We're just a few hours away from our very own F1 Insider, Tim Horeny, touching off at Toronto Pearson Airport to go to, I'm assuming, Heathrow, right? You're going to Heathrow?

Going to Heathrow, yeah. When do I leave? I leave the apartment in about two hours, and then we fly out, or I fly out at 10:00 PM tonight.

Are you one of those guys that likes to be at the airport exceedingly early?

Yeah. Well, I'm pretty responsible in that friend. Okay.

Are you a 4 hours early guy or are you a 2 hours early guy? What's your thing?

I would say it depends where I'm going. If I'm going to the States, I'm giving myself at least three hours at the airport. And if I'm going to anywhere in Canada, 90 minutes. If I'm going to Europe, two hours.

Two hours. Yeah, the States are brutal. It's tough. It's so weird. I know a There's a lot of people that will just, as an aside, if they're traveling within the States, they'll just drive to Buffalo, which is two hours away, and then take a plane from there. And it's not only cheaper, but it costs you about the same in terms of time, because Buffalo is two hours, two and a half hours. It's like, what's the difference?

If I had a Nexus, it would probably be a lot easier. It's just the fact that I don't have that, which I'm trying to get, by the way. It'd be difficult to get through security, customs, obviously, is the longest part of all of it. But yeah, with going to Europe, it's a lot easier. I have an easier time going overseas. It's just super straightforward. It's easy to get through as long as you have your Canadian passport, you don't really need to worry about too much. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. So get in around 10:00 AM UK time and pick up the rental, might go down to London for a bit, and then out to the race track start working on Wednesday.

Right.

Well, I'm excited, Tim.

I'm excited for you to get there. It's the British Grand Prix on the docket. And like we said last episode, this is one of the most fun parts of the calendar, and It was an awesome race in Austria. If you're a McLaren fan like me, you're a little stung, maybe a little upset. But I have to be honest, the drama is real, and it's fantastic, and we love it, and that's what we need. And George Russell pulling out a victory. Let's start with Mercedes, because I think seeing the smile on Toto Wolf's face, haven't seen him smile like that in a long, long time. What do you think about Mercedes finishing one and four? And how do you think they're feeling about that car?

They're definitely feeling good. I think this makes up for Canada, to be honest with you, because that's a race that I think George threw away. But Man, it was funny when Toto came on the radio at George because he came at him when he's in the braking zone. He'll be like, Come on, George, you can win this. And George snaps back. He's like, I'm trying to drive the effing car. Heels back at him. And then at the end, when we got the radio from Toto being like, Oh, really sorry, George. That was my bad. I got a little excited. He's like, Yeah, you did. That's all those things, man. You don't talk to a driver when they're in the braking zone a fast corner, right? You just don't do it. You talk them on the straight away. That's where all the conversations happen. Lewis, yeah, not a great race for him. I don't think he performed fairly. He didn't perform very well this weekend. He admitted that as well. For George, just right place, right time. Adam, he just made sure to put himself in the right position and capitalizing on the chaos that unfolded in front of him.

Sometimes Sometimes that's the way it works out. It's just, is Mercedes the fastest team? They're not. Are they the fourth fastest team? They're actually not. They're the third fastest team now because Ferrari has taken such a step backwards, and something we'll probably chat about a little bit later. But we sure will. I mean, for George to get that win, like I said, Adam, I think it just makes up for what happens in Canada.

Right. Well, and to the drama, because we can get into it because there's a lot to get to. As usual with Red Bull, you have internal fighting to start the weekend off. And it has to do with a celebration of 20 years of Red Bull in which Jasper Stoppen was supposed to drop into the RBA 8, I believe. We did talk about this on Thursday, but I think it's important context regardless. And obviously be a part of a parade and show that off. And apparently, Christian Horner didn't want him to. And this is according to Jasper Stoppen, I'll be honest with you, relationship with the truth for me is questionable at best most of the time. He said that Christian didn't want him in the car, that he wished that Christian had just come and said it to his face. And Max, obviously, because it's his dad, said the situation was unnecessary and they didn't need it to happen. And in that respect, Max is absolutely right, because this is a race weekend. It's Red Bull's home race. They need to win this race. This is an important race. And the Dutch fans, or at least the Orange fans, always show up massively at the Red Bull Ring, and they could have won it, but they didn't win it.

And it's not because of Yoss and Christian. That was just a sideshow. They didn't win it because Tim, why? Because I think it's important we get a race car driver's perspective. Everybody saw the corner. Everybody saw Max and Lando bump into each other. Both sustained punctures. Lando out of the race. Max, 10 second penalty. What do you think?

Before I start, Adam, is there anything you need to get off of your chest? I'm waiting.

I'm waiting until you're done. I'm waiting until you're done because I think we need the rational perspective, and then we can get the... Because honestly, Tim, I think it's important- You don't want to just launch into the respectable fan reaction? No. I've had a couple of hours to cool down, and here's what I want. I want to hear it straight so I can either be more or less mad about it, but at least I'll feel justified. Does that make sense?

