Fresh off a race and absolutely exhausted in his hotel room. It's Tim Horeny. After the Beret grand free, I mean, Tim, I hate to be the guy that says you look tired. But, buddy, you've had a long day. There was a lot going on today. And what was interesting is people are calling the race boring, but the stuff around the race has not been boring.

No, it hasn't. No, it's the recording this at 2:00 in the morning. Yeah, like you said, Adam, just getting in from the track. It has an extremely long day. It's been a long couple of days, but yeah, it's like you said, man, the stuff going on off track has been unbelievable. You can't make it up, Adam. It's been wild. Okay, so let's start with- We'll get into it here, but Yeah, let's start with the race.

The race is that Max wins. Sergio Perez comes up from a few positions down and finishes really well. Again, not known for maybe his qualifying, but his races are always or usually quite strong when got confidence, Sergio Perez. And Carlos signs makes a statement finishing third place. Charlotte Claire had break issues, but I'll be honest with you. Carlos was as fast as you've seen them, made some great passes, and held on. Because the thing is, is that there's plenty of ways that you can have a race go wrong for you. And George Russell, who he passed along the way, has seen it as he saw in Singapore last year. But Carlos Sines is racing like he wants a primo seat next year. Let's start with this, and this is the first thing I noticed because we're going to work backwards a little bit. When Max Verstoppen wins the race. They get clean points, right? Not a single point that was available at the top Red Bull didn't get. There was a better way to say that. But they got the poll point, they got one, and they got two. That's a great weekend. Internally, though, things don't look great.

People were calling this the Google Drive to Survive. Tim, you were among the journalists who were emailed the link of the infamous Google Drive. There's no way to verify whether or not that stuff is true, but here's what is true. Christian Horner met with the head of the FIA. It has become a story unto itself when I think Red Bull was hoping it would go away. Christian had to answer questions about it all weekend. He answered it at SkySquared Sports F1. You did an interview with him, along with several other journalists. And Yoss for Stoppen has made some statements. So first off, when you talk to Christian, and this is only an hour or two ago, did you get a sense of his mood. That's what I'm really interested in. What energy was he putting off?

Yeah, there were some... So I never got any questions in or got to talk to him. I heard from him. I mean, there were journalists there that had to aggressively cover the story. And look, I respect that. And he got drilled with questions. There were moments where his PR had to step in and calm things down a little bit because it got to the point where it was some journalists were being pretty aggressive with questioning and trying to get more information out of them. But that's fair because I mean, it's like we had talked about earlier, Adam, where it's like it's not a really transparent thing that's going on here. We still don't know all the ins and the outs. And yeah, like you said, we all got this Google Drive thing, and none of us know the messages and everything that was in the Google Drive. Any of it was real. So it just raises so many more questions. And And instead of us really focusing on the things that were happening on track, which weren't great, let's be honest, it wasn't a very good race, it puts more eyeballs on the things happening off track.

And so obviously, this is a huge story off track. There's a lot going on there. And we discussed before we even hit record here about the stuff going on with Yoss Verstappen in.

Let me read the quotes that you sent. So Tim sent these quotes over. According to SNR Mail Sport.

From the Daily Mail, Jonathan McAvoy. Jonathan McAvoy was the journalist on that, and I believe he was the one who did speak with Yoss, and these were the quotes from that.

And it's important to understand this. Joss doesn't work for Red Bull. Joss has no PR, so Joss is going to say what he wants to say. And isn't it interesting that all of the leaks were coming out of Dutch newspapers? Throwing that out there. There is tension here while he remains in position. This is what Verstoppen senior said about Christian Horner. The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can't go on the way it is. It will explode. He is playing the victim when he is the one causing the problem. Now, let me say this, Tim, I wouldn't expect you have seen this because you were at the race. But on camera, there were two very important things that Red Bull were putting across through Sky Sports, through TSN in Canada, where I was watching. And the first thing is that Christian, and this was all over Instagram, walked in holding hands with Jerry Horner, his wife, and at the podium was standing with her when Max and Sergio were awarded. And then several times we saw Christian with the head of the Thai branch of Red Bull. Not Red Bull Racing, Red Bull.

