Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Is Sergio Perez deserving of the number two seat? | Was Lando Norris’ behaviour ‘unsportsmanlike’?

Hello everyone, welcome to this week's podcast and help me look back at a weekend of records

for Red Bull. I'm joined by not one, but two pit lane reporters, Ted Kravitz and F1 journalist

Claire Cottingham. Hello both.

Hi.

Hello Matthew.

Hello.

Thanks for having us in your loft department.

Well.

Is that open up to a nice view of Bermond's in the River Thames?

Let's say yes.

Let's say yes.

It's always a warehouse kind of vibe that Matthew has.

I should say Claire and I are colleagues, as you say, in the pit lane and colleagues

from W Series, the first year of W Series we did together.

Yeah, we did. I haven't been able to get rid of you since.

No, I know. We might get on too late.

Yes, we will. We certainly will. And Ted, you have just come in direct from Canada.

Yes, I was out there, Matthew. They made me work on it with the wrong review, so it is

my job. So, yes, just to explain a slightly disheveled experience. Sorry I didn't shave.

That's okay.

But straight in from Canada. And I must explain this rather unusually fashionable top that

I'm wearing. This is, do you like it?

Yes, I do.

This is a designer t-shirt. It's got the whole thing on the back of it. That's not a mistake.

That's meant to be there.

Can you see it?

What is the shape? Do we know what the shape is?

It's a shape.

Oh, right.

It's just an antagonal shape.

Great.

This was the present from the clothes shop from Zhe Guang Yu. The Zhe Guang Yu shoot

that we did, that was shown at this week's Canadian Grand Prix coverage. I didn't come

away with a Fred Flintstone outfit that he chose for me, but he did choose this for me.

It's by Acronym.

Yeah.

Acronym, which I'm sure you'll know.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a designer brand.

An elite designer brand.

Okay, good.

Yes, I was about to say that.

That doesn't mean anything.

No.

No.

Oh, it's very nice.

An awful lot of money.

I would just say thank you very much to Zhe Guang Yu and his kind generosity because he

bought me a T-shirt.

Yeah, very nice.

He wanted to buy me the Fred Flintstone outfit and I was like, you're right, Joe.

You're right.

You're right.

You're right with that.

I would prefer that.

I'm not going to lie.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Didn't have any sleeves.

It's got an issue with your arms.

Clearly, have you seen the piece?

I bought my terrible farmer's tan.

Oh, of course.

Yeah.

He didn't expect me not to be wearing a T-shirt underneath.

But yeah, good weekend.

Good weekend.

Yeah.

Claire, how was your weekend?

Really good.

Thank you.

I wasn't in Canada, but I was still at a motorsporting event, so you can't keep me away too long.

But yeah, no, it was good.

It was nice to watch it.

Sometimes it's nice to watch it from afar and see exactly what's been happening.

And yeah, it was a really exciting one to watch from afar for me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Before we get on to the race, actually Ted, I just want to, because when you came back

from Australia, you gave me a Joey Kangaroo.

Oh, yes.

Right.

And now I do know what...

And what?

You want your present?

Well, I do know that you've got a present.

And the apartment is slightly disappointed.

It's not a little cuddly toy marmot after the...

That's true.

One of the great pieces of nature.

There were some.

There were some.

I was looking for a moose with a blue hat, but I could only find them with the Mounties

hats.

But you're right, Matthew.

I do have a present for you.

Yeah.

I saw how big a moose was the other day.

Yeah.

No?

Oh.

Where was the moose?

It was on Twitter.

Oh, right.

That's where moose are.

That's where moose is live.

Moose, plural of moose is moose.

Ah, there we go.

Here you go.

I've got you some Canadian crisps.

And looking forward to the hard bites.

Maybe we should rename this podcast Hard Bite.

We take a hard bite look at the current issues in Formula One.

But Canadian crisps.

Yeah.

How often do you see Canadian crisps?

In Canada, quite a lot.

Well, I suppose so.

And that smoky barbecue flavour.

They look delicious.

They are vegan, I think, Claire.

A lot.

Do you know what?

A lot of the meat-flavoured crisps are vegan.

So many are.

So many are.

It's usually the cheese ones that aren't.

Yeah.

I don't know what I'm looking at.

They're great.

Good.

Anyway.

There's your present from Canada.

Thank you very much.

It's not a cuddly marmot.

But anyway, fine.

Right.

Let's move on to our one-word race reviews.

Claire, you go first.

Promising.

Oh.

Because I think we saw something really interesting, I think, over this whole race.

And I'm sure we'll get into it a lot more.

But with the upgrades with the fact that Max wasn't the most dominant Max we've ever seen,

it felt like we were, of course he was still going to win, but it felt like we were on

for a bit of a fight and having that second place as well being a real exciting battle

between two fantastic, you know, magical drivers, it just felt like it was the first race that

I've been like, there's something that could happen here.

And with a track like Canada as well.

I know Max was out front laughing, but, you know, he nearly knocked himself out on a curb.

But...

Sort of evil cackle, wasn't it?

Yeah.

But it was, it just felt like finally we've had something, some of the upgrades are starting

to show something and we're starting to see a bit more of an exciting prospect of a season.

I think promising is good.

If not for the lead, then certainly for some more action.

Yes.

I did think of some other ones for you, Matthew.

I thought Marmot's Mounties, Maple Syrup.

Moose.

Moose, Melbourne, not Melbourne, Montreal, and some other Ems.

I did think briefly about unsportsmanlike, but we'll get to that later.

Yeah.

But I still, well, I think it is.

But I still go on quality, sorry to repeat myself from the notebook.

But there was just quality about the podium with the guys on it, there was quality about

the racing between Fernando and Lewis, and that's the expectation, you know, the prospect

that we're going to see more of, hopefully, because that's great every time they go at

it together.

And as Mercedes edged towards Aston Martin, because they're not as quick, Aston Martin

is still quicker, which is always interesting, we're going to see more of the Lewis against

Fernando, and that is quality.

Yeah.

Fingers crossed.

Very exciting.

I thought you put your hand up, but that was a thing.

No, fingers crossed.

Yeah, I was just agreeing.

I was like, no, absolutely, I want to see more of it.

I think so.

Yeah, for sure.

I've actually gone for records, because it was a big weekend for records for Red Bull

and for Max.

100 wins now for Red Bull, 41 wins for Max, which now equals Ayrton Senna's amount of

race wins in Formula One.

And the record, which I kind of think got slightly overshadowed by the other two fairly

incredible achievements for Red Bull and Max, was 200 wins for Adrian Newey this weekend,

their chief technical officer.

So records.

Yeah.

I'm kind of, I think you're falling for the classic records trap there, Max.

God, God.

Well, you know, now that we have 805 races in a season, then you are going to get these

records that tumble rather quicker than they used to.