Total sense. Okay. All right. Actually, this would be pretty good. If you're watching us at home or we're listening, you can find a feed of the entire race. Go to lap 55. So that's when Nora Chris makes his first attempt on Verstappen. It's blatantly obvious he moved in the braking zone. I don't care what anybody says. He's moving in the braking zone, and he did. So So for Lando, as a driver, when you have something like that happen to you, it takes away, I guess, your trust level with who you're racing with because you don't have that trust that they're going to race you fairly, like you're going to be given enough room to either pull a pass off or an attempt at a pass. So for Lando, I think that's a little... It's already shaking him a bit. From there on out. My problem with that part is the steward is not getting involved immediately. There is a moving in the braking zone, and I'm sure everybody heard this, penalty that literally exists because of Max Verstappen. And in the past, when he moves in the braking zone, because he used to do it a lot, and it pissed a lot of drivers off.

So there literally is a rule for that because of Max, and he definitely moved in the braking zone. There is no question about that. So the steward is not, at least noting it, I think is an issue. I think when you note something like that or you put it under review, your drivers and your team, you're going to get notified. They're going to say, Hey, you guys are under investigation. Max moving in the breaking zone. Lando gets notified. So it lowers that temperature a bit, Adam. You know what I mean? It just takes it down just a little bit, and it allows Lando to feel a little more, I guess not comfortable, but a little more confident in trying to attempt something the next time because Max may not do it again. But with that, Adam, let's say, since we didn't get a noting or a review or an investigation, I should say, Lando has a couple more attempts at this thing, but by the time you get to lap 63, he has another attempt at it. But this time when he's heading into turn three, he bolts off from behind Max, and as the two of them are heading up to turn three, you can see that Lando has given him a lot of space in between the two of them.

Here's what I would done in that moment, because Max has already set the precedent. He set the precedent that he's going to move in the breaking zone. He's also a Championship leader. He can lose points He hasn't won the Championship yet. This Championship is still alive, and we have a lot of races to go so he can lose points. If I'm Lando Norris, I'm not giving him that birth of space in between the two drivers. I'm coming over and we're going to go wheel to wheel through this thing. Sure. I know you got to leave some space. You always got to leave the space, but Max has already set the precedent. Now I'm going to set my own, and that's going to fix this entire... That will fix the entire thing for both drivers, because what that moment says is that I'm going to put my car here, and if you're going to move over on me when you're braking, we're going to have a collision. So I'm going to leave it up to you to make that choice of whether or not we have an incident here or not. Just park your car there and see what transpires, right?

From that moment moving forward, you've drawn a line in the sand saying, Look, I've had enough with your moving in the braking zone, and this is what I'm going to do. If you don't like it too bad, you are already doing doing something that I found was totally unfair. So now I'm going to do something that's totally unfair. And at that moment, the stewards should definitely stay out of it because they didn't get involved with it back on lap 55. So you should be good to go with doing something like that. And if not, then you can go and argue it after the race as a team. And then in that moment, Adam, I don't think you get what happens later. You don't get the two of them touching. Because Max isn't going to move in the breaking zone anymore. He did. He did move in the breaking zone. So your conclusion is-I mean, in my opinion, Max is totally at fault in this, and I'm shocked that he didn't take responsibility for it. I am interested to see what happens between these two drivers moving forward, because there's a little more I want get into on that after I hear what you think, Adam Wild, about what transpired.

Well, okay. From my perspective, the best piece of evidence I had, other than my eyeballs and my unprofessional opinion, was the reaction of the three podium drivers when they saw it in that little area where they the cooling off room before they go to the podium. The cool down room. So you got science in in there, you've got Piastri in there, and you got George Russell in there. And when they see the overhead shot of what happens with Max and with Lando, when Lando gets the puncture and Max gets the puncture, they all start laughing as though they know. And then George goes, Oh, mate. He knows, and he said something, and I think Piastri turned to him and he said, Well, that just won you the race. I think that's funny, right? That drama, it's It was very funny. It was very Aussie humor of him and that thing. And I like that. But what I'm saying here, Tim, is to me, the only people that could defend this really are people that are max for stopping, died in the wool, can't speak any rationality to them people. And that's fine. If you're one of those people and you think that Max is downtrodden and you think that he hasn't always dive bombed people and done all the things that he's accused other people of, and you look at the way he raised Lewis in 2021, if you think that all of that, every driver on the grid at one point or another has said that was BS to Max, right?

Every single one of those guys who have actually raced him when the cars were a little bit more equal than the last couple of years, they've all accused him of the same thing. At a certain point, it's you. A guy like Esteban Occon gets accused of a lot of stuff, and deservedly so. Esteban is a great driver. He's never been in a great car. Never really had a great car. That guy, everybody universally accepts Esteban's a bit of a wild card. He dive bombs people. Look what he did to Gasly in Monaco. Look at this. Look at that. Even Max and him almost punched each other out once after of the race. And what's interesting about that, Tim, is that everybody accepts that about Esteban, and they still respect his driving skills. With Max, there seems to be this extreme defensiveness when it comes to criticizing this driver, who, by the way, has always been this way. And what's noticeable is it's come mostly after 2021 because a lot of people, myself included, believe that the rules were improperly applied, and Max won, and I don't doubt his legitimacy as a champion, but the stewards, Michael Massey, specifically, improperly applied those rules, and he won a championship that he probably should not have won if all things were being equal.

