Episode #19: 2023 Mexican Grand Prix

Today we're talking about the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix, which featured the worst opening corner imaginable for the hometown hero Checo Perez, another tire whispering masterclass from Lewis Hamilton, a stunning recovery drive from Lando Norris, and a whole lot of overheating breaks and engines.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Greetings and welcome to Formula XX, a podcast by two
Gen X women talking aboutFormula One and other
motorsports, usually with adultbeverages and always with adult
words.
Today, we're talking about the2023 Mexican Grand Prix, which
featured the worst openingcorner imaginable for the
hometown hero, another tirewhispering masterclass from
Lewis Hamilton, a stunningrecovery drive by Lando Norris

(00:21):
and a whole lot of overheatingengines and brakes.
Here to help me talk throughall of that is my normal partner
in crime, jen.
How are you, where are you and,most importantly, what are you
drinking tonight?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I am in my new condo, so if it sounds like a cavern,
apologies.
And I have cracked open abottle of Wee Beastie Artbeg.
Artbeg is one of my go-tofavorites.
It's a distillery I visited acouple times in person and you
know it's a good sort of throatclearing whiskey.
Oh, and I'm in Vancouver-ishHeather, where are you and what

(00:55):
are you drinking?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm in Seattle-ish and I am drinking incline
prickly pear cider, anotherlocal cidery.
I'm pretty sure that if I had awhiskey tonight I'd be asleep
before we finish this podcast,so I am sticking to the sugary,
gluten-free, aptly alcoholicbeverage of the evening.
I know we have a decent amountof action to cover for the

(01:20):
Mexican Grand Prix, but I willjust say overall, what were your
big takeaways from the race?
How do you rank this racecompared to some of the recent
races we've been watching?
What were your impressions?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I thought this race was pretty interesting.
I once again did not get towatch it live.
The amazing Heather and severalof my friends helped me move
Saturday and then I wasunpacking all day Sunday but
watching it last night there wasa lot of action up and down
everywhere.
There's a lot of differentstrategies that happened.
I found it a thoroughlyenjoyable race.
I also had a lot to drink bythe midway to the end of it so

(01:55):
maybe I missed that.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
So it was maybe more interesting than it would have
had.
I think it had a mix ofinteresting elements and the
curse of 2023, where there'ssome real boredom, considering
that it's a track with a lowovertake rate and people seemed
prepared for it to be a prettydull race.

(02:17):
Once it was underway, I thoughtthere was a lot of overtaking
granted, as I alluded to in theintro, I think Lando Norris did
the majority of the cinematicovertaking, but up and down the
field there was quite a bitgoing on at different times.
I think the direction wasreally bad on Sunday's race.

(02:38):
The choices of where they werecutting to, when they were
cutting to things was oftensuspect, but there was a lot of
action.
The red flag in the middle ofthe race, which we will talk
about, I'm sure, also shookthings up.
I think it might have been apretty dull middle 30, 40 laps
if it wasn't for the red flagthrowing the strategy up in the

(02:59):
air.
So I thought it was a good one.
Any race that ends with two ofmy favorite drivers on the
podium gets a big thumbs up.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
It was a good one to watch.
We should also both say that weare much less note full than we
usually are for this due to theaforementioned moving.
I know that the Bastions isspot-on in this and preparedness
, but we're going to lower thebar for ourselves a bit.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
We get done what we can get done.
Normally we talk a little bitabout free practice.
I think I listened to two ofthe three free practice sessions
.
A non-sprint weekend meant thatthe teams went back to having
lots of time to prepare.
For me, I think the only thingsthat really stood out were that
Alex Albon was incredibly quickin the Williams in the free

(03:45):
practice sessions and was rightat the sharp end across sessions
on merit, which I think had abunch of people going whoa.
How much of that relates to theunique characteristics of Mexico
City and how high up it is, thethin air and all of the
complications that that actuallybrings for the teams during the

(04:06):
race.
Who knows.
But it was noteworthy, mercedes, coming off of a big weekend in
Austin.
We have not at this timerecorded our Austin pod and we
will get to that at some pointsoon.
But if you take away the dramaand conversation that's
inevitable about thedisqualifications the big floor

(04:26):
update that they brought therewas a lot of talk coming in to
the Mexican Grand Prix.
Was it only good because theyeffectively cheated?
if you're a Red Bull fan,they're ones to talk about
cheating, yeah right, but whatdid it mean for the Mercedes
overall?
And the Mercedes wasfloundering, they were nowhere
in free practice, they were juston the struggle bus yet again,

(04:48):
and so you kind of felt like,huh well, what does all of that
mean?
Beyond that?
It was, I think, maybe a fewminor nipples and bits about
interesting things, but therewasn't a whole lot to it.
Frankly, kuali, on the otherhand, I think, as we see pretty
much now every weekend, I don'tthink you can have sort of a

(05:11):
baseline expectation going intoKuali anymore, kind of ever,
because the one lap pace tendsto be so tight across the teams
that any number of things canshake up the order.
Did you have specific thoughtsthat you wanted to talk about
with regard to Kuali?

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah.
So I think one of theinteresting things and the
challenging things for Kuali wasone it was hot as fucking balls
.
Those drivers have had a coupleof races now.
Like Austin was nearlyunbearable, mexico is hot as
balls, but they also had a widetemperature variant from Q1 to
Q3, which I think affectedthings quite a lot as well, and

(05:50):
I think not only did thetemperatures affect the tires,
which ended up having a sort ofmixed up grid, it also made it
absolutely perfect Storm, exceptin a good way for Ferrari,
because Ferrari ended up walkingout the front row and they were
just in the perfect spot.
I think it was a bit of a badfor Mercedes, but yeah, I think

(06:12):
Q1, there was again.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
It almost feels a bit normal that there's somebody
who isn't getting through,sometimes in Q1, maybe a bit
more often in Q2, but a big name.
And in this case, lando had allsorts of problems in Q1 and
basically was out right away.
There was a yellow flag thatcame out and that caught a

(06:40):
couple of people out Lewis wasunder investigation for not
slowing under yellows, loganSargent was under investigation
for overtaking under yellows.
In the meantime, in Q1, yetanother FIA shit show created,
produced, starring and featuringthe FIA stewards, because we
had not one, not two, we hadthree different drivers who just

(07:03):
parked up at the end of the pitlane and decided that they were
not going to go forward, andeverybody else in the pit lane
was backed up behind them.
It was a clear case of impeding.
This is not even a exotic topic.
This is territory that was wellcovered just a few races ago in
Singapore, when Max Verstappendid the exact same thing.

