Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Ted’s Podbook | Canada’s calling!

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Sky Sports F1 podcast feed.

And welcome back to Ted's Podbook, which took a break at the Spanish Grand Prix because

I wasn't there, but I'm back in Montreal and we're here for the Canadian Grand Prix.

We're going to you just from outside our hotel, we're staying on Rue Sherbrooke West.

The north of us is the actual Montréal, gives its town its name, its city its name, Montréal,

and the delights of the Boulevard Saint Laurent.

And to the south of us is the Place des Artistes, where there is a music festival taking place,

where we had a look at yesterday, which is featuring all French, Canadian and Quebecois

music acts.

So as I said to Pierre Gasly today, bonjour Pierre, and as they say in Quebec, bonjour.

So that's one thing actually you do notice before we get onto what's been happening

at the circuit.

As I record it today, Thursday evening, if you're in Europe, you're probably listening

to this Friday morning because of the time difference.

But one thing I have noticed is that there are very, very many more people defaulting

to French here in Montreal compared to previous years.

And of course, the rule, the law is, I believe, is that everything has to be in both languages

that signs and menus and people speaking, I don't know, people speaking, but things

have to be officially in French and in English.

But it feels to me, a couple of the shops I've been to, places I've called up on the

phone, most places or a lot of places, more places, let's start that again, more places

than I'm used to have been speaking French definitely as a default, and then wanting

to continue to speak French rather than immediately saying, oh, you know, let's go back into

English.

I don't know, maybe if you're from Montreal, if you're a Quebecer or a Montrealer, please

send me a text and let me know whether that's the case or not.

But what we have found is a city ready again to celebrate Formula One and the Grand Prix.

It's a sellout.

I don't think you can go to many circuits around the world these days with the popularity

of Formula One and not be sold out.

I think it really is coming into the city from all over Canada, from the U.S. as well.

It might be a bit of a more accessible race, and indeed from Europe and the U.K.

So much so as that I understand from my friends at Air Canada that they have taken off the

Boeing 7...

Yes, plane chat.

They've taken off the usual Boeing 787s that service London to Montreal, Montreal's

Dorval Airport, and replaced them for this week with the larger capacity 777-300ERs,

which such as the demand for tickets from London to Montreal.

So yeah, anyway, we're all set for the Canadian weekend, and it's been an interesting day

at the track.

Track looking good, as it always does.

There was a rain shower around sort of after lunch, 2, 3 p.m. that lasted until about 5

p.m.

Nothing serious, but maybe a sign of inclement weather to come.

We did see a lot of groundhogs, and I'll give you a little groundhog factoid at the end

of the pod book, so stay tuned for that.

And watch out for a special who, why, where, what, when, and how on the groundhogs and

the marmots, which is going out piece that I've been making, which is going out in the

F1 show, which is between Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 Friday.

I would say tomorrow, because for me it's tomorrow, but if you're listening, it's probably

later today.

But what has been going on at the track?

Well, Red Bull, let's start with them, because they're first in the constructors.

They are searching, they are looking for, they are hoping to achieve their 100th Grand

Prix win as a constructor.

And Max Verstappen was kind of on the, you know, look, you know, when he's the same tack

as when he goes to a race as he has the last couple of, or the last year, primed to win

the championship.

He said more or less the same thing.

He said, look, if we win it here, the first opportunity we get to, it would be nice, but

we're not going to be sweating about it too much if we don't.

Now, of course, the difference is that Red Bull have got two chances to win it in Sergio

Perez and Max Verstappen.

If something happens to Max Verstappen, you'd expect with a car advantage that they've got

Sergio Perez to win the Grand Prix.

But I don't know whether Red Bull are thinking, oh, if we just get there too soon, you might

be able to hear some of the buses in the background.

That was the 390, 39, going down Rousseau, Brick West.

I don't know whether Red Bull are thinking, look, let's not talk it up too much, because

that'll just jinx the whole thing.

They'd be probably wise to do that.

And is there any kind of celebratory 100 Grand Prix wins flag or T-shirt?

Actually, it was the number 24 bus.

Sorry, the other number 24 is just past me.

Is there somewhere in a cardboard box somewhere that Red Bull don't want to say about?

Well, I don't know.

I would doubt it because I don't think they tend to celebrate championships, not just

single wins.

But it would be an amazing achievement, wouldn't it, for Red Bull who only started, of course,

back 2004, 2005, for them already to have had 100 Grand Prix wins.

Now, you might say, well, Lewis Hamilton has won 100 Grand Prix wins, 100 Grand Prixs by

himself rather than the team, but he was, of course, was around since, well, around in

a very dominant car for those years.

And, well, no, I'm not doing down the achievement of Lewis Hamilton at all, actually.

It's just something you might observe.

As for Sergio Perez at Red Bull, he was, I didn't ask him directly because he'd already

been asked and answered what he said to Christian Orner's post Spanish Grand Prix.