And that's my opinion. But because of that event, I find Verstop defense to be extraordinarily intense, ferocious in their defense of this guy. And they're mimicking Red Bull, which have been decidedly the same. What's interesting to me, though, is that Red Bull isn't doing the same way anymore. Last year at this time, if this had happened, Tim, Christian Horner would have been on Instagram, on Sky Sports, on all these other places, ripping Lando Norse for whatever, because the whole thing is fire a bunch of arrows, deflection Deflect, deflect, deflect, right? Not seeing that now. Christian is saying about, It's not the result we wanted. And I feel like that's an interesting thing as well. So that's how I feel about this. I feel as a fan in the moment, I felt robbed a little bit because I wanted a good one, two battle for the last eight races or eight laps. We haven't had one of those in years. And I think that Max, from an entertainment perspective, robbed us of that. And you know who was famous for doing stuff like this? Michael Schumacher. So I am not saying that Max isn't great. I'm not saying there isn't precedence, because if you go back and you watch Schumacher clips, there's a reason why people were Mika Hacken and died in the Wolf fans.

Michael Schumacher did some terrible stuff on track, and he's a champion, and no one remembers any of that. And maybe that's the way we'll look at this. But as a race fan, I feel like we got robbed. As a McLaren fan, I know we got robbed. And I think the thing that me the most when I looked over at my wife was, I'm like, Man, they were doing so well in the driver's championship points because that is, I think, McLaren's best shot at a Championship this year. So that's my big all-encompassing group of feelings. I don't know how relevant or true they would be, but that's how I feel about it.

You're entitled to your opinion and entitled to your feelings, man.

Do you think that they're lunatic or are they okay? Are they in-line-ish, maybe?

I mean, Adam, I think I respect what Versteppen has done in his career. I think he is generational talent. He's an incredible driver. That We got into a race situation where a team was under pressure that made mistakes that ended up snowballing on them, and the driver ended up making mistakes because of that. Then a driver behind was able to put pressure on him, and he made mistakes and questionable decisions, questionable defending, in my opinion. Lando was the faster driver on the final stint. That's just the way it is. I think that if Max hadn't been so aggressive in the breaking zones, he may still would have had a chance at fighting for the win. That was a fight that was going to to rage on, I think, until close to the end, just the way it is. Instead, both of them get taken out. Max is able to limp back to the pits and- Get some points. Carry on and get some points, extend his Championship lead because of it. Red Bull also able to extend their lead in the Constructors Championship as well. I think for when you take a look at these two drivers.

Look, they're friends off the track.

Yes.

And you cannot be friends if you're fighting for Grand Prix victories and championships unless you have set a precedent for what the two of you are going to allow and what the two of you are not going to allow. And that has to come down to having a conversation between two drivers. They need to sit down and they need to figure out their rules of conduct and their own rules of racing. What are they willing to accept and what are they not willing to accept? Where is the line and what is crossing the line? Because let me tell you something, if this continues the way, it's going to continue because Landell Norris isn't going anywhere. He's going to be in contention for race wins. Most likely, he's going to be in contention for a race win next weekend at the British Grand Prix. This is not going to end. Mclaren is here. They're going to be here for the rest of the season. We know that if these two want to remain friends, by the end of this season, they are going to need to sit down and have a conversation on how they want to race each other, because if they don't, Adam, that friendship is gone.

And Lando said as much. And it was interesting because he's like, listen, Max has got to take responsibility for this. Otherwise, I'm going to lose a lot of respect for him. Obviously, that's post-race, and you're in your feelings a lot. How could you not be? Things are intense. Max said that Lando was doing a bunch of things that had been illegal. I mean, he did get a black and white flag, right? And he said, And he's expecting not to get penalized for it or whatever. They say what they say. It's interesting that you say that these two drivers need to sit down and have a conversation with each other because the way we would look at it from the outside That is, well, it's the FIA that's going to determine that. But actually, mutual respect between drivers racing for a championship is not unheard of. So you say, sit down on the private jet at some point.

You look at Hackenden and Schumacher. You had mentioned Hackinen and Schumacher earlier. We're going to reference them again. Those two would have a chat. They literally would go and have a chat as to things that were acceptable, things that weren't. Mika would grab him and say, Look, You did that. I don't like it when you're doing things like that. And he's like, Next time you do something like that, this is what I'm going to do to you. And so these are the conversations that need to have happened. And that's why I said earlier with setting a precedent where your Lando, you're going to park your car right there, and I'm going to leave it up to you whether or not we're going to have a collision. If that's the way you want to race for the rest of the season, I'm going to set my precedent right now so you understand what we're doing. Because I'm not going to do this anymore. I don't like this. This is not fair racing, and that's the way I think Lando looks at it in terms of what's fair and what's not fair. He is a driver that does demand respectful racing, and I have no problem with that.

But also, Max, he's ruthless. There's a reason why he's a three-time, potentially four-time Formula One world champion. At the end of the day, Adam, sometimes that's what you got to be to be that high up in Formula One. There's a difference between racing at the back. There's a difference between racing at the back, racing in the midfield, racing for a point, racing for points, racing for a third place, and racing for a victory. There is a difference. If you're racing for a point, you got to keep the car alive. You have to live the fight another day. You're racing for a race victory.