(07:24):
They only gave him a reprimandthen came out a few days later
and said yeah, actually we wereaccidentally too lenient on a
red bull, because that neverhappens and admitted that they
should have penalized him tojust basically throw their hands
up and go well, max Verstappen,he gets his own rule.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
You know, if the only reason George didn't get
penalized was because theyweren't going to penalize Max?

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, and I mean the rationalization, which was well.
We feel like it's better forthem to park up in the pit lane
than it is for them to be parkedup on the track.
You're the ones who createdthis minimum time delta.
These are not new issues.
The issue of cars wanting tocreate space did not start in
2023.

(08:12):
Again, we just came off of arace sequentially.
Again, we haven't recorded thepod, but we just came off a race
where the absolute black andwhite stark nature of the
technical regulations and thefact that if you're.05
millimeters shy on the depth ofyour skid plank is an automatic

(08:32):
DSQ and I'm not arguing againstthat, I'm just saying there's
something so fucked by the factthat on the sporting side, it
feels like the rules are sosubjective and so randomly
enforced and rationalized andused whenever it suits them,
versus the technical side.
It just keeps making them lookstupider and stupider and

(08:56):
stupider.
In my opinion.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I agree with that.
I also think it makes them looklike a favoritism more and more
and more blatant.
You absolutely have, as yousaid, hard rules that you cannot
get around.
If you're a Red Bull, you canget around them, no problem,
which just invalidates sort ofeverything.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
I was disappointed by that.
I have to admit there were someother marginal FIA stewarding
calls this weekend that we'lltalk about, but that one I think
to your point just continues tobuild this increasing
perception.
Whether it's justified or not.
You just can't not have peoplefeel like that's the way it is

(09:35):
when you keep appiling on moreand more evidence that makes it
seem like that's the case.
In any case, q2 was one ofthose.
Max goes out.
Sets a flyer, doesn't need todo anything else, parks up, he's
done is conserving tires.
Danny Ricardo is showing upvery nicely in that Alphatorie

(09:55):
which, I'm not going to lie toyou, I still don't fully
understand where Danny Rick orthat Alphatorie came from this
weekend.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
They do either, which is unfortunate for them because
it means they can't replicateit.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
We'll see whether they can.
The good news is they've gotanother race in.
As of this recording a handfulof days, they'll have a pretty
good idea whether that was aone-off or some magic has
happened.
He had a really good weekend,was showing well in Q2.
The Mercedes boys again, whokind of got themselves through

(10:28):
Q1 but were not shining stars byany stretch of the imagination,
had had three pretty scrappy,not good free practices,
suddenly found themselves at thetop end at Q2.
Lewis threw in a fastest lap,george was right there in third,
behind Verstappen, who againonly did one run.
Like you said, the temperatureswere just dropping like a rock

(10:50):
at this point, because Qali islater in the day, by God.
Q3 came along and that firstrun the Ferraris were just like
bam front of the pack, yeah thetemperature that we keep talking
about.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
it was like I can't remember now, but it's like
three or four degrees Celsius.
That's a huge, huge amount.
You have your car set up forone way to go.
There's no easy pivoting forthat.
I mean, yeah, you have like 10minutes to fath about to try and
change stuff, but you're fuckedright Like yeah, and the
Ferraris, it turns out, weren'tfucked.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, definitely they inherited the sweet spot for
their particular setup.
I think Verstappen split themon the first.
I can't quite remember.
At the end of the day, dannyRick again put that Alpha Tori,
way up, was in fourth.
The two Ferraris locked out thefront row.
Verstappen in third, perezfifth.
Hamilton was really the onlyone who significantly improved

(11:43):
on his second run.
It just wasn't enough thatMercedes was not happy, just was
not in the sweet spot at all,even in quality.
Anytime, I suppose that youdon't have Verstappen on the
front row, it feels like a mixedup grid having Ricardo up there
in the mix.
Having Danny Ricardo outqualify Czecho Perez, who's in
the second Red Bull at his homerace, was just a tiny bit of an

(12:07):
omen for things to come.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I think They've all said he has that seat next year.
But, jesus, not for lack oftrying to give it away Right,
it's his seat to lose and he isdefinitely losing it.
He's trying pretty hard at that.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
So that gets us to the race.
Temperatures back up very warm,really brutal.
I think it was weird.
The track temperature was evenhigher than Austin, but the air
temperature was a little tinybit lower.
I won't lie, it does appearthat Mexico City knows how to
put on a heck of a party for theGrand Prix.
Everybody on every team wasjust sort of enraptured with the

(12:42):
experience of how enthusiasticthe fans are there.
Of course Czecho.
We saw in Austin the contingentthat comes up to Austin for that
race and the hometown crowd arewild and crazy about Czecho.
Anywhere he goes, everypractice, every quality session,
driver's parade, just humongouscheers for him, a lot of

(13:05):
pressure, a lot of hype andadrenaline.
The race got underway and heshit the bed he did.
It's such a weird openingcorner right the run down to
that corner.
It feels like it's 80 mileslong.
When you're looking at ityou're just like it's one of the
longest runs down to turn one.
On the calendar, typicallythere's a huge slipstream.

(13:28):
Both Red Bulls got amazinglaunches and Czecho actually got
the better.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, Czechos' launch was incredible.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Czecho actually did get the better launch and just
got himself so far up andalongside Cheryl, who was
alongside Max at exactly thewrong moment.
I think everybody who's talkedabout it at all has drawn a
comparison to Lewis Hamilton andQatar, including Lewis himself
post-race.

