:48):
The Ferraris were strong ontheir first run.
Carlos had the upper hand early, but George had a mega lap to
get himself on the front row andthe top three were within a
tenth.
We've talked throughout theyear about how tight Kuali is up
and down the grid.
Singapore was razor thin margin.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, it was a really interesting Kuali.
We found out after the fact,which is now like 493 weeks ago.
His hit, his impact, was a 50Ghit to the wall and, spoiler
alert, he didn't race because ofthat hit.
I can't even imagine what 50Gsdoes to your organs, but it
can't be good.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Again, you can't say it enough the miracle that is,
the safety improvements thathave happened on cars over time
in Formula 1, both the tethers Ithink the front tethers, but I
don't remember.
I know at least two of thetethers to hold the tires on
failed.
It was enough of an impact thatyou really had to be

(04:44):
momentarily surprised that heimmediately said, when asked,
that he was okay because thatcar really had crumpled, and
every time you see it happen youfear the worst.
So great news that he was okay.
I do think that it's kind ofhard to overstate the stunning
turn of events to have the RedBulls both out in Q2.

(05:05):
I was sitting watching Kuali onmy phone and let out a not
insignificant squeal at themoment that it happened because
really they'd had a rough startto the weekend.
They just were never lookinglike they were going to be at
the sharp end in free practice.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
I think it's the first time in nearly eight years
2016, 2017, I can't find itwhere I put it in my notes that
at least one Red Bull has notmade it to Q1, which is kind of
incredible to think about.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
It is, it's definitely 2008,.
It says in my notes I think thefunny statistic that I'm
remembering is Valtry Bottas hasa record of 103 sequential Q3
appearances, and with both RedBulls out in Q2, they literally
don't have a record as long ashis anymore, so it makes sense

(05:56):
that it goes back that far.
Whether you're a fan of RedBull or not, you have to stop
and think.
Thank God, it made the weekendpotentially interesting in a way
that we frankly haven't had arace be in quite some time.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
I just found it interesting that them not making
Not interesting.
What I found it was irritatingthat them not making it through
was the story, as opposed to howquick the Ferraris were, how
quick the McLarons were, thefact that we had this really big
battle happening and not havingMax on pole and I get that not

(06:30):
having Max on pole is a story,but also great.
You say it and then you talkabout this really interesting
battle that's going to happenwithin Ferrari.
That potentially could happenwithin Ferrari.
That's going to be McLarencatching up.
The Mercedes had good pace attimes during quality and
practice.
Why isn't that your story?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Well, I think we know why.
It's a manufactured narrativethat the whole F1 Liberty
apparatus is trying really,really hard to push.
I think at the time and yes,thank you, rhys, for joining the
conversation I think it's thetime we're recording this.
We're belated, to say the least, but there's been plenty of

(07:08):
discussion in the last 24 hourson social media about the fact
that F1's social media footprint, basically the number of
mentions and hits, has dropped70% in the last 12 months.
The Liberty narrative beingshoved back today is no, no, no,
no.
That's not true.
But in real life, we all knowthat's true.

(07:29):
You don't need to be amarketing strategist to
understand that the only thingyou can hitch to the pony in
this season is for stappin', forstappin', for stappin', for
stappin', and they keep tryingto sell it and it's not working.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
I mean despite the fact that we have this podcast.
I know I've tagged F1significantly less this year
than I have probably in the lastthree or four years that I do
in like a month.
Here's the other thing.
It's not that I've stoppedwatching, it's not that I've
stopped consuming their media invarious teams and fan social
media Is that I am so irritatedwith Liberty and F1 and Red Bull

(08:05):
that I've stopped tagging thateverything and I've stopped
posting about it.
And for better or worse, I'vedefinitely migrated and started
watching other motorsports likeFormula E.
I've been watching the Endurostuff.
I've been watching the IronDames.
There's other things that I'mwatching that's far more
interesting to me than Red Bulland fucking Max or Stappin' and

(08:25):
how Marco and Christian HornerLike I'm glad you're doing so
well.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
The fact that there's domination at the sharp end of
the grid didn't have to beboring.
However, it's combined with ateam full of characters that are
very challenging to like.
Unless you are a diehard Max orStappin' fan, he's not
charismatic.
We've talked about it before.
There's no joy.

(08:50):
There's no sense of woo-woo.
The good news is McLaren atthis point will talk about it
more as we talk through.
The rest of Singapore andZezuka are at least in a
position to be competing forpodiums, which is 2% more
interesting than constantlyhaving two Red Bulls and Alonso

(09:12):
on the podium.
In any case, it was verysatisfying to have them both be
out To your point.
There was a lot going on.
The folks who did get into Q3.
I think Carlos has been on asignificant run.
Lots and lots and lots and lotsand lots of conversation about
the fact that Carlos has beenbeating Charles since the summer

(09:34):
break, that George is beatingLewis since the summer break.
So that was really, I would say, the big narrative message
going into the weekend by theLiberty Media talking machine.
And in fairness, Hamilton wasnowhere in Kuali, compared to
certainly to his teammate, butreally to the others he did not
cover himself in glory.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
So let's get into the race.
So the race started with aslightly different grid because
Stroll wasn't there because ofhis crash.
Also, the Red Bulls were somuch further back.
One of the interesting thingsto note, too, is that Joe was
starting from the pit lane onthe weekend that he'd be signed
his contract.
The other interesting thingabout the start of the race was
Leclerc was the only one onsofts in the top 14.

(10:13):
Max Verstappen was on hards andeverybody else was on mediums.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I think Checo started on hards too.
I may be misremembering that toyour point.
I think one of the key thingsthat came out of Singapore for
me, and a key differentiatorbetween a lot of races we've
seen and how Ferrari has, Ithink, in many ways taken a big
swing for the positive.
It's not necessarily puttingthem in the same category as,

(10:39):
say, mclaren, but everyone hastalked nonstop all year long and
joked about the fact thatFerrari's strategy is just
horrifically bad.
But it was very clear withCharles on the softs and the way
the race immediately started tounfold, that Ferrari had
decided they were going to winthis race.
That was the priority they weregoing to win and they were

(10:59):
going to say from the get-gothis is what we need to do.
And they executed on it.
And the juxtaposition betweenthat and I think certainly
Mercedes, which is worth talkingabout in a while, was right
there.
At the start of the race.
They knew Charles had to dowhat he needed to do to get
ahead and jump George, and byGod it worked.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
You could tell from that strategy that they were
going to use Charles as adefense and if he got on the
podium or finished in the points, fantastic.
But that was not their priority.
Their priority was finishingnumber one, correct.
And I don't think it matteredwho would have been the first
car, unlike, say, if thepositions were reversed with Red
Bull.
You'd know they were going tosacrifice Checo, and they
actually have in past yearstried to sacrifice someone.