Max and Louis didn't seem to be able to have that conversation. That might have come down to competitiveness. That could come down to maturity, one being much older, one being much younger. It could be a whole bunch of things. Do you think Max is at the level that he can Can you think he can have a conversation like that? Do you think Lando is at a level that he can have a conversation like that? Can they have this conversation and it be productive?

Honestly, I think they can. Here's the thing. I find after 2021, Max matured a lot and maybe wasn't put under as much pressure until now compared to 2021 when he was put under a lot of pressure. And now, again, that pressure is starting to come back and show itself again, and this time with a friend of his. I think for Max, once you're on the track, there are no friends. And that's right. There no friends when you're on the racetrack. There isn't. You're not buddies. But you have to find a way of racing each other fairly if you want to maintain a relationship outside of the racetrack. I think, I would hope for Max, that's what he would want. I don't know, but I would hope that that's what both of them would want. Obviously, They both want to win. They're both competitors, and they should be, and they should want to kick each other's ass when they're on the racetrack. But off the racetrack, they've been friends for a very long time, so it would be a shame for them to lose that over something as silly as tactics within your driving. And when you look at the stewards and what are they...

Sometimes the drivers have to police themselves. That's all there is to it, right?

We'll see. Listen, I feel like Lando can have that conversation. I feel like he wants to. He basically told the press he wanted to today. You're right on the maturity with Max. I'm just not sure he's ever going to give that. And that might be the thing that makes him a champion. There is that little bit of being a champion that is absolutely ruthless. So I don't want to take anything away from him on that. The other thing that I think is a secondary story at Red Bull, which It should be, I think, the bigger problem. And whether or not Max and Lando had their dust up today, this would still be a massive problem. Helmut Marco was out in the press calling out Daniel Ricardo last week. Ricardo finished in the points in a previously spec car.

I want to go back on something real quick, Adam. I'm really sorry to the readers and listeners because it just popped into my head. Go, go, go. I was just thinking about when Lando got his track limit violation.

Oh, yes.

And he had been hit with his... Or they hadn't issued the penalty within the moment, but he was put under investigation for Obviously leaving the track limits too many times. I think that Red Bull needed to do a better job in that moment of relaying that information to Verstappen. I think that if they do that, then we may also get a different outcome from the way Max was also handling the situation. I think at that point, he probably would have let Lando go by and waited to see what the stewards had said, because it is a given that when you go over track limits too many times, you are automatically getting the five-second time penalty. I don't think Lando is going to be able to open up a five-second gap over Verstappen if he got ahead. I mean, Maybe he could have cranked out three, maybe four, but I don't necessarily think he would have been able to hit five. That was just another thing that actually just crossed my mind when we were talking about that battle between the two of them and how things may have changed or may have been a little bit different.

And again, speaking to the maturity of Verstappen, where if he had have gotten that message, I highly doubt that he fights Lando as hard as he does.

And do you think that Lando eventually would have passed him in one, or is there a different winner in mind that you have?

No, I think it would have been a good battle between the two of them, but I think Norris comes away with a win for sure. Wow. He was a faster driver on that final stint. He just wanted more newer tires, like if Max was on. Max didn't have anything left that was newer. He had a couple of old... He had a couple of tires that were a little older. But for Lando, he had fresh rubber, and I think he would have on this for sure. And that's the difference, right? That is the small little difference that we have been talking about for the past three months now.

Right. And the reason I was bringing up Ricardo was not actually to bring up Ricardo. It was to bring up Sergio Perez, who So Tim, again, finishes far lower. And listen, you could talk about where Perez finished and how great that is. The reality is, if Norris and Verstoppen don't crash out, or if Norris doesn't have that issue, He got beaten by a hausse, Adam. Yeah.

I don't mean to be an asshole.

He would have finished even lower at Norris' track. Yeah, but- I don't mean to be an asshole.

Paris had damage to the car, right? It was big damage. He had a frigging hole in the side of the thing. So obviously the car not performing to its best. But qualifying in particular, Adam, was a disappointment. I Max blew Sergio out of the water. And the Red Bull, and I keep saying this, I'm going to keep pounding this drum, the Red Bull needs to do more to give this guy a hand to get out of a slump because it's like having the yips. It gets in your head and it's like you got to find a way of getting it out and being able to perform to the best of your ability. I mean, it's not a good look on paper, I remember when it says Haas, Red Bull Racing Haas on it, and it's no... I'm not taking a shot at Red Bull Racing or Sergio Perez, and I'm not taking a shot at Haas, but there needs to be more. We need more from them. The whole team, the Formula One, we all need more from this guy. He's got that long-term deal now. Got to get going.

I think what's so striking about that, Tim, is that if you're feeling that way, Red Bulls notoriously cutthroat program, how do you think internally his performance is being received? Obviously, there's going to be a lot of focus on max, but at a certain point, you got to stop worrying about what your junior team is doing, and you need to start worrying about the fact that your secondary driver in a much better car is finishing behind both Mercedes, behind both Ferraris, and is regularly struggling to be the sophomore driver from your rival team.