(13:56):
That was kind of what it was.
It was a sandwich turned in atthe wrong moment.
I think he assumed he said asmuch, that he assumed that
Cheryl was not going to breakthat late.
He caught air.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Oh yeah, that car launched.
It was actually kind ofsurprising that it didn't flip.
That car launched and it was,you know, I think, inches away
from cartwheeling.
I know they all get checked outby medical, but it can't feel
good those cars have it's noteven like you're, you know, on
the Civic Hatchback or whateverthe suspension those cars have

(14:32):
is.
It's just a huge boop.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Well, we said it last night when we were watching the
other thing about that Red Bull.
The Red Bull, which is prettymuch the most invincible car
ever designed.
You know like people will bearguing about this well, into
the next two decades I am sure.
But the RB-19 is withoutquestion, one of the most
dominant cars that's ever beendesigned or driven, for a myriad

(14:54):
of reasons.
Like Adrian Newey, he knows hisshit is a genius and this car
is amazed balls.
But this is the second time thisseason in you know, I don't
know a span of five or six races, whatever.
It's been going back to Spawhere Perez had what was really
pretty frigging minor contact inthat bullshit penalty call in

(15:15):
the sprint at Spa and it torethis huge hole in the side of
his car.
And the same thing happened onSunday in the race.
It was contact, don't get mewrong, but it was more glancing
blow contact.
Again, it was just wheels towheels catching each other, but
like he had a massive chunk outof the side of that car and he
had to retire?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, we're joking like does.
Is the Red Bull made of tissuepaper on the side?
That's how they're savingweight, right, and you could see
the internal parts moving, likeon his second bounce.
You could see the internalcomponents of the cars shifting
in a different direction thanwhat the chassis was doing.
I'll be very interested to knowhow fucked that car is in terms
of if he needs to take I mean,he must need to take a new

(15:57):
chassis, he'll have to take anew engine.
Right, I saw a stat the otherday I don't know if it was
before or after Mexico, but hehas cost them something.
I can't remember the currency,but it's like 3 million, 3.2
million.
Whatever Even say, it'sAmerican dollars instead of
pounds or euros.
That's a huge chunk of thechange.

(16:17):
I'll be very interested to seeRed Bull's bookkeeping and how
much they spend on cateringagain this year.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, somebody I can't remember which site it is
that posts the WorldDeconstructors Championship, and
they usually show each driverand where they're at on that
scale.
Unfortunately, checo's been inthe lead for a while this season
.
More to the point, you did feelbad.
F1 TV is showing the picturesof the weeping children who are
disappointed because their herois out of the race.

(16:46):
Yeah, there were some genuinelyhideously awkward moments.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
I was hearing Checo like how choked up he was.
Anytime he just looks defeated,right.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Defeated, having to face the press in the immediate
aftermath, walking into thegarage at one point where
basically the mechanics, the pitcrew, are just like.
We have no time for you, checo.
It's just so hard to imaginewhat the atmosphere for him in
that team is right now.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Whose pit crew do you think is more irritated His or
Sergeant's For having toconstantly rebuild cars?

Speaker 1 (17:22):
I suspect his just because the level of expectation
is so much higher in Red Bull.
I don't think that in theWilliams garage there is much
expectation that Logan should beable to be radically
competitive.
There's clearly in both cases askilled Delta between the lead

(17:43):
driver and the second driver.
I just think Red Bull feelslike they are dominant, they own
everything.
Checo is like thisembarrassment, whereas in the
Williams any success is success.
Right now, at this point,everything Albon does is a
miracle.
What is Sergeant doing thathasn't been done by Nikki or

(18:05):
Mazda Spin before him?
Yeah, that's true, no offense,the race actually gets going.
The race wasn't even reallyimpacted because Checo was able
to get back on track and getaround to the pits without a
flag ever being flown.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
I couldn't believe they didn't slow the race down
at all to get the.
There's a huge piece of his carout there.
Oh the irony if Max, who wasthe first one, came around and
was taken out.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Well, more importantly, there was some
rumor I don't know if it'sactually true, though Somebody
said it, but I never sawanything else about it that
Alonso may have picked up somedamage yesterday it was debris
out of that first corner crashAgain when we get into the FIA
and their ineptitude.
Charles God bless the Ferrarimuch like the magical Mercedes

(18:54):
wing in plates that we've talkedabout in the past for Lewis.
A couple of times in the lastcouple of years Charles lost
basically the front end wingplate or had damage to it, but
drove around for that entirefirst lap with it dangling and
they did not give him themeatball.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
No and after the fact , they wanted to investigate him
, which is bullshit.
You don't give him the meatball.
Why are you fuckinginvestigating him?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, it took them.
It was some dumb number.
It was like 1213 laps beforeyou saw the race control
directive that they were goingto do that.
In the meantime, that piece wasclearly going to come off and
would have absolutely donedamage to somebody's car if it
had happened in the right place.
It came off in turn one on thenext.

(19:38):
I think the next lap might havebeen the third lap, doesn't
matter.
The point being came off it wasjust along this driving line,
but most cars are coming throughthere two or three wide at that
point, still trying to overtakeeach other.
So it was in a terrible place.
They waited for an entireanother lap.
The entire group of cars wentall the way around the track.

(20:01):
It was maxed for stopping,coming back into turn one the
next lap before they were likeoh, we're going to do a virtual
safety car and we're going toclean up some stuff.
Maybe we're thinking about it,but we we didn't have the exact
same video footage that everyother person on the planet is
currently watching until now togo.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Oh yeah, there's a problem and we should deal with
it or marshals with radios whosejob it is to look at that and
be like hey guys, there's shitaround that needs cleaning up.
When can we go out and do it?

Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's an odd thing to watch other making decisions in
real time Sometimes.
Anyway, back to the actual race.
Everybody try not to be shocked.
If you're listening at home, donot fall off your chair when I
tell you that Max for Stappenwas quickly in the lead and came
out of turn one in the leadahead of Charles Leclerc, who
managed to keep flying along,frankly, with his broken ass car

(20:51):
and great pace.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, the fact that he didn't lose or was able to
control his significant loss ofarrow.
I don't know if that speaks tothe shit arrow on that car or
his talent as a driver, but hedidn't seem to significantly
lose pace.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
He did not.
He absolutely did not.
The rest of that entire race,well, the first stint until the
red flag, he was on it.
He really was.
He was doing a great job.
Science was in behind him.
Danny Rick, at that point then,I think, was in fourth.
Lewis at that point was infifth, oscar was up to sixth and
George was in seventh.