Now, the Mattisci family who founded Red Bull, obviously, they have a huge Corporation, but there is another major shareholder in Thailand who I believe owns 51% of the company and ultimately gets to make the decision and Christian was standing right beside him at Pit Row and several times was seen with him before the race on the track. It seemed to be sending a message. We talked about this last episode that there could be a split down the middle of this team. The one thing that can tear a almost perfect season apart, like last year was almost perfect, right? All you have to do is just keep doing what you're doing and you're great. But some people cannot handle great. Some people self-destruct. Some people, and there's lots of therapy for this, some people need that chaos. They need dysfunction. If Red Bull can't figure out what to do with a guy like Yoss for stopping, I'm not saying that Christian Horder didn't do what he was purported to have done. I'm not saying any that wasn't true. We don't know. We just don't know. But what I can tell you is that Yosfor Stoppen is talking to the press.

He's being very open about what he's saying, and it's very clear that even on the message between Max and Christian at the end of the race, it wasn't the same warmth as last year. I could sense it. That is a potential huge issue for Red Bull Racing. This could tear them apart, Tim.

It could. I think that you made a good point with Yoss essentially not being an employee for the team. So he's not really bound by their PR, and he doesn't have his own PR, so he can go and talk to journalists and whomever he would like. It starts to become an issue when we get things like this, and then we get the story from the Daily Mail, and You have to wonder what is going on between both Christian and Yoss. I mean, that opens up another can of worms of, okay, well, what could possibly be going wrong with those two relationships? Christian obviously has built this team up to be a very successful racing team and has given Max an incredible race car and always praises Max when he's winning and et cetera, et cetera. So I'm just curious to know what would be going on between those two. And that's something, again, we don't know. Nobody knows what is happening between Yoss and Christian. So it keeps raising even more questions, which then puts pressure internally on the team. And so you have to wonder, when does this eventually fall back onto Max? Because I think at the end of the day, there has to be something that blows back on him from this.

You would have to think, anyways.

Tim, it's a good question. When you think about professional athletes, and obviously, I get a lot of exposure to hockey. One of the things that people recommend that you don't do when you're a hockey player is read the media. Now, F1 media is far more salacious than hockey media. I know that F1 drivers are aware of what's said about them. F1 teams are aware of what's said about them. European newspapers, they're just a little bit more edgy than we are. The concern is that Max Verstoppen has the opportunity here to be the best driver that's ever lived. He's already put in the best season we've ever seen. He's got a lot of years to catch guys like Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna. But if there's a Mount Rushmore in the next 10 years that's carved into a stone somewhere, those are the names that are going to be on it if Max keeps this up. Having people around you that keep you grounded and keep you steady are good things to have. Jasper Stoppen doesn't seem like that to me. Jasper Stoppen seems like the guy who is the antithesis of that. Now, he drove a lot of what Max's early career was, trained him, had some pretty extreme tactics when it came to training him.

But Tim, I do honestly and openly question and have for years, based on what this guy has said in the media, is he a good influence to have around the team ultimately? And Red Bull doesn't have to have them in the garage if they don't want them there, right?

Yeah, that's true. We also have to wonder, what does Max want? Because he's very close with his father. The two of them arrive to the track together all the time. Time. He manages his career at the same time. Yeah, he cares about his dad, right? I guess if you're a Red Bull, You're going to have to get involved in some form or fashion, and maybe they already have, that's something, again, we don't know, and try and cool down, try and cool down the temperature, try and make sure that they Can find a way of making this, I guess, harmonious, because I think at the end of the day, you're Max Verstappen, you're on top of your game, you are arguably the best driver in F1 right now, and You have all this stuff happening off the track. Eventually, I think in some form or fashion, it will affect you in some way. I think for Red Bull, that's a detriment to what they're trying to achieve on the track. There has to be some point where I think Red Bull gets involved. We're talking like the parent company, GMBH, gets involved in some form or fashion.

I just think it just has to be. I mean, not saying that they already have or they will. I'm just saying that you would think that they would have to get involved.

