Max for a stop in one, but we did actually get a great storyline from Ollie Beermann, a Ferrari young driver who had to step in at the last minute to take over for Carlos Sines, even though he had got a pull position that weekend for F2. There's so much to break down here. We also need to talk about the fact that there's a little bit of all quiet on the Western front with Red Bull for now, and some interesting battles between Mercedes and McLaren, and some interesting Interesting stuff at the back of the grid, too, with Haas being a surprise. Tim Horeny, let's start with Ferrari. First off, what were you driving at 18 years old?

Mazda's 1987. And then that's not like how... Look, the 1987 Mazda 626 got me around. It had no heat.

Perfect for Canada. Love it.

That That's when I was driving when I was 19 years old, and I think that was in, I want to say, 2023, I think. So that's how old that car was.

Incredible. I love that. Just an ever-spring-of-youth, my friend. My first car was a 2002 Subaru Baja. I don't know if you remember those.

Yes, I do. Nice.

Absolutely bonkers car. Listen, I mean, you imagine this. You're You're already far enough along in your teenage racing career that Ferrari has taken an interest in you. A couple of years ago, they sign you, they bring you up the ranks, and you are racing an F2, which by any standard is pretty spectacular. This is an impressive place to be. You get Paul in the second race of the year, and you can't even race in the race because Carlos signs it's going down with an injury, and you got to step into that car. I can't imagine the nerves that Oliver Beeman must have felt. But what they did talk a little bit about on the broadcast is the difference between a Formula 2 car and a Formula 1 car, and specifically the battery, Tim. I thought it was a good time to You mentioned that when you're racing a Formula 1 car, you're not just racing a car that's an internal combustion engine. There's also a battery that needs to be charged and plays a major factor in the race.

A hundred %. There is so much as a driver that's going on in that moment, Adam. Getting out of an F2 car and then stepping into a Formula One car is a night and day difference. It's like going from Earth to Mars. It's a totally different world, man, and it's a lot to adjust to. And for Ollie to get thrown in at the deep end in Free Practice 3 3, a number of laps, not a lot. It's just not enough to really understand where the limitations of the car are, where can you take it, where can't you take it, and plus doing it on a track in frigging Jetta, man. That track is, yes, very tight. It's big commitment. You make a small little mistake, you're into the wall. And so for him to jump in and do the job that he did, it's extremely, extremely impressive. Take into consideration all the other factors that are going on around him, right? Like, he's getting team messages constantly throughout the race. He's having to save the tire. He's having to understand when can he attack, when can he push, how to make sure the tire doesn't overheat.

And so there's just so much built into it, Adam, that he did a very impressive job I just hope he's in an F1 car next year.

Already. If you go back to Mexico.

So if we go back to the Mexico Grand Prix last year, I was at that race and I interviewed Ollie when he was finished his free practice one session. It was interesting because all the team, team Haas kept telling me was that, Hey, this guy's a total package. He's the real deal. I think he only got 38 or 39 laps in free practice, one at the Mexico Grand Prix, but he was only a few tents off of Nico Hulkenberg, who obviously had been his ass had been in that seat all season long, and all he just jumps in for some laps. To do that and then to hear what the team had said to me following that total package, extremely talented. Then to see what he did with this Ferrari, you just have to hope that this kid is going to get a chance in an F1 seat next year. You have to hope that because... I said this on SportsCenter, Adam. I don't want to see any more really talented Formula 2 drivers sitting on the shelf collecting dust because they don't deserve that. These guys and girls deserve to be promoted into big-time seats.

Like you and I had spoken about before we hit record on this thing was was that once you're done with Formula 2, there's nowhere else for you to go, not unless you get promoted into F1 or you're able to get a seating IndyCar. And that is it.