(21:26):
Unless I've just inverted thosetwo, there was a little
battling that was happening.
Lewis at this point had goodpace as well.
It took a fair number of lapsbecause every car on the grid,
except for the Red Bull, thelone lead Red Bull, driving
around with the perfect car inclean air.
Everybody else is strugglingfor engine cooling, entire temps

(21:50):
and brake temps.
That was the point where yousort of thought this could be a
really dull race, because peopleare going to have a hard time
actually getting past even witha decent pace.
Delta, you can't follow forvery long in that kind of dirty
air.
In those conditions Hamiltonwas able to get by Danny Rick

(22:13):
eventually.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
You got him pretty quick after the restart because
he pipped him on lap 11, so fourlaps in.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, I think that was the point where you sort of
thought oh well, okay, you werestarting to see some action back
further in the field, somepeople trying and working at it.
Yuki did a tour of the Westcountries.
At one point he decided hewould explore the outer limits.
You can't blame him.
Lap nine was getting boring.
Until he decided to take careof that action for everybody.

(22:42):
We got to about, I think, lap20.
That was kind of the point.
Actually, there were some folkswho came in even earlier.
The tire strategy was prettyboring.
Everybody was more or less onhards, to start with the
exceptional Lando because he wasso far back.
He started on soft, but then healso jumped in and changed
tires pretty early, like lap 10or 11.

(23:04):
Rassappan, who came in on 20.
The number of piled-onadvantages you get when you're
the fastest car on the grid by200 miles was that he had extra
tires to choose from, so he camein early.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
He'd been complaining about his tires.
I don't think it was Red Bullwho called him in.
I think it was him being likebring me in bitches, my tires
make me sad.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, but wham, he had plenty to choose from and a
car fast enough to make up thedifference.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, I mean he can do an additional pit stop to
everybody else on the grid andstill be fine.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
I think whether it was going to be a one or a two
stop at that point was still upfor grabs.
If you came in in the low 20s,put on a new hard, could you get
to the end?
Probably, I think, the samething that he did on the Red
Bull.
I think that group was planningto do that.
Rassappan came out, flew byevery car on the grid At this

(23:52):
point people, just like the RedSea, just part, get out of his
way.
Nobody's going to give him anyeven emotional obstacle.
It's just hi, maxi, can I pullfurther over?
Yeah, I mean, what's actuallyslowing him down or trying to
slow him down, was his engineermultiple times to be sensible

(24:13):
and bring the laps in slowly,max, you don't need to do the
fastest lap on your out lap.
Yeah, so there was a little bitof a giggle moment when the
announcers were like it would bereally great if George Russell
could help Lewis Hamilton byslowing Verstappen down.
Cut to Verstappen, just meowright past George like he was

(24:33):
standing still.
Then I have to say, all of ourbitching and moaning about
Mercedes, hideous strategy in afew recent races, not the least
of which is awesome, which wehaven't had a chance to talk
about.
But there are hideous pit stopsand there are hideous strategy.
It was almost like somebody hadlistened Maybe.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
No, you know what it is.
They bought all new equipmentwhich was their problem for
their pit stops and that solvedit.
That must have been it.
Maybe they slept.
Pit crew with hats, like hats,had a horrific double-stack pit
stop which was unfortunate forthem.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, Hamilton came in early enough to undercut
science.
And then we get to the Ferraristrategy, which Stratici Maybe
not as bad as Austin and whatthey did to poor Charles and.
Austin strategically.
But Jesus.
They left signs out rather thancovering Hamilton off Again.

(25:31):
Lewis had great pace.
They already knew this, becauseLewis was up signs his tailpipe
for a whole bunch of lapsbefore they finally went ahead
and said you're just destroyingtires and overheating the engine
, just come in.
So Lewis built a gap on scienceto cover off his pit stop
within very short time.
And that did not play intoFerrari's favor, mostly because

(25:55):
a few laps later the overheatingbrakes on the back of Kevin
Magnus' car literally meltedthrough the suspension and
shunted him into the tech pro.
And it was another one of thosesqueaky bum moments, as we
learned Lewis Hamilton doesn'tknow in the aftermath interviews
Horrifying, yeah, it was one ofthose moments when you first

(26:18):
cut back to the car and the caris just a crumpled heap and you
think, oh God, oh God, oh God.
And K-Mag jumped out, gothimself up onto the barriers,
but you could tell he wasshaking.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, because he dropped down behind the barrier
and he had his head and hisknees.
That was apart from the thingelse.
It was a hard hit.
But his car was also on fire.
One point they're showing youthey're still moving the car and
the car actively has flames onit.
Like don't you put that shitout before you move it?
That doesn't seem safe.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, so super grateful as ever, for all of the
safety equipment andimprovements that exist on these
cars because he was able to getout quickly but that brought
out the red flag.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
The barriers were fucked Like.
It wasn't a little bit, it was.
Yeah, the barriers did theirjob too.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
They did.
So we've got a red flag.
The red flag came out and thatwas the big wrinkle.
Yeah, that was the thing thatactually took the whole race and
went.
Now, what boys and girls, it'sactual strategic time.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, because everybody's coming in, People
can fix broken parts.
I didn't see it one way or theother, but I bet that's when
they fixed Leclerc's nose.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
And you can change tires.
And that was really the bigthing.
Yeah, was what in the hell doyou do?
Because this is Slap 34, whenthey called the red flag.
You're basically at the actualhalfway point.
You've got about 37 laps left,which, by all accounts, you can
do on a hard tire, for sure ifyou've got new or relatively new

(27:49):
hard tires.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
And the temperature is also dropping right.
Like it was 48 basically at thestart of the race and it was 46
when they came in for the redflag.
So that's the other thing youhave to think about too.
Like how's the tire day goingto change?
Like, is it going to changeenough that it matters, because
46 is still freakishly fuckinghot?
Can?

Speaker 1 (28:08):
you make a medium last that long?
There's no precedent for itwithin the context of the race.
If you've got 10, 12, 15 lapold hards, are they going to put
another 37 laps on either?
Hard to say.
And you've got another standingrestart.
So you need to be able to holdposition and go with whatever

(28:32):
compound will help you eitherhold or gain a position if you
really need to.
So there was quite a bit of whoknows what anybody's going to
do, and is it going to mean theyhave to one stop or two stop
after the red flag?