Yeah, they can't sit by and do nothing. Now, a lot of the times what companies will do is they'll play for time, they'll wait it out. They'll see if things calm down. And it's entirely possible Red Bull does that. I just feel like this guy seems to feel like he's untouchable right now. My kid's the world champion. What are you going to say to me? What are you going to do? You're not going to let me in that garage? Well, I'm sure Max would have something to say about that, and I'm sure that's his attitude. And I think, boy, if you have that an attitude at a certain point that comes back and bites you. And the person I don't want it to bite is Max for stopping. I I don't want somebody's family member, and you don't want this in any case, changing the trajectory of somebody else's career. Now, Max is unbelievable right now. He is laser-focused. He's awesome. We'll see where it all goes. These are uncomfortable conversations to have, Tim. But frankly, I think we got to call a spade a spade here. At a certain point, somebody works for the team and somebody doesn't.

If there's somebody who doesn't work for the team is causing trouble in the newspapers, you may not get that access anymore. I don't know. I mean, that would be a huge story to imagine the Oscar stop. It's not allowed in behind the scenes there. That'd be huge.

That's another thing, right, Adam? It's like, okay, well, Red Bull doesn't allow him in the garage or they don't allow him to hospitality, but I don't think they can stop him from coming to the track. No, they can't do that. I don't think they can stop him. No, they can't do that. Yeah, I don't think they can stop him from being in the paddock either. I still think Yoss would find a way of getting into the paddock. It wouldn't stop him from being around, essentially. I think they have to find a way of bringing this to some a conclusion where, I don't know, both parties are happy because I think that's probably the only way it can end, really.

I'm trying to figure out, Tim, what more do you need? From a purely race perspective, what more can Christian Horner do for the Verstopen family? He's believed in Max for years, made him one of the youngest world champions of all time, has championed him all the way up from Toro Rosso all the way through, was happy to him and Helmut Marco were happy to tell Daniel Ricardo, Yeah, we want you to win, but then it's going to be Max's turn right after that. They've backed this guy, and they should. They made the right call. Max earned that. But you have to wonder what the hell went went on because Red Bull and Christian Order, specifically, have backed this guy all the way. What happened?

Yeah. Max talked about that a bit yesterday when I believe it was yesterday. Oh my God, my days mixed. I think it was qualifying, post-qualifying. I was in the press conference with him. I'd ask him, I'd ask Max a question about... He jumped in the tow with Piastri, and I asked him, What were you thinking When you did that, where did you make the call? He answered it. Then another guy followed up asking him about Christian Horner's place at the team, et cetera. Max had been responding to a lot of these questions all through testing, and again, through the first few days of the Grand Prix here. Max was like, Look, Christian built this team to what it is. As a guy who runs this team, he does an incredible job at building this team into this powerhouse it is right now. You have to give him credit for that. It doesn't seem like there's anything frosty either between Max and Christian either. I just feel that Max is just like, look, just keep me out of all of it. I just want to race. That's all I want to do. Yeah, but he can't do that forever.

I just don't care. Yeah, exactly. But that's what I think Max's mindset is. I just want to shut everything out and just keep it all away from me, and I'm just going to go in race. That's what I get from it.

And you know what? This weekend, Tim, it worked, and it works beautifully. Max one, Sergio, two, Carlos, three. Love that. Now, I want to ask you this because a lot of people are already... We got a message from Jesse Blake, who's sometimes guest on this show, obviously a member of SDPN. He was like, Well, you guys told me that this was going to be a different year and that there was going to be some things that were closer. Waylay my fears, Tim. This track, Burain, is a much different track than what we're going to see over the next five races, correct? The way it's built, the way it looks. Correct. Right. Is there a chance that the gap between Max and the rest of the field closes?

I mean, some of the drivers thinks it will. I tend to agree with there's probably maybe maybe one team, maybe two, that could push Red Bull later this season. And I think that's Ferrari. And I think Ferrari is going to be the only one who can really make a go at it. I think there are other teams who can get in the mix when it comes to qualifying. It's just the racing is different. The way the RB20 is built is built for racing. It's built for managing the tire, They're managing the deg. You had said, Adam, with this track in Berraine, it is a bit of an outlier because they don't normally go to tracks. Well, they don't go to any other tracks like this because it is a different type of tarmac. It is very abrasive. It's the type of tarmac where if you fall, you're going to just... You'd fall either way. But this tarmac... It's like you cut yourself up, by the way. But with this tarmac, it would really slice you up. It's very, very abrasive. And so you're not going to get that when you go to Jetta. So that's going to make a difference for some of the teams.