And certainly on the race wins point with reliability now, the way it is, I think reliability

means that actually if Ayrton Senna was racing in 2023, he would have finished more races.

Is that a fair comment?

Yeah.

I would think, yeah, I think, you know, Max sort of summed it up after the race, didn't

he?

He said, you know, I don't want to look at the two different generations.

I don't want to see what they did compared to what I did now because it's completely

different.

Formula One has completely changed.

And you also have to remember Max is only 25, you know, so he's got this amazing 41

wins under his belt at such a young age.

So that has to show that we've got something along the lines of reliability playing into

it and the generation just being so different, you know, if we hadn't moved forward with

what we've seen in the past, you know, we wouldn't have the safety standards we have

now.

So racing is completely different, I would say, from back then.

Yeah.

Senna was what, 35 when he died?

And were there only 15, 16 races in a season?

So, yeah.

There's a chance.

I think Max was, was, who was keen not to do Senna, you know, wasn't he?

Yeah.

But Lewis does that as well.

If you've ever asked Lewis about records, he's very much like, I don't look at records,

you know, I just focus on what's next.

Yeah.

We trashed your records.

Yeah.

I think a different word.

Yeah.

Do you think, though, even though Max, even though Max says he's not interested in records,

do you think a little part of him, as he, as he went to bed last night, put his little

trophy in the, in the, you know, next to him in bed, a little part of him just went, oh,

he's going to have a big bed if he's level with it and Senna.

You would.

Yeah.

I think you would.

Yeah.

You know, I'm trying to think whether Yoss raced against, I think 94, it was probably

might have overlapped a season or so.

I think it was a little bit too late.

Yeah.

But I don't think he would have been actually competing with him in that sort of way.

No.

He wasn't.

So you've got to allow yourself.

Yeah.

You're going to think about it, aren't you?

Because Senna was one of the, you know, the most famous faces in Formula One history.

Of course, you're going to think about it.

But are you going to put everything onto it and think that then justifies your talent

or gives you the validation that you need to prove that you're a good driver?

Probably not.

I've already got that on his own merit, I guess.

So yeah, I think in that way, he probably doesn't want to, he probably might not want

to annoy fans as well by saying, yes, well, I'm as good as Senna now.

You know, that's not a line that you want to kind of say, you know, they're two different

entities and two different grades.

Yeah.

What about that podium yesterday?

We had Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and of course, Max Verstappen.

And Ted, what about the generations that were spanning there?

Because obviously you've got Lewis and Fernando, who are kind of, would you say, a generation

sort of behind, sorry, behind.

In time.

Yes.

Max.

Yes, definitely.

But actually, what excited me most about that was not those three, nor the Mounties we

saw around it, but the appearance of Adrian Newey.

That made the podium for me.

Yeah.

It was like, whoa, okay.

Right.

You know, Newey who spanned Senna, you know, through the Schumacher ears, fighting against

Schumacher and a Ferrari, and then doing all the McLaren cars and Williams and through

Hill and Villeneuve and, you know, and then Vettel and all of that and Steve Verstappen.

And I thought that gave me a little bit of a tingle.

Yeah.

I thought it was great.

I think we also, we also don't often see Lewis alongside Lewis, alongside Alonso and

alongside Max.

I think I heard a stat somewhere that it's only happened once in Qatar.

I'd have to look that up.

That's not very good fact checking for me.

But it was, you know, how many world championships between them?

11?

Did I do that mass run?

Yeah.

Yeah.

11 world championships in a race that felt like it ignited something new and exciting

in this championship, which we haven't seen yet this season.

It's been a bit, a bit of a, maybe a choir to start to the season than, than we've maybe

hoped for.

And it just, it felt like there was a new fire less under a lot of bellies.

And to see then that be the final podium for me just felt really special.

I felt like we've had one of those three this year, but I told you, I didn't fact it.

No, I'd have to check.

Not enough.

Shall we say that?

Not, not, not enough.

Exactly.

Because I remember doing the, I remember doing the 11 line.

Oh, there you go.

Okay.

11.

Qatar last year.

Maybe it was in qualifying.

No, maybe.

Anyway, good.

We'll fact check another day.

People don't come in for the line.

It's all good.

It's all good.

It's all good.

In the press conference, it was all very cordial between the three of them and they, it was

really interesting.

They were all saying, you know, there's a lot of respect between us, but, and I think,

I think one of the journalists in the press conference sort of alluded to this, you know,

if you had the three of them going for a championship, just how special that would be.

And you know, I don't know if this is just fantasy land in Matt's head.

Could we ever get to a situation where we do see them race in, in say equal machinery

in this finite period of time and on Twitter would like this.

Can we see Max Alonso and Lewis in the same car for a race?

Could we in a 25 race season next year have a little exhibition?

24 races and one exhibition.

Oh, you mean in the same charts?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, no.

But what we can hope for, sorry, Ann, nice idea, but good luck with that, what we can

hope for is that Red Bull do take some penalty with aerodynamic testing restrictions, restriction,

and that Aston Martin and Mercedes come up to their level next year.

And then we'll have different cars, but you know.

There's going to be some sort of impact on losing out on that time with the, with the

penalty that they received.

We haven't seen it yet because obviously they've had such a strong start to the season.

They've won every single race so far, but there has to be something that gives eventually.

And I think, again, what I mean by promising is that it's been so exciting to see that,

you know, the upgrades that Mercedes have brought in, in Monaco meant to be for Imola

and the ones that Aston Martin brought for Canada has shown that they are just edging

that bit further.

And if nothing else, yes, we're still not fighting for the win, but they're starting

to fight with each other.

And Mercedes are back in that fight.

And Ferrari, it could have been circumstantial because we had a bit of a wild qualifying,

but Ferrari, Aston Martin and Mercedes, they're going to start their own little battle.

And I think that's really exciting.

Yeah.

The race for second is on.

I got goosebumps thinking about it.

Ferrari, Ferrari hope they will.

Yeah.

It's possible that Aston and Mercedes could drop Ferrari.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's possible.

It is.

Let's have a word on Max and his performance this weekend.

And I want to go back to something you said after Australia when you gave me a Joey last

time.

Right.

Well, it was the kangaroo and its Joey.

Yeah.

Sorry about that.

Have you kept it alive?

Well, yeah.

Didn't get to keep it.

Anyway, let's move on.

That's for my kids.

You said after Australia, what was so great about Max's performance there was that he

was able to kind of glide through the chaos serenely throughout that race, avoid all the

red flags, all the nonsense that was happening behind him and still win and that made it

super impressive.

And I think not with the race this weekend, but with the certainly what happened in qualifying,

it didn't look in any doubt, did it?

With the way Max performed.

He seemed to, everything that came at him with the weather, Ted, he just seemed to be

able to deal with it and bat it away and perform well.

And that's why I said they were just gliding through life in the moment because everything

is going fine.