Speaker 2 (28:46):
At the end of the day , the Ferraris and Verstappen
all went Verstappen, by the way,who was at the start of the red
flag saying it wasn't that badof a crash.
Why are we stopping?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
No comment, douchebag .
Oh, I'm sorry.
I commented Basically.
Verstappen and the Ferrarisstayed on hards.
Hamilton went with a medium,danny Rick went with a hard,
george was also on the medium.
These were scrub mediums sofrom Mercedes having gone out on
mediums in Q1 initially, butregardless, they were just one

(29:18):
hot lap and out in an in-lap, sothey weren't well used, just
used Standing restart.
Your order is Verstappen.
Leclerc Hamilton.
Verstappen gets anotherblistering fast start.
Both the Mercs had a horriblestart and the original start of
the race.
I'm curious.
I would love to have been inthe debrief.
The exact same kind of badstart.

(29:39):
So it made me almost think itwas more of a car issue than
either driver issue.
I don't think Lewis had anamazing restart.
It was good.
I think Lewis is better at.
He knows how to position hiscar where he makes up for
whatever is where he puts thecar.
But he did not get aroundCharles.

(29:59):
So it was basically those threeone, two, three out of the
start and into our post red flagphase.
But it was immediately apparentthat Lewis had better pace
again than the Ferrari in frontof him.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Which I would love to know what the difference is
between Qali and the race forboth those cars.
Did they faff around with thema little bit more before?
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well, you can only change wing and tire pressure,
right yeah.
But I think the thing thateverybody was scratching their
damn heads about me included,about this race is what we've
kind of been observing about theMercedes.
At least, I don't pretend tounderstand.
I think the Ferrari hasdifferent issues than the
Mercedes.
The Mercedes has an incrediblynarrow setup window and the

(30:47):
difference in the car betweenheavy fuel and low fuel is huge.
But it's like two differentcars, right yeah.
Sometimes it's like it's twoentirely different cars, and
that's how the drivers feelabout it too is it's like these
aren't even the same versions ofthe car.
This weekend it was flipped onits head.
The car was actually morestable on high fuel than it

(31:12):
generally has been at any otherpoint this season.
Why, like?
It was bad in Qualley, but assoon as they put all the fuel in
and got on the racetrack,suddenly they had pace.
Lewis loved the balance of thecar.
He felt like that was a greatvehicle to drive.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Which is sort of the first time he said that at all
about the car in the last twoyears.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah, I mean he was obviously very happy in Austin
and put in an amazingperformance.
But in terms of yeah, of thiskind of thing, like he was
mostly happy with the tires, hewas happy with the balance he
was.
He had the same issueseverybody else did as far as
overheating and having to reallymega manage brake temps and

(31:57):
engine temps and all the liftand coast that came with that.
But yeah, it was just weird, inMexico City's a one-off, who
knows.
I think they'll be figuringthings out about this car for
the rest of the handful of racesthat are left.
But it was an odd thing.
And I mean, don't get me wrong,I have absolutely no problem

(32:17):
believing that there's a massiveskill delta that has flown
under the radar.
But it was interesting thatLewis had pace and could get by
other cars.
George struggled to get byanybody.
And why, why, what was thedifference there that accounted

(32:38):
for that much pace delta.
Anyway, it took a few laps.
Definitely Lewis was determined.
But on lap 43.
No, lap 40.
It doesn't matter.
Lewis Hamilton took a big oldflying overtake on the inside on
Charles Leclerc.
He had gotten a bit of the dirt.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I think it was a beautiful overtake that he did
and it was a beautiful shot.
The dust coming up on the sidethe fact that it didn't the dust
, nor the marbles my belovedmarbles didn't really fuck them
over.
He got it done.
And he got it done beautifullyand quickly and efficiently.
And then he was up the road.
At no point was I like oh,shalf's going to take that spot
back.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
No, he just checked out.
You absolutely called it.
It was one of those momentsthat probably could have gone
awry.
Another inch to the right,getting that tire on the grass
could have had a much differentoutcome, but they both judged it
to perfection.
Charles gave him just enoughspace, Lewis took just enough

(33:39):
space, carried a ton of speedinto that corner and didn't lock
up.
It was a thing of beauty.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
The noise of the crowd, too, was just incredible.
You don't always hear the crowdroaring for some stuff, but
when Lewis overtook Shalf, thecrowd just lost its collective
mind.
It was almost like, well, checkthose out.
So now we cheer for Lewis aswell they should.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
So the restart had been not grand for Lando either.
So Lando obviously started downin 17th, had worked his way up
a fair number of spots but hadpitted pretty early so had to
rebuild himself through thosespots.
At the red flag he was, I think, in the top 10, but lost four

(34:23):
places.
So he ended up back down in13th.
I want to say it doesn't reallymatter exactly, but he put
himself back down out of thepoints and it was just a bad
start and getting swallowed bythe midfield, all sort of
decelerating into turn one.
But then he started a.
He also came out on the mediums.

(34:45):
His pace was not as good asLewis's but it was very close
and he was doing it in dirty airand having to overtake and he
had a whole set of brilliantovertakes.
Just laser shark positioning,no bullshit.
Get it done, not all into onespecific corner.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
I'm coming off the high of Austin of leading the
race for a good while, fightingreally well with Lewis, lewis
getting that overtake and thenultimately coming in second when
Lewis got de-queued but he Ithink he was probably feeling
pretty good about the last race.
He had.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
I think he was actually in really bad spirits
after KWALI, oh really.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Oh, yeah, oh, after KWALI, so I thought he meant
after Austin.
I was like he seemed prettyokay after.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Austin.
So I'm not sure it was all that.
I would be surprised if he wastoo.
I don't know if I would be allthat excited.
As a driver he doesn'tnecessarily strike me as
somebody who got real ginned upby the fact that he inherited P2
on the podium from thedisqualification, but he has
earned the self-satisfaction.

(35:54):
He's definitely been having agood season and is doing some
great driving.
I don't want to take anythingaway from him.
I just think, holy shit, he wasreally on it after being really
down and really in the pitsabout how KWALI had gone and the
start of the race.
You heard it.
He was kind of angry and biteyon the radio, which he kind of

(36:15):
always is a little bit with hisengineer, but he really put in
some gutsy moves.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, he had a really great overtake of an Ocon he
had a great overtake of DannyRick.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
He had a great overtake of George he.
Just if he had had that kind ofpace earlier in the race or if
he'd had a regular KWALI.
And it's all ifs, ones and buts.
We say this about other driversall the time.
It doesn't mean anythingbecause it doesn't happen.
It doesn't happen and that'sthe nature of it.
In the end, I think himclimbing through that like the

(36:45):
satisfaction of climbing throughthe field and having those
amazing overtakes was probablymore interesting and fun.
He's gotten more kudos for that.
He got driver of the day and Iwon't argue with that.
What he had to do to get backthrough the field.
I think was very impressive.
Then if he had started P4 andbeen fighting at the front, he'd

(37:09):
probably have preferred anotherpodium.
But so it goes and that got usinto the last phase of the race.
Once Hamilton was by Leclerc,the pundits of course were
absolutely convinced thosemediums were going to fall off
at any minute, which really juststruggled.
He could not get progress upthe field.
Signs sort of seemed like he wasin no man's land.

