Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2026 Barcelona Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe and enjoy the show.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: By being a racing driver, you are at risk all the time.
By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people.
And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Boys, we're no longer talking about Kimmy winning six in a row. Lewis finally was able to win his first or get his first win for Ferrari and it was a strategy.
So, yeah, I mean it was like, it was like seasons of old. Talking about tires in this race. I think this is the first time it's been like a, a tire deciding race, hasn't it been?
[00:01:03] Speaker A: I mean the stra. I mean the strategy finally. Yeah, Ferrari got the tire strategy spot on. They executed. They didn't find a way to screw it up.
You know, people might say that Lewis was lucky with the virtual safety car that came out when Alonso's car failed. So, so he could do his, what, third pit stop by that point and come out in the lead and then, and then run to the end. But I think he was, I mean, come on, he was gonna, he was gonna win that race anyway, right?
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so too.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Yeah, it was, it was pretty clear from early in the weekend that it wasn't gonna just be a normal one stop affair. You know, I think every, every race pretty much this season has been a one stop, you know, so strategy. Oh, do you start on the hard and then go to the medium or do you go the medium and then onto the hard?
Was the only strategy choice that people have really had this year. So when it looked like it was going to be two stop, maybe even a three stop race, it was, you know, I think everyone was kind of getting a little bit excited that it was. There were actually going to be some strategy calls to be made in this race and then they get on the grid, they whip off the tire covers and Lewis has got the softs on. So it's like. Yeah, yeah, Ferrari actually getting aggressive on this one. They are going for a three stop obviously because it's a soft tyre. Right. I think we saw in qualifying the soft tyre, you had to bring it in nice and gently but then it was only good for one lap at like peak. So you knew they weren't going to last very long.
And then. So that was always going to be the.
Is he going to get off the line first? The Ferrari, quick starting, he's on the soft tyre. It's a good run, pretty long run down to the first corner as it was.
Kimmy got him covered George, sorry, got him covered off and you know it really sort of evolved from there.
The thing that really surprised me in all of that is that knowing that Lewis was going to go on a three stop when he pitted, they pitted George to cover him.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I completely agree.
Like why were they doing. Why did George come in straight after Hamilton? Like he had more life in his tires presumably he could have gone, could have gone longer and what was their plan?
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Not only that but they did it for. With both of their drivers. Like yes, you might as well put have one of them go long and have the other one respond. Why have them both respond?
[00:03:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah because they'll clearly have had their simulations, their models that say because they're decent on their tires. So they were going for a two stop then if they thought that the two stop strategy was the one to do, why not let's George decide what he wanted to do and then put Kim in on the other one. I mean they've got nine laps or whatever at the start of the race they knew that Lewis was on a soft so they should. They could have come on and said we still think two is good, it's the fastest but do you want to cover? Because the undercut was quite strong here the tire degradation, the younger your tyres were obviously you're, you're going to have quicker at the end but the first couple of laps on a tire going to get you ahead, it was going to get you tracked position.
So yeah still don't get it. Still don't get why they called him both.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Russell didn't like it right. He, he complained immediately that he didn't think they should have done it but he followed what the team wanted him to do.
But yeah, I completely agree with you. Why not split the strategies across the Mercedes? Maybe they wanted the two cars together so they could maybe work together to some degree.
But it was also clear from the radio conversations that Ferrari had this completely planned out. They knew exactly how fast Hamilton had to go to catch. I'm not sure if it was in his second. Yeah, in his second stint after he changed his tires he said what's the, you know, how fast do I need to go to catch them? Am I catching them? And they said I think 120.9. He was doing 120.7s or something like that. I'm not sure the exact numbers but he was definitely going faster.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: I think you were about right there. Yeah.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: And he was definitely going.
[00:05:30] Speaker C: It was a 0.9 and he was doing a 0.7.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Whatever the big numbers are. Whatever the big numbers are. But yeah, it's.
