Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Was the new Sprint format a success and has Sergio Perez's win rattled Max Verstappen?

F1 is back and with our first sprint race of 2023. A new format, but Verstappen says

we should scrap the whole thing altogether, so did it deliver or does it need changing

yet again? Sergio Perez didn't mind. The king of the streets, winning the sprint and the

race on Sunday, is he now a genuine title threat to Verstappen. This is the Sky Sports

F1 podcast.

Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to this week's episode. I hope you're well. Joining

me for this one is Sky Sports F1 analyst, and Davidson, Sky Sports F1 reporter, Rachel

Brooks, and former performance engineer to Max Verstappen, and Sergio Perez at Force

India, and now F1 content creator, Blake Hincey. Hello all.

Hello.

Hi.

How do you...

Hello, hello, hello. Now, before I come to you and get your one-word weekend reviews,

I just want to tell everyone how this is going to go. So, I want us to get into the

sprint weekend and our thoughts on that, because I'm sure we've all got some fairly

interesting, interesting thoughts on how that all played out. Then I want to get into this

sort of brewing title fight at Red Bull between Max and Sergio. I'm going to get excited, even

if maybe other people are going to temper that, but I think it's worth getting excited

about, and then we've also got some questions at the end of the podcast from people at home.

So, Rachel, I'm going to kick off with you your one-word weekend review. You were there

in Baku, so let's start with you.

Exhausting.

Exhausting.

Go on.

Not just physically. Not just physically. I think everybody was kind of... We were looking

forward to it, because this new format, if you can buy it, you know, this is going to

change it up. But being up and ready for every single session in the way that everyone had

to be, including drivers, teams, team personnel, everybody, I think by the time everyone got

to the end of the race yesterday, it was like, wow, that was full-on hard work. And then

the rain came. So, for those guys and girls packing up that paddock and derigging, TV

crews, everybody, to then derig all that in the pouring rain quickly so they could

all get on a plane for 14, 15, 16 hours to Miami today. I mean, just exhausting and don't

make it a back-to-back. Sorry, that's it. Don't please don't make it back to back like

that.

Yeah, my goodness. I mean, when you put it like that, and also, yeah, this is the start

of a six-week stretch. Obviously, we've got a week off after Miami, but this is the start

of a six-week stretch. Yeah, it's an exhausting way to start. Blake, I'm going to come to

you next. What's your one-word weekend review?

Unfortunately, Rachel took my word, but we didn't talk about it ahead of time. Personally,

I did feel exhausted because at the same time, I'm not at the track, I'm doing a lot of analysis

at home about every session, but you've got one practice, you've got qualifying, you've

got qualifying, you've got race, you've got race. And there's a lot of information to

try to understand because that's the stuff that people want to dig into. It's not a practice

session, it's not a test session. You're literally everything on the line. And there's a lot

going on. Other than that, I would say if I had to pick a word that's not exhausting,

I would say a little bit confused. I don't know how I feel about this format yet, and

I'm sure we'll get plenty of thoughts on that as well, but I think confused is a good...

I don't know where to sit yet. Yeah, we'll give you two words there saying

as Rachel took your first one. Sorry. No problem.

You're not going to believe this. You're not going to believe this. Yeah, I mean, I was

in SPA all weekend, so trying to keep up the speed with what was going on in the world

of F1 in Baku, I found it confusing. So well done, you just nicked my word.

That's what you get for having two. I was going to go for involving because you need...

I feel like you really needed to be there and be involved, and there's a lot to these

condensed weekends now. The only one practice session and qualifying come at you so quickly,

and I just feel like it was a long while, actually trying to keep up the speed of what

goes on in the Formula E weekend, where it's basically all on one day. That's how it seemed

from the outside. It comes at you relentlessly, and to be away from it, as I was, quite detached

that weekend from F1. Speaking to other colleagues who I was working with there, who have worked

in Formula 1 in the past, other friends texting me from abroad saying, hey, what's going on

with this? Can Park Fermi, can they do this? Which tyres can they use for that? What times

the sprint on this lap before qualifying for the race? It was really confusing, but I think

if you were there and you were involved in it, I think then it must have been quite fun.

No, no. We were saying the same thing all the way through the weekend. We were in the

office in the morning. What times this? What times that? Are they allowed out of Park Fermi?

Can they change this? What tyres are they using today? We had all those questions, and

we were there.

Right.

That clears that one up. I've gone for maybe, which basically, I think, kind of like you

and Blake, is sort of like, maybe this format, maybe for another track, maybe in the future.

This might be something that will be worth doing, but I think on the basis of Azerbaijan,

I don't think we can draw a definitive conclusion on the success of it. I think there are many,

many things that I want to get into, but also just basic things, and a bit like we're all

saying with the fact that Friday, setting the grid for Sunday, I think in my head it

should be kind of chronological. I think you want to build throughout the weekend. You

want to have that narrative and have momentum build, and the fact that on Sunday morning

you're going, oh, yeah, who is on poll? Oh, yeah, let's refer back to Friday. You know,

oh, who's third? Who's fourth? Let's go back to Friday. I think, yeah, for me, it just

got a little bit confusing. So there we go. It's all like this big circle of words that

we've all picked the same vague words within reason.

Okay. Let's get into some questions from people at home. And John C. wants to know if the

new format played a part on the way the race was played out, considering Baku normally

produces drama, does it impact the teams only having one practice session? Blake, start

with you. There was only one practice session. How do you think that impacted the teams?

Well, I can definitely speak from an engineering point of view, and I can speculate about a

driver, but we'd rather ask a driver what they think about the single practice form.

But from an engineering point of view, I mean, Fridays are crazy. FP1 is flat out. You're

trying to get maybe one test item done, you're understanding both of the compounds at low

fuel, maybe having a sniff of what the high fuel balance and performance is like. Then

you've got another test program for FP2 where you've narrowed down what you want to do.

You've learned a lot. You've got different track conditions. And then you're going into

your dress rehearsal basically to get ready for Saturday. But you don't have that anymore.

You literally go in, you get Friday, you throw some darts at a board and say, this is what

our setup we think we're going to need for hotter track temps. And it's locked down. And

then from an engineering point of view, all you're doing is reacting, your understanding

and giving feedback to the driver on what you can do with the settings and the decisions

you've made for the weekend for the rest of the weekend. So you can't really do anything.

So long gone is staying up until midnight, changing the diff maps or up or down a little

bit on ride height. You've done it Friday. So you're kind of in passenger reaction mode

for the rest of the weekend. And as an outsider now observing, I don't know if that made much

difference on the weekend itself from a fan's point of view at all other than maybe slightly

confused and not clear because it's a new format. But one practice session is tough.