(11:43):
He's ahead of Max.
There was no number one, numbertwo driver with Ferrari On that
day, sykes was the number onedriver.
It didn't matter who's drivingwhat.
He is in the front of the grid.
He is the one that, in thisrace, is going to be probably
the only driver to stand on thetop of the podium in the entire
season.
It isn't a Red Bull driver.
That probably isn't for therest of the season.

(12:04):
A Max for Stapin.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, agreed, they were very upset and I think they
get big kudos for doing it.
They were very honed in on whatwas going to be necessary and
they were focused on the teamgame and, unlike the other
examples that we're going totalk about, there was no whining
, there was no back talk.
There was no we need to sootheanybody's ego to make this

(12:26):
happen.
I'm sure there were some bluntconversations prior to the race,
so it wasn't like it wasunfolding as a surprise for
Charles in real time.
He had a job get off the linefaster, jump George, do what he
can to keep George behind himfrom there, but always see the
lens that that was being done toprotect Carlos.
And you know what you got.

(12:48):
To give him credit for that,because they have not always
made great calls and they'refighting hard for P2 in the
constructors right now.
The start of the race was alsointeresting from the standpoint
that Lewis had a really goodstart.
Frankly, he actually was allthe way past Norris and right up
alongside Russell.
George and I don't thinkintentionally, but I think just

(13:10):
because of the nature of thecorner pushed Lewis wide and
Lewis took to the runoff.
But I cannot believe that Lewiswas required to give the
position back.
I totally understood and wasnot surprised that he had to
ultimately give the position toGeorge back.
I'm still pissed off that theytold him he had to give the spot

(13:31):
back to Norris.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
So did they tell him he had to give the spot back to
Norris, or did they do itpreemptively, because I don't
have any memory.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Ultimately, they told him he had to.
Ultimately, it turned out thatthey had said to him that he had
to give it back or get the fivesecond penalty.
Have didn't immediately givethe position back to George.
He did, I think after a lap ortwo, whatever it was.
Even after he gave back theposition to George, he didn't
immediately give it to Norrisand it turned out that they had

(14:01):
said that he had to.
Okay, and I just I think thatwas absolutely a bullshit call.
You can rewatch that start 15times and every one of them he's
way past Lando.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
The only reason he went off track was because his
teammate would have taken himout and I, frankly, teammate or
no, he went off track to avoid acollision and if there hadn't
been a car in front of theredoing its thing, he would have
been fine.
He would have overtaken Lando,handily, handily he had
overtaken Lando.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's my point.
Though he had overtaken Lando,he had not overtaken George, so
I understood that that wasgaining an advantage.
There was no advantage gained.
He was beyond, not even likerear axle, the front axle with
Lando.
He was all the way past Landoand was going to make the corner
, except for George running himwide.
This is just one more.

(14:49):
Well, and I'm sorry, we jumpedover the entire aspect of Kuali,
where Max Verstappen literallyimpeded three different times,
twice on track and once he justsat at the end of the pit lane,
blocking both Mercedes fromleaving for 18 seconds, and
nothing from the stewards, whothen turned around and coughed
this bullshit up.
Is there ever gonna be a pointwhere the stewarding isn't awful

(15:12):
?
Inquiring minds wanna know.
I think they're so justdoubling fucking down.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
They're little kids in the play yard who have broken
something and they're like no,it's definitely not broken, it's
fine.
We're definitely doing it thisway because it was a fucking
joke.
And Lando bitching and whiningon the radio about Lewis, like
and on and on.
I don't know if they wereshowing that as a precursor to
like oh, he definitely needs apenalty, because before that the

(15:39):
announcers didn't reallycomment on it too much until
Lando started bitching about it.
I wonder if they got a notesaying hey, he's gonna have to
get the position back and we'replaying this clip now.
So you guys better get on boardwith the narrative.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
I don't know, we may have been watching different
feeds.
You know, I felt like they wereimmediately all over the fact
that Lewis had to give it back,and it wasn't until they went
back and started doing thereplays, because it was Cooltart
and Jolin Palmer and they wereboth like, oh well, that's, he
can't do that la la, la, la, lala la.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
I thought it was that they were saying that for
George he had to get the placeback to George, but not for.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Lando, oh, my recollection is that they
thought that it was for both ofthem and then it wasn't, until
they started doing the replays,which took a while.
You know, like I'm never quitesure how come sometimes the
direction's immediately and thensometimes they jump right into
it.
But as soon as they did boththe overhead and the onboard,
then they started sort ofchanging their tunes about it a

(16:33):
little bit, but it didn't matter, because at that point the
stewards had already said heneeded to give it back, which
was just the wrong call.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And you also had on the firstlap.
You'd fucking Paris being aping pong ball, taking out, you
know, yuki, destroying his racelike he was done.
He got one lap, paris hit himand off he goes right, yep
stewarding aside, there was someinteresting sort of jockeying
pretty early.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
I know Piastri and Paris had a good battle,
although Paris was not makingmoves quickly up the field.
Max was, relatively speaking,of course you know they were on
hards but Verstappen was makingsome progress.
Verstappen was up to ninth bythe second lap, which you know
again was impressive in thesense that on hards, you know.

(17:20):
But again, they're not reallydriving a boat, they're driving
a rocket ship.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Then Verstappen was behind the boat driven by
Magnuson, who would have fuckingtaken him out in a heartbeat
and not cared, which I found avery interesting battle.
See, he was behind Wouldn'tthat have been fun.
He was behind Magnuson for agood three or four laps, which I
was like this is gonna beinteresting, yep.
And you could tell fromVerstappen when he tried to
overtake that he knew it wasMagnuson and he knew that
Magnuson didn't care, would havetaken him out, as opposed to

(17:45):
everybody else who gives himlike a fucking car width if he's
coming up behind them.
And Magnuson was like try me,bitch, try me yeah that could
have been fun.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Sadly it was just boring, which was really
ultimately what the race was forthe first 20 laps.
Once the initial who has togive what back phase happened,
and again a little blurb ofinteresting trackmanship between
Oscar and Checo, I have to sayI thought, oh, this is just the
worst until lap 20.

