Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Ted's Podbook | Miami musings

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Sky Sports Everyone podcast feed and to a very

special Ted's Podbook because it's not just Ted's Podbook today as we look ahead to the

Miami Grand Prix. It's also Crofty's Podbook and it's Simon's Podbook because we're in

a car going back from the circuit to our hotel after a busy day in the paddock. Simon, did

you have a busy day?

Oh, I had a busy day.

What were you doing?

I was with a famous actor who I can't give you the name of yet, but all I'll say you

had, very big muscles, much musclier than old David Croft, the arms.

Good. And how was your day Crofty?

I was also involved with people with big muscles. They play for the Miami Dolphins.

Oh yes, now this is a good feature which you can look forward to. What is it in the F1

show on Friday?

It is on the F1 show on Friday. I tackled the training course where we showed my nimble,

light of feet, my accuracy with the throwing arm and where I almost, almost beat a real-life

American football player at his own game.

Good. What was his name again? Chad?

No, Bradley Chubb, who I call the Chubbster from a distance.

How did that go down?

Well, I'm not sure he heard me. I hope he didn't hear me.

Anyway, there's been a big change in the at the circuit, which I'm sure you'll see on

our coverage throughout the weekend, is that the paddock has moved from the sort of underhang

of the stadium as it was last year. You might have seen it in the background of Simon's

presentation or presentation, as we call it, into the very hallowed turf. It's not turf,

it's astroturf of Dolphin Stadium, the pitch. And actually, I think it works quite well,

don't you?

It does, but if you shuffle your feet on the astroturf and then touch the person next to

you, they get a very bad electrics, a static shock, so just watch out for that this weekend.

But you get that view, and I know with you two, your sports fans, like many of us, that

view, when you come into any stadium, and whether it's the London Arena or wherever

West Ham play.

New Bolin.

Right. Is that what it's called? I thought it's called the Olympic Stadium.

No, it's called the London Stadium, but I referred to it as the New Bolin.

Okay. Or, you know, Etihad Stadium, whenever you get up to see Sitter.

Oh, Sitter.

That feeling when you go up through, you know, the hot dog stands or the bars or whatever

into the stadium, and you get that feeling going into the paddock every day, which is

quite cool. You see this huge expanse in front of you.

It's absolutely phenomenal. And I'm with you, Ted. Whenever I walk into a stadium, be it

full or empty, there's a lot of emotion that goes through you. It's a place of dreams

and a destiny. And I come back to the Miami Dolphin Stadium. I actually commented on a

Super Bowl here once and saw Prince doing the halftime show, which was just phenomenal

in 2007. So there's a lot of really, really cool memories whenever I come to Miami. And

just to walk into that stadium where, you know, the Colts beat the Bears, and sadly the Colts

beat the Bears, and I was commentating on it. It's just, it's a pretty cool place to

be.

Yeah, I mean, I was blown away by it today. It's not, I'm a huge NFL fan. So this is,

for me, I haven't actually, you believe it or not, I'm a 49ers fan. What else do you

think I do on a Sunday night when I'm not working here?

Dinner. Sort the kids' dinner out, and then, you know.

Yeah, I do all that.

So there's three matches. You know, the kids are in bed by the time it's gone.

So it's either the PGA Tour, or it's the NFL. And this is, they're a team on the up,

aren't they? I mean, they've spent so much on the stadium, and they, you know, they've,

I think they've got Tyreek Hill for NFL fans. He is the quickest wide receiver. You'll

ever, you'll honestly, you'll ever see in the NFL, he really is. So they've got some big

name players at the Dolphins. I think we're going to enjoy this weekend. And it's a bit

bold though. It's a heatsink, isn't it? Everything goes in. It's absolutely roasting in that paddock

because the sun shines, it's hot, it's humid, and it's going to be a hot one.

It is. Well, we are, we are heading down, sorry, Krifty.

I was going to say, are you going to do a live Ted's Notebook, you know, to the fans that,

in the grandstand, looking over the paddock, you could, we could put your notebook out

over the PA?

No, we're going to have to record the first half because the radio frequency doesn't

work going from the pit lane into the undercroft, under the stadium, and then into the stadium.

Not really the undercroft sounds, particularly all four parts of the croft.

Yeah, so sorry. So, so we do, I think we need to record the first half and then we can do

the second half live. Anyway, we're just heading down south on Highway 441. And 44 makes me

think of Lewis Hamilton. And on this coronation weekend, who better than A Night of the Realm,

Sir Lewis Hamilton, to kick us off. And, you know, he loves all things Miami.

I did put to him, actually, it was a question that someone here in the States asked me,

being a night of the realm, does he get an invitation to the coronation? And Lewis said,

I don't know, I haven't checked my post box in his flat in Monaco for ages.

And even if it did arrive an invitation, he wouldn't know it because he never checks the post.

That's an insight we didn't know about Lewis Hamilton, that he doesn't check his post.