Yeah. Well, I remember I was watching an interview with Alex Albon, and he was talking about how when he finished up with Formula 2, I think he won. And this is a guy who does not come from a big money background. He was waiting, waiting, waiting to see, would there be a seat? Would there be a seat? While while he's driving, which is stressful, you have to think, right? He's in the middle of the season. Man, I don't know what I'm going to do at the end of the year if there's no seat left. And Helmut Marco told him, no seats, no seats. There's nobody up the grid. All the jobs are spoken for. And he was ready to go to Formula E. And those Formula E cars are very, very different, even though that's a really good step to the side while you wait for something in Formula One. Nick Devries talked about how Formula E cars and Formula One cars are just so completely different. And I wonder, You got to think with nick Devries, a guy who waited and waited and waited until he was 26, 27 years old, raced in a whole bunch of different formulas.

If that affected his ability to stay in Formula One because he's had to change his style so many times. I mean, Formula and cars are just very, very specific. It's harder than ever to make this sport and make it work and make it stick at this sport. Tim, I think the question will be like, Okay, so you want them in a seat next year. Instantly, we know that there's, what is there, six or seven drivers that are signed up to next year. So we know there's seats available. There's tons of seats available. And I'm sure his name has entered the chat. But where is it? Does Ferrari treat Haas like it's Tora Raza or, sorry, Racing Bulls? Is that a legitimate spot for him? Is that a good thing? Look what happened with Mick Schumacher, where Mick Schumacher, part of the Ferrari Young Driver program, regularly beats his teammates, but not good enough to even continue in Formula One. What do you think?

I think definitely Haas has got to be that seat. It only makes sense, especially if you're coming from a Ferrari program. It definitely makes sense for that to happen. I think when you look at F1 teams, you look at cars and drivers, I mean, Just getting a shot. It doesn't matter where it is. Just getting a shot, you got to take it. If he gets thrown in a haus, that's it. You got to make it work, right? You know what I mean? You got to make it work. You got to make yourself look good. Teams will know that the car isn't great or the team isn't great, et cetera, et cetera. But just to get a chance to get your foot in there, you just got to get your foot in there, get the door open and perform perform well, then everything else will take care of itself. This opportunity that came to him at Ferrari this weekend, unfortunately for Carlos Sainz, who had appendicititis, we hope he gets better real soon.

He's trying to get back from Melbourne, which is amazing.

That's a big ask. But if he's able to do it, I mean, all the power to him. But he could have a chance. Ollie Berman could have a chance to jump back in this car for Australia. And that's It's just another opportunity to show what you got. And I think for a driver like him, this is an opportunity of a lifetime, and he's taken it with both hands and ran.

Fred Vasseur has got to be thrilled because he's got Lewis Hamilton joining the team next year. Charles Leclerc looks like he is locked in, which is great. I mean, he looked good last week, obviously the break issues. But the broadcast barely even showed Charles' car today because just like Sergio and just like Max, they were gone and nobody could catch them. I mean, the big the broadcast was mostly following the fight between the Racing Bulls and Williams and Haas at the end of the race. You know, Charles looks great. Louis will be, I think Louis will be great in a Ferrari. And he maybe he's got three years left. If Oliver Beermann races for Haas for three, four years before coming to the big team at Ferrari, he still might only be '22 or 23. And that's what Red Bull did with for stopping, right? They let them cook with Toro Rosso. Just let them develop. They did the same thing with Ricardo. They tried to do the same thing with signs and Kiviat. And obviously, that program's got a huge fallout rate because if you don't perform, you're gone. But at the end of the day, it's been beneficial to a few people.

What do you think about that for Ferrari? Do you think that they're following that model?

Yeah, it seems that way, doesn't it? I mean, but that's great that they are doing that because if we go back, I don't know, I'll say maybe seven years, maybe eight years, you don't really have a lot of teams that have driver development programs, right? Like you had mentioned, Red Bull was really it. Now we're starting to see that since these teams are becoming very profitable, now they're able to take some of that money and put it down into the lower formulas, which is what we've wanted all along. That's what any driver wants, is a chance. Now that these teams are able to do that, I think now we're going to be seeing the cream really rise to the top, Adam, where we're not getting a lot of paid drivers coming in anymore. We're getting who are talented, don't get me wrong, but we're now getting drivers who never had that chance or opportunity, get that opportunity. Sometimes those drivers can be even more hungrier than the latter.