(18:14):
It was a procession.
It was not enjoyable to watch.
Everybody was tire saving,nobody wanted to push and you
just had started to think thisis gonna be the longest race
ever.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
And then I was on a plane and the feed wasn't
working.
And when I landed you're like,oh no, no, it got much more
interesting later on, cause Ihad the feed and I was like,
well, it pauses every 10 seconds, but I sort of feel like that's
what the race is doing and it'sfucking boring.
So, come lap 20, no, come lap19,.
We have Sergeant doing histhing.
I gotta tell you if you couldcombine Latifi and Mazda Spin

(18:51):
and some really good driver thatjust goes for it in his nuts,
like Schumacher or Ertensenna.
So you're just going for it,cause you're like, absolutely,
this is gonna work, no problem.
Except he has, like, thecombined ability of Mazda Spin
and Latifi.
That is Sergeant, like he goesfor it, he fucking floors it,
and then there's a wall.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, Sergeant, We'll have more to say between this
and Zuka.
But yeah, complete unforcederror.
Was not in a battle, not wheelto wheel, not hit by another
vehicle, just drove himself intothe wall.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
And how he didn't get a meatball was another bad
stording call.
He was leaving shit behind him.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Well, and, more to the point, they waited until he
was all the way back into thepit lane, having dragged that
front wing under the car and,like you said, spitting off shit
from the damage that was doinghe's all the way back in.
And then they pulled the safetycar.
To this day, nobody, I think,understands why, because they
didn't pick any of the debris upoff of the track during the

(19:52):
safety car.
The lizards told me to do it,maybe, man, it was very weird.
It was slow.
When it finally happened, andthen the laughable imagery of
once they got through the safetycar and restarted the first
thing they're showing you is thedebris still on the track was
like okay, whatever, people.
Anyway, all the pit stopskicked off, everybody piles into

(20:13):
the pit lane, except for poorJoe who did his pit stop on lap
two, which fucked his race over.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
But yeah, sorry, everybody piles into the pit
stops.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Double stacks no totally All the double stacks
just for timing and release.
Poor Charles has a 5.7 secondstop because he couldn't be
released because Lewis wascoming in for the second half of
the Mercedes double stack,which effectively more or less
put Lewis in a position to getby him shortly thereafter.

(20:43):
Then it at least got reasonablyinteresting.
We started to see someovertaking, oh and with that pit
stop.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Alonzo came in across the pit lane as a drunken
sailor or something.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Poor Alonzo.
I don't really know whathappened somewhere in there,
whether he had actual frontsuspension damage at that point
or if it happened later in therace, but he swayed across the
pit entry line and picked up afive second penalty In that
safety car period.
Norris also had just a smokingfast pit stop relative to

(21:17):
everyone else and certainlyfaster than Charles and that
effectively let him jump Leclercwhen he was delayed getting out
of his pit box.
That was sort of the firstshakeup in terms of who was
where.
Charles had been being usedmore or less as a buffer at that
point up to that point, tryingto keep everybody with a big fat
gap between him and signs sothat signs would be in a good

(21:40):
position to pit.
In the end, charles got doublescrewed by the slow pit stop.
I just think this is one morekey way that McLaren has stepped
their game up.
It's another example of whereteams getting pit stops right
actually matters, because thathasn't always been the case.
This year.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
I think McLaren has stepped like.
They've stepped their car up,they've stepped their strategy
up, they've stepped their pitstops up.
I think McLaren is just gettingbetter and better and better
with every race.
I agree, and I don't knowexactly what's changed, like
they haven't had any sort of bigmanagement shakeup.
They haven't had.
I don't know, maybe PiazStreet's magic, maybe Piaz

(22:18):
Street's magic has changedeverything there.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
You think Piaz Street's magic, can I think that
Having two good drivers ismagic for a team that hasn't for
a while?
I also just think there's anatural psychological edge that
you get when you have a car thatis competitive and you know it.
You know they were so on theback foot at the start of the

(22:43):
season.
To have had this amazing swingin season would be very
inspirational for a team and Ithink once you recognize that,
you have the ability to go afterwins, which they clearly do,
don't misunderstand it requiressomething like this where you
either have a mechanical failure, some other DNF, some unusual

(23:06):
circumstance, but that is stillcrazy.
When you think about where theywere in the first race of the
season.
Yeah, I think everybody's justfeeling it and they're
performing.
It's a pretty boldjuxtaposition to some other
teams that share enginemanufacturing and sort of sad.
In any case, the best part ofthe race, I swear to God, was

(23:29):
watching people pick for stylingoff after.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Right Norris laughed him or not laughed him, but
pipped him.
Russell pipped him, hamiltonpipped him, everyone passed for
stopping and it was amazing itwas.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
It was a pretty fun moment for those of us who do
not appreciate the firststoppin', so that was fun.
By lap 30, I was starting towonder if Mercedes knew what
strategy they really wanted.
Signs was absolutelycontrolling the pace.
You had George II, hamilton IV,but it just didn't feel like

(24:03):
they were sure what they wantedto be doing.
The only thing that kickedthings into gear again because
by this point you really werelike, well, we're back into the
same sort of boring rhythm.
It was like that first phase ofthe race suddenly, like George
was not challenging signs.
Clearly, signs was tire savingagain and controlling the pace,
and you just thought, okay, well, this is how it goes.

(24:25):
Is this really what we're gonnawatch for another 25 laps?
And unfortunately Esteban Ocon,who had had some great moves
and was really doing very well,had his fifth DNF of the
frickin' season.
He climbed up twice.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
He climbed up phenomenally twice.
And the fact that his car, likeall last season and for part of
the season we were joking, youknow, for while we go boom but
Alpine go boom and not likespectacularly the way Ferrari
did, like Alpine's having somesort of fucking consistency
problem, mechanical problem,whatever with their vehicle.
Like it is not awesome.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, I know there was some talk a bit more,
probably a month or so ago,about Alpine trying to get the
other teams to give them someconcession, basically letting
them do more work on theirengine.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
I don't know about.
Like I feel like if you'reFerrari, you're like fuck right
off.
Like we figured out how not toexplode, so you can figure out
how not to stop.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Well, and that's essentially what the teams have
said.
I can't blame Alpine for trying, but you just have to question
like are you self-sabotaging,for fuck's sake?
Like what is going on?
They've had a really roughseason in general, but for him
to have had five DNFs is justlike oh my God, this is so harsh
because he really was drivingextremely well.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
The fact that we thought that Alpine's rough
season was going to be betweenOcon and Gazzli and their sort
of infamous budding heads, andthat's not at all the case for
Alpine.
The fact that, like, it's somesort of mechanical problem that
they're having is both great andhorrifying.
Like I'm glad that Ocon andGazzli seem to be getting on,

(26:08):
seem to be having a good timewhen they're driving well, there
doesn't seem to be any bigrivalry between them at the
moment.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
But shit man, those Alpines, they go, boom, they do
indeed go boom and I hope thatthey're done going boom, because
I think that both drivers havedeserved better than sometimes
the car has provided.
So Esteban's DNF did providethe opportunity for Mercedes to
take advantage of the fact thatthey had an extra set of new

(26:34):
tires and at that moment theyopted to bring Georgian from
second and Lewis in from fourthto double stack onto their new
tires.
I'm going to say at that moment, even though there's been lots
of talk about how bold Mercedesstrategy was, that at that
moment, what Mercedes did wasprioritize George rather than

(26:56):
the win.
Oh, absolutely, and I thinkthey screwed themselves 100%.
Both because of the radiomessages in the race and in
watching James Allison's debriefvideo after Singapore, it's
even more clear to me that thatwas what they were choosing to
do was to react to what Georgewanted.