It's just a completely weird feeling. You know, it's like the Ferrari of Ross Braun and Michael Schumacher and Jean Todd where their strategy was completely peerless.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: They stumbled into competence, which is amazing.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And yeah, I think, I think Mercedes. Mercedes messed it up. But then it did give us. I mean, once Hamilton was sort of. Once he was back in the lead after all of his stops and was pulling away, I mean, Kimmy came onto Russell like a, like a train. He just, he just looked after his tires, I guess, better than Russell for the race and. Yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker C: Cause at that point, I mean, if we just kind of, if we just back up just a touch just to kind of just finish on, on the Ferrari strategy point. Right before the Alonso, it was maybe a lap or so before Alonso retired.
They were on the radio and they were talking about the next seven laps.
So he's telling him what he needed to do over the next seven laps to get the, the time that he needed to, to be in a position to fight with the Mercedes through the end.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: So again, to your point, they got it all planned out.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: They had it all planned out.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: And at that point he was actually quicker as well at that point because he was not obviously saving his tyres. And he built up, I think it was probably about 14 seconds.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Tony.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah, he was on the medium tires for that third stint and he was crazy fast on the medium tires. Right. He went like soft, hard, medium.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And so Obviously you lose 20 seconds on a full pit stop.
11ish seconds on virtual safety car. So of course, bring him right in.
He was at that point, his tyres were I think five laps younger than.
Five laps younger than George. Four laps, I think younger than Kimmy.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: So Kimmy did have slightly fresher tires, which I think was worth about tenth and a half or so a lap.
But having four or five lap younger tires for Lewis was, you know, they couldn't come anywhere near him. That was half a second.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: And he almost missed it. Right. Like he was as when the VSC came out, he had just passed the box when they called him in and then he was able to get in on the other way around. But right as he came out of the pit stop, the VSC ended. It was like crazy.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Perfect time. Almost perfect. Perfect. Yeah, yeah, it was great. Thanks. Thanks. Alonso,
[00:08:21] Speaker B: who would have thunk he'd be helping Lewis Out.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: I think he was he the last Ferrari to win in Spain back in 2013. Valencia.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: You have to ask Nick. Nick would know.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. But it was. It was 30 years since Schumacher won his first grand prix in a Ferrari in Spain.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
But to go. So to go back to Kimmy, though, Kimmy coming onto Russell, like, if you were George, you're like, what do I. At that point, he must have been freaking out. Like, what do I have to do? I qualified on pole. Now I've lost out on strategy to Hamilton. Now my. Now the guy I'm trying to chase down, my own teammate is going to overtake me. And supposedly the same, you know, equipment. You know, these cars should be mostly equal. But clearly Kimmy was finding something extra over the course of the race. Like I said, saved his tires, managed his tires better, gave him more grip, so he was able to make the move. And ultimately he got through, although with a tiny bit of damage. Right. I think he damaged the front end plate, but I don't think that was the cause of his then subsequent retirement, which was literally, what, a lap later or something like that.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Yeah, a lap after.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: Pretty much a lap later.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, a mini Christmas present for George.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: So I guess they've washed out. You know, Canada, it was the other way around. Georgia went kaput and Kimmy's engine went kaput. Here it was not the.
Well, in George's case, I don't want to say they had the same issue, but they haven't. I heard they haven't been able to figure out yet what's. What happened with George's power unit in Canada.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Because the. It was. It was with the electrical system and the batteries.
And no one will let batteries that are in a state of instability on any plane. So it's actually still on a boat from Canada.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Oh. Oh.
[00:10:25] Speaker C: So they've not had a chance to analyze it.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Insider info. All right. And so is that possibly something that happened to Kimmy as well? But nobody knows.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: I can only speculate. Nobody knows.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:35] Speaker C: Fair enough. But maybe if they had have been able to get it back and look at it, maybe they could have done something and maybe that wouldn't have got Kimi out of the race. But you know, the Mercedes engines say the power unit. Let's talk about the power units because there's the engine and then there's the battery and how the electrical interacts. And we can come to Aduo in just a second. Right. For our geeky listeners amongst us. But. But yeah, The.
I've totally lost my train of thought.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: I have no idea what you were saying.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: So I.