Well, and they say that's what drove Lewis Hamilton.

Yeah, for sure. Oh, yeah.

He knew what it was like to fish tires out of the garbage to use them and try to win races.

Fernando Alonso, too. Fernando Alonso, he won them. Fernando, he did nothing.

People won't talk about that at all.

Esteban O'Khan.

Yeah, absolutely. I want to say that it's an interesting deal for Haas as well if this is the way that it goes, Tim. We're assuming a lot here. But let's say Beermann has another top 10 finish in Melbourne. I think Haas at that point has got to make a call. You got to be like, All right. What's interesting is it creates a new structure of, these are paid drivers for a team like Haas, but it's paid for by Ferrari. So it brings... Jean Haas is going to love this because Ferrari is going to foot the bill for this guy. And he's also going to get access to the type of talent as a driver that his team would just not have access to with the budgets that have for their drivers, right? Yeah. And we'll talk about Haas a little later in the show because they've been a very impressive start for the two Haas drivers and the team. But I think it could be good for brands like Haas that are shooting at very least for the midfield because you get these young exciting drivers that fans can get into. And a lot of those fans are going to start to buy the merch, and they start to be like, You know what?

I'm a huge... How many Haas fans do you meet right now?

Yeah, that's the thing. You go to the States and you go to... I would say, Texas, the Austin Grand Prix, the US GP, I should say.

But there's spillover from NASCAR.

Yes, exactly. There is that. But if you go to the Miami Grand Prix, different type of crowd, you're not going to get a lot of Haas fans there. I think Adam, when we look at sports Sport in general, and we take a look at the NHL, we'll use that as an example, where you see the really talented players. They come to the forefront. Their first overall draft picks, they're drafted in the first round, et cetera. Now, granted, the 20 drivers that are on the grid in Formula One right now, they're uber talented. There's probably maybe three or four generational drivers drivers that are in there. But for the rest, those are all top quality, talented race car drivers. I think with these driver programs and teams investing more in the younger drivers, the ones that don't get an opportunity, I think that's where you're going to start getting even more generational drivers start to come through. Like your Conor Bedard, your Connor McDavid's, your Sydney Crosby, your Wayne Gretsky's. You're going to keep getting more and more types of those talents. You're just going to be getting them at a much faster and higher rate.

Right. And it's going to make the sport more competitive, which everybody wants. Everybody wants that to be more exciting.

You there, buddy? I lost you. Yeah, I got you.

You froze up a little bit. Are you okay?

Yeah, I got full bars.

Okay. I got full bars, too. No, whatever. It's all good. Let's keep going. Tim, Oliver, he had a great race. He handled the battery well. He handled the corners well. You could tell he was frustrated not getting by the guys that he wanted to get by early. I think Yuki Sonoda was a notable one. Good for him for pushing. And what a great shot of him, or sorry, his dad in the Ferrari garage. And he got a nice little fist bump from Carlos Sines as agent, who I believe is his cousin. And John Elkman, too, gave him a good strong handshake. The guy that... I think John Elkman in- You want that handshake from him, right, Adam? Oh, that's... Oh, baby. I mean, this is the... Listen, John Elkman is the man that brought, if he does nothing else, he brought Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari. That is almost a world Championship. You know what I mean? In terms of resume, now he's just got to win. If John Elkman shakes your hand, you got to be feeling pretty good about yourself. You're a proud dad at that point. Now, I want to switch gears, literally, to Red Bull.