Well, I think, you know, it'll help him being so far off max in the drivers' championship

because it will take some of the pressure off him.

But he did say in the press conference, I kind of reject that.

I didn't really put any more pressure on myself than I would normally.

It's going to be the same here, and I'm just here to have a big reset and to go for the

win once again.

I spoke to him, he's wearing a special, it's not a leopard, jaguar, tiger, maybe it is

a leopard, print hat in deference to the many Mexican fans.

Apparently, it's the largest Mexican population outside Mexico in Montreal, which I didn't

know.

Interesting fact.

But, yeah, he's in determined mood, I think, Sergio Perez, to at least have a better weekend

in Spain, if that means being able to beat Max Verstappen, we will see, but we'll see

how that goes.

But he certainly wants to start afresh.

Talking of that, it was an interesting day at Ferrari because they had the newly minted,

if you can be a newly minted Le Mans winner, Antonio Giovanazzi at the circuit.

We'll learn to James Colardi and Alessandro Pierre Guidi, as well, who also won the Le

Mans 24-hour with Ferrari.

I suggested, I said to Carlos Sainz, congratulations, how is it having him around there?

He said, look, it's great for Antonio.

We're normally used to seeing him here without a Formula One drive, doing our simulator stuff,

so it's nice that he's able to come here as a Le Mans winner and it's lifted his spirit.

Same for Charles Leclerc, Charles Leclerc just developing what he said at Le Mans at

the time last weekend, saying that he would one day like to have a go actually driving

in there.

I asked, had he asked, Nico Hülkenberg, Fernando Alonso, or, who was the third driver, who's

won Le Mans, well, Giovanazzi, what it's like and how to unlock the key to a Le Mans win.

He said he hasn't, but he probably will.

What I didn't ask was, well, what I asked Sainz was, is there any applicable kind of

technology that the Ferrari hypercar program can share with the F1 car program, or is it

just good vibes effectively, and he said, yes, it is just good vibes.

With the cynics amongst you saying, well, they could start with them sharing their strategy

tips with the F1 race team, accepted, I think it is just good vibes and a support and knowing

that they can get things right when they really, all the chips fall well for them.

But what in terms of the F1 team, they have to do at Ferrari this weekend, is put the tire

degradation and the mid to high speed nightmare of Spain behind them.

That was what Carlos Sainz put it down to.

The very poor showing in Spain was that, look, that track combined the high tire degradation

and the corner characteristics that our car particularly hates.

Now here, as George Russell was quick to point out, you've got the three softest compounds

in the range, and in Spain you have the three hardest, so I don't know how Ferrari will

do with that kind of tire degradation, maybe better.

But I think it's a podium, it's a kind of must podium.

If you're going to use the verb to podium, I think for Ferrari it is a must to podium

this weekend.

If they don't get a podium, if they let Fernando Alonso get back in with his podium habit,

or Mercedes get back in with a podium following up the ones that they showed in Spain, then

I think people at Ferrari will start to sweat as to where exactly this season is going.

And Colour Sight saying that, and I'm still saying we don't have the drivable, the easy

to drive car that we had last year.

So yeah, was there anything else on Sight to the right down in my notebook?

Yes, the tires and the high speed corners, yeah, we'll see what happens there.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton spoke to them as well today.

George Russell actually, who was at the Champions League final in Istanbul, saying that he saw

parallels in Jack Grealish and his teammates Kevin De Bruyne and all the others at Man

City and the sort of come down that they had.

He said he saw parallels between his win in Brazil last year and Jack Grealish, who he

followed in.

The story of how George Russell ended up on the Manchester City bus and going back to

their hotel for the party is that they were stuck in Istanbul's legendary traffic and

he, George, got a lift on the Man City bus as to get with its police escort to get out

of the traffic.

And so that's how it ended up going back, obviously, as it was to the Man City hotel

and to the party.

But he saw Jack Grealish because he was with him to go from that elation down to the kind

of adrenaline low and then get back up again for the party afterwards.

But George said, look, I didn't celebrate my win in Brazil for three straight days, which

I believe the Man City squad did, but certainly saw some parallels there, which I thought

was interesting.

And George was sort of saying, look, you know, it's going to be a bit of a different circuit

for Mercedes here because it's the same corner profiles that colour sites talked about, very

different corners, very different tyres, and the fact that while their car went well in

Spain, it might not go so well here.

I put it to Lewis Hamilton when he said more or less the same thing, that this was a bit

of a downer that his engineers said, and that, is it the case that when he goes in the engineers

are trying to be all clever, clever, say, well, our simulations say we're not going to be

very good here, and the best we can hope for is fourth or whatever, do you have to go and

bang your fist on the table and say, look, come on, we're here to win.

And Lewis in a roundabout way said, yes, I'm the hype man.

We are here to win.

And that's what I'm, Lewis said.

That's what I'm here to do.

I'm here to win this weekend.

At a circuit where he's had so much success, he really has the keys to victory around here.