But here, Adam, is where I think there is a glimmer of hope is that you go back to this time last year, and Ferrari was a disaster. Their car was unbelievably bad, and they managed to make some tweaks, and then they had that old revamp, and it still wasn't working, and the car was inconsistent, and even wind change really affected them. So did temperature change. And you come to the end of this race, speaking with Carlos Sites, following the race, and he's saying, Look, we have a good platform. He's very confident in the platform, which is a good sign because it means it's got good bones. You can really build something good out of this. He's saying like, Yeah, this has got a good platform, and they're finishing P3. So There is a little glimmer of hope there that we get to different tracks. Ferrari is going to be competitive. Ferrari will be able, I feel, to challenge for some wins. Then on the other side of that, Adam, it's like, Okay, well, what happens when we get to Monaco? Obviously, Red Bull doesn't have that advantage in qualifying anymore. We saw that already. Just Charlotte Claire and Ferrari made a huge mistake, and or else, he would have been on poll.

You get to Monaco, and the teams that are good with slow corners get polled, and that's it. They've already... The Red Bull already have lost. You can't pass in the race. So there you go, right?

So I mean, there is going to be- Might we finally see a Charles Leclerc win in Monaco?

Yeah, maybe. Who knows, right? But there will... I feel that there is going to be some opportunities, maybe not straight out of the gates, and maybe not in the first five races. But as same as last year, as we get rolling along, there is going to be a team. I think we know who a few of those teams will be, who will bring those big upgrades, who will close the gap down. It may not be enough or it may be enough. And now am I saying that this is going to be a great season? I mean, I don't know. It's hard to say. Hard to tell. It may not be a great season. But the stuff off the track has been keeping me more busy than the stuff on the track.

Sorry, Lando and Oscar spoke to SkyA Sports after the race, and they were both saying... Lando especially said, I think that we're going to give Red Bull a little bit of a better run in high-speed corners. As the season goes on.

Yeah, that's what he said to me, too. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's promising. Listen, Lando, the one thing about Lando, by the way, just had to wear it because I think they had a pretty good day. The thing about Lando is he's If the car is slow, he'll tell you. He'll be like, Yeah, we're slow and we suck. He's a pretty honest guy. So if he thinks that, I'm encouraged. The BS coming out of Lando is next to nothing. Now, Red Bull aren't the only team with drama. Racing Bulls, V-Car, whatever you want to call them, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, had some serious drama at the end of the race. Now, just to update you, if you don't remember, specifically, there's 57 laps in the Berraine race, about lap 52, 53. Daniel is on soft tires. Yuki is on hard tires. Daniel is driving a little bit faster, and both of them are right behind Kevin Magnuson. Now, the positions are important if it comes down to a tie break, but we're not fighting for points here in any of these cases. But they wanted to get into 11th place, and I don't blame them. Daniel has the He got a chance to do it with soft tires.

Team orders Yuki to switch, and Yuki takes a solid lap before he does make the switch. Now, a lot of people argued, and they might be right, that they asked Yuki to do this too late. Yuki freaking out about it. He's like, Right now, seriously? And then, of course, he delays the opportunity for Daniel to get in. Daniel gets in within three-tenths of Kevin Magnuson, but really only has a couple of laps to try to catch him anyway. I think he got there at 55, and then 57. People were like, Well, he should have given the place back. I'm like, Really didn't have time. They were racing right till the end. But the real drama, that's drama. But the real drama was afterwards on the cool down lap when Yuki Sonoda dive bombs Daniel Ricardo, and Daniel calls him an absolute helmet, which means like a knucklehead, and says a few more things. And he goes, You know what? I'll save it for the debrief. And then later on, and I'm sorry, Tim, I'm going to ask you a question in a second here, but I did I want to grab every little bit that I could.