The only problem they have to worry about is Sergio Perez and, not a problem, but I'll

get to it in a second, and where to hide that 100 wins flag that suddenly appeared at the

front of Max's, I knew there'd be something.

I knew it.

And I sort of thought it's going to be a t-shirt or Helmut Marco is going to appear in a hoodie,

you know, with 100 Grand Prix wins on it or like someone's going to appear here with

a hat.

And in the end, it was a flag and I thought, alright, well, someone has gone to a shop

and got that flag and say, 100 Grand Prix wins made, you know, what did they keep it in a

sort of locked safe?

Was it, you know, lest Christian Horner should happen upon it?

It's like, you don't tempt it, but they didn't have to worry about it today.

It was always in hand and qualifying in the race, they glided, gliding through stuff at

the moment.

And when the only problem you've got is where to hide your celebratory flag before it's

actually happened and that Sergio Perez seems off the boil at the moment, it's actually

not really a problem at all, is it?

Because he's the perfect number two now.

He's reverted back to the perfect number two for Max.

I do, I feel like it is, it is a problem.

What, Sergio?

Yes, because if he, look, he started 12th and he finished sixth.

In any other drive or any other team, you'd be like, that's a good drive.

That's, that's an impressive drive.

But the fact is he shouldn't have qualified 12th at all.

Like that should not be where a red bull is qualifying.

He should not have not got through to Q3 in a red bull.

And I know the qualifying was all a bit over the plate and the changing conditions and the

rain came down and maybe he would have not said a lap or whatever it is anyway.

But the fact is he shouldn't have been qualifying P12 anyway.

That, that's, that's the main thing we need to take away from this.

So they don't have no headaches at the moment.

Yes, they've got one driver that's doing amazingly and looks like he's going to

win the championship, but it's a team, as they always say to us, it's a team sport.

And then so if one's not doing it and for him, he needed confidence.

He needed confidence this weekend.

He didn't get it.

It's not the best track to try and get your confidence back.

He crashed out and qualifying, I think last year in, in Canada.

But to, to not even get into Q3.

And I think that's a hat trick of not getting into Q3.

He's had a couple of non Q3 performances.

That's a real headache in terms of what not providing max support in the races

or just for service and equilibrium for his own confidence to support.

You know, he's got a fierce Fernando Alonso behind him.

If he had a second red bull sitting behind him, making it as wide as Alex

Alban did for the entire entirety of that race, yeah, he would have support.

And also they would have an easy wrap up with the of the team's championship.

Without that, they're going to really struggle and they need it.

They need the number two driver that you so rightly said he's slotted into now.

But is he not the perfect number two driver in this scenario this year?

Not if he's not being there for max.

Yeah, but he's not causing red bull problems, is he?

Unlike well, he's not causing red bull problems in the sense

of, you know, rifts in the team, all of all of that that we've had in the past

with red bull, actually, they're just like, you know, Max is able

to just keep winning races and he's not being troubled by anything else.

And actually, Red Bull this year probably will win the constructors title

and probably will win the drivers title.

And if both of those happen, what more could you possibly want?

There's no award for one, two, one, two, one, two in the in the races.

Yeah, but there is still that sort of we're winning every race and we're second.

You know, you hit Red Bull one, two all the time, you know, early rash of

Checo challenging for the championship.

Confidence of Miami and Baku has evaporated, hasn't it?

As the pollen descends and makes us sneeze.

In Miami, he was, he was, it was evaporated with the pollen.

In Miami, I'm just going to move it on.

In Miami, he was so defiant as well.

Like he was so confident coming into that race and then to have it all

taken away and, you know, we have to remember he's won two races this season.

It's not like he's a bad driver, but the confidence level has dropped.

That will dip back up.

Absolutely.

He will, he will pick up his confidence again, but I don't have full confidence

myself in knowing when that's going to be because he needs to find a track

that's going to give him confidence in Canada, wasn't it?

Question from Krista on Instagram.

I'm wondering when we'll all stop saying the two Red Bulls and

start saying, start saying instead, Max in a Red Bull.

That car may be fast, but Max is in the league of his own.

Does Sergio deserve the second Red Bull seat?

Yes. Although Christian Honor was quick to praise Alex Albin, wasn't he?

Yeah, he was very quick.

So interesting.

I thought that was interesting in that Alex Albin has now

severed all of his ties.

He doesn't even have the Red Bull on the side of his helmet anymore, does he?

No, he lost that.

In the start of this season.

He still has the links with the UVIDIA family who are 51% owners of Red Bull.

Alex does in the stuff that he does.

There's a couple of sponsors that he does, which is linked to the UVIDIA family

and their other brands that they have in Thailand.

But Malix is not in the Red Bull camp anymore.

And Alex Albin finishing seventh in a Williams, even though it was 20 seconds

behind, well, it wouldn't, but Checo made the extra pit stop.

Behind Checo Perez in a Red Bull in sixth, wasn't lost on anybody.

And I think it seems Christian Honor.

Yeah. And I think also you have to remember that we lost George Russell in that race.

Would he have been in front of Sergio Perez if he had not hit his wall, his car

into the wall? So actually Sergio could have been seventh.

So, you know, there's another.

But does he deserve that seat?

Of course he deserves that seat.

He fought hard for that seat and he is a good driver.

Let's not forget he's a good driver.

He's just not as good as his teammate and nobody wants that.

You know, it's like it's like the Lewis Hamilton next to Valtteri Bottas.

You know, Bottas isn't a bad driver, but he just would never be able to match

what, you know, Lewis could do in that car.

But he definitely deserves a seat.

That's yeah, but it's a funny one, isn't it?

That second seat next to Max, because it's such a revolving door before

Sergio came in, you know, yeah, Alex.

You had Gazzley, you had Daniel McCullough.

Are they going to get Alex Albin?

Oh, it's a good Albin.

Yeah, maybe.

He just started there.

He just started.

Point out that Christian Warner was quick to praise Alex Albin.

If even though he's not a Red Bull driver, look, if we get to the summer

and Sergio's form is still not where we think it should be.

What do you think they were Red Bull thing?

Sorry, Red Bull thing should be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you think do you think they'd look elsewhere midseason for a change?

You think obviously we've got Ricardo in the wings.

We've got Albon to be fair.

Albon at Williams now seems very settled and seems like he's really growing

and building that team, especially with James Val's there now.

Yeah, he doesn't want to go back.

He doesn't want to go. Surely he doesn't want to go back.

No, I mean, it's the Ricardo is the obvious one.

If you're not ready to promote Liam Lawson, who's next in the in the Red

Bull staircase of talent, they don't think Yuki Sinodio or Nick LaRice

are quite right for Red Bull racing, which they want Marco and Christian

Warner pretty much made clear.

Yeah.

Then give Daniel Ricardo a go.

I mean, Sergio, he has a contract till 2024.

