🏁 Calling all F1 enthusiasts! In this exclusive podcast episode, we put on our strategic thinking caps and dive deep into the realms of Formula 1 team dynamics. Join Tarun & James as they unravel the biggest challenges facing each team heading into the 2024 season and brainstorm innovative solutions to fix every squad’s major woes. From performance hiccups to strategic pitfalls, this podcast is your one-stop-shop for dissecting and solving the biggest problems in the F1 paddock.
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🚗 Team by Team Diagnosis: We kick off the episode with a meticulous diagnosis of each Formula 1 team’s most pressing issues. From technical glitches to strategic missteps, we leave no stone unturned in identifying the root causes of their struggles.
🛠️ Innovative Solutions: Armed with insights, our panel of experts brainstorm creative and innovative solutions to address each team’s challenges. Whether it’s tweaking the car design, optimizing pit strategies, or enhancing driver-team communication, we explore it all.
💡 Strategic Overhauls: Engage in discussions about the potential strategic overhauls that could redefine a team’s approach to the 2024 season. How can teams leverage their strengths and mitigate weaknesses for a more competitive showing?
📈 Impact on Standings: Predict the potential impact of these proposed fixes on the overall standings. Can strategic adjustments turn mid-pack contenders into title challengers, and will perennial frontrunners maintain their dominance?
🗣️ Community Input: This podcast is a two-way street! Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts, ideas, and proposed fixes in the comments section. Which team’s challenges resonate with you, and do you have your own solutions to contribute?
🌐 Looking Ahead: As we conclude the episode, we discuss the broader implications of these proposed fixes for the teams and the sport as a whole. Will 2024 see a more competitive and unpredictable Formula 1 landscape?
Tune in for a dynamic and insightful podcast experience that dissects, diagnoses, and fixes Formula 1 team challenges. Subscribe now for more engaging discussions, and let’s gear up for a thrilling 2024 season with solutions in hand! 🎙️🏎️💡
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Hello everybody and welcome back to the pre-race podcast getting set up for the 2024 season Christmas been and gone I can barely remember it Taran and we are heavily in 2024 and already some big news we’ve G for Steiner it’s just it’s like Formula 1 just knows when to
Deliver I mean to be honest all I’m sat here going literally the first thing that came to my mind was just what a Netflix going to do now that’s what’s going to happen like literally the first thing that came it wasn’t anything to do with h it wasn’t anything
To do with good deer or the team it was just what a Netflix what are Netflix gonna do now without this star man yeah it was very similar to when uh like Daniel Ricardo lost his seat in McLaren and we thought he was going to be gone
For a whole year it was like well that’s a Netflix episode gone yeah they don’t know what to do now it’s just completely disappeared but on that note Netflix can maybe learn a little bit from this in that today I thought I know it’s a little bit beyond the new year but the
New year for Formula 1 really starts in February so I feel like coming into the 2024 season coming into February each team must have a little bit of a New Year’s resolution for themselves something that they can at least try and do in 2024 to make their season
Better I know that’s pretty trucky for Red Bull it can’t go much better than winning 21 out of 22 races but we’ll get there I feel like we’ll start at the bottom of the pack where it’s maybe a little bit more obvious what the teams
Can do Beyond just make a Red Bull and I feel like we should start with h not only did they finish 10th in the standings Gunther Steiner is now gone it’s like they’ve had their heart ripped out Jean Hass has just had enough of everything but if you had to think of
Kind of one thing for H going into 2024 what would what would be their best option moving forward I mean for me personally I think for me it just comes down to like not finishing last like personally that’s that’s my I know it sounds really stupid but effectively being in a
Position where you’re not in the back of the pack and I I guess maybe what that really comes down to than is their race performances yes and effectively you know in order to do that you got to score a few more points but effectively too often you just see them having like
No Pace in Races they just fall back through the pack and effectively end up just as like last of the running cars minus maybe like Logan Sergeant who’s just giving them some company so I think that for me that’s what it is it’s just more like better race Pace to ideally
Not finish last yeah I think that’s the thing with h though it is the races because qualifying was pretty decent overall like if you consider they’re not really regarded as anywhere near kind of even Midfield they are definitely a lower car in terms of the standings but