He said that Yuki's move was a bit immature, that they had talked about this strategy before the race, meaning that Daniel was probably supposed to be on the tires he was on. Yuki was going to be on the tires that he was on, and they both knew that a switch could happen. Yuki knew that Daniel would probably have a pace advantage, and if he got the call, he knew it was going to happen. So I wanted to know what your thoughts were on something like this. Is this a Racing Bull's mistake just because they didn't make the call soon enough?

Well, first of all, Adam, I think new R. B. Team principal, Laura Mechis, has definitely got his hands full with these two drivers for the foreseeable future. Sure. I was told that following the race, he was out back of the R. B. Garage, having a few words with Yuki Sanoda's manager. So there's that. And then on the other side of that, it's a dangerous move, right? You can't dive bomb your teammate on a cool down lap and then cut across the track and make it close on contact again when you're trying to rejoin the track on a cool down lap. And then also, Adam, there is the cost cap that is in place now. And you have to remember that if you damage the car, you're screwed. So that's going to affect your cost cap. It's going to affect how much money you've got. And you have to be smart with this stuff. It's unbelievable by Yuki to go and do something like that. Man, I get it if you're upset. Do you get it, though? Do you get it? Yeah, I do get. You get being upset, but do you get the moves afterwards?

I don't get that. Sometimes, Adam, when I was racing, if you knew that you were faster than somebody, but you just couldn't find that opportunity to get past them, as soon as a checker flag would wave, you would go past them. There was that little goodbye on a cool down lap. Hey, you weren't the fastest. I was. I'm still going to get in front of you, and I'm going to do it right here on this cool down lap, and see you. Sometimes Sometimes out of frustration, you would do that. I know I would. I did. So that stuff happens. But for Yuki to send one down the inside of turn eight, out of anywhere, turn eight, and almost collide coming back on the track. I mean, look, I have a feeling that these two talked about this before the race started. I have a feeling that Yuki may have been firmly against doing something like that, and maybe that's why it took so long. I'm just guessing. I don't know that for sure. But that being said, I mean, Laura Mechis has got his hands full enough with this new team that he's got here in this new car, this new concept.

And now two drivers that are fighting with each other. Adam, also, remember, these are two drivers who want Sergio Perez's seat at the big team for next year.

Yeah. I was going through the comments and reading some of the social media reaction. A lot of people felt for Yuki and are justifying the behavior, right? And I can tell you this, Tim, maybe it was a bad strategy call, maybe it was a late strategy call, but Yuki doesn't help the late strategy call by delaying. When you're on the track and the team makes the call, obviously, ultimately, the driver is going to obey or not obey. But by not making that move earlier, he negated Daniel Ricardo's chance, especially on this track, of passing Kevin Magnuson because A, it's a track that's really hard on tires, especially soft tires, and B, he only gave him a couple of laps to do it. The time to pass him was lap 52, 53, 54, and not 55, 56, 57. The soft tires in certain cases at the beginning of the race were only lasting 11 laps unless your max were stopping. Yeah.

No, you're right.

And then check this out. And this is what I was thinking about the bigger picture. If he's mad, first off, I feel like he should be mad at Racing Bulls management. But remember that Liam Lawson is going to be there for 2025. He will be in this car. And I don't know how much Red Bull Racing or Racing Bulls care about having Yuki in a seat if he's going to act like this. And the reason I say that is Yuki is extraordinarily talented and extraordinarily fast. Fast. But his position is cemented there because of the relationship with Honda. We know that Red Bull and Racing Bulls are moving to Ford in 2026. It's not like... The deal with Honda is the deal. They can't pull out of it. Red Bull is not pulling out of it. Honda is not pulling out of it. If Racing Bulls say, Listen, man, you're a problem, and we have a guy who's super fast and he should be in here, it's not going to change anything. What I'm saying is Yuki's position is not as set in stone as it would have been a couple of years ago. And so he's got to be really careful here, I think.