(27:19):
In my opinion and I am curiousto hear yours but if they wanted
to prioritize getting the win,what they should have done is
what George opted to do to Lewisin Zandvoort last year, which
is they should have leftGeorgian second.
They should have brought Lewisin.
George needed to get himselfpass signs on track.

(27:40):
If he couldn't get pass signson track by the time Lewis got
up to him, they would have giventeam orders and Lewis should
have gone right around him insecond, overtaken signs and won
the race.
I agree.
Well, that was easy 25 years.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
I agree.
I think that's right.
I think Mercedes, for better orworse, has the idea and the
culture of prioritizing theirfirst driver.
They've always said they don'thave a number one driver,
similar to Ferrari.
They have a first driver andthey tend to prioritize that
first driver.
I think that was a huge mistakehere.

(28:14):
I think they had prioritizedLewis and used that strategy.
I think they had a very goodshot at the podium.
I think Lewis could have gotthat podium, but I think the
fact that they prioritizedGeorge, who was their first
driver not their number onedriver, but their first driver
fucked them over.
I think that George fucked themover.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
I think Mercedes fucked themselves over.
I think George is immature andI'm tempted always to think that
he's selfish.
I recognize that all F1 driversare selfish, so that's not the
insult that I think that it iswhen.
That's how I tend to frame it.
But I think Mercedes are idiots.

(28:53):
They could have had at worst a2-3, very possibly a 1-2, and
they are in an ever-tighteningbattle with Ferrari to try and
cling at this point to P2.
The inexperience of the driverthey chose to favor was never
more on display than it was here.
George immediately cooked histires.

(29:14):
George came blazing out of thatpit stop, roaring down the road
.
You got a fastest lap.
Well, you got a fastest lap.
I don't care, it's when you getthe fastest lap.
Lewis got a fastest lap too.
The difference was Lewis tooktwo full laps to bring the tires
in.
Yeah, oh, absolutely.
In the meantime, george, inaddition to having already taken
the best out of those tires tooearly, lewis's pace was

(29:37):
blistering in that last segment,which is consistent with how he
has been pace-wise performingall season long.
The last stint.
When that car gets on low fuel,the car is always better.
That car on low fuel in LewisHamilton's hands is a beast.
If you know that, and I knowthat, how does the Mercedes

(29:59):
pitwall not know that?
Right, they do.
They just didn't care.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
I think they're so used to prioritizing their first
driver in terms of the racethat they just aren't out of
that mentality.
And you need to prioritize thedriver that you think is going
to get you into a higherposition.
And there was no way George wasgoing to be that driver on this
day.
There just wasn't.
He doesn't have the experience.
And to your point about beingselfish and they all are I agree
with that but I also thinkGeorge is so used to being the

(30:24):
wonder boy and the golden childof Williams and being like the
best and coming in and realizingthat he is not consistently
beating Lewis, as he probably inhis mind and everybody told him
he would be.
And when he does consistentlybeat him, as last season, it's
because Lewis has all thesehorrific things on his car so
that the Mercedes team canunderstand the car and George

(30:46):
knows in the back of his mindthat he's not beating Lewis.
I think he's not going to bethe shiny golden child he thinks
he is and I think that's makinghim snottier and snottier At
the end.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
As those two drivers both closed in, they were both
able to overtake Charles.
They closed in on Carlos andLando, who are one, two at that
point.
I will say probably the bestracing of the year took place in
those last six laps ofSingapore.
Oh, absolutely, it certainlywas, I think, insightful in the

(31:18):
sense that Verstappen, red Bull,blah, blah, blah narrative
often times overshadows the factthat there is some great racing
happening a step down, and thatwas certainly the case here.
The bottom line was, by thetime they got to that point,
george had no tires left.
He couldn't get past Lando,which fair enough.

(31:38):
Lando is a tough driver.
To get by he's very good.
He's not going to just rollover or pull over, and he didn't
.
We went into the last three lapsI don't think I was aware of it
as much on first viewing as Iwas on the second viewing
George's tires, his rear tires,were cooked.
He was sliding all over theplace.

(31:58):
Lewis was way faster at thatpoint but couldn't get by George
.
The team had an opportunitystill, I believe, at that point
to have made a call and saidGeorge, give Lewis the
opportunity to get by, we'llreverse positions if he can't
get by Lando.
Yeah, they could have stilldone that at that point, even in
those last couple of laps ofthe race.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Lewis has proven that when he passes his teammate on
team orders and cannot pip thecar in front of him, he gives
the position back.
No problem, no bitching, nomoaning, does it?

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Again, that is not where the 2023 Mercedes strategy
team is pointing things.
I think because George was, asyou said, the first driver, they
opted to leave it in George'shands.
And enlighten me, Jen what?

Speaker 2 (32:52):
happened.
Let's go back a step too,because I want to say props to
Carlos Sykes who played thatfucking perfectly.
Oh yeah, he kept asking whereNorth was and you could hear at
one point in the team radio hisengineer was like Norris is
really close to you.
He is within DRS and sex waslike I know I'm keeping him
within DRS because he knew whathe was doing.

(33:14):
I have to say Carlos Sainz canretire tomorrow and have an
amazing career as a properstrategist, like maybe he can go
for a.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Mercedes and be a strategist for a while.
I have not ever been a hugeCarlos Sainz fan, but there will
never probably be a betterexample that you can give that
he is a smart driver who is veryaware strategically of where
everybody else is on track.
I remember that all the wayback from frickin' Hungary Ah,

(33:43):
it must have been 22.
I don't know.
It was the year Esteban won.
We'd all been distracted by theAlonzo vs Lewis battle that
went on for several laps.
Once Lewis cleared, alonzo,sainz knew like to the
millisecond where Lewis was andwas thinking 10 steps ahead.
He has always been a verystrategic minded and we've heard

(34:06):
him do it before Like.
He's overridden the Ferraristrategy team multiple times
just this season.
He absolutely gets the creditfor making that decision to use
Lando as a DRS shield.
It was brilliant, absolutely.
He deserves props.
He 100% deserved the win.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
He did really, really well.
And this is where Mercedesfuckin' fell down on the job
100%.
They should have swapped thecars.
They didn't swap the cars,george, whose tires, as he said
earlier, hooked early on.
He didn't bring them upproperly.
He just fuckin' went balls tothe walls and, you know, on lap
62 of 63, he fuckin' spanned itinto the wall.