(37:30):
He wasn't making progressagainst Charles, Charles.
Meh.
Charles still had good pace.
He could not close down onHamilton, but of the drivers it
was very much Max and Lewis in afield of their own, with the
fact that Lando, in conditionswhere he was having to overtake,
was not very far off that pace,which is why it's so impressive

(37:52):
.
And then Leclerc was sort ofthe top of the rest of the field
, but those mediums never felloff.
Lando was able to do what hedid by pushing, and Lewis just
kept pushing too, which isinteresting when you consider
how hot it was, and I don't knowif it's the elevation change or
something.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
If just being that high has the pressure like
internal and external pressure,it goes down.
Yeah, I know that, but I'm justwondering if the pressure
internally and externally on thetires somehow helped them out
or not.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, it's the second year ina row they went a step softer
on the compounds because theyfelt like I didn't remember it
till today and somebody said it,because I remember being really
effing bored by the MexicanGrand Prix last year that
Verstappen did like 51 laps onthat hard.
And do you remember?
The big talking point becauseyou always had to have a talking

(38:44):
point about Verstappen lastyear was how freakishly
consistent he was across those51 laps.
He drove all of them and it waslike there was literally no dag
and he was like a robot.
Every lap was within a tenth ofa second across those 51 laps
and I had totally forgotten thatuntil somebody mentioned how he

(39:04):
had that long stint ofconsistent and I was like, oh
yeah, I totally blocked that out.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know why?

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Because everything that happened after the race and
everything became being abigger dick than normal sort of
overshadows anything else he didthen he is such a yeah anyhow
Closing stints of the race downto like the last six, seven laps

(39:32):
, you're still sort of wonderingif maybe those mediums are
going to fall off.
The gaps where there are gapsare pretty big.
Meanwhile, down the fieldyou've got a whole lot of higary
jiggery, as you always do inthe midfield.
Ocon had thrown down thegauntlet at one point and was
like let the Haas know, I'mcoming for him.
And then Estie proceeded to bestuck behind Halkenberg for like

(39:55):
12 more laps, which isbasically a meme waiting to
happen.
Not clear to me why Pierrespent a good long chunk of that
same period of time behindEsteban, because it felt like he
had more pace.
So I don't know if there was.
I wonder if that has to do with.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
like they've had a couple of issues with getting
them to swap places.
Like they had Pierre and Oconswap places because they thought
Ocon had better pace or I can'tremember what.
It was the other way around andGazzly didn't want to give the
spot back to Ocon when hecouldn't pass Alonzo a couple of
races ago and there ended upbeing like a thing on the radio

(40:36):
about it.
So I don't know if that playsinto it.
Now.
If they don't trust each other,I don't know if the team
doesn't trust them to swap spotsproperly and give them back
when asked.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, it's possible.
Is there drama?
I don't know.
It just seemed a little suspectthat Pierre had come up the
field that quickly and then justmagically stalled out right
behind Esteban.
But it wasn't a bad weekend forthe Alpenes.
I think, if memory serves, oconended up in tenth, so he got a

(41:06):
point and frankly that'sprobably not bad for the Alpenes
.
On the other hand, aston Martin, they're taking steps backwards
, man.
It's a cautionary tale at thispoint the idea that they were
head and shoulders above therest of the teams at the start
of the season were the onlycompetition for Red Bull.

(41:27):
At that point, Fernando hadeight has at this point eight
podiums, but I can't evenremember the last race he was on
the podium at this point.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
No, you're sort of blundering.
The joke was they were tracingpoint when they copied Mercedes
and now they've copied Red Bull,but they just don't have the
knowledge to back it up, I think.
So when they're trying tofiddle things to make the car go
faster, let's chuck this at thedark board and see if it sticks
and if it's a bullseye or if ithits the side and falls down to

(41:56):
the ground and into anelectrical socket and burns the
place down.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
They changed everything that you can even
name, almost to the point whereyou wonder how they didn't
trigger the third car rule onStroll's car coming into the
race.
So he started from the pit lane.
He did OK.
There was a point where heovertook Alonso, I think, this
weekend, which just tells youhow not good of a weekend it was

(42:23):
for Alonso.
Actually, I think Alonso wasout, maybe in Q1, also in Kuali,
so he started way down the gridand he just was never anywhere.
There was like I don't remembera point where I looked at the
timing chart this weekend and hewas ever in danger of the top
10.
Yeah, he retired again thisweekend, lap 48.

(42:46):
Are they both DNF?
Yeah, no points this weekend atall.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Well, and now the question becomes when's Alonso
going to start to really fliphis lid about having a team?
That's because he's definitelynot happy with them anymore.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Absolutely.
The comment he made, I think,after the race was that there's
nothing to fight for in theselast three races.
They're basically just going touse these for learning.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Oh dear, that's the most experienced driver on the
grid.
How much more loaded does heneed?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Well, ostensibly for the car.
Nevertheless, the rumor mill atthe time we're recording this
it's Halloween, by the way sothe rumor mill the last 48 hours
has just been absolutely peggedand Aston Martin has been
subject to some of the biggestrumors.
The question is whether or notPapa Stroll is selling to the

(43:36):
Saudis.
Finally, there was a huge blockof shares that were traded
yesterday.
Like 250 million pounds worthof shares were traded just
yesterday, and I think thenthere's some knock on questions
about what that means forobviously, for Lance Stroll, who
nothing ever gets said aboutLance Stroll.
That doesn't include whether ornot he'd be with that team

(43:59):
under any other circumstance andwhether Alonso stays or has
other plans lined up.
Silly season's going to be mega,and I think there was some
question about whether that wasall going to kick off this
weekend, in part because thatRed Bull number two seat is just
never not a constant topic ofconversation, and when their