Also just generally in terms of their Pace but Nico hulkenberg in particular got through it’s quite a few Q3 sessions or at least a lot of q2’s and you you know if you’re starting 11th 12 place you’re at least putting yourself in contention for points but as you say it
Did feel like even when niik hulkenberg started maybe eighth or ninth the chances of him holding on to anywhere close to that seeped away very very quickly come race day and I suppose it was that kind of the tire degradation thing is their real real issue yeah like you just see it race
After race where effectively like they just it’s so rare to see them just move forward even if they haven’t like qualified well like say that they’re further back like say they qualify in 16th 17th Place they’re sort of like stuck there like very rarely do we see
Them move up and it’s almost like as the race goes on and you develop into like what the strategy like you’ll often see them almost having to like say most other teams go you know um soft soft medium or something they’re there going like medium medium hard because they
Have to use the harder compounds attire they don’t last as long and it just means that they’re slower they just can’t compete almost and it’s really interesting because it’s like the same problem every single year from race like I don’t know if you remember the um the Netflix episode I think they’re in
Austria and like Kevin Magnuson qualifies really well and then it’s just like the race is just awful and this was from like a couple of years ago and it’s the same problems that they have every single time well you even think of Kevin Magnuson when he got that pole position
In Brazil and then in the Sprint race like just held on to a point and then by the like obviously come the race he then got smashed into but he was already dropping well out of the points by the time that was going to happen anyway like he was falling backwards so quickly
And yeah as you say it’s bit of a weird one because I think you’ve mentioned this quite a few times over the course of 2023 h seem to have very similar problems to what Ferrari have but then they sort of compile those problems by also just being a smaller team with less
Budget and less ability to kind of have sha clir deliver a pole position out of nowhere or have caros SS put in a stunning race win because Unfortunately they just don’t have that ability because they are towards the back of the pack and when H kind of do get that
Qualifying right and they have those kind of same problems as Ferrari over and over again it did make me wonder and maybe this is just because G Steiner is now gone and he did feel like as much as it’s Jean hass’s name on the team it was
Gun Steiner’s team like he did a lot of the groundwork to kind of actually put it together it does make me wonder if like this giner thing is the first kind of domino to fall and next maybe H do need to slightly move away from Ferrari
I did find it interesting that they are the only team not to confirm who their engine manufactur is going to be in 2026 I mean could it be that you know they’re not no longer the H Team in 2026 that is also the case but I just yeah I
Think with h it’s it’s a strange one because obviously when they came in you know it was this big sort of like take as many parts from Ferrari did really really well I think they were competing for like fifth place maybe fifth place maybe sixth something like that and then
Every year it’s just gone backwards and backwards and backwards and now it’s basically just a are you finishing last or second last um kind of thing I mean last year they had Kevin Magnuson have a good couple of races to start the year and that kind of held them a little bit
So 2022 that is yeah but generally with them it’s I don’t know because the trouble is if they move away from that Ferrari model they’ve got to do so much more themselves and I feel like with Jean H he strikes me as a of person that’s
Like if you put no effort and no money into something like don’t expect it to just work just work like he’s almost like that type of person where it’s like he gives you a budget and it’s like a really unrealistic budget and then it’s like why aren’t we winning World
Championships you know like that’s the sense I get anyway and so I just feel like if they move away from that Ferrari model it’s how much they going to I feel like that’s just going to hinder them more gets even worse I feel like it would just become like
Messier almost yeah there’d be more stuff it’s like you know the episode of drive to survive and they’re with Williams and they’re like this part is missing do you know what it’ be like that just like like when they’re making all these pieces like well we haven’t made the
Wheels uh we haven’t made the the seats yeah you know at least at the moment they can wander down the grid and be like Ferrari have you got a spare one don’t get any more of those fer Parts don’t happen to have a a gearbox that we could maybe