But the best thing about one practice session is it breeds uncertainty. We don't know how

the tires are going to behave. You have to lean very heavily on your preparation. You

have to lean very heavily on your understanding of tire compounds from different tracks and

extrapolate to the track that you're on now. And there's a lot more guesswork going on,

which in my mind, as an engineer, I'd hate it. If I had one session to make all my changes,

I would hate it. But as a fan, I don't think we've got a good taste of what that actually

does yet.

Yeah. And I think we saw with Gazzley and DeVries, they both had bad Fridays, and it

felt like they never recovered from Friday. I mean, DeVries was the reason for the safety

car in the race. He crashed out in Kuali. Gazzley had smoked billowing from his car

in FP1, which then meant he had a poor race when he finished P14. So as a driver, how

much are you relying on momentum throughout the weekend to get to that place on Sunday

where you're ready to go and you're ready to score good points?

So yeah, from a driver's point of view, these kind of situations, Matt, means that if you

are a driver that's a bit of a seat of the pants driver, it comes to you a bit more naturally

in a way. It can really go in your favor, and especially on a street track, you're really

scratching to find that performance straight away as quickly as you can and minimizing

mistakes. So every lap that you get, you gain knowledge, just like from an engineer's point

of view as well. They gain knowledge from the laps that you do. So if you can drive faster

more consistently and get up to speed faster, it benefits everybody. And I think the biggest

rival or enemy in that stage is reliability. So if you do have any reliability woes, it

hits you three times as hard, only having that one practice session as opposed to the

three that we're accustomed to. So it depends. If you're a bit more of a harder worker, and

there's no right or wrong, because some naturally gifted drivers plateau you quite quickly. And

especially if you're a naturally gifted driver that hasn't got the work ethic, you don't find

that last 5% say that we'll put you on pole position on a normal race weekend. But I think

it benefits those drivers where it comes to them a bit more naturally. And then it can

elevate you to a level that maybe you wouldn't be at given a normal race weekend, because

others can chip away at it, keep working, keep working with the engineers, get everything

perfect. And I would put myself as when I was driving as more of the former. And it used

to annoy me actually with the amount of practice sessions that other drivers start to catch

up through looking at your data, through looking at their own data, chipping away at it, getting

close and you go, well, it's kind of taken a lot of the skill out of it in a way because

anyone if you give them enough time will get there. So I quite liked what I saw in that

respect. It pulls on different skill sets as a driver. It's a really interesting one. I don't

really think there's any right or wrong.

On Pierre Gasly on that, he said to me on Saturday afternoon after the sprint, he said,

that's the first time I've done 17 laps all weekend, you know, and that's the street circuit.

So particularly on a track like that, for someone like him, where you need to build your

confidence lap over lap, that's going to have a massive impact on your race. So I can only

imagine across the board, it probably did have an impact.

What about the rookies as well? Because I imagine if you're Oscar Piastro, I know you would have

driven in Baku before, but you're driving this car that you're still probably getting to grips

with at this point in the season, only four only four races in. And I mean, Blake, obviously

you were a performance engineer. How would you have tried to have coach coach someone perhaps,

you know, through the streets of Baku? Because it looks edge of the edge of the seat stuff,

doesn't it? It's so exciting as a viewer.

Yeah, I mean, the whole lap just builds and builds and builds and you've got the different

characteristics and corners, but it's it's exactly as Ant said, it's all about getting seat

time and lap time and the ability to go back in the garage, look at a printout or an overlay to

say your teammates finding time here, what are their tools look like? What is their approach to

this corner? What is their approach to this whole section of corners? You know, you have lots of

segments on this track where drivers are trying to take chunks out of the entry to corners. And

you say, you're not finding lap time there. It's the exit of this whole segment, give up

everything and focus on the drive out of this. And there's so many different segments on this

through the castle, 15 down to 16 leading on to the back straight. We saw in qualifying a lot of

drivers caught out there giving up quite a bit of lap time to their teammates there. So more

laps is better. It gives the engineers more time to work with them and refine the tools to their

driving style as well to help get more out of that. We saw signs struggling a lot in three, four,

five. And it's like, those corners aren't that much different than one to, but there was certainly

something else going on there with the characteristics of the track that that was where

most of his lap time was left on the board to his teammate. And it was a huge gap this weekend.

Yeah, really, it really was. Rachel, you mentioned obviously what what Pierre Gasly said

about the format. Verstappen said he got bored in qualifying. And I think this is quite a funny

quote because I think boring is going shopping and, you know, going to the supermarket or doing

those kind of, you know, cleaning the house, not driving a Formula One car around the streets of

Baku. And he said it was boring. I mean, what else did people say? It's a funny one. I mean,

Max has never been a fan. He's been quite vocal about it, hasn't he? He said that, you know,

afterwards he said scrap it, we need to scrap it kind of thing. But he didn't come out of this

weekend how he wanted, you know, he didn't win either of the races this weekend. So, you know,

there will be people who say, I quite like the sprint because they came out of it in a good

position. I mean, we obviously had the race qualifying on Friday and then the sprint shootout

on Saturday. I feel like the last SQ three, so sprint shootout three should only be five minutes.

It should be one lap. They should have one quick lap. That is it in that last final session,

I think. I know we're going to come on to other ways to change it, but I think if he thinks it's

boring, fine, you get it nailed in one lap, then off you go. Let's see how boring that is.

I think the biggest thing is when we're looking at this, if the sprint format is a thing, it's

staying for a while. I would much rather watch a sprint shootout than a FP2 session with the cars

in Park Fermé. I'd like the sprint, the SQ, sorry, the sprint shootout format. I don't hate it.

I can understand where a driver like Max is coming from. It's just like the same,

same, same, same, same. They like the build up and the data gathering and the refinement

and building an even bigger gap to their teammate.

Yes, especially having already done a similar qualifying session on Friday. He's already

kind of done a shootout on Friday. Let's talk about other ways we change it then. I'm going to

nick something from our very own Korean Chandok on Twitter, who was saying that if we relax the

Park Fermé rules, it gives teams a chance to at least catch up. If you have a bad Friday,

you can still tweak the car for a Saturday or a Saturday afternoon, which hopefully would then

put you in a better position for Sunday. I think that's a really good idea. I don't know if you've

got anything else that you would suggest as ways to change it. I reckon you could give points

all the way down through the field to make it mean something for underperforming cars.

Why not? It's something I drove an underperforming car in Formula One and I had some fantastic

15th position finishes and 16th position finishes. I drove my heart out to beat your teammate or

someone you were fighting for last place and you can have the race of your life and walk away from

it with absolutely nothing to show for it. Why not? In a way, it's going to discourage people

this format more. We saw it with the tyre usage. You're focusing much more on the Sunday

in your qualifying than you don't care about the sprint race. You're not going to score points in

the sprint race anyway. It becomes nothing for them and I can understand why some boarder might

come into play for the drivers further at the back with all due respect to them and their teams.