Yeah. No, I agree with you. I think for Yuki, he has to have a solid season if he wants to stick around at the team. Let's say that it's close between the two of them when it comes down to the wire at the end of the season. And let's say Sergio is struggling. I mean, Sergio had a decent race on Sunday. I mean, it wasn't tremendous. I mean, Max absolutely whacked him. There's a 20 second gap to him. That's a huge delta. But Let's say that Sergio isn't asked to come back in 2025. I mean, that is an open seat that if I'm Helmut Marco, Christian Horner, Daniel Ricardo would be the guy who I probably would want in that seat because of the experience. And he can play a strong number two to... He can play a strong number two to Max. He can back him up. And so I think for Yuki, he has to keep his nose clean. But again, on the other side of that, I get the frustration.

Yeah. And I think the problem is that the outburst, Tim, is going to be the thing that holds him back. Yuki could be even the better driver. I I don't know. I don't think he is, but I think he's extraordinarily talented and has all the potential and will be up there for years and years and years. I think the problem is that even if these drivers are dead even, if you're Christian Horner or Helmut Marco, you know that whoever who's going into that second scene at Red Bull is going to have a really hard time because Max is always going to be ahead. If you can't handle finishing 13th on a team order behind Daniel Ricardo, you're not going to be able to handle Max for stopping as a teammate. You're just not. And so if it comes down to maturity, which does factor in, Daniel is going to win. And Yuki, who's super talented, is giving it to him. Right?

Yeah, you're right.

So all I'm saying is this isn't like a hit on Yuki Sonoda. It's, Dude, don't give it away. Don't give it away. And as a fan, what I want to see is two drivers going head-to-head with skill. I don't want to see them dive-bombing each other on a cool down lap. That's not entertaining to me.

No. And look, I think Daniel is interesting hearing from him on Wednesday. I was in a Scrum with him and basically just saying how And Yuki said something similar, where they're not really thinking about that big seat. They're not thinking about going to Red Bull racing. They're concentrating on the task at hand in this year. And it's a fresh start and all this other crap. And then you're just like, Yeah, you know what? Forget it. You both are thinking about the seat. We all know it. Just say it. We get it. I understand that you want to be at the big team. I get that, and that should be a goal. That should be the goal. But Adam, you make a good point on the maturity level. If you're not going to be mature about certain things, you're really going to shoot yourself in the foot.

Yeah. Well, and if that's what it comes down to, Yuki Sonoda is going to regret that the rest of his life. If it comes down to, I couldn't keep my temper in check, when he's an older man, he's going to look back and go, Jeez, I wish I could have just counted it to 10, anything. Because the line is that thin in Formula One, and Red Bull does not have time for BS, especially in a cool down lap. Now, there's a couple of other stories we got to talk about. One more on the track, we got We're going to talk about Lance Stroll. Right off the start, he gets hit by Nico Halkenberg, who was hit probably by Valtry Botas, right off the first corner, and he gets spun around. Halkenberg is in for wing repairs, and Halkenberg had a great qualifying. Lance is at 20. And when you're at 20 that early in the race and maybe 45 seconds down, it feels like, Oh, man, I don't know what I'm going to do. But Lance, second year in a row that he's had a very strong race in Bahrain. He finished in the points, Tim.

Pretty spectacular.

Yeah, huge. I spoke with Mike crack at the end of the race and also spoke to his engineer as well, Ben Mitchell. Great guy. They were all blown away at how well Lance did to hold on to the car towards the end of the race. I mean, he had almost had 30 laps on the hard tire at the end of the race and still able to just hang into the points. I think Joe Guanyu was instrumental there, too. He was that cork in the bottle that kept KMeg down there and also kept Ricardo Sonoda back there as well. But regardless of all of that, to recover from dead last and you get turned around, you don't know how much damage is done to the car, if at all any, and then you got to try and make your way through the field again. It's a discouraging thing as a driver, because once you get that far back, especially in Formula One, it's really hard to get positions back, get those positions back, get further up. It was a hell of a drive from Lance. I mean, that was a very good job he did there.