So there's end of yeah.

Yeah, end of 2024.

So in theory, absolutely not.

They're not going to look at anyone else.

Like you say, he is doing the number two driver thing.

He's just not performing at the level they want him to be performing at.

With the harmony in the team, it's very different.

But how long, you know, Checo is quite a fiery character.

How long is he going to keep, you know, his cool about his performance at the moment?

And I think for them, they're quite lucky because it seems to be something

to do with his confidence and his driving rather than the team making choices

that's frustrating him that we've seen in the past.

So I don't think they they they probably would be, I guess, quite foolish

to look elsewhere when they've got such a solid driver in Sergio.

And it's fine as it is.

It's fine.

We all want Danny to go back.

They're gliding through the season.

And if Checos, if there are any warriors

that Checos having a bit of a wobble, they can deal with that.

Yeah, yeah.

Now, Alonso was asked in the presser yesterday

if he can beat Sergio Perez and he just replied with a stern look.

Yes, he's now nine points behind Sergio.

And that could be a really interesting battle for second.

Can it in the championship, Fernando and Sergio?

Yeah, I'm full of that.

What was what were they expecting him to respond with that?

He's like, no, I don't think I could.

It was I agree with you.

It was a funny question, but but what was brilliant was his response

and the manner of which, you know, it was, you know,

it was actually quite a jovial press conference by all accounts.

But that line was sort of like, I think Sergio will see that

and his nightmares.

Maybe that brings us back to how much his driver, how much his car.

That's an old, another podcast, a separate podcast.

Maybe at the end of the year, Matthew, which is, you know,

I mean, I made a comment to Joe Gwang Yu when we were doing

our feature with him before Canada was that in China, where it's,

you know, very sporting culture is all about winning.

Look at the Olympics and how they develop athletes

for the Olympic Games.

Is it hard to make the Chinese watching public understand

that there is a level at which the car dominates the driver performance

in Formula One?

And if you're in an Alfa Romeo Salba with the greatest respect for them,

you won't be winning races.

You won't be a winner or a Chinese winner in world sport

because you're only in an Alfa only in, you know what I mean?

You're in an Alfa Romeo Salba and not a Red Bull.

And he said, give a very thoughtful answer about, yes, how that is the case.

But if we're talking then that actually Fernando would seem that the driver

has rather a lot of him, you know, maybe it's not 50% car, 50% driver.

But if the margin is such that Checo is not delivering at Max's level,

but he's still in a Red Bull, yet Fernando in a car that's

demonstrably slower, the Aston Martin, not much, but demonstrably slower

can make that difference and finish above him.

Then that's what gives him the the sureness.

But how good must this happen be if Checo is good?

And then how much good, how good must this happen be?

How much good to be sofa?

Good, it must be so far.

Yeah, well, didn't know it takes me back to the point I made before

to heart back to my own point.

That's the thing, you know, it's it's this age old argument, isn't it?

Is it the car? Is it the driver?

And with Red Bull, I think it's both, you know, obviously.

But how much more of it is Max?

And I think it's probably significantly more than we thought.

Then we're giving it credit for.

We were talking about how Red Bull was serenely gliding

through the race and Max was.

But there was one thing that could have caused problems for Max Verstappen.

And that was a bird.

Oh, yes, a bird in the break duct.

Now, I want to know if a bird in a break, how big a deal

is a bird in a break duct?

I saw there's a photo on Twitter, which if you're not into animal

things, maybe don't look at is of the mechanic holding up the offending

bird that was in the break duct.

And it's quite a big bird.

They're seagulls, I think, aren't they?

Because they're usually seagulls around that area.

It didn't look the color of a seagull.

It looked a little.

I did go through a car.

I mean, give it a break.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a tough day.

I just I want to understand.

Yeah.

So I want to understand how a bird going into a break duct doesn't

cause him to retire, that isn't an issue for him or doesn't alter the

performance of the car.

Well, was it the wing?

I mean, the bird's wing, not the front wing.

Well, yeah, it's the whole bird.

Well, he said on the radio, didn't he?

He said, I think I've just hit a bird.

Yeah.

Um, and I can't remember where it was in the race, but he said, I hit it.

I've hit a bird.

And then afterwards he said in the, in the interviews, yes, they pulled

out part of a bird from the car.

Yeah.

Significant performance.

Maybe that's why he only had nine seconds lead.

If it was, if it was the whole, sorry to get scientific, the whole torso

of a bird, then clearly it'd break.

If it blocked a break duct, then he would have, wouldn't have finished.

The brakes are so on the edge and that's kind of what I was thinking.

Yeah.

He wouldn't have finished or they would have had to pit stop him.

And then someone would have to, you know, get out.

But if it's only the wing, if it's only the wing, the section of the wing or,

yeah, okay.

I mean, how specific do you want to get?

No, no, no, I was just, I'm just curious.

I'm just curious.

Cause yeah, that really could have caused some problems.

I mean, if you hit, yeah, if you hit, if you're going to hit a bird and like Ted

said, and the birds gone into lots of important parts of the car that's going

to make it either overheat or whatever it is, you, especially with the brakes

that tend to overheat in Canada, you're either got a pit or not.

So it must have only been the tip of the wing or something that really got,

you know, real, real damage into the car.

But I didn't look at that picture.

So I can't help you there.

Okay.

Well, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll come back to you on that one.

Maybe don't maybe jump here.

Lambiasi can be more empathetic to the fate of the bird.

It is a bird.

Maybe, maybe he's an animal lover.

Maybe that one came, oh, Max.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, that's Max.

That's horrible.

I'm so sorry for the bird.

Yeah.

I didn't give an inch to the bird, you know.

Max would have said, you know, I've just hit a bird GP.

Right.

What are you telling me for?

Yeah.

Mr. Empathy.

Sorry, I shouldn't go on about that.

He's got a great relationship with you there, haven't they?

Yes.

Yeah.

Maybe I haven't got a great relationship with GP now, but he took all me to you.

Mr. Empathy.

You do get the two halves of Max on the radio, don't you?

You do get like his sort of, I'm moaning about lots of things and GP goes,

okay, right.

And then you get the other one where he's laughing about, you know,

knocking himself out on a curb and you think, do you really think he's a race

engineer at that point in the race wants to think about, you know,

your driver going over a curb and then laughing about it?

Yeah.

I mean, that's quite the flex.

So crack on and win with a bird and hanging out your car as well.

Definitely.

Christian does call them an old married couple.

Oh, does it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Formula Photography on Instagram has got a question and I don't think the

answer to this is a bird, but let's let's ask it anyway.

How come Max didn't pull a 20 plus second lead out like he has done at

tracks in Spain or Miami?

Is this a type of track or is Canada the type of track that didn't

suit Red Bull or are the cars behind slowly getting faster?

Where do you guys sit on this?