It's just completely gone.
I must be getting hungry or something.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: You're speaking. It'll come back. It'll come back to you in a minute.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Just think about it.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: But in. In general sense, the, the Mercedes seems to have technically have reliability issues.
[00:11:25] Speaker C: Yes, that's what I was going with. They do, yeah.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:30] Speaker C: Obviously McLaren have had them as well.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: So it just seems weird. Something's not quite there with, with the, with the power unit as a whole and it's costing them points.
But they're still. Obviously they've got a certain car, they're in the lead. One thing aduo right, that's the additional development and upgrade opportunities.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: Just after Monaco, the FIA F1 announced which engine manufacturers. Well, first of all, which was the best engine, the best internal combustion engine, which then allows the other, depending on how far away they are from the benchmark engine, additional opportunities to upgrade this year and next year.
Okay, so Red Bull was the benchmark. They have the best internal combustion engine.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Oh.
On its own.
[00:12:28] Speaker C: The, the petrol bit the gas.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:33] Speaker C: Within 2% were Ferrari and Mercedes. So they get one upgrade opportunity this year and next year and then Honda and Cadillac. Sorry, Honda and Audi, Cadillac making their own engines. Yet they get two opportunities this year and two opportunities to upgrade their internal combustion engine over the next couple of years.
So long story short, Red Bull have the best engine.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: But you're saying best engine but not necessarily best engine. Battery, power, unit combo. Yeah, how it all hangs together, which we still. You're not going to be able to
[00:13:11] Speaker B: upgrade it for the next two years.
[00:13:12] Speaker C: Yeah, well, because the whole point, the whole point of this 5050 distribution was to. To really focus on the electrical component.
So they didn't. They basically wanted the combustion engine part to be as similar as possible so that the performance differentiator is the electrical side.
Right. So.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Right. Red Bull, you're not putting so much
[00:13:36] Speaker C: people thinking they weren't the best and well, they are and they don't get any opportunity now to upgrade their engineers.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: So what happened to this whole. This whole 16 to 1, 18 to 1 Mercedes compression ratio, more power.
[00:13:49] Speaker C: I think the change actually went through at Miami or Montreal or. It just happened. There was some change. I don't know. I heard someone make a reference to it in one of the podcasts, like between the two. I was driving at the time, so it didn't quite sink in. But yeah, I think that whatever was going to happen with it has already happened.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Okay, well, there you go. And then, I mean, Ferrari has its own reliability issues. Dare we say that reliability issue is Charles leclerc.
He couldn't finish the race in. In Monaco, although maybe that was the track. Who knows? He couldn't qualify in. In this race. He. He over. Potentially overdrove the car. Crashed it in what, Q3.
And then.
I think maybe I'm being too harsh on Charles, but he lost power steering supposedly in. In this race, and.
But two races in a row, no points.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: He's been quite impressive this year.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, he hasn't.
[00:14:54] Speaker C: I mean, we've talked about. He's had the brakes problem. He hasn't been able to get to grips with the brakes.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: I.
I think that he's. Because if you think back to last season, Lewis couldn't get on with the brakes. You saw him spinning into the bus stop chicane in Spa, for example. Just couldn't get to grips with the brakes. And he moved to the carbon industry brakes from Brembo.
Charles stayed on the Brembo brakes. I think that he moved on. I think he made the switch to carbon industry this. This race to see if he could do something different, see if he could, you know, figure out what the problem was. It seems that he didn't really have a problem with the brakes. He just seemed to have a problem with the rest of the car this time.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
Jason, what about your McLaren boys? They. They were. They were there.
They competed.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: They were like the George of years past, you know, just capitalizing on the cars ahead.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: I mean, Oscar. Oscar just seems to like, if he's not, like, right in the mix, he just seems to sort of be present but not really do anything. If he's not like, at the very front, he doesn't seem to get that much out of the car. Yeah.
[00:16:07] Speaker C: Say the top four teams are all in a very, very similar position. You got Kimmy doing it. George not so much. At Mercedes. You've got Lewis getting it done. Charles having all sorts of trouble.