I think as a weekend as a whole, it looked up and down. His qualifying, like Q1, second fastest, dipped into the 129s, was extremely strong there. Then into Q2, having George Russell just in front of him through some of the fast corners, that affected his run of Getting into Q3, we spoke with Tom McCullough, who works for the team in lead up to the race on Sunday, and he confirmed that. So I think for Lance, solid weekend has to build on it, right? It just has to keep that good momentum flowing for him. I think for Lance, once that starts to really flow, it'll just be consistent, and then he'll have a rock solid foundation to build upon for the rest of the season. But really great job from Lance, Adam. I know we don't really get to talk about him a lot on the show, but he's really good.

He never gets his flowers. The guy never gets his flowers. Hours. Even when he finished eighth last year in Bahrain, coming off a two broken wrists, it's like, Oh, well. And I think, obviously, the Lawrence Stroll thing weighs on him in his PR. I don't think it's fair. I think anybody that can go 10 to 1, or sorry, 20 to 10 in the fifth fastest car in the field. As much as people will write that off, that's not easy to do. And there was a ton of reasons why Lance Stroll could have He finished 15th or 17th today, and it would have been, it's a write off. It's what happens. But he didn't give up. I think that guts and determination, really, really impressed. Would love to know where he would have finished had he not been spun out in the first turn. Sorry, Aston Martin could have had way more points today. So I think that's cool. Now, the last thing I want to talk... Sorry, go ahead, buddy.

No, no, no. Yeah, go for it, man. Yeah, no, I just... I think it's... I I was listening to... I got in some text messages during the broadcast, and again, I don't really have access to Sky Sports, so I don't really know what they're saying, but it was just people were just like, Wow, they're really hard on Lance, right?

Everybody's really hard on Lance.

They just don't... I think some folks just don't know him. I think he works hard at this, man.

Well, he's a Formula One driver. Yeah, it's no joke. The other thing, Tim, is that, let's be honest, as far as charisma goes, being outgoing, Lance is not like Daniel Ricardo. He's going to be a little bit quieter. He's a little more introverted, doesn't have a whole heck of a lot to say. He'll talk to the press and you see him come up, but he's not like presence when you walk in the room. But I got to tell you, that was a really good drive, and he ought to be very happy about it, and clearly the team is. I know there was some disappointment from Fernando, I think, a little bit in his voice today, because last year at this time, he on the podium. But they have the fifth fastest car, and they finish like they have the fifth fastest car. Red Bull 1, 2, Ferrari 3, 4, Mercedes, Aaron in there, and then, I mean, Aston at 9, 10. They got the fifth fastest car. They can improve that, though.

Yeah, absolutely. That's where I had them in my power rankings. That's where I think a lot of people had them as well. That's where they had themselves at points during testing as well. I think for Aston, it's just hearing from Fernando being in the Scrum with him after the race. It sounds like he's just waiting for them to bring a few big upgrades. I'm paraphrasing. He mentioned McLaren from last year where it was like, We just need to do a McLaren, bring some really big upgrades, and that's going to really turn the season around for us. But I think all in all for Aston Martin, it's a good start, strong start. I think they're going to be strong in Japan. I really do. I think they're very strong. They have a lot of downforce on their car. So I think when it comes to Japan, Aston Martin will probably be pretty quick there, but good platform to build on for them. They have a really strong base to go from.

Now, lastly, Tim, we got to talk Alpine. It was reported after the race by The Race, great website, that Alpine technical director Director Matt Harmon and the head of Aero, Dirk De Beer, have resigned. The team hasn't commented on this. Apparently, they resigned today before the race, and it followed some problems with the Alpine team. Now, my question to you is, have you heard anything on it? Did Alpine ask for their resignations, or did they give them because Alpine is a team that's in a bit of, well, a bit of struggle right now?

Yeah, it sounds like it was A lot of it was due to because of the struggle that they are in. I think some of it stems from way back in last season when Otmar Safnar was let go, and then you had other key figures from behind the scenes just pick up and leave the team. I think that was the writing on the wall for the team. I think we actually did a whole podcast on how that was the writing on the wall for that team back in the end of July 2023. I think we were a little ahead of the curve on that one. But at the end of the day, this is horrible for them. Absolutely horrible. The team is... My God, Adam, the team's in shambles. They're just in shambles. I I can't... Like dead last, slowest car on the grid, shockingly, you pull a sticker off of that car and you gain a couple of hundreds of a second. That's how it's overweight. It's overweight, it's too heavy. Oh, my God. I feel bad for Ocon and Gasly at the same time because they're really good drivers, contract. Honestly, Sometimes I just think they just need to sell that thing and just move on.