Spec track didn't particularly suit Red Bull because it doesn't have any fast

corners and he didn't need to.

Yeah, it's slow corners and longer straights and the tires were struggling

for getting it, keeping any heat in them at all.

So Red Bull was struggling already with that.

And then the brakes were overheating as well.

So you'll see throughout the race, there were sort of spikes with drivers

doing, you know, faster lap and then a really slow lap because they could push

and then they had to like pull back on it because the car started, you know,

brakes overheating and various different things not working.

So I think track specific, but I also do think that we should not look down

on the fact that these upgrades from Aston and Mercedes are starting to come to

life, whether that's true representation of like the actual gap between Aston

Martin and Mercedes to Red Bull.

I don't think so.

I think that would be track specific, but I think it does also show that we are

closing up a little bit on Red Bull, but I think mostly track specific.

Red Bull may be not pushing flat out every lap, are they?

No, no, I mean, listen, he could win.

He could have won any of the races so far this year by a full lap, if you'd

want to think, you think, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, that's a scary thought.

Let's move it off.

Not for him.

Let's talk about Red Bull's achievements of getting a hundred wins because that

by itself is a remarkable achievement.

Only Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams are now ahead of them.

And even more impressive when you think that they started the team in 2005,

Horner yesterday, which had the stat up his sleeve, which I thought was quite

interesting.

He's always got a stat.

He's always got a stat, which he started to feed them into the team radio at

the end towards Max.

Yeah, after Crofty's job, I think he subscribes to the same stat

service that we do.

Yeah, probably gets all the text.

But Red Bull have now won 27 percent of the races they've entered.

Yeah, that was a great stat.

Yeah, but that does go back to my, well, there are 3,912 races per season.

So it doesn't really, yeah, but you still have to, you still have to, you know,

especially, I think for them, the, hang on, no, if it was a percentage thing,

and that blows my thing.

Yeah, it does.

I didn't want to tell you.

Sorry, I'll shut up.

No, you're right.

It's the point of percentages.

I was like, never mind.

Sorry, I'll shut up.

It's not just the straight map.

If you've had a long day, you've had a very long day, we'll give you that one.

Yeah, no, I think the fact is, is that the team are younger.

They only start in 2005 and you can't take away the amazing job that they've done.

You know, they've really dug in and they've had a lot of adversity come towards

them. Obviously, the controversy from last year to do with the cost cap and

things like that, you know, they almost got made like the Red Bull, you know,

the villains of the, you know, coming into the season.

And they haven't, you know, they've, they've, they've ignored all of that

noise and just head down, get the job done.

And, and they've done an amazing job.

And I mean, now that everyone's trying to steal their floor, I think proves

everything really, doesn't it?

And their people, yes, they've got some, they've got a small amount of people going.

I mean, there's a lot of movement amongst all the people, actually, people

leaving Mercedes or people leaving Ferrari, people going to Ferrari,

people leaving McLaren or going to McLaren.

So yeah, there is a bit, but yeah, they show no sign of backing off any of those

achievements.

But they've stuck with consistency as well.

Remember, Christian's been there for so long.

He's one of the longest standing team principals on, on the whole grid, apart

from France Toss.

So I think actually he's, Christian was there one year before France.

So, so they kept with consistency and they've trusted Christian and, you know,

Adrian Newey and they've put their, they've made sure they've stuck and put

all their eggs in that one basket and, and waited for this team to be as

incredible as it has, as it's now become their resurgence, I guess.

And even through the passing of Dietrich Matschitz, and we'll talk about

this probably when we get to Austria in a couple of weeks time, first race at the

Red Bull ring that he put so much money into and refurbished and everything.

And first race since Dietrich Matschitz has not been in charge, you know, even

since the, the, the transformation to Mark Matschitz is now in charge of the

whole thing and his three deputies.

There's one person in charge of Red Bull production, one charge of finance.

And then it's chap called Oliver Mintslaff who's in charge of sporting and

marketing, performances and not performances, things that Red Bull do.

Operations, which includes, which includes Alfatari and Neville Racing.

So even through the Mintslaff era, Mintslaff realizes that, you know,

they're doing something right.

What Mintslaff might have suggestion to change is the team who are now

lasting the constructors since Williams and Alex Albans P7, which is Alfatari.

And he'll think about this, what are we doing with a team that's

first and last, you know, what's going on?

Yeah, we're not feeding juniors any more necessarily through Alfatari into the

Red Bull team.

I just want to, because it's a hundred wins for Red Bull and I think it's

quite a nice opportunity to look back at the history of Red Bull.

And Ted, I want to go back to 2005 when they first started.

James Blunt released, You're Beautiful.

Right, James Blunt.

Six weeks at number one.

He was number one, yeah.

Where was Ted Kravitz in 2005?

Tell you where I was.

I was in a, in 2004, I was in a passport queue at Milan's Linate Airport at Monza.

And behind me in the passport queue was this guy's about five foot seven sort

of ginger hair and I recognized him.

I knew him because, you know, I know my stuff.

As the F 3000 team boss of Arden who ran various people with a bit of Red Bull

signage, Christian Horner, I knew he ran it with his dad.

Did I say ginger hair?

Did I say it?

I did hear ginger hair.

Okay.

I was trying to disbelieve he was ginger.

He's got a slightly ginger hair.

He can go strawberry blonde, maybe.

Yeah, but he's more, I would just say brown.

Well, I'd say, well, he's a bit, I don't want to get into specifics, but he's

a bit darker than...

I'm often called strawberry blonde.

Okay, sure.

You're definitely strawberry blonde.

But he's a bit darker than...

Oh, we're going to agree to disagree on that one.

I can't believe we're getting nailed down to that specific detail of my story.

Sorry.

Anyway, so Christian Horner, I didn't get, I didn't mention the dodgy leather jacket

he was wearing.

I can't remember that detail.

He wasn't.

I can't remember what colour his hair is.

I know what colour his hair is.

It's a bit more grey now.

The reason I know is because he's the same age as me.

He's the same thought, isn't it?

He's head of a Grand Prix team that's won a hundred Grand Prixs, and he's the...

How many world championships?

How many world championships have you ever said?

I'm sitting here in a T-shirt bought for me by a racing driver.

I didn't even pay myself.

Right, sorry.

So behind me was Christian Horner, boss of the Arden Formula 3000 team.

Yeah.

And we struck up, sorry, we struck up conversation and he said, yeah, I'm actually in Formula

1 next year.

I'm going to be a team boss of a team boss.

And I was like, are you?

OK, well done.

Really?

You're my age.

Like, you know, back then we were...

So he would have been 30, 30, no, 31, 32?

He was 31 in 2004, I think, yes.

Yeah, because we were born in 1974, 1973, me and him.

So, yeah, he would have been 30, 31.

I was like, OK, right, well, you know, good luck with that.