I won't use the switch gears thing ever again. I don't know why. It sounds too on the nose. It's something I use on the hockey podcast, but it just doesn't work. You can't use this in racing. I want to talk about Red Bull, and I want to talk about the fact that there's been a few things going on. First thing that I noticed, Tim, and I'm just noticing this as a fan, and I'll just leave this here, you don't even have to respond to it, is that there is very conspicuous camera shots of Christian Horner after the race again today with his wife, Gerri Horner, who, by the way, she actually looked beautiful. She had this big white dress on him. She looks like Princess Lea, circa 1977. It was a good look, very chic, and right next to Adrian Newy. Adrian Newy and Christian go back a long ways. They worked together a long, long time. There was a little bit of drama on Friday because Helmut Marco talked to the media, somebody in the media. Now, Helmut, he's a big chatty guy with the media. But he said, Listen, I've got a meeting with somebody at Red Bull tomorrow.

And if I keep talking to the press, they're telling me they're going to suspend me. You have some insight about how that meeting went, and it might be the best outcome for all involved if you're trying to keep a championship team together. Tim, what can you share about that?

Well, I think for those listening or watching, Eric Van Haeren, who has been on this podcast before, at the beginning of this season, who covers Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen quite closely, had put out a interesting tweet before the race got started today. And there were a lot of, Adam, there were a lot of reports coming out of Jetta, the fact that Helmut Marco, he met with Red Bull CEO, Oliver Minzlaff, who is on the Austrian side of the ownership of Red Bull GMBH, which is the parent company, obviously, of Red Bull Racing. Marco, apparently then confirmed to Sky Germany that he will stay on at the team. While Van Haren had reported that Marco had said things are resolved, if I'm paraphrasing here, things were resolved. And if someone was already going to suspend him, then there was no legal basis for that to take place. But I think the other part of it was that Marco also went on to say that he was appreciative of Max Verstappen's words that he had said to the media on the Friday.

And he said, If he leaves, that's one of the pillars of our team, and I won't be here.

Yeah, essentially, he really back him.

That's pretty significant.

Yeah, big time. Yeah. It's like it really did suggest that if Helmut were to be suspended or let go by the team, excuse me, let go by Red Bull GMBH, because that is who his contract is with.

He doesn't have a Formula One contract, right?

Yes. He doesn't have a contract with the team, but he was let go by Red Bull GMBH, then essentially, Max would have to make a decision on what he was going to do with his future and read into that what you will, I think. It sounds like Max, obviously being very close, obviously, with his dad, but also, obviously, very close with Helmut at the same time. I could see why. I mean, Helmut brought him into Formula One, gave him this opportunity, gave him the chance, et cetera, et cetera. And he really believes and trusts in Helmut a lot. And then also hearing from Max following the race, he was asked about it in the post-race press conference. And for Max, It was important that Helmut was not to be let go, but it was also important for there to be team harmony and peace within the team. That is something that he did say. He wanted there to be peace internally at the team, which, like you and I have talked about, Adam, it really does seem just one giant power play behind the scenes.

Well, and Tim, the thing is that it seems like Red Bull is the only team that can beat itself right now. They're the only ones that can defeat Red Bull is Red Bull. I look at this, and I'm looking at this. Let's have a look. Let's game plan this, war game this from Helmut Marco's position, because you had Total Wolf saying, I think today that every team on grid would do handstands to have Max Verstoppen race for them. He was asked about Helmut Marco joining Mercedes. Toto has never been this open before. If Lewis Hamilton is still a Mercedes driver, Toto is not even involved in this. But he said, We don't have a mascot, and he doesn't have a red hat. But because he was basically saying, Nicky Lauda was one of the masc for Team Mercedes. And he said, maybe Helmut Marco wants to come in and do that and wear the red hat and et cetera, et cetera.

Now, if you're Helmut Marco- I think he's joking. I think he's joking with that, Adam. A hundred %. Because if we go back to... I don't see a space where Helmut Marco fits in with what Mercedes and what Toto Wolf does.