If part of them aren't going to take the full... The team, the crew that works takes it seriously. The crew that's there, the crew that's working their butt off behind the scenes takes it very, very seriously. But I think as a bigger corporation, if you're not going to take it seriously, then maybe think about selling it off. Right.

And not spreading it over two countries. I mean, here's the thing. When McLaren were finishing last year at this time, they, at very least, had a team that was like, We have a direction. And there was no guarantees that they were going to jump ahead in the field. The difference is that Alpine, they're bad, and they seem to be continuing to get worse. And that's scary. They got a guy in there running that team that's never run a race team before.

Bruno Famine, I can't comment on whether or not he's run teams before. He's worked in motor sports for quite a while. But again, right, Adam, he never ran anything this big before. You're now running an entire Formula One operation in here. And so there's a lot that goes into it. There's a ton of stuff. And if you're in a team that's already on the back foot and you have people that are leaving, giving you their... Handing in their resignation and then walking out the door, that is not good. It sets you back in a number of ways. And it's not like it sets you back for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, Adam. It sets you back for years.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's- And so think of you're Ryan Reynolds, right?

You're Patrick Mahomes, and you're Travis Kelsi, and you're Rory McElroy, and you're part of this big investment group who's come in and given this team a lot of money, and this is what you're getting. And it's like, Yeah. Come on.

By the way, Bruno was the head of Puja Sport, so I should say that slightly different, Formula One is a different beast than Rally and some of the other things that Puja Sport we're in.

Yeah, Puja. Oh, Puja. Running... No offense to Yeah, no offense to Puja. Yeah, no, it's all good. No offense to Puja, World Rally and stuff like that. World Rally is pretty awesome. I actually absolutely love World Rally, but it's a different beast. It is a totally different beast. F1.

Boy, oh, boy, it's It's going to be an exciting one. Did we talk about Leclerc? What were these break issues?

Did we talk about Leclerc and science?

Yeah, we talked about science.

Yeah. Well, science actually said to us post-race that he was having break issues, too. Now, they're definitely not as bad as what Leclerc was battling, but he was having some issues as well. I just think Adam, the fight between those two this season, Carlos has been showing the door. Louis is coming in. I'm into this.

Oh, yeah. Listen, Ferrari's two drivers next year were outscored by their teammates today.

Yeah, I'm into this a lot. Me too. Heavily into this. Hold on. I just want to talk about George real quick, too. We were chatting with George Meedy Day, and he did have a lot to say in terms of how Louis had his hands on the W15. Some of this is his car. Sort of paraphrasing what George says, but it seems like they took a lot from what Louis was saying, but George was the one making the car fast.

He raced his car. He outraced his car's performance.

He's Russell did a really good job this weekend.

He did. I'm excited for this one. There's some good driver battles this year. Tim, I think it's time for you to get some sleep, my friend. It's like 3:00 AM there.

What about grid ride?

Well, if you want to talk about... Where are you, by the way? Where did you finish?

Okay, I'm 215.

Oh, didn't have a good one. Guess where I am, Tim. Sixtenth place, baby.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

Dude, that's really good. So our top five, V carb loaded is leading the way. That's my favorite. That's my My favorite team name.

There's another good one, Valerie Botas. It's Valerie Botas' butt from some really great names on there. I got to tell you, man, get in the League chat. The League chat, there's a lot of A lot of arrows being slung. It's great.

It's awesome. No, the League chat is where it's at, man. It's going to be a good one. I've been like, sneaking in and reading stuff. Oh, yeah. Commenting and then leaving.

Oh, yeah. You just got to get in there, drop bombs, leave. We'll do more grid rival updates in the coming weeks and stuff like that. But this has been long enough, my friend. You need to go to bed. I can tell. But great job down at the track today, Tim, and thank you so much.