Yeah.

Oh, it's my turn for the passport, is it?

Right, OK.

Well, that was my memory of 2004, 2005.

Yeah.

Claire, what about what Red Bull have kind of done for Formula 1?

I think Red Bull have...

We've seen such a massive change in the Formula 1 paddock over the last, I would say, five

years even with the introduction of Formula ever, Drive to Survive and things like that.

And in general, the audience getting much younger and also plenty more women and other

people watching it as well.

It's not just specifically for men anymore, which is why we love it.

I think Red Bull have always kept people on their toes in a very different way.

They don't maybe do things as traditionally as the rest of the teams and they've made

other teams maybe question what they're doing and up their game and things like that.

I think they just add a bit of spice and then they've just got a bit of spice about them

and they're a bit different from a team like Ferrari who keep themselves themselves a lot

and they're now branching out a bit more on social media and things.

Whereas Red Bull, the Red Bull brand in general is kind of cool anyway.

It's all the surfers and the snowboarders and things like that.

So to bring that into Formula 1, I think did breathe a new different life into the paddock.

When you learned that Christian Horner was going to become a Formula 1 team principal,

did you ever...

After they bought it from Jaguar.

After they bought it from Jaguar, did you ever think in your wildest dreams

they would go on to get a hundred Formula 1 wins in the time it's taken?

I think I was thinking more about how long this passport queue is going to last.

No, I mean, it hadn't occurred to me, but he was clearly a guy who was smart and for

him to have the trust of Dietrich Matschitz at 31, 32, 33 knew and Dietrich Matschitz

was a clever, clever man, was a clever man.

I kind of thought anew that it would be on the right track.

It was when he got Adrian Newey that everybody said, OK, this team and this guy is going to go somewhere.

And 200th win for Adrian Newey as well.

Claire, what do you think?

I mean, it's kind of an obvious question, but what is a...

How valuable is Adrian Newey to Red Bull racing?

I mean, it was interesting.

I heard in an interview, who was doing the interview, Corrine?

Maybe I can't remember who did it.

Yes, Corrine did it on Sunday.

And he was speaking to Adrian Newey.

And what I found really took me back a bit when he said, my days are...

I'm counting my days down rather than up now to when I'm going to leave.

That was a strange comment.

Well, I said it and I was like, a Formula 1 world of Red Bull without Adrian Newey.

What does that look like?

And so for me, I was like, well, I don't know what that would look like

because he's been so integral to their success and the design and the concept of the car

and being, especially this season, thinking really...

And last season, thinking outside of the box in terms of what they were doing.

You just have to look at the pictures of the Monaco floor compared to the Williams floor.

I don't know if you've seen those two comparisons, but it's incredible,

the detail of that floor compared to the Williams floor.

And you cannot take it away from Adrian Newey that he had so much to do with that.

And to even for me to even think, goodness, what does Red Bull look like

without Adrian Newey if his days are going down rather than up?

A lot is the answer to your question.

He's had a lot to do with everything.

And he is, you know, integral to how the team moves forward.

You'll always see him on the grid, won't you? Checking out other cars.

He's always checking the rear of other cars.

And suddenly you see all the snappers around him going,

oh, what's he taking from that one?

But he's always inquisitive and he's always looking.

But I think it would be, you know, a huge loss when we lose.

Something that I always think about Adrian Newey is that is

is something he said at McLaren, actually, a while ago.

He says, as a creative person and I thought, well, you're an engineer.

But I suppose you are a creative person.

I always worry about where the next creative impulse is going to come from.

And much like us, Matthew,

thinking about what features we're going to put in the next week's show

in our 3,855th race per season.

We do think about sometimes where the next creative impulse is going to come from

as with your running order there.

And I like that from Adrian Newey is that he does wonder where is that?

And he's thinking, I hope that doesn't dry up, you know,

that I don't have a thought about that brake duct, you know,

the Seagull Proof brake duct and, you know, I'm going to design that next week.

Probably well, actually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Restraiter, I mean, he's famous, isn't he, for drawing with a pencil?

That's kind of in an age of technology and computer-aided design.

Him and his pencil are kind of synonymous and whatever, informally once.

Which I think is good because you can get tied,

not that I know anything about doing the NCFD, but there are apparently

there are shapes that you can do and ideas that you can have,

which are easier drawn on a drawing board with a pencil

and some and some slide curve rulers.

But what he does then is then give those drawings to a trusted lieutenant

who then puts them into a computer-aided design.

So it does get into the computer at one point.

Yes. Someone was taking photos of it.

Not soaring carbon fiber, are they?

Red Bull headquarters, no.

Well, very good. OK, so we'll see what happens.

Hopefully Adrian Newey is around for for more time to come.

During the race yesterday was Lando Norris and his and his well, unsportsmanlike

behavior, Sinviltron on Instagram would like to know,

what does unsportsmanlike behavior mean and what did Lando do to warrant it?

OK, right, let's clear this up because I have some new news

from the FIA as to why this was.

So I believe and if you look at your sporting regulations,

I know you all have saved on your computers and phones readily available

while you're watching the race and go to article 56,

where I think it's safety cars or is it 55 and go to 55.5.

And it says no car.

It's sort of catch all phrase for doing what Lando did,

which is that no car can be driven unnecessarily slowly under a safety car.

Now, in previous years, if, you know, so what Lando was trying to do

was when cars are running one to on the road in the same team,

sorry to make that clear, and they want both to pit,

then it doesn't make any sense for them to follow each other around very closely,

come into the pits together, one guy gets serviced, comes out

while the other guy waits and loses loads of time for two reasons.

First of all, that other guy loses loads of time.

Secondly, he blocks the other driver downstream in the pit lane,

their pit box, so it's just not practical.

And thirdly, it doesn't give the mechanics

chance to get the old tires out the way and get the new tires in.

So there's many reasons, three reasons why you don't come in

line of stern if you're running 11th and 12th, I think they were at the time

on 9th and 10th.

So Lando dropped back a bit to allow himself

a bit of time for Oscar to come in, get serviced.

I think he was that way around and so that he wouldn't block anybody.

And so there's no 10 car lengths.

That's not the rule.

That's only for the leader.

Right. It's driving unnecessarily slowly.

But what the reason the FIA did Lando under the sporting code

on unsportsmanlike behavior is that they felt this was

done in such a way as to disadvantage the people behind him

and in a sort of unfair sporting way.

They gave a precedent for Giancarlo Fisichella, I think in 2005,

when this was last done.

Straight away, someone was there saying, well, we did this

some almost 20 years ago, 18 years ago with Fisi, remember him?

And so they felt it was done in a way that they would rather,

and I think it was the stewards choice to do Lando under for unsportsmanlike

behavior rather than a breach of 55.5, which is going unnecessarily slowly.

Would both have been the same penalty?