I mean, it's not good. You have to find a way of getting this guy's confidence back because you're trying to win this constructor's Championship, and they need the points. I mean, it's like I said, McLaren is not going anywhere. They're firmly in it now. And then so is Mercedes. They're starting to come on song, too. And they're only going to get better because they have upgrades coming to every single race until we get the summer break. And then your competitors are also going to be bringing cars. So it's just the goalposts are going to be moving every single race we go to. And as a driver, you have to measure up to those expectations You have to at least get close to your teammate. And this is just... It's tough, man. It's really hard on the team who wants to try and win this constructors. They just need a little bit a lot more from Sergio, but they also need to do more in terms of helping him get back to where he was at the beginning of the season.

What do you think could be done there in terms of their support? Because they don't seem like a very supportive team unless you're their top driver.

I think one of the main things is helping him not get lost with the setup. I think I find that from my point of view, Sergio, I think It goes a little too far in doing the same thing that Max is doing with setup. I think if he can just take a little bit of what Max does, what Max does in terms of setup, and then add his own little sprinkle of whatever else he needs, and he's got to build the confidence back. He has to start building the confidence back. Horner made a great point. I think it was Japan. And Suzuki is a daunting racetrack.

It's extremely fast, and you have to have a ton of guts to really go out there and wrestle it.

And he had a great drive there. He also had great qualifying there. He had pretty strong qualifying as well, if I remember correctly. Yep, that's what I did. And that's an extremely tough track, man. Very hard to... You need a lot of confidence in the car. You need a lot of confidence in yourself to really throw it on the limit. And so What happened from then to now? What happened to that driver? So that driver is in there. It's up to Red Bull and Sergio to pull it back out again.

Yeah. Well, and the reason I was looking at my phone while you were talking there, it's not because I'm bored. It's because I'm trying to... I wanted to make sure I got it right. So Nico Halkenberg and Kevin Magnuson sandwiched Sergio Perez today. What do you think about that for the Haas F1 team.

That's great for Haas, right? I never saw that coming. Both of them actually were qualifying really well this weekend. They both looked really on it. But straight line speed, they had that car really trimmed out. I think they From the looks of it, they took a different approach with how they came into Austria and were more like, Hey, we're going to go for straight line speed over cornering, because straight line speed, they were very dominant in that stretch, and it looks like it really paid off for them. The one thing I had a concern with Adam is when they were battling each other after their first stop and they both went onto the hard tire. I thought that that was going to cost them points. I think you and I were in a group chat with Justin and Jessie, and I think I made mention of that. Hey, these two guys fighting right now, they may cost each other big points here for the team. But it was good that the engineer jumped on and Simply said to him, simply said to Kameg, Hey, you got to take it easy here. This isn't going to last if you guys keep doing this.

And he's like, Well, what about Nico? And he's like, We're telling him the same thing. You guys got to chill or else we're not getting points. Right. I mean, very good performance from both of them.

And exciting because in one race, they equalled their total amount of points from last year, which is twelve. Pretty amazing and has to feel fantastic. The other thing is that it's very likely that this driver lineup is completely different next year for this Formula One team. So any incoming drivers got to be looking at them going, Oh, that's interesting. Don't hate that. Now, I do want to talk about Sonota Ricardo Because obviously, Yuki Sonota has been resigned. Daniel Ricardo, the army of fans that he has, are begging the admin on Instagram to please resign Daniel Ricardo. And I don't think it's up to the admin who runs their social media. But he did finish P9 today, and you had an interesting point about the car setup he went with.

Yeah, I think from my understanding, Daniel was using the old spec car. So I think he reverted back to older parts on the car for qualifying, and then obviously into the race, because once you hit park from there, you can't do anything with the car. So it was from qualifying and then through the race, had older parts on the car where I believe Yuki was running the newer parts. So it's hard to say, was it a great performance from Daniel? I mean, for sure. What about Yuki, though? Was it the fact that these upgrades are resembling downgrades? That's, I think, the question that they're going to have to sort out before they get to the British Grand Prix, because it looks like Adam, this thing has been rushed. I would say something similar to what Aston Martin Martin had going on. It looks like Aston Martin's upgrades were rushed, and it doesn't look like they're really taking. And same thing with the with R. B. As well. It doesn't... These upgrades that they brought, I don't think they've provided them with a step at all, really. Wow.

That's got to be tough for the garage. But also for Daniel, it's got to feel good because these next few races are really going to benefit what that car was already strong at anyway. You see that in him finishing P9. And even if Lando Norris doesn't crash out, he's P10, he's still getting a point. Yeah, it's still Adam.

It shows you it was a good drive from Ricardo, regardless of what he had on the car. It was a very strong drive from him in this race. Good qualifying as well. Got the car as far up as it possibly could go. He's making a strong case for sticking around, man. That's all I got to say.

Yeah, no kidding. It just seems like a good idea at this point. Now, a couple other notes from today. Obviously, Charles Leclerc, right off the top, has a disaster start, has to replace the front wing on the first lap, finishes just out of the points in 11th place. Really didn't You would expect with the Ferrari car being the third fastest on the grid, I was like, Oh, he'll make his way back into the points. And he just never did. Carlos signs, however, finishing third. He would have finished fourth, but even so, great race for him. Ferrari is another team, Tim, that really hasn't taken a step in terms of performance.