Why not try to encourage racing all the way down through the field? I know if you give these

drivers, even on a computer game, you set them a challenge. They're so competitive they're going to

drive flat out anyway and have to get their muscles out and get their elbows out in a competition,

but really make it worthwhile. If you want to encourage them to treat it properly, seriously,

competitively, then why not give a few more points and just for that one race at least for their

championship sake. We'd have to get down to decimal points, wouldn't we? If we were going to

have eight for the winner, we'd have to be like four point two or zero point seven or something

like that. They'll take anything, I'm sure. What about the idea of a one-lap shootout for

Quali? How do we feel about that? I mean, I guess the only issue is keeping it fair, right? Because

if you have changes in weather, things like that, that could really favour some people and not others,

but track conditions. You don't want it to get better throughout the session, right?

You don't want it to become like a rally session in a rally stage where whoever starts first has

the advantage or whoever starts last has the advantage. You want it to be fair. Honestly,

speaking, Formula One, they've tried tinkering with qualifying over the years and I really feel

for F1, it's perfect how it is. There are other areas that you could look at.

The cars themselves, for example, with the reliance on downforce coming through the wings,

still as they continue to generate more downforce from the wings, we're seeing racing,

wheelchair racing suffer because of it. That's something I would fix way before looking at

tweaks to qualifying. For me, that's just looking at changing things as a band-aid solution to the

bigger problem. I would say, Matt, on what you were saying about Park Fermi and Corrine's point,

I had that down as well and I wanted actually to ask Blake, because what if you opened up Park

Fermi on Saturday night? So you keep the format as we had it this weekend, but come Saturday night,

you're a team where your car is much further back than you want it to be in the field. You

can change that setup to get it racy. Maybe we would have had a better race on Sunday

in Baku if we'd had that because teams could have made more changes. They could have actually

done a lot more work to the car and we may have actually had some competition.

Yeah, you could have seen a bit of chaos, especially a lot of people tended to run the lower

into the downforce packages. Other tracks that would have worked here maybe not because you

ended up having this weird situation where you had a high-efficiency car like a Ferrari, for example,

being trailed by a relatively low-efficiency car like an Aston Martin or a Mercedes, which are

quite a bit more draggy this season. It's like they could get close and then you open up the exit of

15. They can kind of close the gap a little bit and they're still 1.2 seconds back for mini laps

in a row. But I mean, that's one of those things. It could add variety to it. You head your bets on

Friday, you set your qualifying lap, go as fast as you can, and then you get to re-optimize your car

for Sunday. But I think probably Ant's comment on the Band-Aid is probably actually the answer to

that whole thing. It's the cars being reliant on so much downforce. And I think here we have

quite a big set of differences in performance gaps between the cars as a result of this part

of the development cycle. But I mean, that would be super interesting to see what they could do if

they could completely redo their setups for Sunday. But I think we'd have to see and trial it.

What does it make? And I think the teams probably have a pretty good idea what they can do in terms

of the tools that they've got in the toolbox, effectively, on what they could do. And maybe

it would be a wash, but it would be interesting for sure. We've got five more of them. So we've

got Austria, Belgium, Qatar, Austin, and Brazil. Of those tracks, Rachel, which one would you

say is the one you're most excited about seeing a sprint race at? Which also we should probably

say the format might even change a little bit more because they still can change the format,

can't they? They've left the regulations open to do that, haven't they? I mean, if you looked at

the sprint last time or if you looked at the sprint with Lewis coming through the field

when he had all the penalties, you know, that was exciting. That was a great weekend for both the

sprint and the Grand Prix. So I would say on past history, I'd look at Brazil, but

yeah, I'll probably go for Brazil at the moment, I think, just because of what's happened there

before. We have these tracks where we think it's going to be fantastic or we think something's

going to happen, and then nothing happens. And we say this about Baku all the time. If F2 has a

lot of incidents and excitement, the F1 race is usually pretty quiet. And it's some weird anomaly

that happens out there. And that's what happened this time. So I would go with Brazil, but I've

probably just jinxed it now. It's also the last one that we're going to. So maybe by then we'll

have a kind of perfect format of the sprint. Here's hoping, yeah. Just to chip in on that,

the only thing that I think was really, really awkward for the sprint shootout format was the fact

that who was it? Norris didn't have any tires. No. And that was like the whole point of the

sprint shootout format is to get more cars on track. And you've got your McLaren of Lando Norris

in Q3. The car looks a lot better. And he's like, right, I'm going to sit out on this soft tire run

on this brutal punishing street circuit track. And he sat there. I think an easy fix for that

part of the rules is let teams run a soft, like we saw teams finding track evolution running

used tires and the ability to at least have a go. It's not ideal. The other thing, the other

solution is lock, like the way you do for Q3, lock a set of soft tires away for SQ3. And if you

don't make it to sprint qualifying three, you've got a new soft for the sprint or the race.

I think we're, we're pretty much, yeah, we're trying to solve that same problem

by two different things. Like, basically, it's an incentive, isn't it? That we're trying to create

for teams and drivers that don't have a realistic chance of scoring points on that on that during

that sprint race. So, you know, you're going to sacrifice your performance for quite happily,

because you're not going to score any points anyway. Why do you care? Your main focus is

I'll quite happily use my extra set of soft tires for the, to get through further up through the

field on this for the Sunday race. Thank you very much. I really, you know, I'm not going to score

points in this very short race without any pit stops and a severe lack of drama or jeopardy.

I'm looking further down the road, thanks. And so, yeah, we're coming at it from two different

ways. One, you offer up maybe some points going further down, you might then reconsider or you

then force them into using that set of tires in or to tweak a rules to make them basically

take it more seriously, because that's the problem with less, with less of an impact nowadays,

because it's not forming your grid for the Sunday, which was quite an interesting element of the

sprint race before, a frustrating one for many, but at least an interesting one. And there was

that incentive to push your heart out to get further up on the grid for the Sunday race.

With that gone, you've now got to create a new incentive.

Kind of goes back to my point of saying like the chronology of the race weekend just doesn't

quite feel right at the moment, does it? The fact that you've just got that Saturday,

a normally Saturday in the middle, and the form doesn't necessarily carry on over to Sunday.

I think that's kind of, I think we've got into the sprint weekend. I think we're all sort of

saying there are still tweaks to be made. Is that fair? Don't think anyone's saying we've nailed it.