(44:21):
number two driver, who hasalready sort of been considered
in danger, absolutely bins it inthe first corner, when Danny
Rick basically put himself atthe sharp end of the grid in a
car that's literally been in10th place for a lot of the
season, and then his teammateYuki Sonoda, who, as previously

(44:45):
mentioned, took a detour off tothe land of Oz at one point in
the race, decided to pick afight with Oscar Piazzari,
bounced a wheel off of Oscar'swheel on one lap and in the very
next lap, turned in on him,spun himself completely off the
course, dropped himself from Ithink he was eight at that point
down to 16th, took himself outof the points because it was so

(45:09):
late in the race.
It was lap 49, there was no wayhe was going to get himself all
the way where he needed to bein the Alphatori Literally made
himself look like an a-hole.
On the same weekend that DannyRick rocked in and I don't, I
don't know, brought to you bythe fact that there have been
all these stupid rumors thatsomehow Alonso was going to go

(45:30):
to Red Bull.
And no, that was never, everever, ever.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Well, that was the other one.
I was going to say that they'reswapping Alonso in Paris.
No, I'm like, hey, I don'tthink that's how that works.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
No, there's no scenario.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
You know those two egos together.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
No, and Red Bull's not stupid enough to ever
entertain the concept of dealingwith Fernando Alonso's bullshit
.
They kill each other in threeraces.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Well, and I think Christian Horner would probably
kill Alonso as well.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
That's what I mean.
It would just be bloodbath.
It wouldn't even give it threeraces.
So we got to the end of therace.
Things were closing in on thefinal laps, Lance Stroll at that
point was still in the race.
He does a pretty stupid move inthe stadium section which
resulted in Valtteri Bottashaving to go wide to get out of

(46:20):
the stupid move that LanceStroll made.
But he came back in.
He's like maybe, I don't knowhalfway off the track, comes
back on clips, Stroll, Stroll,spins, Stroll, ends up retiring.
And after the race, the finalstraw for me with the FIA this
weekend.
Well, after the race they gavea huge penalty to Valtteri and

(46:42):
it was just like what, what thefuck?
What the fuck?
There's no way.
At worse, that was a racingincident.
I honestly felt it was moreStroll's fault than it ever was
Valtteri's.
Yeah, same.
What Did you smoke?
That was a bad call.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Maybe the other rumor I've heard, which is that there
Liberty Media is selling to theSaudis who have tried to buy F1
a couple times.
Maybe Papa Stroll, who is inbed with the Saudis, quite
heavily went and was like hey,my oil buddies say my son is
just OK.
You should punish the big,happy fin.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah, I've started to believe that when you're this
stupid, you can't pull off aneffective conspiracy.
So maybe they're just genuinelyinept, I don't know.
I was really underwhelmed bythe Steward's performance again
this weekend.
I know they have a lot to do,but staff up, use the technology

(47:37):
, do something, but be better atthis.
For God's sake, pay yourmarshals.
So that was late in the race,like the last few laps.
At this point Ricardo isstarting to close in in these
last couple of laps.
On George Russell, we've got areally good race kind of shaping
up there.
Logan Sargent, who's gottenhimself from 19th on the grid up

(48:00):
to 12th on the grid.
There's some battles stillhappening in that lower midfield
, not for points but just forbragging rights.
I suppose Lewis Hamilton's onthe radio insisting that he
wants to be able to try for thefastest lap.
I am yelling at my televisiongoing no, you don't, no, you
don't, no, you don't On.

(48:20):
Shit, old medium tires, you'reon for P2.
Shut up, your tires are old asdirt.
Don't do anything risky.
You do not need to go for thefastest lap.
But he did.
Spoiler alert Lewis Hamiltongoes for the fastest lap and
gets the fastest lap.
Danny Rick very, very, verynearly gets George Russell, but

(48:43):
you don't get to see it becausethe fucking director decided to
show Max Verstappen drivingaround for half a lap and his
team clapping for him, while oneof the closest battles that has
existed during the entire racegoes unseen.
Danny Rick gets under 1 tenthof a second away from George,
but again you don't get to seeit.

(49:05):
George does come across theline ahead of Ricardo, but some
spectacularly bad direction.
Logan Sargent, on the very lastlap, retires for a fuel pump
issue after having what wasprobably, honestly, one of his
best races of the year.
Of his life so sad.

(49:26):
But yeah, that was kind of therace.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Lando got himself all the way up to fifth Great
performance, I mean you saidearlier, he got driver of the
day and he fully deserved it.
Like he fucking fought andfought, precisely, like he was
really good when he did onSunday.
Like he got that car up, hebullied that car up through
there and did it cleanly anddidn't take any damage or
penalties and he did a good job.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Agreed.
I think there were othercandidates that deserved a split
of the vote, but I had noproblem at all with Lando
getting driver of the day.
I think Cheryl actually drove areally good race a little
understated compared to whatLando was doing.
I think Lewis had an amazingrace.

(50:11):
His pace, his tire management.
I've seen like the criticism ofLewis for this race is well, if
he had enough in his tires forthat fastest lap, why wasn't he
going faster all along?

Speaker 2 (50:25):
And you're like do you not understand how tired
Dave works Right?

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Like those are 37 lap old mediums.
He meant he tire whisperedthose bitches Like I'm sorry he
had that much left becausedespite a really fast pace he
took really good care of thetires.
Yeah but yeah, that was justsort of funny, but I think there
were.
And Danny Rick again, I am nota believer so I'm still

(50:52):
skeptical.
It's going to take a few moreraces of that level of sustained
performance before I buy that.
That is not a one off.
One off a Red Bull RB 19 enginethat was slotted into the back
of that Alphatorre, something Idon't understand, anything.
I know, nobody listening.

(51:14):
Do I think that that's a realthing that could happen?

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I just don't get it.
No, I mean, he's drivenmediocrely.
Maybe he's just remembered howto drive, maybe that's it.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Maybe.
I mean, he's certainlymotivated.
I think everybody in the freeworld thinks he's going to get
that seat next year.
He's certainly driving betterthan Yuki or Cheko, if those are
the candidates he's competingagainst.
Yeah, he deserves it if he cando this more than once.
Who did you have as Lucky a sonof a bitch?
I actually had Danny Ricardofor what I just said.