Yeah. No, it's true. It does not look like they've taken a step with their big upgrade that they brought either. I mean, ever since Canada, and they got the tire pressures wrong there, it's just been a downhill spiral for them. It just hasn't gone well for Ferrari. It's disappointing to see because honestly, at the beginning of the season, we were like, Hey, who's the only team that can beat Red Bull? Well, it's going to be Ferrari. We were like, Yeah, it's going to be Ferrari for the rest of the season. Now, all of a sudden, it's like, It's McLaren, it's Mercedes, and Ferrari is now the fourth-fastest team. It just speaks to the development of their car. It just hasn't been good enough. I would not put this on the drivers at all because both of them are squeezing every ounce out of this thing that they can. And Leclerc just catching some bad luck at the same time. It's tough to watch, man, when you were like, Look, this is probably going to be Ferrari fighting Red Bull for a Constructors' Championship. And Now we get to the point where it looks like, does anybody want this Constructors' Championship?

Does any team on the grid want this thing? Because it's either Ferrari fumbles, McLaren either makes a few mistakes here or there. It just takes one of these teams to really just latch on, get some consistency, and move forward and see what happens. I think now, obviously with Sergio's struggles, That now is the time you need to be clawing all those points away from Red Bull.

Right. As it comes to Carlos signs, there was a report before the weekend that the teams that are interested in him, notably Sauber, Williams, and even Alpine, but specifically Sauber and Williams are getting a little upset about the fact that he's taking so long to make a decision, right? We're now June 30th. We would have expected he would have gone somewhere by now. He still hasn't made a decision. Can they be impatient when he's just finished third?

Honestly, Adam, I think they have every right to be impatient with him. There is a lot of other drivers that still need to get some movement happening for themselves so they can have some security with their future. Carlos wants to go where there's going to be a Mercedes engine for 2026. I think that's basically what that boils down to. I think for Alpine, if they're going to ditch their engine program for 2026, which those rumors keep getting stronger and stronger. Flavio has been having some meetings with Mercedes, apparently, as well at the same time and wanting to try and sign themselves up for Mercedes power units for 2026. I think for Carlos, that's one of the things that he's looking at. But at the same time, it's like, Alpine is not going to know if We're going to have engines from Mercedes. That's going to take a while. It's not like it's going to take another week or whatever. It's going to take months, months and months before we have an answer on that front. For Carlos, it's like, he can't wait that long because Williams is going to lose patience. Audi is definitely going to lose patience, and they're just going to go in another direction, and he's going to be left with either just one team.

He has an opportunity to go with just one team or three to have a choice between.

Right. I think-Williams has gone down to Ocon. Yeah. Have they?

They're gone down to... Williams is now being like, Forget it. We're going to talk with Batas. We're going to I've talked with O'Khan as well, and they're getting their ducks in a row. And so is Salber. They're getting their ducks in a row, too, where it's like, We're not going to wait on you anymore. We're going to move forward. And so that's probably putting pressure on Carlos to make a decision on what he wants to do. So I think, Adam, the next few weeks, it's going to be interesting, and we're going to get some movement one way or another.

Wow. That'll be very exciting. Now, Al, you bring Alpine. Their drivers, obviously, have a pretty tense rivalry. Esteban Alcahn will not be back next year, but both, they seem to always be right where each other is on the track, too, which is hilarious. You usually have drivers that are a little bit, one's a little better than the other. Every week, the Alpine driver seemed to be, one is in front of the other and vice versa. And it was no different this week. Gasly passed Esteban Alcahn. And on the radio, one of the more viral moments of the race was He just said, Ciao. Pierre Gasly, which I think is amazing. Pierre Gasly and Esteban. I didn't hear that. Oh, it's great. This is so funny. Obviously, they don't like each other. It's not a secret. They're going to race each other hard. But Gasly seems to have a little bit of an edge after this. There's a fight in Pierre Gasly that I think is different for the Pierre Gasly we saw at Toro Rosso, Red Bull, and then out back at Alphatari. This guy seems to have been like, You know what? I'm not going to put up with your BS anymore, and I'm out to fight here.

Kind of interesting. Bit of a switch.

Well, I think they're still so upset because I think O'Khan and Gasly They were playing games with each other and whatever it was, sprint qualifying. I think Sergio got caught up. Was that either main qualifying or sprint qualifying? I forget. Anyway, I think it was sprint. But yeah, essentially, Sergio got caught up in in their little battle they had going on between the two of them in qualifying. And so then you go into the race and like, Look, good, hard racing. I enjoy good, hard racing. It was respectful between the two of them, and it was. They kept it clean. So I got no problem with that. Adam, how much is O'Khan really going to play the team game from here on out when he knows that Bruno Famine was like, See you later?

Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. What's the reason to? But I think Gasly is going to want to beat him anyway, right?

Yeah, for sure. I think Pierre has really done quite well. I would say in the last five races, he's been very strong. At the beginning of the season, Esteban was the stronger driver, and now just things have really turned more in Pierre's favor. Whether or not they're still swapping the chassis as well, I believe if they were still swapping the chassis this race weekend, I believe, would have been Gasly getting the lighter chassis. There's that as well.