This is the format for the next five. Very unnailed. Yes, very unnailed. But I think everybody's

on the same page with it as well. I think even F1 and people would look at it and go, okay,

we're not quite there. We've got a good idea and a good basis. But I think even they would agree

right now. Didn't quite work out 100% how they wanted it to. The one last thing I sound is that

without that sprint race this weekend, we wouldn't have seen that brilliant moment between George

Russell and Max Verstappen. I'm sure that would be a talking point coming up later on. Because

there is an element of, because in many ways there are fewer points up for grabs, it's a little bit

more of a kind of free-for-all. Drivers are going to, at some moments, because they're not,

in a way, taking it quite as seriously in a bizarre kind of twist of fate, they go for moves

perhaps that they wouldn't risk on a Sunday. But there was a high risk moment that I really

enjoyed. I'm sure the two of them thought differently about it at the time. But it definitely

added entertainment. Yeah, for sure. Do you think we would have, say it wasn't a sprint weekend,

do you think we still would have got situations like that? Because obviously Baku does deliver

drama, it does deliver excitement most of the time. It felt like this weekend it just struggled

during the race. I don't know if you agree, Anne. I think it's Baku. You've got a load of 90 degree

corners. They're always hard to navigate from inside the car. There's only one point of Apex.

You've got to nail the braking zone and nail the exit and meet that point of the Apex. It makes it

incredibly difficult on a street track with a barrier as close to you as well. Then you throw

in other cars on cold tyres, cold brakes into the mix and it's just a bit of a lottery in that first

lap as to who's going to make a bit of contact here and there, who's going to make a move,

who's not. We saw it on the restart as well with Fernando and Carlos with a real plucky move down

the inside into turn five and turn four. That's maybe a move you wouldn't see on another type

of circuit. It's just one of those tracks that lends itself to moments where you risk a bit of

contact. Because you have to. You don't have another choice. It's now or nothing. If the

driver ahead of you makes a slight fumble, it's like, I need to get my nose in there. Otherwise,

that could be the only chance I get for the rest of this race. Hence the high risk, high reward

strategy we saw from a lot of drivers. Okay, let's move on to talk about Max and Sergio.

And as I said in the intro, the brewing potential title battle that we maybe,

maybe not, do have on our hands. Certainly at the moment, it's two-two in, you know,

two wins each across the season. Maybe three-two if you include Perez's win in the sprint,

although I'm sure Max wouldn't include that. Hockeylife on Instagram would like to know,

is Checo 100% a title contender against Max now? Rach, go on, take it away. Do you see Checo as

that title contender? I do, I think he does. But I found it fascinating at the weekend watching

their body language, because I love watching people's body language. I know a lot of the guys

laugh at me sometimes for trying to pick other things, but it was just so interesting because

I felt like, firstly, the incident with Max and George, Max's response to that, his responses on

Saturday, he was really riled up. And it wasn't just the incident with George, I don't feel. It's

because his teammate won a race. I mean, Blake knows this better than anybody probably can tell

us more, but his teammate won a race and drivers hate that. And then when I spoke to Sergio on

Saturday, he was really calm and he was really, you wouldn't have known he'd just won the sprint.

He was very, very measured in his responses. He was really, he did even smile in my interview

to the point where I was thinking, what is going, it's like he's just been told to give up the win

of a race, not he's actually won a race. So I mentioned this to him on Sunday after the race,

and there's just this steely determination in him, this resilience in him that just makes me

feel like he is going to push Max a lot harder this season than he's ever done before. And I think

could be wrong, but I think that's starting to filter through to Max a little bit as well.

Checo was unbelievable at the weekend. I think even without the safety car,

he would have won that race yesterday. I think he would have beaten Max on that track yesterday,

but there is a resilience in him that I, I think I haven't seen it to this level before. So yes,

I think he's going to push him a lot harder this season. Let's not forget, I mean, Max is amazing.

Max is an incredible Formula One driver and a lot is going to play into his hands in terms of tracks

and his skill and his confidence. But I would like to think it's going to go a lot longer this

season than it has done in the past. Yeah, sort of Monaco last year, wasn't it? I think the

peak for Perez and then after that, Max, Max took it took a stronghold on that championship. Blake,

come on, you've worked with both of these guys. You must know them both well. Where do you,

what did you make of Max's sort of body language and, and that kind of slightly fraught nature that

he had certainly on the Saturday with George? Yeah, I, I think he, it was, it was a really

tough one to understand because looking at the performance gaps and qualifying and where they

are finding lap time, Checa was just in one of those weekends where he was absolutely in the groove.

He didn't set a wheel wrong. He was very, very comfortable with the car on a place. Like Leanne

said, it's, it's super high risk, high reward type of circuit. Like you saw how many people are

flirting with the barriers at 15. A lot of people, as you said, you know, finding the apex, finding

too much of it, he didn't, he did none of it. There may be a couple taps of the wall here,

but it was awesome. Max really looked like he was not having a good time with the very low

speed section through the castle. Like he was losing lots of time there, didn't have confidence

getting the entry done to 15, which is where Leclerc really shined on Friday.

I think this is, we're race four in. Can, can Checa, I mean, Checa's six points behind in the

championship. Or is that including the sprint? Yes. Yeah. So he's there. If he can hang on to it

and not have one of those dips like he had at the end of 2022, after the break in 22, something

happened. And there was the whole narrative of how they've developed the car for Max. But

having developed, you know, all the way from 2015 to 21 cars and 22 cars in the simulator,

I don't ever remember seeing one of those things where you're pushing to help develop the car

for the lead driver. Both of the drivers are giving feedback. And more often, you're actually spending

time looking at solutions to find the driver. Like for example, when, when Albonne and Gasly

were struggling with the car, we spent a lot of time trying to find stuff to help them out to

understand where their performance deficits are to Max. You know, how can you get more stability

in the car for them so they can attack harder? And that was one of the things that Max could cope

with quite well. So I think Checo's got as good a shot as he does in a year. And Max is a very

difficult measuring stick to go up against. Like, he's a very tough teammate. And it's the only

person you've got to beat as your teammate. I was going to ask on the Albonne and Gasly example

you've just given, how do drivers react to going up against Max? Do they see it as this kind of

mountain unachievable sort of thing? And they're trying everything to try and get close to him?

Or what's the kind of psyche of those drivers? They never think it's unachievable. And that's

the whole point. That's why you're in that position in the first place is because you know,

that that's your job is to beat that guy. Or that's that's the goal. So there's not unachievable,

you know, but you know, looking at stuff and say, here's the data, can you carry five kilometers

an hour extra speed on the entry to this corner? And they tell you no. And you're like, well,

your teammate in the exact same machine, or he's able to do that, you're going to have to find a

way, or you're going to have to accept it. That he's just going to keep, you know, getting those

couple hundreds away from you every time you go into a corner like this. And sometimes they accept

it. And sometimes they don't. But we've also got other reason. Yeah, we yeah, it is. But we've also

got other variables, you know, it's not always your weekend. You know, sometimes you go off on

a wrong foot on your starting setup, and you never recover. So you know, there's always you have to

make the most of those opportunities. But sometimes it is quite brutal. But check has been especially

this weekend, especially on it. And it's hopefully hopefully continues like this, because it'll be

a little bit of excitement at the front, because we do have gaps forming throughout the rest of the

field, which, yeah, for I think for everybody else's enjoyment makes it a little bit less.