Oscar, you know, Lando doing well. Oscar not so well. I think that the most consistent teammates at the moment, hilariously.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:30] Speaker C: Ironically, even is, you know, Isaac Hajar and Max Verstappen, obviously, they qualified very close together.
I don't know what happened to Hajar. I think he just got some wheel spin off the start. He went backwards in a hurry.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: He did. He had massive wheel spin. Yeah. He got nothing going. It dropped way back.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: Yeah. But, I mean, we glossed straight over McLaren, but I do want to say great drive from Lando this weekend.
It was his. I mean obviously he benefited from Kimmy's retirement and.
But he was never getting any. Anywhere close to the other two. The other cars. Yeah. So he, he did the max that he could do and he looked pretty happy on, on the podium.
Brit all British podium for the first time since 1968. They said on television which was. Who do they say it was? Jackie Stewart over Graham Hill over John Surtees. Yep.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: In the US Grand Prix in 1968.
Fun fact.
That's. Yeah, actually. Yeah, yeah. Would have been fun fact. That's not the last time there was just a single nationality on the podium.
1983 San Marino Grand Prix. All you nerds out there was Patrick Tambay won the race ahead of Alain Prost, ahead of Rene Arnoux.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Oh, there you go. All French.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: French.
Nice podium.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Well, speaking of French people, you could make an argument that maybe one of the most consistent pairings so far this season has been Alpine. I mean Kyle Pinto is having the craziest season we've seen from him in his short F1 career. And I mean Pierre's been great too and he's able to stay on track. I mean he got a podium in the last race.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: But I mean Colapinto's surprised a lot of people, certainly me. You know, he had a. He was really wayward last year. Now it just feels like he's. He's found his feet a little bit more and we all know how good Pierre Gasly is. So to be, to be keeping up with Pierre is not no mean feat.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: You know, do we, do we want to get into the Monaco pit lane like penalties again with Pierre getting his rescinded and you know, how does that, how could that. Or should that have affected other drivers or just, just move on, just move past it. It's in the past. You can't unpick it. It's impossible.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: It's already been unpicked and scattered.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: It's been unpicked as far as. Yeah, I mean I think the, the latest was that other teams were thinking about how to appeal, but you only have a 96 hour window in which to do so and which obviously long since passed. So I don't know quite what they're going to achieve or what they.
It was. In Pierre's case, it was pretty easy. It was added on at the end of the race.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Right. For those that are served, if you've
[00:19:37] Speaker C: served it, there's nothing you can do.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Nothing you can do, what do you do?
[00:19:39] Speaker C: Just void the whole thing, Take everyone's trophies away a thousand percent.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Oh, it's a bit of a mess.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: But you know, but it was good
[00:19:48] Speaker C: to see that they, you know, F1 had come clean and said, you know what, we've been out, we measured it, we were wrong.
Very rarely do they say that they're wrong.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: I was shocked that it was successful, I must admit. I thought there was no way it would be successful so that was a surprise for me. But on the flip side of that, Colapinto did get a penalty at the end of this race which dropped him down a couple of points because basically he and Hamilton were under investigation for not slowing down enough when Alonso went out. Hamilton they cleared because it was. He was basically right on top of Alonso I think.
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Yeah, he was right, right there at the top.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: He was right there. Maybe he lifted enough but they said that Colapinto didn't. So he got a 10 second penalty or so tacked on at the end which dropped him two spots down to
[00:20:38] Speaker C: 10th, from 8th to 10th which cost me points in coops. F1 as I put on the chat.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: The other person to get the penalty added on at the end was Kimmy.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: Oh, that's right, they did give him the penalty.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: They gave him a penalty for exceeding track limits.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Yeah, track limits on turn 10.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: I don't know how they can add it to his time when he retired. I thought they carried over into grid places at the end.
I don't know.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Logic, consistency, you know, sometimes they don't go hand in hand when it's the fia. But yeah, you're right. Like if you don't serve your penalty during the current race it's, it doesn't not supposed to just disappear but yeah, I don't know. Who knows?
