Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Ted’s Podbook | What can we expect from the Japanese GP?

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Sky Sports F1 podcast feed and to Ted's

Podbook from Suzuka, Japan. Well I say Suzuka, we're not actually in Suzuka,

we're in our hotel which is on the outskirts over a town called Yokoichi which

is the the third town along the Issei Bay from Nagoya. So what you do is go to

Tokyo, then you go to Nagoya and then you get a local train and go Kawana which

is the first town, then Yokoichi, then Su and then somewhere between Yokoichi and

Su, spelled TSU, you go northbound and then you get to the circuit. So this is

the Podbook from Japan or as they say in Japan, Podbook desuka. Podbook it is. And in

the hotel routine which is a typical Japanese business hotel, we're down in

the lobby. It is 10 past 7 p.m. on Thursday and in the lobby we have various

people, we have Damon Hill, the 1996 Formula One World Champion, we have

Bernadette Collins, Bernie, our resident strategist who's just waiting for

something to happen, they're both waiting for something, well they're waiting for

the pros to go to Suzuka restaurant and Karun Chandok who's disappeared for a

second. I don't think either of them are going to appear on the podcast because

I'm determined to keep it to 10 to 12 minutes today, just so last time it was

22 minutes ridiculous. So I can give you a flavor of what's been going on at the

track and really the sort of one of the best flavors of what's been going on the

track has been Sebastian Vettel and the Insect Hotel on the inside of turn one,

turn two, buzzing corners as they're calling it. But I'm going to wait until

the end because Sebastian Vettel is not a current competitor in Formula One

because there's not enough going on with the 20 drivers that are out on the

track or will be out on the track this weekend. Not least of course the new

constructors champions to be Red Bull Racing. And when Karun turns up again I'll

ask him what number constructor they're on the verge of. I think it's six. They're

on the verge of their sixth constructors. Four under Vettel. Or did they?

There's one year they didn't win it. I should have done my preparation. Anyway,

Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez have spent the week in Tokyo. They were doing some

filming on Wednesday with a sort of crazy Japanese game show that Red Bull

Japan set up for them. You can see that a feature I did with them throughout the

weekend. And I kind of asked Max, look, you know, are you just going to, when are

you going to go for it? First of all, when are you going to go and put the

rights of Singapore wrong? The wrongs of Singapore right? Are you just going to go

for it? Do the fastest final three sectors on Friday, Thursday night, if

you're watching in the UK, practice remember, 345 a.m. And you're just going to

go for it straight away. And he's like, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. You

know, I build up the weekend, get the car sorted, get the tyre characteristics

under control. You know, then in qualifying, I'll go for it. All right,

by the time you watch this, you might have already got up and watched Free

Practice 1. But I think that is reason enough to watch Free Practice 1, to see

whether Verstappen immediately wants to go out and say, right, lap one, what car

have I gotten today to me? Yes, it works. It's not the beast of Singapore. Lap two,

Bosch. There you go. That's what we can do on a more ordinary circuit. But we

will see. I also asked him, how is this car, you know, how has this car felt to

drive? Sort of since Azerbaijan, when he got to grips with it, he said that,

yeah, in Azerbaijan, they found some sort of tweaks to do on differential and

thinking a little electronic toys that they can play with. That has made the

car beautiful, great to drive. Singapore accepted, it's made the car great to

drive. And in the same way that Midsmayby sort of gone away from Checo since

Miami has a Bajant time, it's gone towards Max. And he says it's just been, you

know, a dream. So, yeah, looking forward to seeing what he can do around here.

And by contrast, it's an interesting thing what's happened to the Ferrari,

because Singapore winner Carlos Sainz was saying that, you know, since the car

is much harder to drive than last year. Last year's Ferrari, this year's Ferrari,

he's built a kind of, you know, false understeer into the car, an inbuilt

understeer into the car. Because the rear is so difficult to live with,

he just wants to put some understeer in the car. And that's been a balance that

he's much happier with. That's gone away from Leclerc, whose driving style

is to have a more understeery car. I said to Leclerc, look, you know, that

doesn't mean you can't set up the cars differently. Why don't you just go with

the understeery car? And he said, well, the problem is, when it gets on the limit,

it snaps so quickly at the back that, you know, I'm going to end off spinning off,

like, you know, we've seen this year. So that's why he doesn't have it. Yes, it's

harder to drive quickly on the limit with understeer, with Leclerc's style,

but it's sort of safer because the car's not going to go off into the barriers.

So Natalie Pinkham, our presenter for the weekend, has just arrived alone.