I can't imagine they'll be swapping chassis now.

Who knows? They may still do it, though. The team needs points, right? They need points, and they need to try and get these two guys working together. Because what are you going to do? You can't just put Jack Duhan in there and expect him to be able to keep up to Pierre, score points, consistently in the points, hang on to points, close out those races. Esteban, proven veteran. He's proven to get points, hang on to points, race win as well, hang on to those at the same time when you got another fabulous driver chasing you down hungry. Anyways, yeah. So I think for those two, I Bruno Fama has got his work cut out for him for sure.

He sure does. Tim, Christian Horner made a point earlier this week in his typical snarky Christian Horner way about Lewis Hamilton. And people were asking him about the power unit comparison between Ferrari, Ford, and Mercedes, specifically, and if he had any concerns. And he said, well, the guy who everybody says, the team that everybody says has the best power unit already in 2026, their best driver just left them and is going to Ferrari. Now, it's a good argument.

It's a good point. It's a vintage Christian. Fair point, though. Fair point. That's a...

It's a fact. What do you think is the most likely right now? We don't hear anything except for Mercedes has the best one, which leads me to believe that someone for Mercedes is probably putting that out there. Don't blame them for it. But have you heard anything that's real, tangible, that how these power units are stacking up?

All of these engineers talk to each other, right, Adam? They're all chatting. They all talk about the numbers that they're reaching on certain things. And it's not so much to play mind games with each other. It's essentially trying to see what the other is able to do. And one of the rumors that's out there is that Mercedes's power unit, the numbers that they're getting for 2026 at the moment are really strong, a lot stronger than anybody else's. But the one car we don't, or the one power unit we don't necessarily hear about is Ferrari. We don't hear much about that. There's not much, not many talking about it. There's not many rumors about it going around. And that What has me curious as to what does Lewis know that a lot of others don't? Look, he's made some smart decisions in the past, leaving McLaren to go to Mercedes, and we all know what happened once Lewis got to Mercedes. Now, looking at Ferrari, what did they got going on for 2026? Who knows? He It would be onto something here.

Okay.

I like that. It's a funny comment from Horner, though, man.

The thing about Christian is you can get mad about what he says. There's a really high degree of wit there, and it's super negative and toxic, and it's great. The sport would not be the same without that humor, I think.

He just comment about YAS on Friday.

Oh, my God. Saying that, yeah, Mercedes wants a driver. Yas is available. Oh, my God. He's a zinger guy. He's good with the one line, man. He's killer. He's killer. I don't know, man. Maybe it's part and parcel of growing up in the British newspaper system, where you have to deal with the British media all the time, and they're very like that. But damn, he drops the hammer. And he's so good at it, too. He is. It's infuriating. If you're a fan of any other team, you're like, screw this guy. But you know I got to say, even though I'm a diet in the wool McLaren guy, I respect it because nobody really seems to be able to step up to the rest of it. Nobody wants to sink to that level. The worst that I've heard Andrea Stella say is today, which is, Hey, they didn't deal with Max's issues in 2021, and now we're paying the price for it. And okay, fair. But that's as bad as it's gotten. Christian is like, I'm going to cut your head off.

He's like, Whatever. That's the best you got?

Yeah, come on.

Adam, we got a ton of questions.

Let's go.

You want me to dive into them here? I haven't got a chance to read through them, so I'm just going to start firing away here. This is from Sarah Flann. With this incident today, will Lando tackle Max differently in the future? Are we going to see another rivalry that will be the talking points of the season. Yeah, Sarah, I would say definitely we're going to see more of this for sure. Now, whether or not they touch or have an incident or collide, I mean, that is what those two are going to have to sort out off track. If they want to, if they really want to sort that out, they'll have to do that off track. If they don't, then, yeah, it's going to be more entertainment for us and everyone I was watching Formula One. That's just the way it's going to be.

I'm ready for a rivalry, Tim. I'm ready. Right at the top of the track. Are you kidding?

This is going to be great. Actually, Fiona says, Thoughts, question And she's referring to Alex Albon's PR manager, which is a Twitter account. And it says, Five different race winners in 11 races, and none of them are the second Red Bull driver. Adam, thoughts?

Well, I keep talking about it, and I don't know why it hasn't happened yet, but Sergio Perez didn't falter like this in previous years, and he took a lot of crap, regardless from his own team. Curious about what Helmut Marco is going to say to the German newspapers after this one, because this is what, four or five races in a row where he's been not completely unable to assist Max at all. And you've got... I mean, clearly, let's say, the best four teams, McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes. We know those are the best teams. He, of those drivers, is clearly, and this isn't to denigrate him, but I think it's very clear that of the eight drivers that drive for the four best teams, he's the eighth of eight, right? Yeah. But he's not got a car that's the eighth of eight. He's got a car that's probably top two or top four, depending upon where you have McLaren and Red Bull ranked. You can't let this happen, man. You can't let this happen. It can happen sometimes. It can't happen week after week. It can't. You just can't. There's no reason for Red Bull to lose the Constructors' Championship this year at all.

And if they do, it will be squarely on Sergio Perez.

