Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Ted's Podbook | Will Verstappen break his Singapore curse?

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

podbook from the Marina Bay Circuit in downtown Singapore. Well you join us at

the end of a Thursday evening here it's what's the time it's about 11 p.m. but

just walking outside the paddock I'm just at the base of the Singapore Flyer

so we're in a public area but we're still nestled between the last corner so

the Singapore Flyer you might have seen it goes between the last corner the last

two corners pit entry and turn three after they come out of the first left

and right hander so then it doubles back to the back of the paddock and then the

long drive down Marina Drive down to turn four so that's where we are and we

are here to update you with what has been happening on media day here is

everybody has flown out here from the end of the European season last time out

in in Monza and the start of a Asian Southeast Asian and Asian doublehead

here and in Suzuka Japan in a week's time which has got some very swizz-looking

Porsches presumably it's the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia race who have been doing

something on the grid and are now trundling past me speaking and going

back to their paddock which I think is in one of the car parks the car park that

serves the Singapore Flyer the Ferris Wheel so sorry if you can hear them in

the background and well if you like that kind of sound of them grabbing their

cars and engines in the background and there you go

but yeah everyone seems to have journeyed well to the circuit apart from

George Russell which I'll tell you about in a moment and looking forward to

getting this very very different well I say it's very different it's the same

old Singapore in terms of its it's very hot it's extremely humid and it's a

probably the toughest physical demands of the drivers of the season but it's a

very different track in the bit at the end in the last sector where they go

under the grandstand is gone they are doing some construction around that

area and it's meant that they can't race on the bit of track road that they

used to and that means that they have to miss out that section and then go well

straight on instead so we don't have that left-hander when they go down and go

under the grandstand then a right-hander then come back out of it and then go

down towards the sort of last chicane I think underneath the road again down to

the pit entrance and the last two corners they don't have that anymore it

means that lap times are going to be about 10 seconds 9 to 10 seconds quicker

so we can have a whole heap of new lap records and the statisticians who work

on these kind of things are going to have to reset their their their stats

because I don't think it's going back to the old layout although that is to be

confirmed actually I'll ask that I'll ask the organisers whether when they

finished all the road works it will go back to the old layout I think if it

works in terms of driver feedback and making the race a little less on the

edge of having to time out at two hours and works in terms of good racing and

possibly good overtaking they'll keep it the way it is now but that's why they

have changed it but do you want to know well what do you want to know first well

let's go through all the teams shall we on in championship order as they are and

starting off with Red Bull and I get on Sergio Perez in a second but I put it

first to Max Verstappen that this was one of the tracks on which he has not one

dot dot dot yet I said which are the other ones he said well Katar I said yeah

but we only had a couple of races there were racing half there Vegas yes well

that doesn't count because nobody's one there yet where was the other one he

hasn't China I don't think he's one in China but we haven't been there for a

while he did point out that there's been COVID and stuff like that but my point

was does this give you now that you've done 10 in a row that's never been done

before is it kind of a fun thing to say oh well you know here we are tell you

what I've never won this race I'd really like to and undoubtedly yes not least the

fact that he wants to win every races because that's the way he's programmed

he's driving brilliantly and on his way to the championship and is having fun

with the car as well so that was that was that there's another thing for him to

to be perfect for in the team to be perfect for this weekend he's never won

around here Sergio Perez of course has one so I greeted him you can hopefully see

these interviews on Sky Sports dot com slash F1 with you know reigning winner

here at Singapore and Perez was a bit more downbeat than the max in terms of

how he thinks it's going to go here Sergio said it's challenging you know

that in life when people use the word challenging when they mean difficult

well Sergio seems to have got the sort of challenging bug so he says I think

it's going to be a bit more of a challenging weekend than possibly you

might expect but it's going to be a bit more difficult don't know will it but

you know maybe it's just the way that Sergio works that car the RB 19 and its

tires that he thinks is going to be more challenging for him than it will be for

Max Verstappen anyway now look with Sergio then we got on to his reaction from

the comments of Helmut Marker now if you didn't see this Helmut Marker appeared

on service TV's program sport and talk which means as you might expect sport

and talk service TV is a Austrian TV channel I think it's on cable it's on

free to it anyway which is owned by Red Bull and it's a very so it's so because of

that it's a very for its guests obvious and I've been a guest on this a long time