How does he pay his gas bills? And, you know, if he doesn't check the post, what about,

what about all those annoying letters that he gets? Letters? Sorry, it's a thing of a past, isn't it?

It is, yeah. It is. What I found interesting about the coronation, just somebody that's involved in motorsport,

is Lord March from Goodwood. Is he carrying the scepter as the Duke of Richmond behind the king?

Wow.

Hopefully he's not. Yeah.

Cool.

Just to carry on the whole royalty theme, our driver here, Juan Carlos, King Juan Carlos,

is taking us to where we're going tonight. So it's coronations all around.

Excellent. So yeah, of course, you can watch the qualifying after the coronation.

And Lewis said that if he had received an invitation, which I don't suppose just any old night of the realm does,

because there are quite a lot of them and they wouldn't fit them into the abbey,

or maybe they can go to the reception afterwards, I don't know. Is there a reception?

Is it a catered affair, the coronation? Is there a catered affair afterwards?

It's all down KFC, isn't it?

Is there a bargain button?

Not quite sure. So Hamilton was positive enough about being in Miami,

saying that short to medium term he wants some downforce, more power, more downforce from the car.

George Russell, also not really talking about the performance of the Mercedes,

did have something to say, though, didn't he, about the little bit of handbags with Max Verstappen.

In a perhaps unguarded moment, or maybe he meant to say it, he called it a bit pathetic.

I mean, I know sometimes people accusers of stirring up the niggle,

but I think I was talking to a couple of other unnamed drivers today.

Predominantly, they're all on G Russ's side on this one.

And I think the consensus is, if you don't dish it out, if you can't take it.

George was also saying that in no way is he going to change his driving style

in the way he approaches a race or approaches a moment in the race,

just because Max had a bit of a problem with the way he was driving in Baku,

which I think is good, because it felt to me like intimidation tactics at a play,

and George is having absolutely none of it.

So it would be nice to think we'll get a bit of that in Miami this weekend.

I kind of doubt it, unless Mercedes can produce an exceptional qualifying performance.

But it would be nice to see them going wheel to wheel again and seeing how it transpires,

because we know Max is not one to back down, and George is not going to back down either.

So we're bringing it on for round two, gents.

Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Max, for his part, was just saying,

look, it's great to be in a season with a car that they've got at Red Bull,

at worst, as long as the car doesn't break down, you're going to finish second,

and at best, you're going to win the race.

And I don't know, you know, he made a point of saying that Checo has always been

a bit of an expert around Baku, and by contrast, he doesn't like Baku.

I mean, he more or less came out and said, Baku is one of my least favourite circuits.

I don't go well there, never have.

I think the hangover, the poor tent of the exploding tyre probably hangs over him at night,

and haunts him, doesn't it?

Yeah, I mean, isn't it?

I think, I mean, actually, do you think just moving on from that, though,

that Checo, buoyed by all of his street race performances and all those wins,

what is it, five of six on street tracks, will come here,

chock full of confidence and has the measure of him again?

I think that's the, for me, that's the story coming into the weekend.

Obviously, there's a story coming to the weekend, but it could be the story of the season.

How is it going to affect Max Verstappen's mind if, you know,

for more than one race in a row?

And yes, he had, I think he had equal pace in Jedder as well, to some extent.

Do you think he can actually, for once, try to just mess a little bit with Max's mind?

I think the neutrals will all be hoping.

And certainly, actually, there's going to be a lot of Checo fans here,

because we're closer to Mexico than we are to the Netherlands.

So that's the story of the weekend, obviously.

I mean, you know, we have to believe Christian Horner, who said to you afterwards,

Simon, you know, now we just need to get Checo winning on ordinary circuits.

And Crofty in Miami is not an ordinary circuit.

Well, no, it's not. It's another temporary track.

It's been completely resurfaced from last year as well.

So the drivers have no reference point with this surface.

The DRS zones have been shortened a touch as well.

We'll see how that affects the racing.

Eventually, Checo is going to have to step up to the plate on a traditional circuit.

And we'll see how that goes.

The good thing for him, we're here in Miami.

Himmler next, then we've got Monaco, Spain, and then Canada.

So he's got three street circuits coming up in which to try and impose himself on his teammate.

But for us, what we're enjoying is for the first time in a long while,

a teammate of Max Verstappen, who is capable, at least in some part,

of really taking it to Max.

And all we ever want to see is great battles on the track,

not just one person dominating.

So, you know, that's got to be good for the future.

Let's move on to Ferrari.

And Charles Leclerc and Carlos says he thinks he's found something on the car in the setup

that was hindering him in Bakun should be better here.

And Charles Leclerc was saying that, look, we just have to get our tyre performance right

because in the races that red bull takes off and does the opposite to what we do to our tyres,

which is just, you know, destroy them effectively.

We're not dealing with say, destroy them, but wear them out, degrade them.

And the red bulls, they just seem to get better and better.