Have just for this weekend I feel like yeah has definitely an interesting one especially now with the development of gaser more interesting I would maybe say is Sala or kick or stake whichever one you want to call them I think personally their 2024 resolution just to get a
Better name just a better name would be great yeah it’s the fact they’re the only team on the grid where they’re like at least their socials and that don’t actually have like the team name yeah in it like it’s just the sponsor yeah it’s just just the sponsor take f one team so
The amount of memes that there’s going to be of just like you know beef steak F1 cars just driving around the grid and also the fact that in a quarter of the races they’re not allowed to be called steak so it’s just what do they do at
That point yeah you would have thought that like what you know in stake like what can we sponsor it’s like let’s sponsor something where we can only sponsor them three quarters of the time yeah you know it’s like they’ll be like will only pay you 75% of the agreed upon fee because
Well I mean to be fair salba might take it because realistically my actual 2024 resolution for them has got to be just kind of sort out the Audi situation particularly in in terms of their drivers like for me valter botas and Joe Guang Yu it it does feel like a
Placeholder team and it feels bad like we know that Valu botas is very good he did very well at Mercedes but it does feel like he’s kind of winding down and Joe Guang Yu hasn’t done anything particularly wrong but he just doesn’t inspire me and I don’t think you know Audi coming in
They’ll be like you know know what the driver that we are going to build this Audi franchise around is Joe Guang Yu it doesn’t doesn’t quite do that for me it’s effectively like to me to me it he reminds me a bit of like Jen aty back at
Salba um a little bit more like consistent but still just like you just look at them and you’re like you like them to be better but they’re just not um and yeah it is a strange one because they are in this situation where they’re still saber sometimes um but like they’re not and
Everybody knows that’re like it’s not hidden it’s not like they’re sort of in the process of being sold or in the process of figuring it out like they know what’s happening everyone knows what’s happening and so it is literally just a case of like almost like the results don’t matter these next couple
Of years because it’s like who like say hypothetically they won the title right like who like celebrates that like Saba Al Audi is it like who really is the one that goes yeah that’s great kind of going back to the the thing with the drivers again you’ve got two drivers in
There that just sort of both kind of make you think of like nothing special neither of them as you say like Inspire you’ve got Val botas who’s just you know living off of his Mallet at the moment and mustache without without his social media presence I don’t really you know
What else he’s briging at this point um like obviously there’s there’s some experience there but it’s the kind of thing like you say like he’ll be 30 something by the time Audi get there you can’t imagine that they keep him around and Joe is the type of driver
That you look at and you’ll go surely there’s like a better yeah you know option in there so yeah I just they need to because the this year and next year they’re still this year next year like it’s two years worth of drivers you could have like a young rookie like a PO
Chair in there if if if it were me like say I was Audi coming in I would say something like let’s have porscher in there for two years and then when we join as Ali we’ve got like a good driver who’s young representing the team got some experience now like this kind of
Thing yeah it does feel like as you say they could have used this two years they could have used this two years to just kind of see seek out some drivers right they could have thr POR in there I know maybe next year have porer and bman as their like lineup
Cuz then at least you’re giving them a Year’s experience there’s no real pressure on them to deliver as of yet and ALDI are getting a look at some young drivers whether or not they’ll be worth kind of keeping on for the Audi project whereas at the moment yeah it
Just feels like they’ve got two drivers that are definitely on the way out over the course of the next two years yeah and I suppose with this season they have the opportunity to at least get some drivers to look at some contracts there are quite a lot of drivers on the grid
That are out of contract at the end of this season and therefore if you can entice even if you’ve just got an agreement in place for them to join come 2026 like you just got to say like you’ve got an agreement with a caros SS or you’ve got an agreement with
Yeah let’s see anyone I was just thinking like Louis Hamilton no George Russell no stapper no Perez no quick just whiz through the grid Lando Norris I mean col science is the one that’s always talked about yeah Lando Norris good as well like if you can if you can kind of convince someone