in the past this program you know it's filmed in a Red Bull location usually

sometimes you know usually hang a seven in Salzburg or it's filmed somewhere

else that's a very sort of you know Red Bull location and obviously Helmut

Marker felt when he appeared on it after Monza that he was in a safe space or

amongst friends or wasn't going to be asked anything difficult so I'll leave

you to see what he said I put this to Sergio Perez Sergio Perez said look he

he called me and wrote to me afterwards apologizing Sergio said he's not that's

not the person he is and I've accepted his apology and we move on Max Verstappen

said pretty much exactly the same thing I phrased it differently to Max just to

just to be kind of well you know you're you're he's been Helmut Marker has been

your mentor can you kind of educate him as to his language and and what he's

saying and Max's looks not my position to educate you know anyone not least

Helmut Marker but you know when you do something wrong the thing to do is to

recognize that to apologize to put it right and Helmut has done that and I

accept that and I move on and he said we as a team Red Bull move on okay but

then we also asked Lewis Hamilton because obviously he's been the most vocal

in terms of pointing out that there is still racism in Formula One over the

last you know three four five years he was a relevant Lewis is a relevant

person to talk to because he's brought posts was it 2020 anyway his most

attention to the fact that in his search you know his continued campaigning for

racial justice Formula One is not exempt from its issues and Formula One and the

FIA you know we race as one all of that support that they've done a lot of work

to it which Lewis pointed to with Lewis's own Hamilton Commission and

Mission 44 the Mercedes all the work they've done to draw attention to this

there is still racism in Formula One I said look is it almost depressing to

see it feels like we haven't come very far I said you know the last week there's

this comments being made and Lewis said what's most unfortunate is that it's

it's somebody at a high level you know this is one of the top two people it's

together with Christian Horner in Red Bull Racing and he's you know racist

comments like this are coming from Helmut Marco so what hope do any is

it's anybody else have when that's unparalleled phrasing Lewis but please

look at his quotes on as I say on Skye's social media channels or on our

programs throughout the weekend why does anyone else have when this is guy one

of the guys at the top and Lewis said I'm not surprised effectively I said now

sorry now the pace cars going around on the race control cars anyway listen Lewis

then also said it's no good just apologizing and expecting it to be

all fine which is effectively what Max and check out was saying alright let's

move on to Ferrari and Carlos Sainz I congratulated him on the podium in

Monza he was saying you know look it's all part of I'm glad that people have

noticed that's all part of me feeling better with the car recently and and the

culmination of that over a few races where Leclerc's had podiums so far this

year this year so but but Sainz hadn't that was particularly satisfying and why

he was trying so you know doggedly at the end to to hold on to the to hold on

to the podium and he was saying you know that's that's it's something I can build