Hmm. And what what how would you react in that situation if you would go if you were paired

with Max Verstappen, what would you be doing in your preparation to make sure you were in the

best possible position to take the fight to him? It's an interesting one, you know, picking up on

what Rachel said, because I could read that body language as well from the outside. And I felt like

we're seeing a little bit of a difference in Sergio this year. To start with, you know, he's a bit

more steely, a bit more determined. And really interesting you've picked up on that, you know,

first hand there at the circuit, Rachel, because I honestly, I think this is what he needs to do.

And I think he realizes that he's come to this crossroads now this season already, it's hit him

pretty hard in that he's got the car to do it. This this, this current this this new car from

Red Bull this season seems to suit his style better. He's getting more in bed with the team and

in bed with how the car feels takes some time. And it only takes a few little tweaks here and

there from season to season for a driver to really find their their niche, the sweet spot

and in how they can get the most out of the car to extrapolate all that performance. And

I think he knows he's there. Sure. You know, like Rach said, there are circuits that Max is going

to come to later this year. Yazan Forts, your interlagos is the Silver Stones, the Suzuka's

where Max is going to shine. We all know it. He knows it as well. So what do you do?

You've got to be more Rosberg 2016. That's what you've got to do.

And a street fighter, which is what he's been, isn't it?

I was always told and probably rightly so as well from team bosses in my F1 time, I was too nice.

And I think they're right. I think that's what made me a much better sports car driver.

I was more of a team player, always was. And I think now it's time for Sergio to stop being

Mr. Nice Guy. He's got to take a leaf out of Rosberg 2016 and maybe as much as it might hurt

to be the guy that he doesn't want really to be, he's got to make sacrifices and decisions

this season that might, it might go the way that his family doesn't want him to go. He might have

to take himself away, what Rosberg did, he might have to say things to the team. They don't want

him to say, or he necessarily feels comfortable in saying, he's got to get under Max Verstappen's

skin. He's got to annoy him. He's got to, he's got to get every, this is his moment.

He might only be his one chance. I think he knows it. We all know it as well. He's so close to six

points behind after four races and he's looking good. I don't think he'll be able to do it if he

plays Mr. Nice Guy this year. Right. What's, what's Max been like to interview over the years? Have

you, have you seen a, have you seen a change in him that maybe this year compared to sort of,

now he's obviously double world champion? Not this year from last year. I remember in 2021

at the very start of the season at testing in Bahrain being told that he'd come back from the

winter, almost a different person. He was so happy in his home life. He was so confident. He was just

calmer. He was just focused. It was a different Max. So I wasn't surprised to see that transfer

on track. Okay. He had a fantastic car, but also he just pulled it all together last year,

continued that run. The only thing I would say was I got a feeling on Saturday evening

after the sprint, the way he talked about the incident with George, the incident itself with

George where he didn't pull out of it. And then he said afterwards, well, you know, when you've got

nothing to gain or whatever, you know, why in George's position, would you push me out that

wide? And I said to him, well, turn that on its head. You've got everything to lose. And you

still went in and carried on as hard. When you knew a lap later, you could have had him.

And that was more likely what was going to happen. And I felt almost as if there was a tiny bit of

the old Max creeping back in there now that he's under pressure from Checo in those desperate

moves, that element of desperation that came in in the past with Max, but that he seemed to have

got rid of an experience taught him to be patient. You know, you've got a great car. This is going

to be your season. Just buy your time. And that tiny bit of desperation that came in on Saturday,

I felt was a tiny bit of the old Max creeping back in. But then on Sunday after the race,

his body language, his demeanor was completely different. And he said it's a great day for

the team and it's positive. And I think he'd got the new Max back in his head again. And he was

like, I just need to calm down. It's a long season. I know there are races that are going to come to

me and I just need to buy my time. But at just a moment on Saturday, where I thought, that's the

old Max creeping back in a tiny bit. But by Sunday, it had gone. And that's experience, isn't it?

That's age. That's good people around you telling you that calm down, buy your time. It's going to

come. I want to just touch on Sergio being this sort of street specialist, which he seemed

to be doing. He's one in Singapore, Saudi, Monaco, obviously in Azerbaijan as well. Amanda,

one that has got a question for you, Blake, said, as you were both Checo and Max's performance

engineer, what are Checo's strengths in street circuits and Max's strengths in more normal

medium to high speed corners? If you can try and summarize that in a shortish answer. But yeah,

he seems to really enjoy a street circuit, doesn't he Sergio? Yeah. One of the things I noticed the

most looking through their data this season at the end of last season is there's a lot of

instances where I saw that Checo was trying to take too big of bites out of entries to corners

and losing out on the exits, being high and be speed, medium speed and low speed corners.

Somehow that level of aggression that you need to get the most out of a street circuit,

he tends to go very well there. And just looking at from a numbers point of view, and yes, there's

all sorts of context and everything else, unlucky red flags, Max not setting a second lap in

Monaco, running out of fuel in Singapore last year. But if you ignore all that and just say,

let's just look at the numbers because over a whole season, maybe luck comes to you in equal doses.

Traditional circuits Max was about half a percent ahead. So I mean, he had a clear gap to him at

traditional circuits, half a percent upwards of one percent gap to Checo at the end of the season

after the break. On street circuits, there was no gap in the qualifying laps they set. Obviously,

the context from that remove, but the numbers don't lie, he does tend to go well there. He

qualifies well there, he tends to race well there. So I think it's a little bit of everything, the

killer instinct, adaptability. And there's the there's the narrative of him being exceptionally

good on the tires. I think the dangerous thing for all the other teams is both Max and Checo are

insanely good on their tires. They have the conundrum, they can do it. Go fast, save tires. How?

They both do it. That's the thing most drivers, you ask them, we need you to increase your pace by

two tenths. Can you look after the tires? They say no. But for whatever it is about the car

in combination with these two guys, I've seen Checo do it many times and I've seen Max do it

multiple times now. They're both monsters. But what is it exactly that he's good at tires?

Yes, the low speed 90 degree corners, great at it, taking risks when he needs to,

leaving just enough margin, repeatedly over and over in the way that you need to do that to do

well in a race and qualifying session around a street circuit, they both can do it. But

he's traditionally been much closer at these circuits numerically.