I don't know. Maybe. It's up to the stewards to decide which penalty it is.

But if you're guilty, I think that was my question in the race.

I was like, well, why not do him for going unnecessarily slowly,

which he was to gain a competitive advantage?

The FIA say, well, he was gaining a competitive advantage in such a way

that was detrimental to the principle of sporting fairness in Formula One.

And they want to crack down on it.

So I think it was laying somewhat of a marker in the in the in the sand,

even though it would probably have amounted to the same penalty.

What do you think, Claire?

What was your reaction when you saw unsportsmanlike behavior in the pop up?

Well, my first reaction was, why are we still calling it unsportsman?

It should just be unsporting because women drive too.

Was my first thought.

My second thought was, eh, because I didn't really understand what was.

I was like, I haven't heard that.

And then I was wracking my brains thinking,

have I heard that phrase before being used in recent times?

And it's kind of got covered by, you know, sometimes there's lots of words

you get from from when we get the documents that come through

of the reason for why they've been given something.

And sometimes you skim over the certain bit to see how, how, you know,

five second or whatever it is.

You know, so I thought, well, maybe I just, you know, miss the fact

that someone's had this before.

And then I think it took some time for everyone to kind of explain it

on broadcasts and things like that for exactly what it was.

And I agree with you.

Just just give the penalty for what it was.

We all saw that, you know, it was for not impeding, but it was for slowing

down other people in it, I guess, sort of impeding.

But there is a specific rule for it.

So use the specific rule for it for the penalty would be my thought.

And notes that it was unsports person.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because Landau's, because Landau's reaction was, well, hang on.

Loads of other people have done, have, have, have backed up.

Yeah.

And so as not to, to, to have potentially satisfied the tolerances

for driving unnecessarily slowly or not driving unnecessarily slowly,

but to give themselves a bit of a margin and Landau could have argued

if it gone to a hearing after the race, that he just didn't want to

inconvenience Alfa Romeo's Sauber, who were behind them in, yes, they are.

It's Sauber who are behind McLaren in the pit box.

And if they were going to bring in Joe or Bottas, then he didn't want

to be there waiting, blocking their way.

I don't know if you had an excuse, to be honest, the excuse doesn't really matter.

It happened and, and you can tell that you slowed down on track.

So that's sort of like, okay, you've got to take your penalty with that.

And his excuse, loads of other people doing it, doesn't matter either.

Yeah, also personal, excuse, yeah.

But it, but it's, it does sort of make you kind of go, do you remember when

Steiner was talking about having consistent stewards in, in Spain off

the back of an incident that happened in Monaco?

Yeah.

And it's that question again of, of the inconsistency in terms of maybe

how some of the, the penalties come through, you know, it's, it's never the same.

And, and I remember seeing something else of someone saying, well, what

about the, the Hamilton Alonso in, in the pit lane?

You know, that was quite close.

Why didn't that one get a, a penalty?

And, and actually it wasn't as close as when you saw it again.

Yeah, the camera was, yeah.

Well, I didn't see it because I was down at McLaren.

But, but, but Alonso did have to, I think he did have to break.

Yeah.

It was straight on the radio, wasn't he?

So, no, you're right.

But also, um, you know, talk about Gunther Steiner.

When Gunther brought it up after Monaco, he was then penalized.

He was, he was censured.

He was given a, he was censured by the FIA for speaking out about it in a

kind of misunderstanding of the word layman.

Layman was what they, what they didn't like about it.

So McLaren have learned from that and McLaren were very keen not to say anything

about sportsmen like about the, the Lando penalty, less to they get a reprimand

from the FIA.

Yeah.

So teams are terrified of speaking out.

Well, Joseph said we'll talk about it after.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is that healthy?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Andrea Seller did talk about it afterwards, I think briefly.

I don't think it was anything like we're going to take it up with the FIA.

And if the teams aren't feeling like they can say anything about the FIA without

getting called before the stewards themselves for afters like Gunther was,

then is it incumbent for the media to ask the questions?

I suppose it is.

Yeah.

All right, before we go, we must talk about the news last week that the W

series has entered administration after failing to secure funding to continue.

You'll of course remember that in 2022, the championship ended three races early.

Now, Clarence, you've both worked on the championship, disappointing news.

We were founding media people.

Well, yeah, we did for founding media people.

So there you go.

So, I mean, you, well, tell me your reaction.

Claire, first of all, what was your reaction when you, when you heard the news?

Disappointment, but not surprising at this point, because we've heard everything

that's been going on.

I actually heard it through one of the drivers who I've been very lucky to stay

in contact with, you know, they've got some great drivers in that championship.

It's disappointing, but we mustn't forget what W series has done for women in

motorsport and for just letting people see that women can be on track as well.

It was a lot of, if you remember the beginning, there was a lot of controversy

that came from, you know, segregation of the two women and the, you know,

the women on one side and the men on one side.

And that wasn't what it was about.

It was about showing women's faces in the paddock.

It was about really explaining to people that women are talented.

They just need to have the same steps up that the men have, whether that's to do

with sponsorship, funding, you know, just people giving them a chance.

And W series has been integral in helping women become in the limelight

and become racing drivers in their own rights.

You know, you look at Jamie Chabwick, you know, obviously she's won the

championship a couple of times and she's out racing it in the indie lights now.

You know, Abby Pulling, you know, we've got F1 Academy now, which would never have happened.

Let's remember that would not have happened without W series.

I truly believe that because it gave everyone a reason to say, you know,

we need to support people in motorsport.

And for me, W series has done what it's set out to do, which was give women

a safe space to be in motorsport.

And the fact that, you know, things like Drive to Survive has allowed more women

to be part of motorsport, to then see women involved in it as well.

It's just so different.

Obviously, we're waiting to see Formula One to have, you know, more women

involved in that, but we are seeing, you know, Naomi, part of your team.

She is incredible at what she does.

And she got that chance because she was showcased in W series.

And Alice Powell, she's on Channel Four now.

You know, there's all these people that we have never heard from before.

But if anything, it shows as well, W series, it shows how much we still have to do.

If you look at the rules and regulations of Formula One and the language

that is used, it's only ever referred to a driver as he.

So sportsman like behavior.

Sportsman like behavior.

From my understanding and my reading, I can't find one mention of women

or her in any of those regulations.

It's a really easy fix and it's not just for women.

It's for non-binary, it's for, you know, for lots of different people

out there to not have to feel it's just a he they're speaking to, you know,

him coming into the pit lane or whatever it is.

They also mentioned cameraman, you know, camera person.

It's not it's not hard to just make it more inclusive.

So I think there are lots of things we still need to do.

But W series helped really take a massive step for women, I think.

Yeah, I absolutely agree.

And let's, you know, the F1 Academy thing at the moment is, as you say,

wouldn't have happened without W series is carrying on and is providing that.

Springboard, I guess, for female talents come in, but let's not forget.