[00:21:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: But yeah, supposedly he's going into Austria clean.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Well, I guess, I guess we'll see there. I mean do we call Georgia winner on the race?
[00:21:33] Speaker C: I don't know if you can call him a winner I think.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: I mean stuff he's gained, he's a net point winner.
But psychologically I don't know if. Because he was, he was strong in the first stint so I don't know if there was anything that was like going wrong with his car, whether he had a problem for the second and third stints. Yeah, but it, you know, he was doing really well at the start so I don't know if. I don't know what was going on there. But to have his young teammate Close him down and get by even though he did retire straight away.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's not good.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: Right.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: That's going to play in the back of his mind. We're all going to expect Kimmy to overtake George again, you know, next race if it comes to that. You know, he seems to have.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: George's defense was a bit weak. He did it just like it was a little bit late and a little bit soft of a maneuver to try and close the door.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: But he knew the guy was coming.
Why was he not more. I don't not say like super aggressive, elbows out, but he didn't even move over at a place where you would expect him to have moved over to close the angle.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Right?
[00:22:50] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: I don't know. George needs to. George, like you said, net point winner, but he hasn't silenced the critics by any stretch of the imagination. So he needs, he needs to do a lot more.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah, I mean he was, he was great through up until that first pit stop.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: You know, got the qualifying done, got off the line, was doing what he needed to. But it's just kind of weird where the pace went.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Well, it doesn't, it doesn't really matter now now that Ferrari have got it all sorted out. All I needed was one race. This was the race. Ferrari, all their problems are behind them. They're strategic geniuses.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: They did have a big upgrade package.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Hamilton's gonna just dominate from here on out, you know, and you know, he'll close the gap.
He's got his mojo back. He'll close the gap, you know, race by race. He'll reel in Kimmy. You know, George is already behind him in the standings. He's already in second.
Yeah, well, this is the thing, right?
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Kimmy, he idolizes Lewis.
George is his teammate that needs to be defeated who's never really won anything. Obviously he's from won races and we all know how good a driver George is.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: But it's a very different thing in Kimmy's mind, I'm sure as a young guy having his teammate who is a known quantity and he knows he can get the best of him in the same vehicle at this point, driving the seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton in a rapidly improving Ferrari.
Yeah, I hope you're right with him.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: I hope you're right. I mean, I was kind of a Kimmy fan going into this anyway.
[00:24:23] Speaker C: But that's all over now.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: But that's all over now.
Exactly.
Come on, Jason. Is it possible?
[00:24:30] Speaker B: What? For Lewis to win?
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Of course. Yes, of course.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. I kind of agree with Nick. I think Lewis, if they can keep the car competitive, would, I would think, be the favorite. Right. Even though he's 40 some points behind, he's Lewis Hamilton. He's in his second season.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Love to hear it, Jason. Love to hear it. Kimmy's going to crack and Lewis is going to drive on through and he's going to get that cursed that no one can even get in motorsport. 8th world title, it seems to be across all motorsports. I don't know if I'm over my skis a little bit here, but I believe even in like NASCAR IndyCar people have got to seven world championships if nobody can get that elusive eighth.
Hamilton had one hand on it in 20, 21 and it was snatched away from him.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: But he had two hands on it. Let's be real.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Two. Two hands on it.
He was getting. He was getting in the cab with it to take it back to his place.
All right, we're definitely out over our skis now.
Oh, man. But yes, very interesting. I mean, I guess at least we're talking about this. We're not talking about speed differentials and super clipping on the straights and stuff like that, you know, so that's.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it was a riveting race and I didn't even think about super clipping once. I don't know if they were being impacted because it's not really a long straight. The only straight really is.
Is the start, finish. So. And I don't know that they showed any in car or that I didn't have my family talking at me when.
When they were showing an incar. And so I couldn't hear any clipping going on.
But it was a riveting race. It was strategy, different calls.
I enjoyed the race.