(34:47):
He was pushing Norris so hardthat Norris said after the race
that he lightly skimmed the walland George, right after that,
spanned it into the wall.
And that was that.
You went from having a 3-4 orpotentially an easy 1-2 to
having, you know, a 3 and a DNF.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, that was a serious hero to zero moment and
everybody has them.
Lewis had his break magicmoment in Baku.
There's no exemption, I think,from having moments like that,
but I think for me the fact thathe did it on a weekend where he
was so busy shoving his egodown the throat of the team,

(35:30):
like the radio messaging some ofthis, is just a personality
thing that bugs me.
The fact that he, I think, wasdriving Mercedes strategy,
pissed me off and that thereward for all of the work in
getting everything to thatmoment was, yeah, lewis got on
the podium, but Lewis Hamiltonhas never looked sadder on a

(35:52):
podium, except for Abu.
Dhabi.
I have literally never seenLewis look as unhappy after a
race as he did, except forfucking.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Abu Dhabi, and that's inclusive of Monaco.
After Nikki died 100%.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
This wasn't sadness about external factors, this was
sadness about internal factors.
He's, unfortunately, incrediblyeasy to read and I will say
this about the fact that nobodyfrom fucking Mercedes showed up
for that podium, and I don'tgive a shit how much James
Allison tries to gaslight bysaying oh, there were people

(36:29):
there in the back, blah, blah,blah, blah.
We had drop you, don't, even,don't even.
It's the second fucking timethis season that there has been
nobody in Park Fermé for himwhen he's on the podium.
I don't believe that that wasinherently why he was sad.
I think he was disappointed,sort of in the aggregate.
He recognized under differentcircumstances at a different

(36:52):
moment in time, and if he hadfucking qualified better which
he only had himself to blame hewould have won that race 100%.
It's the third time in twoyears, with slightly different
circumstances, lewis Hamiltonwins the fucking race.
Instead, here we are.
We're going to go through asecond season without him

(37:12):
winning, and fuck, that's hardto watch.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Especially, I think, when he knows he could have and
should have won the race rightand not having the team there
for him.
I think that's another bigthing, like the fact that the
fucking team didn't show up, andI get that a whole bunch of
them had to be there legally totake Russell's fucking spanner
bits and pieces car.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Not all of them.
That shit excuse worked back inAustralia.
Here's the only upside to it.
I have never seen the likes ofthe outrage on social media that
was geared towards Mercedes forthree solid days after that
race.
They got lit up in ways Iwouldn't have believed possible.

(37:56):
On every social media platform,as they should have, as they
should have YouTube, instagram,x, in anywhere that they had a
footprint, they got lit up.
I made a single comment on IGon a post and just basically
said why were the team not therefor him?
In Park Fermi, again, 850people liked that fucking basic

(38:18):
comment.
Jesus, I was one of many, many,many, many hundreds of similar
comments.
I think that that sort of ledand resonated with then what has
happened in Suzuka in terms ofwatching Mercedes really, I
think, losing their wayfundamentally in a whole bunch

(38:38):
of different directions at once.
You know, at one end of thisdoubleheader we have this shit
strategy failing to optimizepoints, losing a bunch of ground
to Ferrari, both because Georgestuck his car in the wall and
scored nothing at the end andbecause they failed to maximize
the strategy, and then just sortof the overall fail culturally

(39:02):
to go.
We don't acknowledge that thatdidn't look right.
But of course they could havejust said you know, of course
we're there with Lewis andSpirit.
We should have tried harder.
They pretended like they werethere.
They weren't there.
None of them were there.
You can't fucking pretend thatthey weren't there Like I've
seen 15 overhead shots.
There are three white Mercedesshirts in a hoard of 350 people

(39:25):
around Park Fermi.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
No, that's not trying , due to flying and having
connectivity issues, I couldn'twatch the race.
When Heather and I watched iton Monday, I was like no, no,
james Allison was saying theywere all there, liberty Media
was filming all the Ferraristuff, because that was the
story, and I was like I read allthe things that they said and
then we watched it.
I'm like no, no, no, you'reright.
On the overhead shots there'sfucking no one there from

(39:48):
Mercedes.
You have one dude who spatteredit into the wall.
He totally fucking biffed it onhis own unforced error.
Any of one guy on the podium,go to the guy on the podium.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Right and to make it worse, that complete absence of
the Mercedes personnel there tosupport their driver, who did
get on the podium through hisown very strong efforts.
I will add, you have McLarenpersonnel and Ferrari personnel
congratulating Lewis on camera.
For every social media platformit's shown over and over and

(40:20):
over again that McLaren andFerrari are congratulating Lewis
, while his own fucking teamisn't.
So I give Mercedes a giganticfucking L for the Singapore
weekend, because everyopportunity to perform passed
them right by, with theexception of Lewis Hamilton, who

(40:41):
was phenomenally fast in thatlast stint and, frankly,
deserved an opportunity to fightfor the top step of the podium
100%.
So tell me what's your ratingfor this?
Carlos Lando Lewis podium.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Least happy podium for me ever.
Lewis looks so sad.
That's a lie.
Second least happiest podiumever for me ever, because
there's another one that shallnot be names that everybody
talks about.
That is the least happiestpodium.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Agreed.
If I'm just looking at it interms of like, hey, do I like
this group of drivers?
It's okay.
Any podium that Lewis is on isgoing to be okay, but I could
not get past how unhappy helooked.
That was just depressing.
I want to believe thatinternally, the message finally
sank into somebody behind thescenes after they got their

(41:29):
asses handed to them in everypossible way.
But I guess we'll find out.
So, overtake du jour.
I went with Esteban on Alonzoon lap 37.
I thought that was a brilliantovertake.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, I have Esteban over Alonzo and then Perez and
that whole battle is amazing,but Esteban was just fucking
phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Driver of the day.
Who do you have For Driver ofthe day?
I actually went with Carlos.
I think he was fast when heneeded to be.
He was super strategic, meaninghe outqualified his teammate
and everyone else for thatmatter.
On Saturday, he got the fullsupport of the team for the win
and then he was smart andtactical and held on to it and
did what he needed to do to win.
That's a good Driver of the day.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
I have Esteban Ocon as my Driver of the day because
he got himself up pretty highand then he had a bit of it if
he pitstopped and got himselfback up and he DNF'd in sixth.
The only reason he didn'tfinish sixth or higher was
because of his fucking car and Ithink he just he had an amazing
drive.
Lucky son of the bitch of theday.
Who do you?