Yeah, fascinating. I mean, what as a driver do you look to do well at a street circuit? What

makes them, apart from the obvious of don't hit the wall because you will hurt the car,

what makes a good driver a street circuit driver, if that makes sense?

I think it's one of those things if everybody knew what made you a good street

circuit driver, then they'd all be fast. But I think it's that risk reward thing, isn't it,

that maybe, you know, say you can take a driver like Pastor Malinado, he was always mega around

street circuits as well. But then you'd go to another track like Spa Frankrichard or

something like that, and you'd be off left, right center on the grass over the ground. You think,

how does he do it? How do they go to someone like Monaco and not hit the barriers and be super quick?

Honestly, it's just one of those things that a driver, maybe it is just that carefree element.

I always found say on street tracks where you had to, in a way, you had to lose respect for the

barriers to be quick. And when you did that, you could then generate the tire temperature you needed

to, maybe a more aggressive driver. And I see a little bit of a difference. When I do the Skypad

analysis, and I do right on boards, and I did the side by side with Sergio and Max, I can see

that there's definitely more, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I see a bit more kind of

edginess to the steering. I see a lot more frequency to the steering inputs from Perez and

I do from Verstappen. Verstappen likes to flow the car a bit more, which maybe goes against you in a

street track. I mean, really clutching at straws here because Max is obviously brilliant everywhere.

But I just feel like maybe it's those little nuances that makes Sergio, you know,

just he can bring the car alive a little bit more on those kind of tracks. But he is quick on

in other circumstances as well. You know, looking after those tires on a higher speed track,

he's really good at, I don't say Monza as well, for example. In another circuit he's pretty good at

and very good at looking after the tires there. So it's not just like a one rule fits all for

what makes you a successful street circuit driver. I really feel like that you need the car for you

as well. You need it to be there. And we heard Max complaining, not just in Baku, but in Melbourne

as well. The car not quite there under the braking somehow and the relationship between the differential,

the way that works and the tools he has available for the brake bias, the migration from front to

rear, vice versa with the brakes. And he's not, he just, he seems like he's not quite as happy with

the car, generally speaking, this year as he was last year, even though the car is performing better

as a whole. It's a faster car than it was last year by quite some margin. But somehow Paris seems

most of the time a bit more comfortable with it. You hear fewer complaints.

Can I ask you, we had this conversation at the weekend about, for example, the difference between

Charles and Carlos that we mentioned earlier on and the massive difference between them around

this track. And there were, there were thoughts that it's, it's almost an element of the drivers

who do well at street tracks, kind of just let themselves go a little bit. They don't drive

by numbers as such as much. And you get a difference, say, Carlos works a lot harder and is almost more

in his head around a street track, trying to get it right every time. Whereas Charles lets the

track just come to him and I don't, I don't quite know how to put it into words because you tell

me as a driver, but is there an element where some tracks you get to where you just feel you

don't see the walls you were saying, you know, you don't almost see or feel the walls as much. You

just, the flow is there and mentally you feel lighter and you feel more able to just nail that lap

than other drivers worry too much or almost get in their heads too much about it. Yeah, I think so.

I think that's what can happen. You know, you start to overanalyze things from inside the car.

It doesn't feel natural to you under the braking to really let the car move around

drivers that like to, like I say, like fingertip style drivers, maybe like Carlos who,

who like to flow the car a bit more, use all of the track. But then again, someone like Jensen

Button was always really good around street circuits. And I would definitely class him as

one of those kind of drivers I've just mentioned with using all the track, keeping it nice and

smooth. He was always good around the streets of Monaco as well and Singapore. So it, I think it

just, maybe it boils down to a confidence thing like we said, you know, forgetting that the

barriers are there, getting into that trance like state that we all saw and loved when we

ride on board with Senna during those amazing qualifying laps, one after the other when

qualifying was different back in the day. And he got into that kind of that, we call it the zone.

It's where you're doing things like when you're an autopilot, when things are flowing and you're

doing all the right things without even thinking like you're doing it. It's like an outer body

experience. That's really where you need to get into on a street track, more than any other track.

You can do it on other tracks as well, of course, but more so on a street track. And

you know, I think the fact that we saw, or we do see drivers just clip the barriers every once in

a while and you think, why do they do that? It's because you're not even really looking.

You're there, like your senses are out there on all the extremities of the car's edges and

and you're just, you are really just risking and dancing with the barriers all the time. And it's

almost as if somebody's just, they've just fizzled away and you don't see them anymore. And when

you have that little knock, you go, oh, oh yeah, I'm on a street track. It's like that. I think

that's got some drivers, maybe that's what they can't do. And it's a really interesting thing.

There's, I think for a psychologist, a sports psychologist, there's a lot to look into here,

a real deep dive, because there are things that I think are, you know, are untapped. And, you know,

it's not a very scientific approach from teams when it comes to this aspect of their equipment.

It's the driver is just bizarre, untrustworthy thing that is mystical to them. And they want to

put it into ones and zeros and they can't and it annoys them. But it's, it's something that's never

really been studied that well. Never thought of you as untrustworthy or mystical, but hey.

You can add that. You can add that to my repertoire.

This is one of the biggest things though, is the driver is very often a black box that the

engineers do not understand. And they can do all they can to model the driver. But why do we still

have drivers in the simulator? Because you still need them because you don't understand what's

going between the inputs and outputs of that system. And back, back to your point as well,

Ann, about the, that flow state, when you have stuff like your brake balance, your differential

settings, your engine braking, and you're not comfortable with where they're at, you can't

get into that because you're always second guessing that. It's like, well, okay, two meters later on

the brakes here, but then I get this weird lock or I get a little bit of the rear axle dragging

on the corner. I don't like that. And then you're, if you're in your head thinking about that over

and over and over, you don't have the confidence to get into that flow state. And, you know,

that could be one of the things that you see. I don't think that's what happened this weekend,

but it's, it's one of those things that happens if you don't have much practice,

the performance engineer doesn't have any time to dial in the diff maps the way they need to.

You can't get the right compromise on your brake shapes and your engine braking. So,

you know, literally you heard Max's dialogue with GP throughout the race. He's literally going

through a diagnostics list of these combinations of brake balance and differential and engine settings

that he thinks he can get to make the corner better. And we even saw that with some other drivers as

well, which is I think one of the other questions you had later on is like, it was a big topic

this weekend, but it did go under the radar a little bit. And I think it's potentially slightly

underappreciated by the fans how much those kind of tools and systems are important for the driver

to get into that state where they're not thinking about, okay, how do I, how do I break? Do I need

to roll off the throttle sooner? Do I need to go on the throttle sooner to get onto this corner to

get, stop the car from over rotating? And it's like, you have to think about that as the tires

are changing. You can't get in the flow and you can't get comfortable. To me as a mere motor who

hasn't driven a Formula One car, I'm pretty transfixed by this, this idea of the flow. And

yeah, I mean, that just sounds amazing to even be like that. I think the closest we'll get is

watching Senna's on board through Monaco, isn't it? Probably that's, that's as far as we can dream.