To your point, we're not talking about the ways that Formula one have tried desperately to get it wrong fixed. A few problems.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: And Pirelli have done them a solid by putting softer tires on, which have made the strategy more interesting.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:26:47] Speaker B: yeah. I mean, I guess really all that we have not spoken about so far is just some of the guys that were bad. I mean.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: Or some of the weird and wonderful retirements that have been out there. Nico Hulkenberg was having a great weekend until Liam Lawson kicked up a stone and it hit his kill switch and shut his car down.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: That's what I. That's what I'm staring. Yeah.
[00:27:11] Speaker C: That's bonkers.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: That's insane, right? I mean, that's unfortunate.
Supposedly that happened.
I mean, anything's possible I suppose.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: Another weird one was Alex Albon. The camera above his roll hoop got loose and it was rattling around and they made him come into the pits and fix it. So he was in the pits for three laps.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: While they tightened it up.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: And then. But then they just sent him out for a test session.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: He did go back out again. Yeah, but, yeah, they had voles on the. During the race, didn't they? Interviewing him, explaining what was going on, which is. I don't know whose job it is to secure that. Is that on Williams?
But.
[00:27:51] Speaker C: Well, they put the car together. Yeah,
[00:27:55] Speaker A: but the cameras are supposed. I don't know who supplies all the bits and bobs?
[00:27:58] Speaker C: Well, the engine is supplied by Mercedes, but it's bolted on, don't they? Yeah,
[00:28:05] Speaker A: yeah. Somebody at Williams didn't. Didn't get that. Didn't get the right torque wrench out, I guess.
[00:28:10] Speaker C: I hope it's not George.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: And then I guess Aston, we. We spoke about Fernando, but I mean, what is there anything to say about Lance at this point?
[00:28:21] Speaker A: He out qualified, Alonzo.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. Yeah, he out qualified for the first time, what was it, the 43rd attempt
[00:28:27] Speaker A: or something like that? Something like that, yeah.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: 43 times since he last did it. And they asked him about it and he said, I don't give a shit.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Oh, there you go.
I mean, you're kind of asking tongue in cheek, aren't you?
[00:28:39] Speaker C: No, he didn't say he didn't give a shit about out qualifying Alonso. It's just. He didn't give a shit, like how long it took him.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Weird.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, Norway just scored again.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Disturbing.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I think he's just being a bit. I think he was just annoyed at the question.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
I mean, he only did, what, six laps or something?
Stroll before he retired. He did almost nothing. They're just having a shocker. It can't get any worse for them.
[00:29:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it was before Monaco, I think, that I saw an interview with Adrian Newey and he basically said, yeah, we're not doing anything on this car. We're designing an entirely new car for spa.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Okay, well, least they're still going to try for this year then, I guess. I mean, they have to, right? Because these drags aren't going anywhere.
[00:29:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. They've got to do something.
But this year is a complete lost cause.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Well, I think that's pretty much everything from the race, I guess that takes us to Coops F1.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Coupes F1 this week. So, yeah, you know, middling to low scores again. You know, Kimmy not finishing. Charles not finishing. You know, it's hard not to put those in your top 10.
Beaverro with a top score of 220 points.
Matt D 214 points.
And Tulio Tuilio 75 with 205.
There was a little bit of movement in the standings, especially after I put in I a late update with Colapinto's penalty. But Beaver Taro moves up two spots to first. Toto's underva. They're just going to be there every week.
In second fight to win. Drops down from first to third for us. Jason storming up the table. 26th, up 21 points.
Very annoying.
I should go in and edit the database.
Did I say that out loud?
[00:30:46] Speaker B: You can't do that.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: I can't do that. No. I have too much. Too many morals and ethics. I dropped down 10 spots to 44th. Nick, did you actually put some picks in this time? Did you use your big brain?
[00:30:58] Speaker C: I did, but I hadn't counted on Colapinto getting a penalty.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: You still went up six spots though, to 143rd. So, you know, moving in the right direction, but yeah. Long way to go. Austria next in two weeks, right? Yep.
[00:31:15] Speaker C: Yep.
Red Bull expected to bring some upgrades. They usually bring an upgrade package to.