Of that level to just say no like you don’t have to join as of yet but come 2026 you’ll be joining the team a little bit like what we had with Carlos sints when he was joining Ferrari like we knew almost a year in advance that he was
Joining Ferrari yeah and he had that final year at McLaren where the entire time we knew he was going to be joining Ferrari yeah that was the 2020 season where because it was delayed so silly season happened before like any races actually happen um but yeah I I think
They just they it almost ties into them just figuring out exactly what they’re doing at the moment like the two drivers effectively like a because they’re the the dri drivers are the only thing that like I was going to say the only thing that carries in to the Audi team but in
Theory like if everything moves across to Audi the drivers can potentially move whereas everything like the car becomes Audi it become if that kind of makes sense like the drivers are still the drivers they don’t change their name or anything yes you get what I’m saying everything else is GNA slightly change
In terms of the dynamic and as you say like the core of the car the power unit is going to be Audi I imagine have a little bit more input in terms of the aerodynamics I know sa is still going to be doing that side of things but I
Imagine Audi will be inputting a little bit more than they maybe are right now but yeah it’s a weird kind of transitional phase and I guess you could argue the same for the next team alfha Howry they’re in a bit of a transitional phase will they still be Alpha to come
The start of the year I don’t think so like obviously there’s there’s all the talk about racing Bulls but there’s nothing confirmed so I’m still calling them Alpha until we’ve got some kind of actual name for them but I suppose they’re the opposite for me and you made
A really good point about them moving into 2024 and the fact that they’re kind of in the opposite situation to salba in that salber have got two drivers that don’t really seem like they’re going anywhere Alpha to kind of have two drivers that maybe you’d expect to be much higher up the
Grid yeah like effectively like when you look at what because Alpha to or as I will now call them scooteria racing Alpha to balls uh they they’re because they’re the junior team as you like for Red Bull effectively normally what we’re used to is like just young drivers like
For the last couple of years it’s been sonoda as a young guy gazley was still like a young driver or album when he like generally younger drivers and they find themselves this year in a situation where you’ve got a fourthe Yuki so who has improved each year he’s driven
And then you’ve got a returning Daniel Ricardo who’s like eager to show that he still belongs on the grid and arguably to be honest push for that second Red Bull seat so you’ve got two drivers who are both a capable of good performances and B have reasons to try and put in
Those good performances and so for me that resolution or that goal for alar is to really actually like make proper use of that yeah CU you’re not having to deal with a driver like that’s new to the grid there’s no Nick defreze in there there’s no Yuki Coda as a rookie
There’s no other like young driver that’s just brand new and you’re kind of having to teach the ropes as a team yes they’re still the junior team to Red Bull but as a team they’ve got a driver lineup probably that’s arguably the best that they’ve had in quite a while yeah
Oh yeah most definitely like I don’t think anybody like if you look at Daniel Ricardo say three years ago there was no kind of idea that he would now be in one of the teams that is towards the back of the grid that he was a driver that was
You know hovering around kind of went to Renault tried to make Renault that bigger team tried to kind of push them up then did the same thing went to McLaren because McLaren looked like they could break into that kind of top three like he was the driver that you brought
In when you were trying to breach the next level into the next level and I feel like yeah alpat toar should definitely be almost trying to breach into the Midfield yeah with Daniel Ricardo with Yuki sonoda because Yuki sod had a really good year last year
It’s kind of gone under the radar a bit because he had three different teammates and there were still a couple of mistakes in there from Yuki but generally I think it was a pretty good year from Yuki soda in his third year his first year without Pierre gazley and
I I agree I think they’ve really got to make the most of that driver lineup and almost try and push into the Midfield although with Williams you’d maybe say the same like they’ve got to try and push into that Midfield from where they were last year it’s almost like while