Okay, I think that sort of rounds off Sergio and Max. I do just want to get into some,

some questions from people at home who've sent in under our little Twitter post that we put

yesterday online. And this first question is really interesting because it's from

Christen. I'll read it to you. It says, can you comment on the Aston Martin drivers wanting

to help each other out over the radio during the race? While Sergio kept quiet about his

hiccup on turn 15, presumably, some Max wouldn't be aware. Obviously, the Red Bull drivers have

more at stake than the Aston Martin team, but I find the dynamics fascinating. Rachel, what did you

make of this sort of like, can we call it a bromance? Or is it like a father-son relationship

between Fernando and Lance? I don't know. I love the way as you were reading, as you were saying

that Matt Blake hugged himself because as a team, you want drivers helping each other like that,

don't you? So I imagine for you, that's, that's the dream. And actually, that's what Fernando

said. He said, look, you know, if we find something different that the strategist didn't tell us about

in the morning, we tell each other, we share that information. And he said, we're working together

as a team. And Fernando is not stupid. He knows there are other teams out there where there is

one driver who, you know, is dominating that team. Fernando is making it very clear to everybody,

we're best buds. We're working together. I'm helping him. He's helping me. And we are getting

Aston further up in the constructors. Who knows, maybe there's a nice big bonus in the pay packet

if they get a further point in the constructors. And he's thinking of that as well. I don't know.

But it was, it is fascinating. And I mean, they are both happy. I've never had Lance so happy in

the pen before talking to me. He's, he's enjoying this as well. I know he learned a lot, a lot from

Seb, but he is loving this battle or this competition with Fernando. He knows, you know,

he's not going to, he's not matching Fernando on track at the moment, but he knew that wouldn't

be the case. This is the two time world champion, but he's getting close and maybe even closer than

he thought he was going to get to him. So he's enjoying this season. And the way they came over

the radio where Lance said, look, I'm not going to attack him. And Fernando said, no, let him have

a go. You know, it's brilliant. We love all this. It was one interesting element to a rather

long race. I'll put it that way yesterday. But yeah, it's great. And they both seem really happy.

Long may it continue. Let's hope it carries on this way.

I was going to say, I mean, imagine learning your, you know, Lance is obviously an accomplished

Formula One driver by himself. But I mean, imagine having the tutelage of both Sebastian Vettel

and Fernando Alonso in sort of consecutive seasons. You, you've certainly got the, got the pick,

haven't you? Blake, have you, have you ever experienced team, team mates working that

closely together? I mean, having come from Red Bull, I'm going to probably guess no.

Well, I think, I think the one thing is the, the way the drivers approach it, and they,

they keep quite compartmentalized. But one thing that people don't get a whole lot of

insight to is how the engineers are working together. At the end of the day, during the

qualifying and the race session, I would, at the time, I would have Max and Daniels

stayed up looking at them. And if the performance engineer did something on their car, I was like,

Oh, oh, Matt, what was that? And he's like, Oh, it was this. What do you think about that? And we'd,

we'd have, we'd be having a conversation on the intercom about the settings and changes

and what we're observing. And I've always got, you know, the engineers probably have

six voices in their ear at one time. That's, that's not a mental issue. It's, it's more

just like all the intercom going on and maybe, and maybe some demons saying, you know what,

don't tell them the brake shapes there. But no, at the same, at the same time,

that was, that was really cool that, that Fernando did that. But at the same time,

teammates and the engineers in the background are very often working closely together. And you

can't afford to have intergarage rivalries like that now with this, which as much as at stake,

maybe in the past, you had some people getting a little bit catty about stuff, but

we were very open, you know, Friday night, we'd talk about what we're doing.

You hear everything that's going on anytime during qualifying. So if you miss something,

you're saying, Oh, they've noticed something. I would pass that on to the race engineer or driver

when the driver's back in the garage at the same time. So that was, that was a nice little thing

for Fernando, but I wonder what he's up to. I wonder what he's up to. I can't,

I can't help but think what he's up to. I think with this one, it's his, I think it's his sports car

mentality that kicked in for a little bit there, because when you share the car with

one other driver or two other drivers and you've just driven a mega stint,

you're quite often asked, you know, how are the conditions out there for the next driver,

just about to jump in? So you're quite well, your brain goes somewhere else when you're in the car,

and obviously you need a lot of capacity to do that, which Fernando clearly has.

And so you're out there doing your own thing and you're actually actively thinking

in sports cars before you come into the pits, you're thinking about, right,

how do we best keep this momentum going? Because this car right now is feeling good,

but there are pitfalls out there, places where you really need to take care,

braking and turn one, maybe where there's a bit of rear locking. So you pass that on to all of your

teammates or the teammates just about to jump in after you. And I just wonder, it's only,

only dawned on me there because I was, I was kind of, when I watched it, when I watched it back,

I did laugh along with everybody else thinking, you know, like, what was he up to there? Was he

actually trying to put him off in some way? Because he knew that was a dodgy brake balance

and Lance had a bit of a moment in there, you know, he had a bit of a snap,

he had a bit of a snap, didn't mean to do that, it's Fernando Alonso after all, that Divya has got,

but it only just, it only just dawned on me there. No, it was probably that's the way he's been

trained as part of his armory as a driver. He's, he's more experienced, not just in

terms of age and anyone out there, he's more experienced in terms of what he's done in other

forms of motorsport. And I think that's, that's really interesting. I think it's playing to his,

I think it's playing to his strengths and also giving him advantages and the team advantages

that other drivers just, it just wouldn't be on their radar to help another, yeah, okay,

it obviously means he doesn't see Lance as a threat. So if you don't see him as a threat,

like you clearly don't with your other two teammates, because they're sharing the same

car as you in a sports car, and you want the whole thing to carry on going with that same

momentum, well, let's help them out here, because as a, as a, as a unit, we can all be better.

So it's really interesting for, for F1 to see this kind of schooling, if you like, from another,

taking something from another category and applying it to F1, the pinnacle of single-seater

motorsport, I think it's, I think maybe that's what was going on. It just came to him in that

moment as second nature, oh, I found something, and this is really going to help us as a team.

Be really good if we can keep those two Mercedes behind us, if I can relay that information somehow

to Lance, to keep those those pesky mercs behind, because as a unit, this will be better.

Just making sure there was no bad blood, hey, sorry, sorry, I had to do it.

Rachel.

It's the last one ever, I promise, no more Taylor Swift references.

We've got one more week of them, maybe as we go to Miami, one more week of Taylor Swift references.