Victoria State asks, Why did Pascal Siakam present a trophy? I was so happy to see him on the screen. He is actually a a Red Bull brand ambassador, so he's sponsored by Red Bull. I wanted to interview him. He didn't want to do an interview. We were on the grid last year in Miami, and I was asking him what he was doing there. And he was invited by Red Bull to basically just take in the race because he was sponsored by them. And so that's why he was there in this being Red Bull's home track, so I'm assuming that's why they asked him to He presented a trophy. I believe it was a third-place trophy he presented, if I'm not mistaken. Jay Money asks or says... No, he asks, has double points this weekend, including six for Nico, 12 points in Austria this weekend, which is how many points they scored all last year, like you had said, Adam, are we ready to appoint them as the best team in the world? No. No, I don't think so.

Moving on, bro. Not ready. No.

Farina asks, McLaren still had scored Red Bull the whole weekend despite Norris retiring from the race. When do you think they can catch up in the World Constructors Championship? It's a great question. Honestly, I think if I think they can make a good dent before we get to summer break. So by the end of July, I feel that McLaren can have really clawed back a lot of points from Red Bull, including if Sergio continues to struggle. Zita Vazuzky, Lando received the first, and I believe only unsportsmanlike penalty for a very minor incident. Oh, that's going back aways. What we saw here from Max today was the most unsportsmanlike driving and behavior I've seen in years. I believe he should be investigated and given a penalty. Do you agree? Well, he was given a penalty. He was given a 10-second penalty for for the collision with Lando on sportsman-like penalty. Again, I think that comes down to the drivers policing themselves. I think that has to do with that. I don't necessarily think he should get it on sportsman penalty. Adam, what do you think? You're probably going to say unsportsman-like penalty.

I don't know. I'll tell you what I want. I want them to enforce the rules. I know they don't want to get in the way. Enforce the rules or don't. And the FIA has been accused multiple times of enforcing rules for drivers in 12th that they would never enforce for a driver in first, because obviously, you want to be entertaining. And I get that. You want to manage the race. But, yeah, enforce the rules or don't. We got to know what we can expect here. And I don't think people are ready. I think this is a title belt. I think it's a really one-sided one. Max has won the majority of the races. He's got a ton of points. But listen, we're not halfway through here, and Lando could absolutely catch him. And it could be another classic year if Lando is able to really start to turn the tables on Max. And I hope the FIA applies the rules fairly and correctly, whatever their interpretation of the rules are, just Just make sure that it's consistent so we all know what it's going to be. And that's where I get frustrated a little bit with them right now is I don't think the stewards from Race to Race are applying things the same way.

It was nice, though, Tim, to not... It's nice to be able to do this show after this race. Remember last year, wasn't there 22 different violations that they had to go through?

Dude, 1,200.

1,200. No way. 1,200, actually? This is what I'm talking about, man. It's That's what I'm looking for. Should he get it? I don't know if he should get it on Sportsman. I don't know. I don't know. Just set the precedent and stick to it so I can understand what's happening on my TV.

Yeah, you want consistency, right? You want to see everything police consistently. And I get that. I think also we never get the same stewards race to race to race. And that's always an issue that I've always brought up in the past with other people in Formula One. And sometimes on this podcast, I've brought it up a few times. But having consistency with your stewards allows the drivers to understand what is going to be allowed and where are you crossing that line. And that's extremely important for the driver because you know who you're dealing with. It's the same with any sport, basketball, hockey, football, refereeing. It's, oh, we got so and so, and so and so, and so and so today. I know what to expect. I know what I can do. I know I know what I can't do. And with stewarding, if you look at IndyCar, they keep the same stewards for every single race. They never change, which shows us, one, how hard the drivers can go and race each other because they can race each other pretty hard in Indie car and get away with things. But it shows us where the line is, where the limit is, what can they do and what can't they do, and the drivers police themselves within that.

When we look at Formula One, it's almost like with the the rule book that they have now, it's so complex. There's so much in it that I think it needs to be revisited as well and have a deeper look at. I think the drivers need more of a say in what they want to have happen.

Well, I would love that. I think that would be good. Any other questions, my friend?

That's it. That's everything. Yeah, man, it was a great race this weekend, Adam. It was great.

Great race. Great race. And you know what? Every year, everybody complains I'm like, Look at the next races on the calendar. Monaco, you can survive one weekend of a parade in Monaco for this. These races have been spectacular. Silverstone is always a classic, notably that it goes from Red Bull's Home Race to McLaren's Home Race. We'll see how that all goes. Tim, enjoy your time. I'm so freaking jealous, man.

It's going to be great. We'll do this pod when we're over there. That'll be fun. We'll have a good time over there. Yeah, hopefully, I have a bit of news, can report back on Thursday when we get to do the show. I'll say this.

There are things on this show that Tim is aware of that he cannot say and will not say, but they're exciting things. So that's the joy of being an insider, Tim.

Lips are sealed.

Adam, not going to say anything else. Not going to confirm or deny that I might know some things that other people don't. Tim, real pleasure, buddy. Safe drive to... Or drive, save flight to England. Enjoy it. Say hi to the British Isles for me. It's my favorite place to go in the whole world. So I hope you have a blast.

Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Talk to you Thursday.