(51:43):
Lucky a son of a bitch is DannyRicardo for having his two
biggest rivals for that secondRed Bull seat.
Just choke, epically.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
That's pretty good.
I was going to have KMAG fornot appearing to have gotten any
substantial injuries from thathella crash.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Fair enough, I actually had KMAG under that
poor bastard.
I thought you know.
All you do is drive it alongand your brakes just suddenly
burn through the suspension andlaunch into the wall.
That's not the best day ever.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Right, I had Sergeant for poor bastard.
That was 100%, by far his bestdrive he's had in F1.
One of the better drives I'veseen him have from F2 and F3 and
the car crapped out on the lastlap.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, totally.
That's a really good call.
Douche canoe of the race?
I think I'm sorry, max.
All right, I think we canprobably assume that where you
and I are concerned, that's thestandard answer, but let's
assume we're talking aboutanybody else.
For Douche canoe of the race, Ihave to go with Checo.

(52:52):
I'm sorry, you know, I gave itto Lewis and Qatar.
I have to give it to Checo here.
That was a shit-tacular way toend your home race.
I'm so sorry for him, and Imight put Yuki in slot too, just
because he did not cast gloryupon himself.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Yeah if it's not Max, I think, see, it was definitely
Max, because of all hisbitching on the radio and just
being a dick and not listeningto what his engineers said about
bringing the tires in, I thinkwe're going to need a new
category for Max for Stappen'swhiny-ass radio comment of the
week Coming soon.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Nothing's going to top no talking in the breaking
for Austin that was the best oneever.
But there's always something inthat competition, so
manufactured bullshit.
Liberty Media talking point ofthe weekend for me is pretty
much the same every weekend,which is the constant for
Stappen hype train yeah thatrace wasn't anything amazing

(53:53):
showing, not showing the battlesor Lewis's fastest lap.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Your viewership's down.
Your subscriptions are down.
Why aren't you showing one ofthe few interesting things
that's happening at that time?

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Yeah, to have cut away from that battle between
George and Ricardo was Peak F1.
God, shoot yourself in the foot.
Yeah, it's just that's reallybad.
Records are made to be broken.
We can say that Max for Stappenextends his record for most
wins in a season to 16.
Who fucking raw?

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Well, and here's the other thing.
Yes, it's a good, interestingstat to have, but also keep in
mind the seasons used to be 12long.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Again, I'm trying to be the rational human.
He deserves kudos for what he'sdoing this season, to your
point, the fact that he's won 30, whatever races in the last two
years.
Well, yeah, because theseason's fucking three times
longer than it used to be andhe's in the only good car on the
grid.
Yeah, history will neverreflect that, but it's a joke.

(54:54):
There will never be a pointwhere I can get excited about
him just getting out in the leadand driving around in circles
and winning.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Yeah, Kara, that's essentially not playing, but
using the cheating from theprevious two years.
There's also something that'snot going to be reflected in the
stats.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
No, At the same time I recognize the Red Bull team
are firing at all cylinders.
They're great at their pitstops, they're great at car
setup.
They're dialed in on everypossible front.
So, whatever, he's getting hismoment of sunshine.
The other record Lewis extendedhis record for most podiums to

(55:37):
197 for a second time, and thistime he gets to keep it Well,
and it was his 200th race.
I think His 200th race asnumber 44.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
That was it.
Okay, yeah, I was just gettingout of my mouth and like, no,
he's done more than 200 races.
But I was like, no, there'ssomething.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
There's something about his.
Yeah, I didn't realize how longhe'd raced without the number
44.
Is there anything else that wefeel is important to discuss
about the Mexican Grand Prix,other than, again, it was a
great podium.
I had secondhand embarrassmentfor Max Verstappen wearing a
giant sombrero oh right, the carbeing lifted up to the podium.

(56:21):
I just felt like that wasawkward and weird.
The crowd do not love MaxVerstappen in Mexico for a bunch
of reasons.
They adore Lewis Hamilton,which shocked me.
Maybe it shouldn't have, but Iremember him being booed very
loudly last year, so I was verypleasantly surprised at how much

(56:43):
they frankly I mean theychanted his name.
They were very happy for him.
And then Charles, on the otherhand, who again drove a great
race, is an incredibly sweet guyand got really loudly booed
because of what happened withCheco and ended up having to
defend himself in front ofeveryone, which was like this

(57:04):
isn't right.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
No, what happened with Checo was Checo's fault, it
wasn't Charles' fault?

Speaker 1 (57:08):
No, not at all.
Just passions are running high.
There was a big old brawl inthe stands during the race which
is really.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
Yeah, you just sort of think well, that's probably
been coming for a while.
I'm surprised we haven't seenit yet.
I think it seemed prettyapparent that it was a Red Bull
versus a Ferrari fan scenariothat happened and got out of
control and they got the dudeout and banned him for life,
whatever that means, but it justmeans other friends buy tickets
for him.
Emotions were running high.

(57:38):
Let's just put it that way.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Yeah, I also liked, or was interested to see on the
podium that Shah and Lewis werespraying each other and faffing
around with the champagne andhaving a good time and Max was
off there by himself doing hisown thing, chasing after them at
one point.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Socially awkward little Maxie.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
None of those two really like him yeah.
I don't think they dislike him.
I just don't think I mean theymight, but I think they have
more in common with each otherthan they have with Max for
stopping.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
I think that's true and I think that's sad for Max
for stopping.
Frankly, I did think the cooldown room was one of the more
interesting ones, just becausethey were collectively more
animated together than we'veseen a bit in recent races.
You know the replay of thestart and the replay of Lewis's
overtake on Charles and thereplay of Hukie getting shunted

(58:32):
off of Oscar Piazzari's reartire after driving into him.
I generally thought that thosewere just awkward and lame
moments, but it wasn't the worstone.
All right, anything else you'dlike to add before we check out
and get ourselves ready for theBrazilian Grand Prix this
weekend, which features yetanother exciting sprint race,

(58:54):
boys and girls.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
I'm so excited for this sprint race I can't even
begin to tell you I'm excited toperhaps have my TV put up so I
could watch from there.
We'll see if I get anotherhuman being over to help me lift
my TV up.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
I know I'm feeling bad.
We couldn't do that while I wasup there.
But there you go.
Thanks for listening, ladiesand germs.
We will be back, hopefully in aweek, with more information
about how Brazil 2023 went.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Have a good night, everyone.
Have a good day or a goodwhatever fucking part of the
time zones you are in.