One other question, sorry.

I'm not even going to, no, I'm going to stop myself, I'm going to stop myself.

Right, let's move on to another question. Paul would like to know, if there's anything the

FIA can do to allow the cars to follow more closely, he seems to think we've got to step

backwards this year, and we're almost back to the way we were, don't forget we bought in the new

regulations to try and get cars to follow closer. I think last year, we got really close racing,

compared with, say, 21 or 2020. Do we feel like we've gone back a step, Rachel? What do you think?

I say, I think so, because that's what all the drivers are saying to me.

A lot of them at the weekend said we can't follow as closely as we could last year,

whether that's because the teams are getting smarter and they're finding the developments,

they are doing the work they need to do. We also lost 100 meters of DRS in Baku,

which caused a problem, and it seems to be not getting as much slipstreaming, but I'll leave

it to the other two to go into that a bit more, but yes, it definitely feels like that, and the

drivers are definitely saying that to me in the pen. The thing is, we shouldn't even mention DRS

there, it's interesting. We shouldn't even have DRS. Racing, for me, it needs to be organic.

It needs to be like it is at the start of the race, Alonso diving down the inside of another car

after the restart. That wasn't DRS, that's brilliant, that's what we need. That's what

you want to see. We shouldn't be relying on DRS, it's another band-aid. Why do we need DRS?

Because they can't follow each other close enough. The whole reason we had this massive

rule change, regulation change on the car, is to encourage natural overtaking and then a bid to

one day get rid of the damn thing, and we're not. We're still relying on it more and more, and

we rely too much on that. I've said it for ages now, it's funny, me and some of the older drivers,

Johnny Herbert, Damon Hill, we just got to get rid of, take away the wings. You can surely make

these cars with some clever engineering, and maybe some active ride suspension, and clever

active skirts, or whatever it takes. You've got to take these wings away, they're the things that are

that's doing the damage, that's doing the damage, and that's what you rely on the front wing

and the rear wing to generate so much downforce now, and the cleverer the aerodynamics get in

making them more efficient and effective. Well, they're only going to get aero the downforce one

way, that's by clean air flow over the car. The best racing I've ever done, and the best racing

you'll ever see is where you've got slip streaming, like motorbike racing, cycling,

Formula Ford, karting, it's brilliant because you've got no turbulence getting anywhere. The

turbulence is a benefit because it gives you a suction to whoever's in front, and with no downside,

that's what delivers the best racing, and the more downforce you put on these cars because of the

wings, getting more elaborate, bigger, more effective, more reliance on them, it creates

more turbulence and more need to have perfect air flow going over them. So it's really simple in my

simple world, but yeah, it just seems to be we're starting to go in the wrong direction again. The

cars are faster, they're almost at the same speed now as they were in 2021, where there was a heavy

reliance on DRS. I feel like the best years were behind us now in terms of these new regs

for the cars because they're getting more and more downforce again through the wings.

There you go, Paul. The answer is just get rid of DRS. Get rid of the rear wings, that's what the FAA

can do. Okay, that's almost all we've got time for. It's obviously Miami this week, so I just want to

quickly look ahead to Miami. Rachel, you were there last year, sum up what the Miami Grand Prix

is, sum up how exciting it is because it's a real event, isn't it? It's the second year we're going.

It was incredible last year. I mean, it was chaos, but brilliant chaos in terms of my

involvement in it all. On track, we didn't have what we wanted, but it's going to be much hotter

this year. Fernando was grinning all the way through his answer to me about those hotter

temperatures saying, you know, we're going to be all over the Ferrari's. We're going to beat them.

We don't mind the hotter temperatures. He's expecting a really good weekend.

And it'll be full of celebs. It'll be full of showbiz. It's almost become the

jewel in the crown for Americans in terms of Formula One now. They are plowing everything

into this Miami Grand Prix week. There is an awful lot going on away from the track as well. It's

going to be so busy for the drivers, so they've really got to get their heads in the game when

they are on track in session because it's very distracting. But it is a brilliant event and

the more America embraces it, the better it is for the sport because it plows more money in and

we get more racing and hopefully someone to take away those front and rear wings. Keep that happy.

Maybe not take them away, but reduce them. I probably went a bit too far, but it's my so far.

Simplify them. Simplify them completely. If I go with take them away, then maybe we'll have smaller

ones. It's like a bargaining brass. We'll be in the middle. But Ant's going to be there for the

first time this year, by the way. There's a lot of stuff we're doing with Sky Sport. Yeah, with

Sky Sport's F1 as well, so really exciting stuff too. So we're going to be very busy, Ant, so I

hope you're ready for it. I am indeed. I'm really excited. First time for me at the Miami Grand Prix.

I missed out on it last year. I missed out on all the fun. After doing spa at the weekend,

it's about time we're into a warm. You need some sun. You've got a Miami shirt,

and you've got to wear a really lairy shirt on Sunday. It's the rules.

As lairy as I can get, I think, yeah, within reasons.

And just finally, Blake, what are you looking forward to this weekend?

I don't know how I felt about Miami last year, and I'm really like, I'm one of those people like,

I don't mind the new street tracks. I know a lot of people don't like them and we don't want to

lose a lot of the traditional circuits, but as long as they produce good racing, that's fine.

And last year, Miami, despite getting a fairly bad rap in terms of Sunday, there were quite a few

overtakes, and I think we just missed quite a few of the narratives on the feed, exact. So

I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to it with an open mind. I want to come out of it with a

positive outlook, but that's up to everybody else. You know what? A little bit of chaos wouldn't hurt.

Wouldn't hurt at all, but I'm interested to go back to a normal race format for this weekend.

I missed it a little bit. I've got a big spare suitcase. We'll stick you in it, Blake.

All right, great. Stick you in my spare suitcase. I'll see you at Heathrow on...

I'm going tomorrow morning, very early. You're still out there. Never mind. Yeah,

I'm not flying to back at first. No, thanks. I'll rain check on that one. Thanks, Rachel.

Look, thank you very much, everyone. Thank you, Blake. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Ant.

I'm going to go and get you a shirt, a Miami Bay shirt, Ant.

Okay, whether I'll wear it or not is another thing, but yeah.

I'll make sure he does, Matt. Don't you worry. We'll make sure he does as I say. You'll stand out

a mile out if you don't, because everyone else is wearing them, so you look very boring if you

don't wear it. I'm telling you now. You guys always do that when you go to America. Come on,

we're not that bad. It's not the only person arriving at a fancy dress party not wearing

fancy dress. Exactly. I'm sure you'll look great. Whatever you're wearing.

So yeah, thank you very much, everyone. We will be back next Tuesday

to look back at the Miami Grand Prix. We hope you can join us then. Bye for now.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.