Speaker 1 (42:32):
have.
I was Lando Norris, me too,because he got beat off the line
handily by Lewis, was given afucking gift to get that
position back, and then Georgedecided to opt out of P2, so he
got handed P2 on a silverplatter.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
I have Lando Norris for not spannering it into the
wall when he said he almost did.
Same Driver, different reason.
How about that?
Poor bastard, Poor bastard.
I have a couple of options, butas we haven't talked about it,
I have Alonso for having themost Keystone cop, like just
comedy of fucking tragedy errorspitstop of 25.8 seconds, only

(43:07):
five of which were a penalty.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Oh, but we're gonna outdo that and I have my own
Keystone Cups pitstop award whenwe get to Suzuka.
But fair enough, I went withEsteban because all the reasons
that you talked about earlier.
You know he was having anamazing race, he was doing so
well and then to have that fifthfreaking DNF, yeah.
And also Yuki, who you know theprevious race didn't even get

(43:31):
to start, then got screwed byVerstappen during Kuali, then
got himself a decent start, onlyto be smashed out, and couldn't
my pair is no less by a sisterteam.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Right Like fuck, right off.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Who did you have for douche?
Canoe of the race.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Nevermind the race, the whole fucking weekend.
Max Verstappen, are you fuckingkidding me with those temper
tantrums he was throwing?
What a whiny little bitch.
To quote one of our favoriteauthors.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
He was a whiny little bitch.
If anyone else behaved the wayhe did and does when he's under
any form of pressure, they wouldget so much shit.
And when you think about ifLewis Hamilton stomped off out
of the pit lane because he wasout in Q2 the way Max Verstappen
did, it would be nothing butmedia headlines for two weeks

(44:21):
solid.
He is a hideous example of asportsman.
Every fucking time I can tellyou, I will tell you he's a
hideous example of being asportsman.
I also had George for puttingit into the wall, though.
Yeah, I don't know.
To do that on the last lap waspretty shit.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Who do you have?

Speaker 1 (44:39):
for he's a good egg.
I actually went with Charles.
I think he was a great teamplayer.
He, I think, was certainlyfrustrated.
He did not enjoy having to bethe cork in the bottle.
His resistance to creating thebuffer that the team was asking
him to create at times, I think,reflected the fact that you

(45:02):
know that's not what any driverever wants to have to do.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
I was told multiple times keep a three second gap
and he was like but I can gofaster, I know, I know, but he
didn't bitch and moan about it.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
He didn't have a snit , he didn't stomp and complain
on the radio, he didn't have ahissy fit about it.
100% At the end of the race heended up in P4.
And you know what that ispoints that Ferrari needed and
that was points that closed thegap to Mercedes.
I like your good egg of the day, I would take it.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
if I had thought about it earlier, I'd read your
notes.
My good egg of the race awardgoes to Lewis Hamilton for not
being smug about Russell's loveaffair with walls, as he keeps
kissing them and then full onembracing them.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
It is worth mentioning that this is not the
first time this season thatGeorge has managed to stick the
car into the wall all of his own.
One of the things we've talkedabout is the manufactured
bullshit Liberty Media talkingpoint of the weekend.
What did you have, if anything,for this weekend?

Speaker 2 (46:03):
I have fuck you, liberty Media, for making
Ferrari's win all about red bullracing.
Amen, that's a really good one.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, no, I like that .
I actually also included thefact that Lewis needed to give
that place back to Norris.
I have expanded my LibertyMedia definition to include the
commentators, so there are timeswhere I just feel like they are
literally nothing more thanmouthpieces for Liberty and that

(46:28):
entire ongoing dialogue thatLewis needed to give that place
back was bullshit and eventhough I feel like they kind of
backed off of it once they sawthe onboard and the overhead, it
was just cliche at this pointthat if Lewis is involved,
you're going to hear about whyhe has to do something because
he's the bad guy.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Heather and I have joked while we were watching the
races together in a ha ha notso ha ha fashion that the
commentators must be paid by themention in the positive of Max
Verstappen and then deductedmoney for any time they
mentioned Lewis Hamilton in thepositive or maybe even say his
name, because sometimes theyjust talk about him as the

(47:07):
driver in these amazing historicbattles like and the other
driver and the other driversfucking Lewis Hamilton.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
It's so overt sometimes that you just whoo
yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Do you have anything for your ass?
Nine comments today.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
I do I think Jolin Palmer, describing Max's
constant bitching and whiningthroughout free practice and
quality as quote demanding thebest of his team into quote
Again like no other driver,could behave that way and not
get their ass handed to them.
But because it's Max, it'sframed as he's just demanding

(47:42):
the best of his team.
He's just demanding the best ofhis team while being a petulant
little asshole which was thenin a tie.
But I'm going to lean a bitinto David Coltart, who claimed
that he's not comfortable withcruising to victories.
A literal quote, boys and girls, you can't see my fingers, but

(48:02):
there is a literal set of airquotes around that phrase when
Sine said that he had a secondin hand for pace on the radio.
I'm not comfortable withcruising to victories, as if we
haven't just watched 15 fuckingcruise to victory races in a row
for Max Verstappen, where theyspend the entire time sucking
his dick on air.
We bring you.

(48:23):
Hmm.
How dare Carlos say that he hasa second of pace in hand?
Like lightning should havestruck DC at that moment.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
DC.
God bless him for being adickball, but he also had when
Max was coming up on Magnuson.
Oh, he's one of the feistiestdrivers on the grid, I'm like
way to say he and Max are thetwo drivers that will run you
off the fucking road in aheartbeat.
Feistiest again.
Unseeable air quotes on mybehalf, and that's not actually

(48:56):
my ass and I in comment, my assand I in comment of the day, and
I didn't know who said it was.
This is the fairest fight forthe rest of the grid in Red Bull
racing.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
Wow, I'm glad I blocked that mentally.
I was like fuck you Right.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Let's go with our driver ratings From the bottom.
We start with Stroll.
What is your driver rating forStroll for this race?