And that's why it's sort of gone more towards science. You know, you can

file that as another driver excuse or Leclerc excuse, but I think it is true. Also,

bear in mind that, you know, science is sort of talked about of maybe not staying at Ferrari

long term, something that he doesn't want to do. He wants to stay at Ferrari.

He does want to. He wants to stay at Ferrari. And that's something he was keen to underline,

was to say how his current run of form is just nice to remind Ferrari of his quality,

that it's not all about Leclerc, this team. And it's, you know, something that

he can be a race, he is a race winner on a consistent basis for Ferrari. Apparently,

the new, you know, after every race, well, you might not know this, but after every race win,

they mount a new flag or a prancing horse flag outside the Ferrari race factory.

This week, after science's victory in Singapore, the flag has been put outside the old entrance

over the over the road, the old Maranello entrance to the to the car factory, because

apparently Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna wants it to be Ferrari's win, not just the gestione

sportiva win. Corone can have a question. So that's why the flag is red bull. We're live. Well,

we're sort of live. I'm doing the pod book. Red Bull are on the car. There's Crofty. He's the

stats king. Red Bull are on the verge of their sixth constructors world title. Or is it seven?

I think it's six because they crofty. Sorry. I did it. I did a bundle there. You did a bundle

there. Is it? Is it the six world championship constructors that Red Bull will win or seventh?

Have they won six so far? They've won five. They've won five. Yeah. Yeah. So they're on the verge

of their six. That's what I was about to say to you. Shout it, Crofty. I did. I did an

Yeah, exactly. Classic bundle. What nobody explained about the Martin thing was that the

Esteban Esteban is a running joke on the grid, isn't it? Is it? Yes. Explain it to me. No,

you remember, no one picked up on this. They thought Martin was being rude. He was just

joking because a few grid walks ago, he shouted at Ocon Esteban Esteban. It was partridge thing

like Dan Dan, and he walked away and he chased him up the grid. Didn't he? Yeah. So he was just

doing that again as a kind of joke. Esteban Esteban, happy birthday. He never expected Oscar to

disappear. Yeah, I don't think he told Oscar that nor did Oscar get the joke today. Come on. Keep

up, Oscar. All right. Thank you, Karin. Thank you, Crofty. Yeah. So that's okay. So they're on the

vert. What was it? Six. Yeah, they're on the verge of their six. Good. Glad we've established that.

That's Red Bull. That's Ferrari done. Lewis Hamilton, along with being extremely excited

with the link up with, I forgot his name again, Sora Baye, the artist.

Anyway, there's a very famous Japanese artist who Lewis admires greatly, and

sorry, Baye. I should have written this down. Google it. And he, Lewis, admires him

hugely and went to, reached out to him, said, would you like to do a link up

for a bit of merchandise and design my crash helmet? And the famous Japanese artist,

whose name I haven't got quite right, said yes, which Lewis said he was very happy about,

and has a chrome helmet. This artist is famous for doing artworks in chrome. So he has a chrome

helmet for the first time in ever, I think. I've never known Lewis to have a fully chrome helmet

before, but on track, away from the artist, unnamed artist that shall remain forgetful and

nameless for the moment. Don't text into me. I know I'll find out what his name is.

Lewis was saying that he, explaining the qualifying thing, and saying when he's not

qualifying ahead of George, then it's very difficult to overtake. Still in Formula One,

despite the rule changes. And it means that he's not going to get the opportunities going for the

win, like might have happened at Singapore, which is its own story. And so he really needs to

improve on qualifying because of that, because opportunities for the win he feels might be

passing him by, because he's getting outqualified by George Russell. Firstly, Lewis said my qualifying

has, well, a slightly rude word, I won't say it, has been bad, he said, paraphrasing him,

for two years now, and I need to put that right. Kind of, yes, but kind of no. I mean, didn't he not

qualify on pole in Budapest last year? So that's something, I think maybe it's Lewis being hyper

critical, which he always is of his own performances, likes to be perfect, of course he does.