with build on coming here Carlos noted that or I asked him you know that there

was a as Fred Vassar said there was a meeting in Maranello on the Monday

after Monza did it come up about how stoutly you defended against your

teammate he said well you know we talked about everything but it didn't come up

particularly same kind of thing from Charles Leclerc he didn't really have a

problem with Sainz's defenses he said he enjoyed the fight that's why he got

into Formula 1 for but he didn't like that Sainz beat him in the end and he

wants to put that right this weekend and Leclerc's always fast around here

hasn't won around here of course I think the last Ferrari driver to win around

here was Seb Betel but he always goes well around at Singapore he's

lightning quick round here is Leclerc and he's hoping for the weekend where he

can challenge Red Bull but doesn't expect anybody to actually beat them on

pure pace said something would have to happen for Red Bull to upset them from

being at least first and probably second as well but the final place on the

podium then we get to Mercedes now George Russell apparently was getting a car

from his hotel wherever that is which should to the track which was should

only have been a five-minute car journey but they end up taking a wrong road

out of the circuit or out of the hotel onto a flyover that they then couldn't

get back on to so he said we were half an hour out of town and halfway to

Malaysia he said before we realized we could actually get off one of the

expressways probably got to Changi Airport and then back towards the circuit

so it's a little bit of a confused journey trouble trouble getting in to

Singapore which I was talking about earlier but yeah he was saying that he

enjoyed his time going to the Rugby World Cup the opening game he used to

play rugby which I didn't know George Russell was a fly half at school so when

he played rugby so who knew that that's new for me but enjoys watching all

sports and met Richie McCaw from the Kiwis from the All Blacks and was very

happy to see that would love like to see an England game but his timings didn't

work Hamilton thinks I said to Lewis do you think you know you're gonna go

better here than Monza he said look I don't know you never know until you

drive the car hopefully we will you know you need to George also said you

spend FP1 getting your confidence with the car right and then you can work on

setup and tyre wear and all of that but Lewis was yeah you know we might be we

might not we'll have to wait and see. Alpine Esteban Ocon was looking for

positivity in terms of is this track a bit like Monaco where he was on the

podium and while it's not really especially as they've removed all the

twiddly bits at the end it's better for them than Monza which was one of their

most disappointing races of pretty much all time since Alpine came back into

Formula 1 so there's optimism at Alpine it can't get any worse can't get any

worse than Monza where I don't think they scored any points from memory and

Ocon had to retire no they didn't just check my notes in front of me and but

they can actually do better sorry I'm holding my yeah Gassley was 15th the

knock on was a DNF in Monza of course they certainly didn't score any points

there and a good line from Oscar Piazzari about how I put into that there

are lots of Australians who were coming into Changi Airport the aforementioned

Singapore Changi Airport when I was coming in at the same time and well

attended by our friends from Australia and does that sort of feel like a you

know nice place Oscar said well yeah it is still you know seven hours from the

East Coast Sydney Melbourne or you know Canberra or wherever from or Adelaide I

said yeah but that's a local flight it's a bit closer I think it's five hours from

from Singapore to Perth but he said look you know this is somewhere that you know

I love coming just as a person and I'm waiting can't wait to drive in Formula

1 and Lando oh yeah I said to how about the how about whether Oscar and Lando

were called into a meeting with Andrea Stella after the race in Monza and said

or you to no more hitting each other or touching each other on track with your

cars and Oscar kind of downplayed that sort of as did Lando Lando said what do

you mean Andrea Stella was absolutely fine with what we did not what we heard

after Monza I've got to say but anyway an Oscar understood how the team had to

undercut Lando which got Lando past him before his clash with Lewis Hamilton to

defend from I think it was Fernando Alonso so the team had to do what was

right strategically for the team even if it didn't work out particularly well

for Oscar Piastri so yeah I did point out to Lando Norris that while I was

delighted that Lando.jpg on Instagram is back he hasn't posted for three and a

half months now and when he does he posts five selfies from inside of an

aircraft toilet and did he not have a cabin crew member on the door knocking

and saying hello sir are you alright in there do you need help well after he'd

been in there for half an hour taking lots of pictures and seeing which was

the right one and and did people not think it was funny when he took his

camera into the toilet with him but he said no and he thought he looked cool

and it was something different so I would look forward to seeing the return

as Lando.jpg started here a few years ago of more pictures of aircraft toilets

from Lando Norris actually no I don't talk about at Sauber which will be called

Sauber next year. Joe Guan Yu is staying to be a Sauber driver next year of course

how from here are disappearing as a sponsor next at the end of this season

so well done Joe Guan Yu I'm really pleased about that because there was

some doubt as to whether it was going to be him or Theo Porcher I thought I

talked about oh I did talk about it on the notebook at the end of the Italian

Grand Prix but Joe Guan Yu has confirmed that he can build on the progress that

he's made with the team he's getting faster with every race he says and he's

delighted to continue this journey with Sauber as Valtteri Bottas who already

had a contract for next year anyway as Valtteri Bottas his teammate for next

year so congratulations to Joe Guan Yu. Valtteri Bottas is optimistic about this

weekend one of the many drivers are optimistic here on the Thursday as the

upgrade that they've been waiting for for half the season has arrived it's here

it's a new floor and it's a new diffuser and given that's where most of the

downforce is found on these generation of Formula One cars Valtteri Bottas is

extremely optimistic that Sauber can score some more points this weekend to add

to the one point he scored for them in Monza. Lance Stroll was talking about

wrist and hand breakages well he wasn't talking about it I asked him about it

with Daniel Ricciardo who is in the paddock by the way and was saying look you

know I understand how difficult it can be for Daniel because it all depends on

where you dislocate and where you break and which bone you break and how you

know whether it's a bad break there is such a thing as a bad break and a good

break and he was lucky that it was quite a good break that Lance had when he came

off his bike when he hit a pothole but Daniel it seems has got a bad break and

is still recovering from his. I'll talk about Daniel in a second Fernando Alonso

thinks that they can be back to the pace they had at Zandvoort where Fernando was