I agree with you. And that's what I think is... So Helmut Marco, to me, Tim, has pushed this as far as he can. There was a power struggle within the team. The team is sticking with the boss who He won the Championship last year. If Christian Horner and Red Bull had not won the World Championship last year, maybe we're looking at a team without a team principal right now. But he won. We'll put the investigation to the side because all we can talk about is the power struggle. I don't know what happened with the investigation. Nobody does. Nobody does. There's been no transparency there. And I think- Nothing. People like Zack Brown coming out and saying there needs to be. He's absolutely right. So when When we say... He's bad for the sport. Zack Brown was really strong on this issue today, or sorry, this weekend, and I think he's absolutely right. So we have to, when we're discussing this, you're discussing it in two parts because we don't know what happened with Christian Horner and the female employee. We don't know. We have an idea, we have some theories, we have some thoughts, but to speculate on it publicly is a little bit...

It's irresponsible when you're talking about this type of subject matter. We have to park that because there's There's nowhere to go with it if you're just speculating. The other part of it is the power grab. It's the Yoss for Stop and Helmut Marco push to have Christian Horne moved. Helmut Marco, he wasn't going to be team principal, probably never wanted it. I wonder if he sits down with the CEO and the CEO goes, Look, maybe you and Christian don't get along. From what we understand, they've never been best friends. They've just been colleagues, competitive ones. He You know, Helmut, you're in your '80s. You've done a great job with the driver program. You've brought guys like Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sines and Max Verstop and Daniel Ricardo into the sport. It's all because of you. Do we really want to go this route where you're not going to be here anymore after all of that great work. Yeah, maybe you and Christian don't like each other, but you've got a world Championship car and a world Championship team and a world Championship driver, probably one of the greatest drivers of all time we're watching make history right now, do we want to really blow this apart, or can everybody learn to work together?

That's my bet, Tim.

I just don't feel like this is over, Adam. I just don't feel like this story is- You think this will rear its head again? I think it might. The only reason I say that is when I look at relationship building and relationship destruction and how difficult it is to mend bridges with individuals, especially if it's on a working platform. It can be even more challenging, I would say, I would argue. I just feel like it's just not over just yet. Interesting. I said this on SportsCenter, though, and I'll say it again here. It's that post-race interview that Christian did with where he really... I'm paraphrasing again. He really had emphasized that this is about team, and it sounded like, Hey, no one is above the team. That includes the drivers, everybody back home, and everybody's working and doing their jobs behind the scenes, et cetera. And that's why I just feel like it just... I don't know. I don't know. It just doesn't- No, it just doesn't... No, that's... It doesn't feel like it's over. I felt like- But who knows? We'll see. We'll see.

Yeah, no. And listen, the impression I was left with was quite the opposite. It. So if you're saying you don't think it's over, that's interesting. And maybe it isn't. I mean, usually people don't go to Defcom 4, 6, or whatever it is, and then just back off right away. Yeah. Maybe it's It was a ceasefire for now. It's an interesting saga. And Tim and I, full disclosure, Tim and I were texting at some point this week. We text about this stuff all the time. And I said to him, Tim, I said this to you. This is like a once in a decade story because it's so unique, right? You're talking about a World Championship team that is having a power struggle in the first two races of the year in the papers. It's crazy.

Who knows how long it's gone on for, right? We don't know. There could have been infighting within the team a year ago. I mean, that's the thing. We just don't We just don't know. There's just so much to all of this that we just don't know. And I think you said it perfectly when we haven't been given full transparency on everything.

Right. And we need that. And I think the sport needs it, too. I want to say this. One team that we thought would be a mess, Total Disaster. So it's so surprising to see Red Bull at the total messy point that they are, because the team that we thought would be a mess is the that Will Buxton in Drive to Survive called the... They're bringing a spoon to a gunfight, right? It's a great line.

It is a good line.

My wife, Natalie, doesn't know. I make her watch every race with me, and she actually really enjoys it. But she said, she's like, That guy's such a great narrator for Drive to Surv. And she's like, Who is he again? Because we watch the Sky Sports feed, we don't watch the F1 feed. And I'm like, That's Will Bucks in any rules. He's He's got some great lines throughout the series. But so, Tim, I want to talk to you about Haas, the team that we all thought was going to be a mess, the team that we all picked to be the back marker. It's Alpine, by the way. Alpine is the bad one. I know.