He's the most successful ever. And is that something that he can fix, which is going to be an

interesting one? And it leads me onto the question, does Lewis Hamilton think that if he had been

the lead driver on the road, would he have won Singapore, whereas George Russell didn't manage

to get through Lando? I think he knows he would have got past Leclerc, but did George Russell

didn't manage to get past Lando? And, of course, then Carlos, does Lewis think that he would have

been able to no problem? Don't know. It's kind of the hint that he's giving, but we didn't actually

ask him that. And even if we did, he would have said, oh, no, you know, well, it wouldn't have happened

or didn't happen. Right, a couple of other things. I've already done, I've already done 10 minutes

or so. Lance Stroll is back, said that he was, while he was cleared to race on the Sunday of

Singapore, he didn't feel right in himself and just thought it was going to do more harm long

term, wanted to be fit for Singapore, Suzuka. So he is, which is good. Fernando Lonso found out

there was damage to his car, which explains Aston Martin's low pace, says that Aston Martin haven't

had to change their car because of the technical directive. So if you listen and believe every

team, then none of the teams have had to change their car, including Red Bull and Aston Martin and

everybody else after the technical directive, which rather begs the question, why did the FIA

feel the need to put the technical directive out if everybody says they didn't need to change their

car? Good answer. Good question for you there. Alf Tari with their big upgrades. Liam Lawson,

very happy to score those two points, needs to work on his starts. He says of the starts,

messing up the starts is all down to him. They're fine in practice, but then he gets to the grid

and he kind of gets a bit freaked out when the lights go off and he's on the grid and something

he needs to do. So he's going to do lots of practice starts here this weekend. And it's a problem

for Salva, Valtteri Bossas and Joe Grandiou, saying they need to score some points because

Alf Tari are coming for them in the Constructors' Championship with the big upgrade, even though

Alf Tari are still at the bottom. Fred Vassar has been meeting the two-headed Mercedes Boss,

Toto Wolf replacement. Authorus, the two-headed dog of Greek mythology. Right. So the authorus,

I thought it was Cerberus, of Mercedes this weekend in place of Toto Wolf is Bradley Lord

and Jerome D'Ambrosio. And so going around, like an Orthros or a Cerberus, can you Google

Cerberus for me, Johnny, please? Is Bradley Lord and Jerome D'Ambrosio going to meet other team

bosses? So Fred Vassar, the Ferrari team boss, went into Mercedes to say hello to the two-headed

chief of Mercedes F1 this weekend. And they both had to, Bradley and Jerome, had to both go out

and talk to Fred. It's just as well that team bosses don't have to. So Cerberus is, the hound

of Hades is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld to prevent the dead from

leaving. That's a terrible, terrible reference. Sorry, thank you, Johnny. Johnny Green from

the guys, what's everyone digital there? Right. Okay. So that's what's going on at Mercedes.

Pierre Gasly saying he's very happy to be back in the flow and back in Japan a place he knows well.

Who else did I speak to? Logan Sargent at Williams just feels the speed is there,

just has to cut out the mistakes. Kevin Magnuson very happy to score a point for Hasse.

And he said, it was just banter on the radio when he said, I love you all guys,

even you Gunter after Singapore. And I think that just about wraps it up actually.

Honda, yes. It's, oh, James Key is here for Salba. He's the new Salba technical director,

of course, ex of McLaren. And this is his first race back at the Salba team. And Honda,

Rebel hoping, well, as they wrap up their six constructors championship, they can do so in

Japan because as a tribute to Honda, whose engine, of course, they have in the background,

Soriyama. There you go. The artist. Sorry about that. Soriyama is the artist. There you go.

Got there in the end, which leads us to the Sebastian Vettel Insect Hotel on the inside,

buzzing corner, buzzing corners on the inside of turn one, turn two. It's all about biodiversity.

It's all about encouraging insects and bees and wasps and hornets and everything to live in

these places because the more that climate change affects the earth and the more natural habitats

that are cut down either forests or rainforests or gardens or anything like that, then the more

species are threatened and that is going to affect humans in a very, very negative way.

Well, yeah, I think, you know, in terms of, you know, making life even harder, even understanding,

considering the ravages of climate change. And that's something that Sebastian is passionate

about avoiding. And that's why he's opened this. People are calling it a bee hotel,

but it's not just bees. It might not even be bees. It might just be lots of different

insects to live in these huts. So each team has got a hut and has decorated it. And then

Sebastian has a little one bee hut as well or insect hut as well. So on the inside of turn

one and two and the inside curb is painted black and yellow in the bee style. So it's made a lovely

local Japanese pine and Lee San is the carpenter who has helped Sebastian put it all together. So

watch out for our qualifying show for all of that. Right, I've done more than I wanted to,

but thank you very much. Karun Chandok and David Hill, Johnny Green from Sky Sports F1

Digital and everybody for helping me out. Thank you for listening. Join us free practice one in

the early hours of Friday morning, 345, 645 a.m. for free practice two, and then repeat that

free practice three on Saturday morning qualifying. Anyone know what time qualifying is on?

7 a.m. Thank you very much. And the race 430 for a 6 a.m. start. Excellent work. Good. Thanks

very much. Hope to have your company throughout the weekend. Sayonara!

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.