pressuring Max for the race win at the end after the restart and he was a

solid P2 so watch out for Aston Martin around here that is my tip for the

weekend but he will have some competition from Ferrari and Mercedes so

Ferrari Mercedes and Aston Martin again fighting with actually with with the

upgrades that I forgot to tell you McLaren have got some upgrades but most

all of them are only on Landon Orris's car. Oscar says he's got a couple of the

little ones but he doesn't have all of the bits of the the upgrades which I

think incorporate the new rear wing that was meant to come for Zandvoort but

they didn't use it that will come for Oscar's car in Suzuka Japan next time

round so that is why Landon might if there is a reason why Landon is a bit

quicker than Oscar this weekend that'll be why because Landon has the upgrades

and Oscar doesn't. Lance, yes Fernando, yes and well as quickly before we get

on to Daniel Ricciardo they have expecting they're expecting lower tire

degradation here they also have a new front wing Sidney Carlkenberg which he's

quite excited about and Kevin Magnussen was saying that he thinks that with the

lower tire degradation and a bit of luck and them taking opportunities that

always arise here in Singapore then he is optimistic that word again that

they can get some points here that they really need in their constructors fight

with our Romeo Sauber. Now Daniel Ricciardo is here I will try and get a

word with him at some point through the weekend maybe a little fly-by on the

notebook. Have you noticed that Daniel Ricciardo is still in the Formula One

titles at the beginning of the the feed before we joined Crofty and he says

hello everybody have they not shot a Liam Lawson one? Maybe not or maybe they

think if he's just debutizing then they're not going to redo the titles

anyway maybe we'll get different titles I'm not sure they're not green screened

Liam Lawson and something that has appealed to Liam Lawson is the fact

that he was always badgering his dad to come here as a kid because it was quite

near to New Zealand to this race and his dad was like I can't you know you can't

get the time whatever never came and now he's brought his dad here now that

he's a Formula One driver for the weekend that his dad never gave him so I

think it's all very you know nicely intentioned but I was like right dad

we finally got our trip to to the Singapore Grand Prix and it's and I'm

paying for you so that's quite sweet. Lawson was saying that he is certainly in

for here obviously and expecting to be Japan I don't think there's any question

that Daniel Ricciardo will be ready with his hand for next week I think they're

targeting Qatar in about three weeks time optimistically I think we said that

in Monza last time anyway but Lawson of course wants to do Suzuka because

having done a couple of races there already in Japanese Super Formula that's

the circuit he knows best so if he can star and score points anywhere it's

going to be Suzuka it wouldn't make much sense for him to be in the car and not

do Suzuka so I think we can safely say that Liam Lawson is in for here

Singapore and Suzuka next week and that's it for Alphatar oh yeah Yuki was

saying there is this rumour going around I Yuki had seen it that he is going to

be promoted to Red Bull Racing but in the kind of Alex Albarn reserve driver

and apprentice role next year not driving Yuki of course said he doesn't

want to do that whatever he's doing next year he wants to be race driving and he

wants to stay at Alphatar in he says or whatever they're going to be called

next year he says I think I know he says I know what I'm doing next year and

it's going to be driving and then he said actually do I know what I'm doing

started to question himself so we might play it to you this week throughout the

weekend or look out for it because it was quite a funny moment I don't know

whether he does know what he's doing maybe he does he should know his own

I think he knows the contract trying to work it out with us and which leads us on

mentioning Alex Albarn to finally Williams and I've shot a very nice

piece with Alex Albarn in his home at heart Thailand we spent a couple of

days with him early on this week so watch out for that on I think we're

showing it on race day with Alex Albarn and he's saying it's nice to be here

this year rather than last year when he was still recovering from his emergency

appendectomy and the complications arising after that when he wasn't really

fit last year but did come back and it's nice to be here feeling fully fit and

ready to go thinks they're not going to be Williams are not going to be quite as

quick as they were in Monza but they did go well in Zanvoort in Holland which is

a more sort of higher downforce twisty layout like we have here and given that

we've now lost three or four of the corners with a new layout maybe Williams

could get a point or two here in there but Alex Albarn arrives here having been

in Southeast Asia Bangkok just a couple of hours flight north of here in good

form and ready for the weekend which leaves us looking forward to your

company throughout the weekend as well free practice one 10 a.m. Friday free

practice to these UK time so working out from there if you want free practice to

145 in the afternoon Friday afternoon free practice three 10 15 a.m. Saturday

morning qualifying 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and the race at 11 30 we're on

air on Saturday on Sunday morning with a midday 1 p.m. lights out for the

Singapore Grand Prix where we hope to have your company will it be Max Verstappen

11 in a row wow or someone else come up with a Singapore sling that can put

them into first place and on the top of the podium join us to find out thanks

very much for listening bye bye

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.