I picked Haas to be the back Parker.

I think I did, too. They're terrible, terrible last year. And I mean, Gasly can't even start the race. We'll leave that for now. What I thought was incredible was Magnuson getting a couple of penalties, and I think that's due to Kevin Magnuson's impetuosity because that's how he drives. But then playing an incredible team role in holding back Alex Albon, Yuki Sonoda, both state cars, and Daniel Ricardo a little bit in the back, too. All of those cars, it was like a three or four second spread between them for a while for 15, 20 laps, and Magnuson held them up so that Halkenberg could go long and not take the pit stop. How key Magnuson's effort today to Halkenberg scoring a point?

Absolutely huge, Adam. Absolutely huge. It gives him just enough daylight, just enough for him to pull off, for Halkenberg to pull off that strategy. Just enough. Just enough. And for this team to just get a point. I mean, you could see how excited they were that they got a point, a championship point. And so they're not the worst team on the grid. We thought they were going to be, especially me. And yes, I did say that, and I am going to walk it back right now. No, no, no.

They're a midback team right now, Tim.

In all seriousness, I think when we look at the job that they've done getting out of the gates, the plan was race pace. That is what the goal was for the team starting off and testing. Everything that they had set their objective to was race pace. And you know what? They've hit the ground going in the right direction. I mean, if Hulkenberg doesn't get into it with Lance in Race One, I mean, who's to say Hulkenberg doesn't score a point that race as well. Lance probably would have gotten higher as well in that race. But for Hulkenberg, who's to say that he wouldn't have scored one point again? So I mean, there is that. I think on the other side of it, I don't know. I think Magnuson needs a little bit of work. I think this regulation change that we've gone through in 2022, I think there's been some a disconnect between him and the car once we got into 2023 with this regulation and they took another different avenue with their car. It feels like he's lost his just a tiny bit because he's a very good race car driver. No, very impressive from Haas.

Really.

Well, and Halkenberg has always been a really good qualifier, and he's been great for Haas, both races this year for that. What I loved is that a guy that once said, Suck my balls to the other guy, is now defending him and making sure he gets a point. I think it's such a great clip, but I know that they're not best friends, but I don't think they're enemies. It was just cool to see. I think, Tim, the one thing I wanted to point out is that going into this race, and I know we're two races in, but really, outside of the top five, there's one point in the bottom five.

That's crazy.

Outside of the top five, there's one team with one point, and that's Haas. I know it's two races, but that's significant, I think. The cost cap is supposed to bring things together. Is that a concern or is that just sometimes the way it goes?

I think it has, Adam. It It really has. I'm trying to remember what the gaps were for qualifying, but it was super close, man. It was within a second from... It was a second and a half, I think it was, from first place to 20th place at one point. That's wild when we're talking about Formula One, because we're used to the days when it's first place to 20th place is four seconds. It's a huge gap that these teams have overcome. And to make it this close. Yeah, I think it just shows that that cost cap and the reduction of wind tunnel, CFD time is really working because like, Williams, not a bad team this year. They actually have a car that's actually pretty capable. Sauber, I still think the jury is a little out on that car in the team. R. B, that car is not horrendous. It was close to capturing points in in Bahrain. And then at one point during this race, close again to capturing possible point in this race. And then we have Alpine again, dead last. And they are just not good.

They're a tragedy, honestly.

Just not good at the moment. But the fact is that we've got, I would say, those stacks of teams, and then we've got a battle for the three next teams, which would probably be, I would say, Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes. And then we've got a little bit of a Gap, then we got Ferrari, then we've got a little bit of a Gap, and we got Red Bull. And I think that's where it is. Where in the past, it wasn't like that, right, Adam?