F1 Academy is a hundred needs one hundred and fifty thousand euros

from each driver and that hundred and fifty another hundred and fifty

thousand euros is matched from Formula One into the racing teams.

And that enables them to go racing.

W series was free for anybody who was good enough, any driver who was good

enough to enter, not only was it free, it paid prize money.

It was a it was a paid job.

And all you had to do as a driver, whether you're Bruno Tomaselli from

Brazil or Bianca Bostamante from from the Philippines was to get yourself

to your local international airport, Sao Paulo or Manila or wherever.

And W series would fly you to the races, you know, which is a big thing.

And and and they pay you so you'd get prize money for winning, which Jamie

Chadwick did of course, those three times and then down to participation

money and all your meals and all of that.

So that's a key difference.

And it's one of opportunity.

And that was a well as well as the things that, you know, I mean, I got

involved with W series at the beginning because they were good people,

you know, Catherine Bonmure and a whole team there.

And it was nice to work with good people like yourself and everybody, you know,

on the TV side and it was it was good team and it was good people.

And I believed in it.

And it was that opportunity of giving people like Alice Powell, who'd done

very well in her previous career, had fell and fallen out because she

couldn't afford to keep going like Jess Hawkins.

Didn't have the money to keep going like Abby Eaton, who'd embarked on

another career doing the stunt driving from the grand tour, you know, but

wanted to get back into into a single seat of a Fabian Volvo and, you know,

for Emma Kimmelinan, who'd left motorsport, started a family, came back

in, was absolutely top, top drawer.

Miki Kuriyama from, you know, from Japan, who'd been backed by Honda, but

had sort of fallen out.

You know, they're all these amazing stories of how these incredible women

racing drivers hadn't quite got the brakes that maybe some male counterparts

would have been able to and W Series gave them the opportunity to get in

there and show what they could do.

You know, and that was just what I think, you know, and the youngsters,

Abby Pulling, now Abby Pulling can afford to do the F1 Academy because Al

Pena sponsoring her and she's got backing.

So what we need, and this was a question I asked Lewis Hamilton, because

Lewis Hamilton, to my sort of certain knowledge, was the only driver who

bothered to come down to the W Series paddock.

He went down, yeah, he did.

I don't think any of the others did.

Not to my knowledge.

And I asked him on Friday, Thursday, what he felt still needed to be done to

continue the work or to get to, of W Series.

And, you know, he was sort of looking at companies coming in.

And I don't think W Series were too far away.

I don't think you're talking about tens of millions of pounds that W Series fell

short by.

It was, it was not, certainly not multiple tens of millions in the grand scheme

of F1 sponsorships and stuff that's going on, the amount of money that's in

F1 at the moment.

It wouldn't have been much for one of the sponsors or somebody to have

thrown W Series the lifeline and maybe in administration, it might yet still.

We don't know.

Dave Ryan's still got the cars, you know, the cars are available.

They could through the administration process.

I know the administrators have talked about how they want to keep it going as

a going concern, if at all possible.

Maybe it could still carry on, but if there wasn't too much money that was

still needed and Lewis was talking about, look, that just needs to be this

sort of commitment, you know, put your money where your mouth is, all these people

who want to carry on the cause of a female drivers in F1.

And, you know, maybe it'll take five years, maybe it'll take 10 years.

But, you know, we won't get a female Formula One driver.

We need to stop putting a time scale on it because that's not how it works

because it starts from the grass, it starts from the very bottom.

And it also starts from the very top.

The mindset and the change of how we get more people that are not just

males into motorsport, that has to come from both the bottom and the top.

Because the top people are giving the people at the bottom the money and then

the grass root is why we get, you know, people coming through in a different way.

It just, it made women more competitive and less, less like a joke, you know,

because so many people in sport like to throw around the word

princess, you know, when someone, it was the other day I heard of someone,

a sportsperson called another sportsperson, princess.

And it's like, well, how is that an insult?

You know, that's just a, that's just a woman, you know.

So it's all about changing this language and things like that.

And I think W-Series was really integral in being part of that change that we've

seen and hopefully it's waking people up and making them realise that they don't

only just know about motorsport, they can race, they can be pundits,

they can be commentators, they can change this sport.

There's enough room for everybody to be involved in the sport.

And it was just about changing those mindsets.

Yeah.

And actually, to that point, it's not just about the drivers.

It's about all the girls that would have seen the W-Series, put it on TV,

watched it at the races and might then, yeah, you're right.

Go on to be journalists or go on to be camera operatives or anything

within the Formula One sphere manages, you know, there's so many jobs in Formula

One and the legacy of W-Series might only become clear in five years time

or ten years time when people say, oh yeah, I watched W-Series that year

and I saw it and I want to do that.

If girls and women can't see it happening, why would they try and be it?

Yeah.

Abby Eaton made the point, I think, this weekend on her social media,

which is saying she's still now, even though W-Series hasn't raced for almost

a year, has young kids, girls coming up to her and saying, oh, you know,

you were the one I saw you racing and I didn't know that women could be racing

drivers, my own daughters watched it and she said, oh, right.

And why is that, can they be racing drivers?

It's why it's so important.

My four-year-old watched it and was like, I don't know, she didn't know.

This is the thing, it's so important.

That's why these things like the regulations of just saying he need to be

changed because if you're not making it a welcoming place for women and that

paddock is not safe for women to come into, why would they bother?

As a written journalist, there are so few of us that are women to the point

where I remember we came into a press conference with Mercedes once and

Lewis looked at me and he looked around the room and he went, where are all

the women?

And I was like, I keep asking this question, you know, and it's obvious.

It's me and a bunch of blokes.

It's pretty shocking, actually.

I mean, it's Rebecca Clancy from The Times and yourself and that's.

Yeah, there's a few others.

It's a kind of different rule from German.

Yeah, she's German.

Build.

Yeah.

Yeah.

From the German newspaper, built.

And there is a few that come in.

Yeah.

But more often than not, it's not enough.

You get a couple of local journals and stuff.

Not enough.

If you are into motorsport and you want to do it and you want to be an F1

journalist, please fight hard because you can get there.

Well, come to sky because we've got, we've, you know, we've got Natalie.

We had a, we had an all-female presenting and pundit lineup in, and

commentating lineup in Spain and almost here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Natalie and Naomi were presenting and then it was Rachel and Naomi in the

commentary box.

Yeah, yeah.

Very important.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, look, progress.

So we can hope for, and yeah, we might yet see the legacy of W-series evolve.

That's all we've got time for, but thank you very much for company.

Thank you, Ted.

Go get some sleep.

Go home and go get some sleep.

Claire, you don't need to sleep necessarily, but you know, go home and sleep anyway.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's free.

Right.

Thank you very much for your time.

Appreciate it.

We'll be back next Tuesday.

See you then.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.