Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Ted's Podbook | On to Budapest!

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to this guy's podcast feed and to Ted's

podcast from Budapest, Hungary. You join us on a Thursday evening outside the

team hotel to tell you where we are. We're between the Opera House, the newly

renovated Opera House and St. Stephen's Basilica or the Basilica of St.

István as they call it here in Hungary. So if you go south from St. Stephen's

Basilica you get to a very nice pedestrianized street and then you go

down to the Danube and if you go north you go past the Opera House and then up

towards the circuit. So let's tell you, I'll try to keep it to 10 minutes

this time, in a brief way let you catch up on what's been happening at the

Hungary Ring so far. Well it's been a warm day, not particularly boiling hot and

certainly not as hot as we've had in other places in Europe and I'll get on

to that with quite an interesting thing that Max Verstappen said. But the hot

story, sorry about the pun, has been Daniel Ricciardo really. We all got here

and it's just such a great story with all the sympathetic feelings for Nick

de Vriesen, the way he was treated, not being able to perhaps give you know a bit

more of a chance to give, to show his abilities. It's great to have Daniel

Ricciardo back in the Paddock. Just a great character, brings so much just

joy really about life and Formula One and racing and so many opportunities

and to life. So it's just great to have him around. You might hear in the

background the reversing sound of a Tesla. Oh no, he's off. There we go, the

whisper of a Tesla, which goes off. So I assume they do have good electric

vehicle charging points here in Budapest. But yeah, it was just nice to have him

around. And you know I go back to something I said on, I think it was the

Saturday notebook at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The first thing I noticed in Bahrain

is that we missed Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. And while I don't think

we're going to get Sebastian Vettel back in the Paddock soon, very soon, but we

might get him back eventually. We do now have Daniel Ricciardo back and back at

Alfa Tari. A crucial thing that he said in his interview with Rachel Brooks, you

can see she's doing a feature for our free pre qualifying show. He said, she

said, you know, you are coming back with an Alfa Tari, which is the slowest car

on the grid. Are you okay with that? And he said, you know what, a year ago, I

wouldn't have moved to a team where the car wasn't quick or he didn't say back

of the group, back of the grid car. But that's what he was saying a year ago,

wouldn't have done it. But now this is an opportunity. And who knows if I'll get

another one, and this opportunity might lead to something else. So I think there

is no doubt, first of all, that if he is going to stay Alfa Tari next year, and

if Alfa Tari next year are going to have this year's Red Bull, essentially, as

their next year's car, because the rules allow rather more technology transfer

between Red Bull and Alfa Tari than Alfa Tari have taken advantage of so far this

year, maybe if they'd taken advantage a bit more of it, they wouldn't be back

of the grid team. But you know, the story from there, then Daniel's thinking, okay,

look, I can get my hands on a year old Red Bull with which I can get, you know,

good points finishes and have some fun with a great car, handling car for next

year. And then the year after when Checo Perez's seat is up for grabs, and if

they don't renew with Checo Perez, then maybe I'll go back to Red Bull racing. I

did ask Max Verstappen what his feelings were having Daniel back and whether he

would welcome him back as a teammate. Max said, look, we're getting way ahead

of ourselves on that one. But you know, I enjoyed having Daniel as a teammate when

we were teammates. The other thing I thought was, so that's the Daniel

Ricciardo stuff, watch out for more of that throughout the weekend. The other

thing Max said, let's start with Red Bull, was that it's nice weather here

because it's actually hotter where he lives in Monte Carlo than it is here in

Budapest. So it's nice to come here and get a bit of a break from the sweltering

European temperatures that you would have heard about and read about online and on

the news. What else did Max say? Yeah, I know I was asking about, you know, do you

have to kind of prepare yourself or your team or your mechanics for the

eventual loss? You know, there will be a race, which potentially there could be,

there might not be, but so maybe I should revise, there will be, there might be a

race that you might not win. And he was saying, look, you know, we know that might

happen, but there is a real motivation, determination in the team to try and keep

that ball rolling and to get more wins because it's such a great feeling. So

that was his view on it. Actually was saying that this is not the kind of

track that their car might suit because it's got so many slow corners and the

Red Bull hasn't been as good in slow corners as it has been in fast corners.