And that's a hard thing to achieve, isn't it, if you're Ferrari?

It is.

I just, I feel Ferrari is a bit lost at the moment, to be fair.

Once again, they've got themselves a really quick car over one lap

that they know is not going to be the quickest car over the course of a race.

And they just can't seem to get out of that sequence that they desperately need to.

Biggest revelation for me today, by the way, with Ferrari is Charles Leclerc admitting in the press conference

that his music is dreadful.

I don't know if you heard this one.

Obviously he did.

He's riding high in the iTunes chart last week.

He's got another track coming out at the end of this race.

But he said that he was quite surprised because his music, quote unquote, was dreadful.

Now, I think this is brilliant.

There's an awful lot of artists out there that could do with admitting their music is awful.

I'm not going to name names in the car now.

I'm referring to the seven-time world champion in his difficult second album.

No, no, I was thinking more Adele, to be fair.

Oh, you've lost me on that.

So yeah, some other little news lines because we're going way over the 10 minutes that I tried to do.

Lots of interest through the paddock about the coronation.

Lando Norris says he's going to try and watch it.

He's going to watch it on his mobile on Saturday morning, Miami time.

And Alex Albin saying his mum and sisters at home are big fans of the Royals

and are definitely going to watch it.

As for Alex Albin, he was also saying that he was frustrated being P9 in the sprint

and he wished that was the race because he would have finished with two more points.

Yuki Senoda in his lovely pink shorts.

Did you see Yuki in his pink shorts today?

I didn't see him in his pink shorts.

He was saying he was very happy to score.

Crofty, has he scored in the points in the last two races?

Back-to-back 10th place finishes after three 11th place finishes on the trot.

Wow, good odd Yuki.

Yeah, when he said that, I was raised my eyes.

I couldn't believe it.

That's good running for Yuki Senoda.

Esteban Ocon says he has received an apology and an explanation from F1

and the FI as to how he managed to come across a tensor barrier

with some scrutineers and FI officials as he made his last lap pit stop in Baku.

But that won't happen again.

He says Pierre Gasly said they're just waiting at Albin for a clean weekend.

They can show what they can do with the upgrades.

What have you spotted?

It's a full moon.

Gasly sometimes looks at it, but Juan Carlos says it's a full moon.

Is that a full moon?

What does that mean?

There's Logan Sargent on the big advertising hoarding.

There is.

On the side there.

It's advertising a Williams sponsor.

All this, or the flyover that we're going on at the moment,

they've actually finished buildings since we were last here as well,

which means there's no massive big queues Juan Carlos.

We don't like that.

They're a traffic jam tier of hauling.

We're just turning second left via past Del Boca Vista.

And we're on to Kiyuki Biscayne.

And finally, Oscar Piastri looking and feeling a lot better after his food poisoning.

He doesn't know what it was, by the way.

He says it wasn't fish or mussels or oysters or anything like that.

I did three hot laps with him today.

And he's a quiet lad, but he's a demon behind the wheel.

He's a demon behind the wheel.

And it was wonderful to see up close.

And he's definitely better.

Okay. Alfa Romeo Salba, Valtteri Bottas.

Bit of a mystery as to where their pace has gone from Bahrain,

where they were quite strong, but Valtteri looks happy to be here.

I've done Williams, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen,

not really particularly optimistic about Haas's home race.

One of their home races.

The home race with their title sponsor as well.

Did you know that?

Yes, I do.

Well, all this Haas are the American team.

There needs to be a more American in the Haas team, quite frankly,

because they're not based in America or they're owned by an American,

and they haven't got an American driving for them.

No.

And one team that does have a Canadian driving for them,

finally is Aston Martin.

And Fernando Alonso, I don't know what you heard from him,

but he certainly said to me that people should not underestimate us

and the improvements that we've got to come

because we have a good team of people with Eric Blonde and Dan Fallows

and we have some upgrades coming

and people should write us off at their will.

Well, no one's underestimating them, are they?

I'm not.

He certainly feels that people have underestimated them

and are underestimating what they've got to come

and people shouldn't, said Fernando.

People already, I've written the quote down,

people underestimated us already in pre-season

and they shouldn't do it for the rest of the season.

So, the subject of Fernando Alonso,

there will be no Taylor Swift references whatsoever this weekend

because Taylor Swift apparently is now dating somebody else

as the 1975 ones had a hit with.

The lead singer of the 1975.

What's he called? Somebody Healy.

Good.

Excellent.

Dennis?

Good.

Well, listen, on that note, I will say thank you very much for joining us

and does anybody know the on-air times for,

well, if you're listening to this Friday morning,

then we're on Friday afternoon.

And then we're on Friday evening for free practice too.

Qualifying is 8pm.

Qualifying 8pm and the race is about the same time on Sunday.

Yeah, I think so.

Well done.

Thank you very much for joining us

and from my colleagues, David Croft.

Thank you very much indeed.

And Simon Lazenby. Goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.