You're dead on arrival, basically. So you knew. And the one thing I will say, too, is going to see a Formula One race in Montreal. I went in 2016. And like, Lewis and Nico had the field lapped pretty quickly. They would win by two or three laps on some of the...

It was just crazy. I mean, everybody complaining about how boring F1 is at the moment. I mean, you go back to 2014, 2015, you go back and rewatch those seasons, and then we'll talk because those ones were painful. 2016 was a good season, though. Adam, you went to- It was a good race. Yeah, that was a good season because you had that rivalry between Rosberg and Hamilton that just got so bitter and spicy that really helped because they're fighting for first and second in the Championship. But just off tangent, just a tiny bit. I did this three takeaways thing for TSN for YouTube. It was a ton of fun, actually, because I just got to sit there and talk for five minutes straight. But one of the things I talked about, and I wanted to talk about it on here, too, is the fact that Ferrari. If you look at where Ferrari was this time last year for this race. So Perez won, Verstappen was second, and Sainz was sixth. Leclerc was seventh. The gap, so the finishing gap in that race was 35 seconds from Sainz to Perez and 43 seconds seconds from Leclerc to Perez.

This year, the gap from the winner, Max Verstappen, to Leclerc, P3, is 18 seconds. And so that shows the massive turnaround that that team has done with their car in the direction that they've decided to take with their platform. And then you hear at the end of the race when Leclerc is saying, We know what our weaknesses are. That is huge for a driver to say that by Race 2 and say, We know what the weaknesses are. We know how to fix them. That's massive, Adam, because most of the time teams are spending half of a season trying to figure out what their weaknesses are, how to solve those problems. They know what they are in two races of time. Let's It's good for us because I think by the time we get into this season, we get to Race 9 or 10, I think we'll see that gap between Ferrari and Red Bull a lot closer. I also think that's when we start to see Red Bull maybe put some pressure, or sorry, Ferrari put some pressure on Red Bull. I think the only concern with Red Bull just sailing off into the sunset is what type of upgrade are they holding back that they're going to bring?

That's the only thing, because let's say they do have something big and they bring it, and it's okay, it's not a big step, but Ferrari is able to take a big step. And remember, we're talking small details that are going to make up a few tents. To close that gap from Ferrari to Red Bull. And all it is is race-based because Ferrari's got a great qualifying car. I honestly think, Adam, we're going to get races where- It's close. It's close.

I also want to just quickly mention before we get to questions, Tim, that McLaren very quietly passed Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship today. They're two points up. Let's go. It's very close.

I hear it's so exciting for that one.

I'm very excited about it. I just do think that we need to talk more about it. All right, let's get to those questions. What do we got?

All right, so we'll head on over to the debrief. And Adam, there was one from... We've got quite a few. We can't get through all them, but from one from @desertclone. Haas won't finish last this year. Change my mind.

I mean, do we need to?

Okay. Well, like I said earlier, I'm walking back what I said at the beginning of the season. I think they will not be last, but I think it's going to be close between Alpine and them.

Okay. Yeah, because I agree with you. I think Alpine is so bad that it's difficult. Mcclaren had a terrible Jetta race last year, remember? Yeah, they did. Terrible. They were 17 and 18. They're just a non-competitive car, but they turned it around. The thing with McLaren is that they're far more efficiently run than Alpine is. We know this. I don't know, and I think they're better led than Alpine is for now. I don't know that Alpine's got it to turn this car around. Haas, a couple of years ago, started super fast. They had a really, really great first couple of races, and then they tailed off. The problem for Haas has always been when the upgrades start coming, they can't keep up. So They got to bank as many points early season as they can and hope that they hang on. But I don't think that James Valls and Alex Albon at Williams just feels formidable. I don't know what it is or why. It just feels inevitable. It does. I would be shocked if Williams weren't sixth this year. So yeah, Haas isn't going to finish last. Do they have the talent to beat Racing Bulls?

Albon does. I don't know that Logan Sargent does yet. I'm not sure. It doesn't mean that he's a bad driver, but Yuki and Daniel are good drivers, even though Daniel had a bad day. Yeah.