More or less the same for the McLaren as well, even though Landon Norris, I think

was fourth here last year and saying that he's got a good result, doesn't think

that they will be able to replicate the second position, the heroics of Silverstone

with McLaren, but still thinks with the upgrades they're going to be there or

thereabouts. Oscar Piazzari at the same time as McLaren saying, look, you know,

it's very nice to be annoyed with fourth place. Clearly his best result in Formula

1 so far, but it was due to the unfortunate timing of the safety car,

meant that he wasn't on the podium. And while it was nice to have fourth, it was

also nice to come away from that race thinking that it was a unfortunately,

you know, annoyed, he was annoyed that he wasn't on the podium because he

could have been. And while McLaren don't expect to be quite as good given that

they are better in the cooler conditions and it's hot here and they're better in

fast corners and there aren't any here, it's all slow corners. Bearing that in mind,

I think they are here when in half confident of a decent result in the

points. Another actually interesting thing about Daniel Ricciardo Alphaterri just

before I forget was that Rocky. Now, do you remember Sebastian Vettel? His engineer

at Red Bull during all of those times with the four world championships was

Guillem Rockala and obviously affectionately known around the place and in

Red Bull as Rocky and very familiar voice on the team radio. Now, Rocky has

turned up this weekend wearing an Alphaterri shirt and I don't know whether

he's been brought in to bolster the Alphaterri engineering effort and to give

some kind of home Red Bull support on the engineering side to Daniel Ricciardo

on his first weekend with Alphaterri or whether he's in an Alphaterri shirt in

his role as kind of head of the Red Bull Young Driver Academy, which I think is

his current position within the Red Bull organization. I think probably both.

I'll get some more details on this tomorrow and report in the Friday shows

and Saturday shows, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was kind of both and if

Red Bull and Christian Horner and help Marcus say, look, Rocky, you know, you're

there. Can you treat Daniel Ricciardo as a young Red Bull driver, please? And can

you go and help him out? Or maybe he's there to help out Yuki Sonoda. But it's

first time I've seen Rocky in Alphaterri clothes and Alphaterri gear at a race

weekend. So yeah, what's what's Rocky doing there? Is he there to help Daniel

Ricciardo on his return to Formula One? We will see. What else? Lois Hamilton,

Craig spoke to him in the pen actually because I was busy doing an interview

with Fernando Alonso for our coverage over the weekend. But I did speak to

George Russell, who was saying that, yes, while McLaren are a threat to them for

the rest of the season, he thinks that Mercedes have something in hand when they

come to a Grand Prix like this. Of course, George Russell was on pole here

last year and he thinks that they can do good things here this weekend. But yeah,

Lewis seemed fine. I saw him walking around, but I didn't speak to him. But

yeah, it seems like a slightly, slightly quieter determination, I think, than

Silverstone. I think Mercedes were annoyed that they weren't quite as fast as

they felt they could have been or should have been at Silverstone and want to do

better here. We will see. Alex Albin, the Williams, was coming off his P8 in

Silverstone and talking about how he's had an extremely busy week. He was at

the British Grand Prix, obviously. Then he was in the factory a couple of days of

simulators, simulator work. Then he did some promotional work. Then he went to

the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He was talking about how that is extremely

demanding now as a Formula One driver because it's so popular and so many

people wanting photos and time and all of this, but still had a nice time with

his dad Nigel looking around from a touring car driver. I think Nigel Albin

was and he had he had one day off when he went and played golf. So that's what

Alex Albin has been up to. But otherwise, he's saying also that if you could draw