Speaker 1 (49:16):
None applicable, because Stroll didn't either
start at the race nor drove inthe race.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I have same NA 50 G hit.
I'm glad he's OK-ish.
The next person, sonodo.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
I also gave him an NA .
I don't feel like it's fair torank him.
He got taken out of the racetoo early to be scored for
anything.
I just feel bad for him.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
I gave him a C because they had a pretty solid
qualifying.
That was super fucked by otherdrivers and he had a decent
start.
That was also super fucked byanother driver.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Who was he?
Super fucked by.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
He was super fucked by Max Verstappen a couple of
times and then he got fuckedwithout lube and broke by Perez.
Thank you All right.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Next Ocon.
I gave Estabon an A, I think.
Up until the moment that carDNF-ed, he was absolutely having
a great race.
It was just terrible that thattook him out.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
I gave him an A as well.
I have, for fuck's sake, someamazing overtakes, and he made
it up to 6 when he DNF.
Next Bottas.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
I honestly don't have a rating.
I'd probably give him a C.
I did not see enough of whatwas going on with Veltry prior
to his DNF to have any realopinion.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I gave him a C as well.
I think that it has more to dowith the car than him.
He did make it to the 53rd lap,but the car go boomed, I guess,
technically, ferrari go boomedNext.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Russell.
So I gave George two ratings.
If you look at the freepractices in Qualley, I think he
deserves an A.
I think he was really honestlyoutperforming the car this
weekend.
He was extremely comfortablefrom the get-go and was really
doing well.
But I give him a D for the race, and not just because he

(51:00):
spattered it into the wall butthat's the primary reason but
also because I think his ego waswriting checks that his
performance couldn't cash.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
I give him a D as well.
It was stupid infighting thatmakes it all about him and you
are a driver and you do want tobe all about him, all about
yourself, rather.
But he also fucking spanned itinto the wall Again.
As Heather said before, itisn't even the first time this
season he's done an unforcederror into a fucking wall, like

(51:30):
no D man.
You barely, you barely got a D,never mind a D minus or an F
for me.
Next, and the first driver whofinished Alonso, who started in
seventh and finished in 15.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
I gave him a C.
I don't know if that's anunfair rating, because I'm still
not entirely clear what waswrong with the car, but I think
that his frustration over thelast couple of races, because
the car is suddenly not ascompetitive as it was at the
first part of the season, ismanifesting in some ways.
So I gave him a C.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
I gave him aD because I thought his error going into
the pit lane was a personalerror, not an unforced error,
and he, being the wily old foxthat he is, bingo should not
have made that sort of error,even if you have massive
problems on your car.
I feel he is experienced enoughthat he should have been able
to not do that.

(52:21):
It's not as if they were onflying laps, they were under
safety car.
He should have been able tobring the car into the pit.
So okay, next, finishing in14th, starting in 18th Sergeant.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
I gave him an F.
It was an unforced air to stickit in the wall.
It's not really different thanGeorge, Only it's worse because
George was in a battle.
George had seven-time worldchampion teammate that he wants
desperately to beat breathingdown his ass while
simultaneously trying toovertake Lando Norris.
So at least he had mitigatingfactors.
Logan Sergeant just drove intothe damn wall.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Yeah, I gave him a D minus because he finished a race
, which might be a bad thing onmy part.
Maybe I should give him an F,but I have him back to zero
races since last contact withthe wall.
The only reason he wasn't lastwas because Lando's car had
issues.
Next, Halkenberg started 8th,finished 13th.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
I honestly don't have a rating.
I don't remember anything aboutHalkenberg in this race,
literally.
I have not a singlerecollection but the fact that
he started 8th and finished 13th.
I'm assuming it's something Cor below, but I honestly don't
have a rating so I gave him a Bminus.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
He tried really hard, he did really well.
He got really fucked in thedouble stack after the safety
car.
They just fucked him Like.
Mag came in first and he camein.
He just got bowled over.
He had to wait.
He had a really bad pit stop.
He climbed up from where he wasbut his tires were so old that
everybody was just picking himoff because he could not and

(53:52):
that has his heart on tiresanyway.
He just could not keep it onthe road.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
I think I remember now he drove a straight line
into a corner and was overtakenby Gasly.
Now that I'm thinking about itand I'm going to stick with my
seat, Next Joe started pit lane,finished 12th.
I gave him a B.
I think anybody at this pointwho's able to get that Alpha
Romeo to the end of the racedeserves a pat on the head, just

(54:17):
on principle.
And to come from pit lane to12th, fuck it.
That's a great performance,frankly.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
I gave him a B same.
He drove it really well.
He came in on lap two from softto go on to hards and when he
came in again under the safetycar, his hards only had 18 laps
on him and then he put them onmediums and he finished the race
on those mediums.
And again, it's not the firstrace he's been on where he's
been continuously picked offbecause his tires were shit and

(54:44):
at that point it's a hard callfor the strategy what to do.
But I think they fucked up.
And, of course, a pretty goodtrack where you know there's
going to be a safety car.
If you are starting on any tire, who cares what you're starting
on?
You do bring your car in on thesecond lap unless it has issues
to change the tires and to myrecollection he did not have
issues.
They just brought him in andthey put them on hards and they

(55:08):
shouldn't.
They should have let him go foranother like five or six laps
on those softs.
All right.
Next, albon started 14th,finished 11th.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
I gave him a B.
I suspect although I didn't seeit based on Czecho Paris having
slammed into his car in thelatter part of the race, that he
might have been able to finisheven higher.
I agree, I give him a B plus.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
He had a very solid drive.
He did really well even onsuper shit tires that were dying
.
And then Paris, just fuckingParis.
Like Paris is the new Mazdaspin, except instead of like
randomly spinning his car forshits and giggles, he hits other
drivers.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, there are gaps that don't exist and that is not
working out well for anybody.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Magnuson started sixth, finished 10th.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
I gave him a D.
The only thing I remember aboutMagnuson is that he got a black
and white for pushing someoneoff the road, and while it was
probably enjoyable to watch himbattle with Max briefly at the
end of the day, you know, otherthan the fact that they got a
point, I don't know, I shouldprobably be nicer.
It's a.
Has he got a point?
Woot, right.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
I give him a C minus.
He stepped his elbows out forMax, for Stappen did not suck a
stick and let him buy for shitsand giggles.
He did get a black and whitefor Gasly, but it's a has.
As you said, he got a pointFinishing in ninth, starting in
10th, Lawson A scored points.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
This is a new track he wasn't even familiar with.
He did an amazing job, I think.
Yeah, Lawson, super impressiveagain.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
I gave him an A plus.
He got points Track.
He didn't know.
He honestly legit battled withMax for Stappen.
How many other Alpha Tori RedBull drivers have you seen Toro
Rosso drivers have you seenbattle a Red Bull and not been
told to let them buy?