Seven wins, of course, equal with Michael Schumacher around the circuit, Gilles Villeneuve.

What else was going on?

Pierre Gasly took his team out for a session of 10-pin bowling, but when he got to the

bowling alley, he found out that it was a strange kind of Quebecois bowling with sort

of much smaller skittles and much smaller bowling balls, and he was not used to it.

And so therefore didn't do very well.

I don't know whether if he got to a usual 10-pin bowling, whether he thought he could

do a little bit better, but said that he certainly didn't win, but it was nice to take his mechanics

out.

And Esteban Ocon was talking about Caleb Cooper and Jeremy Clarkson's visit from Diddley

Squat Farm to the nearby Endstone Alpine factory.

So they're very close together in Chattelington, or Chipping Norton, or wherever they are,

in Oxfordshire.

And apparently I didn't see this because I was working at the time.

Jesse Clarkson said at the Monaco Grand Prix, if Esteban makes it onto the podium, I'll

bring some of the Hawkstone Lager down and give it to the team, and he stayed true to

that.

And the funny bit was when Esteban showed Caleb the F1 car steering wheel, and Caleb

couldn't quite get his hands around it.

But apparently Caleb said he was fine going for the seven miles down the road to the Endstone

factory from Chattelington, but he wouldn't have gone to London to meet the Alpine team,

so I thought it was quite funny.

What's that?

So that's Alpine.

McLaren, I didn't speak to Lando, or Oscar Piestri.

So I don't have anything from McLaren, so stay tuned for the shows for the weekend as

to what they are getting up to.

What I did talk to was Yuki Sonoda and Nick De Vries.

And Yuki Sonoda, I'm sorry to say, because I thought he'd get over the disappointment

of finishing the Spanish Grand Prix on the road ninth, but then getting dropped down

a couple of positions.

But apparently, well, he says he's still rather upset about it.

The time penalty that put him behind Joe Gagnu and whoever was 10th, I've forgotten, in Spain,

and he's still upset about it.

I didn't want to kind of bring it up too much.

I just wanted to know if he was going to engage with the FIA to understand exactly what he

did, which wasn't allowed, and whether he can make sure he doesn't do it again.

He said, look, it's not so much that.

It's the penalty points that I've really got a problem with, said Yuki.

As for Nick De Vries, he's hoping for a good weekend.

He said that you might not have seen it, but they have been making progress in Spain.

And over the last couple of races, Yuki's pace showed that that car is capable of finishing

in the points.

Who else then didn't talk to Alex Alvin, did talk to Logan Sargent, who, while it's his

first time here in a Formula One car, doesn't know the circuit a little bit, was talking

about how his particular way of mastering it, trying to find time, is to come off the

brakes a little bit earlier and then bleed a bit more speed into the corner, get a higher

mid-corner speed, and then that means a quicker exit.

That kind of specific explaining of where it's all going a bit wrong, or whether he's

not able to find as much time as Alvin at the moment.

I thought it was very refreshing and interesting from Logan Sargent there.

Right, that is about it.

Yep, Lando didn't speak to him, but I want to know what is going on at McLaren and Oscar

Piestri.

There will be plenty of Ashes chat which starts this week, in fact I think it starts on Friday.

But Lance Stroll, let's leave you with a thought on Lance Stroll, shall we?

And yeah, comes home to Montreal, says that he hasn't been able, hasn't had too much to

deal with in terms of extra interviews and media appearances, so has managed to keep

his head pretty much in gear and his mind clear as he goes to his home race, and has

a chance.

I thought Spain wasn't exactly a bad weekend, it's just that the Mercedes were ahead of

them and there was a Ferrari in there as well that meant they dropped back.

He thinks this race will be a little bit better for Aston Martin, but doesn't know whether

it's going to be him or Fernando Lanzo, it's going to be able to challenge for the podium.

But wouldn't that be amazing if he was able, at this sell out crowd to get the podium,

his first podium of the season that has avoided, that has eluded him so far, or whether Fernando

Lanzo will be able to get back into that podium habit for Aston Martin.

But there's only one way to find out, that's to follow us throughout the weekend.

We're on in the afternoon and evening, go to our Skysports.com slash F1 for all the details

on the website, on Twitter, it's at Skysports F1 and on Instagram as well, they'll have

all the on air times.

And the factoid that I will leave you to about the Marmots and the Groundhogs is that they

deter them with Wolf and Coyote Wee Wee.

Yes, that is just one of the facts that you'll find in our coverage this weekend, but to try

and persuade the Marmots and the Groundhogs not to go on the circuit for their own safety

and the safety and integrity of the Formula One cars and the F1 drivers, but more to save

the Marmots from getting hit by F1 cars, they spray the perimeter walls with Coyote

P and that puts the Marmots off.

And on that note, I will say thanks for listening to Ted's Podbook in Canada, and we'll look

forward to your company throughout this Canadian Grand Prix weekend, bye bye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.