From @conman81, I'm going to dumb this question down. Essentially, do you think it was the right move now that Gunther did not come back to Haas, essentially, is what they're saying.

What do you think? Because I don't have an opinion on it.

Look, not two races does it mean that it was good for Gunther not to be back at the team. I think Gunther was very good for that team. I think he was good in a number of respects. And one of those is being fighting for his team to have more resources. So by the time we get to Hungary, how many upgrades is Haas going to have on that car? And that's when I say it's going to be close between the likes of Alpine and Haas. It's like, what does that upgrade schedule look like for them? Because that is going to determine their season. Once these teams start bringing upgrades to the car, evolving it, that's when you've got to be competitive and push back. And what Gunther was trying to do was essentially make sure that that team had the infrastructure to execute on that basis so they could go and attack and they could be aggressive with their upgrades. I mean, they were doing one big upgrade a season, and that was it. It wasn't It just wasn't enough. And so I think that's what Haas is going to miss the most, not saying that Ayo Kamatsu can't go and fight for things.

I just think that they're going to miss his voice, fighting for them to achieve more and get more with their cars. From JK, they ask, What is Ferrari going to do with Hamilton, Leclerc, Bermin for the next four years?

Well, we discussed it at the beginning.

Haas Ferrari. I think so. Yeah, I think we see Bermin head to Haas. Who does he replace there?

Something we did... Fred Vasseur is not stupid. This guy is really... It's so great to see him away from Salver, not because Salver is a bad team. They've been in this sport for a long time. I think they've won World Championships.

Sauber? Yeah. No, I don't think Sauber is ever in a Championship.

They never won a World Championship? No, I'm fuzzy on some of that stuff. But they've always presence in the sport. Freddy Vasseur, you're now seeing this guy really come into his own and how intelligent he is and how to manage drivers and manage talent. What I think is fascinating is that people could think that driving as an 18-year-old for Ferrari would be the same as driving as an 18-year-old like Max Verstauffen did for Torre Rossa. Both Italian teams, but a little different. The pressure that comes with Ferrari is different than the pressure that comes with Mercedes, different than the pressure that comes with McLaren or more of an upstart like Aston Martin. Even Williams, which has a pedigree, did win world championships back in the day, these teams do not have the following that Ferrari has. To put an 18-year-old or a 19-year-old in that seat, you better be damn sure. I don't think, Tim, that you I don't think you're setting somebody up for success if you do that. You need to get them into the car, let them screw up. The Italian media is intense. We don't see that because we don't read Italian, most of us.

And they follow Ferrari like they follow their soccer teams. And you can't put an 18-year-old into that. So Haas seems like a really good fit.

Yeah. Quick grid rival update. We'll just quick top five. V carb loaded has been bounced from first place. See you later, buddy.

Seven spots down. He fell.

Dropped like a stone. Yeah. In first, I I'm going to butcher this. Sunhar. Sunhar. Yeah. Second, Trojan.

Yep.

And third, we have David, 389, et cetera.

David with a bunch of numbers.

Fourth is W You, Kinger. Fifth, young and cheesy. I like that.

You know what? I got to say, Sunhar, he increased his salary cap, eight million pounds just in one week. So he's got 110 million to spend next week. That's dangerous. Tim, where are you sitting?

Oh, dude, I'm 216th.

That's not looking good there, Timmer. You're in 16th.

You were 15th last week. 18th. 18th, okay.

You went up. 16th now. I'm going up. If Lance Stroll had finished the race, I would have been even higher. I'm coming for this. I'm coming for this number one spot. I want that gift card from Shop Race Canada. There's going to be gift cards for top three, by the way, so you'll be able to buy yourself something really cool for that. And the group chat is very competitive. I keep getting in there and calling people out, just trying to stir shit up. So Tim, I hope that you enjoy the rest of your day, sir. It's been a real pleasure.

Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it..