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Yeah, in retrospect I should throw a plus sign on
that too, because I'm justremembering the fact that
Lawson's the one that bumpedfucking Verstappen out of Q2.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Right, Starting in 13th, finishing in eighth Perez.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
I gave him a D At this point for that race.
D seemed practical.
He was super clumsy.
He screwed Albon over.
I could go lower, but I'msaving that for Suzuka.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Oh see, I fucked that man.
I gave him an F.
He shit the bed in Kuali.
He was not good.
He ruined Sonoro's race.
He ruined Albon's race.
He just did not drive.
Well, fuck him very much.
I don't think he deservedpoints.
I think he should have gottenpenalties and dropped out of the
points.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Tell us what you really feel, Jen.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Drink more whiskey.
Japan's going to be even betterreviews.
Finishing in seventh, butstarting in 17th, Piaz Tri.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
I gave Oscar a, B plus, I could be persuaded to go
to an A minus.
I think it was a really goodrecovery drive in general.
I think he got screwed in Kualiby the stroll shunt.
He was actually lucky not toget collected by the stroll
shunt.
To come from 17th to seven isreally impressive.

(58:04):
I think the only differentiatordifferentiator for me, sorry is
he didn't quite have the pace.
I think again, McLaren wasreally smart on strategy.
They made good choices aboutwhen they pitted him.
He just drove really well.
I don't feel strongly that hedoesn't deserve an A minus.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
I gave him an A.
He did really, really well.
He made up a lot of supports.
We need to take into account,too, that only Norris had the
upgrades.
He was driving with the oldercar, 17th to 12th, finishing in
six Gasly.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Again, this is probably one of those ones where
I don't really think there's ahuge difference between the B
plus that I gave him and the Aminus he could also be
considered to deserve.
He fought hard.
I think that he had to do alittle work to get by a couple
of the other drivers to get thatfar up as it was.
Again, I feel bad that Estebandropped out of the race, but I'm

(59:05):
glad that Piaz finally had theopportunity to get into the
points and some good points.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
I agree.
I gave him a B plus.
He had a very solid drive.
He did not get taken out byMagnuson, for whatever black and
white flag Magnuson was giventhat we didn't get to see.
That's some sort of magicmiracle.
Starting 11th, finishing fifth,they're stopping.
I gave him a B.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
It was a decent recovery drive.
I don't think I can complainabout the fact that the car was
clearly not working for them.
He actually had to drivethrough the field.
He made up six spots.
I don't begrudge him a, b.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Fuck that.
I gave him a D plus for beingsuch a whiny little bit with his
temper tantrum all throughoutthe weekend.
Also, when you look at otherdrivers who made up spots, they
did better than him.
I think it speaks toVerstappen's temperament, rather
than his driving style, that hewas just like through this
whole weekend away.
He was like no, the car is bad,everything is going to be bad.

(59:58):
I am fainting on a couch withmy wrist on my forehead and
everything is awful, tra-la-laAll right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
I think part of the difference is that I've been
framing these a little bit asrace only and that's probably
something that I need to thinkabout.
If I look at it in the contextof the race, I don't have a
problem giving him a B.
I think if I look at it in thecontext of the race as a whole,
100% the fact that he wasn'tfucking penalized for the 92
things he did douchey in Kualicould drop that to a DL by

(01:00:28):
itself.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Finishing in fourth.
Starting in third CharlesLaclaire.
Charles Laclaire gets a B.
I gave him a B plus.
It turns out that he finishedand started in the exact same
positions as he did the previousrace.
He had a very solid drive,despite being a sacrificial
driver, and he didn't complainand whine about it.

(01:00:51):
Starting in fifth.
Finishing in third LewisHamilton.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
I also gave Lewis a, b, I don't think ironically, I
think in the context of the race, that third stint.
He had an amazing pace.
I think he got screwed by histeammate and the stewards at the
start of the race.
But, in complete opposition towhat I just said, I feel very

(01:01:15):
strongly that Lewis screwedhimself in Kuali.
I just can't get past the factthat this is one of those races
where if he had performed to hisability and I have high
expectations for him in Kuali hewould have started in a
position he would have won thatrace.
He got screwed in this instance, in terms of the strategy, by

(01:01:36):
the pit wall, but I just havehigher standards for him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
I gave him an A minus .
I agree he fucked himself inqualifying the fact that he
didn't ever just fuck it anddrive into his teammate.
100% props to him.
He gave the spot back as soonas he could, which part of it
was total BS, especially forNorris and his last stint.
That third stint in that carwas fucking amazing.

(01:02:02):
And starting and fourth,finishing, and second Norris, I
gave Lando an A.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
I don't love the fact that he whined on the radio,
but that's the game you play.
There was no reason he wouldn'ttry to get that position back,
and so I'm not particularlyholding that against Lando.
It's not like he went on and onabout it.
He just made the statement thatLewis needed to give the spot
back, and of course he did, andof course his team fought for

(01:02:28):
that, and the stewards shouldhave been the ones to go fuck.
No, he was always past you, butthey didn't.
But he had to survive thepressure of those last few laps
and he did, and he alsounderstood what Carlos was doing
and he was smart enough to makeit work for his own advantage
and at the end of the day, Ithink he drove really well.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
I gave Norris a B.
Part of it was brought down forhis whining, which irritated me
.
But I also agree he did a soliddrive.
He did not he clipped the wallbut was close enough and far
away enough that he did not loseit and he kept his car on the
road and he took it.
As you said, he took advantageof what Carlos Sykes was putting
down Like.

(01:03:11):
He did a fairly solid drive,started in first, finished in
first.
Carlos Sykes.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
Hey, I already set it for driver of the day.
I think Carlos did everythinghe needed to do and even though
I don't think he's the greatestwheel-to-wheel driver on the
grid, he's one of the smartestand most strategic and he did
exactly what he needed to do towin.
He deserved that win.
I gave Carlos Sykes a solid A.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
He had a great drive, he did not have any enforced
errors and his strategy not fromthe Pratt perch, but his
personal strategy kept him inthe first position, kept Norris,
where it needed to be.
So the Mercedes did not gobblehim up, because I think those
Mercedes could have eaten him atthe last bit of the race.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Yeah, his tires were done and he did exactly what he
needed to do to hang on.
All right.
How about teams In order ofcurrent constructor standing?
What did you have for ourfriends at Red Bull Winers?
I said lovely.
Watching them flail was lovely,mercedes.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Mercedes, I have problems.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
I have assholes, it's possible.
I'm still bitter about them notbeing at the podium.
Ferrari Writers, that's a goodone.
I went strategic, but inhindsight that really was Carlos
, not them.
But yeah, fair enough.
Aston Martin, your race.
I had nowhere McLaren Faster.
I had better Alpine Aston, thatworks.

(01:04:38):
I had no Williams Hard.
Oye Hass Defensive.
I had oye Alpha Romeo Bro Can.
I had oye Alpha Torrey Lawson.
I'll go with that too.
He's earned it All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, that isour summary of the Singapore

(01:05:01):
Grand Prix in 2023.
We are going to continue on nowto Suzuka.
We're going to talk about thesecond of two races and what
made these bookends particularlyinteresting.