a circuit which would be less suited to this year's Williams on paper, then you

would draw the Hungari ring. But with the upgrades they've had and bear in mind,

they didn't have these upgrades at the circuit that sort of replicates or is

the most, what's the word? The circuit that's most like the Hungari ring,

which is Monaco, actually with the upgrades, it might not be such a bad

circuit for them. So we will see. What else? Ferrari, yeah, they are

confident, I think, ish of being higher than they were at Silverstone, which

wouldn't be difficult because they had a real shocker there. So again, sort of

quite determination on Ferrari's side to have a better weekend. Yuki Sanoda

saying all the attention around Daniel Ricciardo doesn't really mean anything

to him. He hopes to be as fast as him, at least with the experience that he's

got of that Alphatari car. And I asked him whether, you know, he would be

wanting to stay ahead of him. And he kind of said, yes, I think reading between

the lines, Yuki knows that he's going to have much harder driver in the other

car than Daniel Ricciardo in the form of Daniel Ricciardo, the Nick DeVries, and

is going to do well to keep up with him, at least Yuki said that he should

be up there and ready to challenge. What else? Kevin Magnuson, congratulations

to him on the birth of his second child, did speak to his teammate, Nika

Halkenberg, who said that while Silverstone was a bit of a disaster for

them with the breakage of the front wing early on, which really affected the rest

of their race, they have made a bit of progress. I kind of expected him to say

we've, you know, they spent the Silverstone Weekend working on solving

all of their tire degradation worries, and they've made quite a lot of progress.

He didn't say that. He said, we were always learning, but it's, you know,

it's, it's something that we're making a little bit of progress on. Pierre

Gasly, Alpine, who have a new boss, by the way, they've just announced that

Lauren Rossi seems to be moving on to other special projects within the Renault

Group. So that's something interesting that we'll follow up throughout the

weekend. But Gasly was saying they sorted everything out with Lance Stroll

after they're coming together at Silverstone. They had a chat at the airport

apparently, and they have to work harder at Alpine. Everyone is pushing hard,

but they have to work harder to bring some more performance to the car.

What else? Max Lando, Nico Halkenberg. Oh yes, Nico Halkenberg's hair.

It's gone platinum. He's saying he's gone for a high downforce hairstyle,

and he sort of dyed it bright peroxide blonde and was surprised that it got

so much attention. Well, that's kind of the way it works. If you do come to the

Formula One Palate with a shock of blonde hair, Jack Villeneuve is proof of this,

then lots of people will pay attention to you. And finally, I'll have a word

maybe for Nick De Vries, and I'll leave it to George Russell, really, who

couldn't let me bear in mind Nick De Vries, Russell and Hamilton know him,

or that Holland Mercedes do, because he was a young Mercedes driver and was part

of the Mercedes family for a couple of years.

It was on the tip of George Russell's tongue to say that he felt Nick was

unfairly treated by Helmut Marco, but he couldn't quite bring himself to say it.

He said, I really feel for Nick, but I don't want to go into it further.

So he stopped himself from saying anything controversial.

But I think Nick really feels, George really feels that maybe Nick wasn't given

all the chances that he could have done also had something to say about the

rumoured cost cap breaks of the rules.

Now, these are only rumours at the moment.

Why now? Because it's some time in the next month or so that people are going to be

getting their OKs, their green flags, their certificate of being a good team,

following the rules under the under the under the cost cap.

And it's not known whether all the teams are going to get those certificates

of compliance and whether you're going to see some teams breaking the cost cap rules again.

Yes, this story again.

And all George Russell said, if there are any second time offenders,

that would be very serious for them, which underlines pretty much what the F1

boss, Stefano Domenicali, was saying.

If there are any offenders, second time round, not second time offenders,

but offenders, second time round, then there should be sporting penalties

rather than fines and docking of any wind tunnel time,

which were the penalties last time.

Right, that is it.

I've done 14 minutes.

So again, haven't managed to stick to my 10 minutes.

Apologies for that.

But join us over the weekend.

Usual European times for free practice on Friday and on Saturday morning.

And then on Sunday, give our F1 juniors a try.

Go and have a look because if you've got any kids in the house,

then we've made a very special coverage just for them.

So have a look.

It's all over social media where you can find it on the various sky channels.

But for now, I'll say thanks for listening and speak to you from Budapest

throughout the weekend. Goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.