To the Red Bull ring.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:26] Speaker C: But I don't know quite what they have on the upgrade front. McLaren did use their new front wing this race. They brought it in Miami.
They didn't feel good about it. They brought it in Montreal and didn't really feel too good about it. I don't think even tried in Monaco because you don't want to be unsure about a car around Monaco. Also Miami and Montreal, they only had one practice session to try it out because of the sprint weekends. So they did put it on this time and it did seem to work for Lando. Gave him a front end like he likes.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Oh, one other thing I did see, and I don't know about these guys, but maybe you do, is they apparently there was a lot of junior drivers in free practice. Is that right? Or you did you guys see that or do you have any opinion on that? I didn't. I didn't really pick up on it. Like seven.
[00:32:13] Speaker C: I didn't watch. I didn't watch fp.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:16] Speaker C: But I do know that there were a number of. In. Fred Vesty was in.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: One of. One of the rookies did really what? Like did a really good time.
Yeah. The Guy who won F2 last year was P5 in the first practice session in Lando's McLaren. Nice for Neroli.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: So maybe these are some guys that we'll hear and hear about in a few years time.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: All right.
[00:32:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Well, anything else you guys think we missed? Oh yeah, Colton Hurdle was in one of the cars too.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Oh yes. Yeah, he was in the Cadillac.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Yeah, his name has been, been knocking around for a long time. He's just trying to get all the points he needs. Right, to get a super license.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but didn't they change the points for, for IndyCar this year so that if he'd have just stayed in IndyCar he could have had enough super license points anyway?
[00:33:15] Speaker B: That would be unfortunate.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: Yeah, but, but you know, he, he's. I haven't been following F2 to be perfectly honest this year to see where he's doing and what's been going on over there. But yeah, I mean, obviously there have been sort of driver switch rumors with Bottas seemingly struggling next to Perez.
Cadillac have done what they can to kind of dispel those rumors.
You know, Bottas basically saying, no, it's not, it's not going to happen, we're here, we're in for it.
Whether that changes at the end of the year based on a full, you know, a full season of results and if they might want to put him in, obviously an American team wants an American driver, so.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: And I have the Andretti connection. I think it's a foregone conclusion. I think he's probably got the best shot at an F1 seat out of all the non drivers in F1 at the moment.
[00:34:08] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
Crazy rumors going around this weekend of Alonso to Alpine and retiring.
Yeah, I don't think he'd go because it's not like Alpena building a winning car. And do you really bail on Newey after one year? It's like. And go back to Alpine and go back for the, like the eighth time or whatever. Maybe, maybe it's five, maybe it's four, I don't know, it seems like a lot, but no, I mean, Fernando just has a habit of being in the wrong car at the wrong time.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: The right car at the wrong time or in a car at the wrong time, whatever. Yeah. So it's like, you know, I don't really see much, much in that. I think he'll stick it, he'll stick around to just take Lawrence's money.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: But after, after next year, who knows?
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean they're like you said, they're speculating that's probably his last race at the Barcelona track.
[00:35:08] Speaker C: So, yeah. So, yeah, he could be retiring.
Does he have a contract for next year? I don't even know.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: Well, there isn't. There isn't a Barcelona race next year. That's one of the other things.
So it's only every other year at Barcelona. So you throw that in.
[00:35:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. It's rotating in with Spa. I forget.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: With Spa.
[00:35:26] Speaker C: Spa from next year. So. Yeah, so we're both. We got both this year and then just Spa next year and then Barcelona. That's right.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: That's right, exactly.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: So even if he does. Even if he is racing next year, it's his last time to Barcelona.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Potentially. Yeah.
But he's still got Madrid coming up.
[00:35:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Spanish Grand Prix.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: Spanish Grand Prix. Sorry, yes. Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
[00:35:52] Speaker C: He has to give up the corner. I had the nose ahead.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: What is wrong with these people?
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the undercuts review of the 2026Barcelona Grand Prix. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and join us next time for our review of the 2,026 Austrian Grand Prix. We'll see you there.