Yes all of the sort of back marker teams will be looking to push into the Midfield those two are the ones that actually have a reasonable chance to do it and the one final thing I’d add with alfat to as well is correct me if I’m wrong but they’re meant to be increasing
Their like link with Red Bull is that so like if if you look at what the Red Bull car was like in theory that should only help them yeah and as you say I think for Williams it’s it’s a similar kind of thing where they’ve gone from being the
Slowest car on the grid by like a mile to now actually being good at times like more so than just back Mark a team as in sometimes they’re looking fairly decent and as you say pushing up to that next level is now their goal like before it was you know we’d like to
Get to the point where we can dream of the Midfield and actually kind of like see it over there whereas now they’re like oh we need to kind of make that step yeah yeah definitely so I think Alex Alan has shown exactly what that Williams car is capable of and like last
Season was putting in some performances okay it was a little bit track dependent okay they still had weekends where they weren’t great but actually they really separated themselves out as you say from pass from salba and kind of put themselves in a tier above those kind of
Bottom three teams I know alfat to then came to life at the end of the season and kind of found some upgrades and looked a lot better towards the end but Williams for the most part were almost in a no man’s land in seventh place although that was only really with
One driver could you also argue that Williams need to sort out feels harsh sorting out the Logan side situation like he might turn good but if he doesn’t they kind of need a plan in place it’s it’s almost like with Logan Sergeant it’s like they need to decide
If they actually have faith in him yeah whereas because while at the moment it’s it’s yes they’ve kept him it doesn’t look like like the way that they I keep saying like and getting sorry the way that they the way that they did it doesn’t come across like they have
Confidence in him no they waited till the very last minute to confirm him they even so took their time sort of going we’re waiting for the points we’re waiting for the finish all of this kind of stuff just didn’t come across and still doesn’t come across like they
Truly believe that he is what they want for a second driver and as you say as we see with like teams above them you look at Aston Martin as a prime example as you push further up the grid and points are a more regular thing having two drivers that will score
Points is like a big deal yeah because you know once as as I said once that becomes more of a consistent thing because when you’re like right at the back and like six points can be your entire season then it can be just generally about who’s in the right place
At the right time kind of thing whereas when you’re actually genuinely consistently scoring points having two drivers that can do that is huge yeah doubling that to because you know drivers do have off days I know it’s like it’s difficult to think of with Max vapen just being that over the course of
The 2023 season and I feel like he was a robot but generally you know we don’t see that from drivers we do see off weekends we do see times when drivers you know make mistakes or do something wrong and if Alex Alor makes a mistake can you see Logan Sergeant being the guy
That is just behind him to like you know pick up the points instead at the moment definitely not and that’s the real problem that they’ve got effectively it’s just not good enough it’s the the bottom line Yeah It’s Tricky though because like you don’t want to you know be kicking
Drivers out every couple of years and like switching around you do want to try and find some consistency which moving into Alpine is my New Year’s resolution for that I quite like Alpine I’ve kind of followed them a little bit closer especially since Pierre gaz’s moved over
There my goodness me Alpine what is going on behind the scenes it’s basically the New Year’s resolution for Alpine just needs to be can we stop firing everyone can we just can we have like a season where we keep our drivers and the technical team and they just
Stay for a for a full year it’s almost like if they’re not fired they quit yeah exactly Daniel Daniel started all this you know I mean the thing is it like you say we joke about it but like their lineup could have been Alonzo and pastri but they’ve lost those yeah could
Have been Daniel Ricardo and Fernando Alonzo if they’ done things right but it’s not and so and then behind I think do you know what it is I’m going to liken this to one of my other sports teams and if if you’re a football fan you’ll know exactly what I mean um
Manchester United so I’m an United fan and for the past however many months or probably even a year at this point it’s been man United’s being sold man United’s up for sale and although it’s not Alpine being up for sale but then again they have had lots of investors come in and whatnot
Yeah yeah it’s a case of when there’s just instability and there’s changes going on at the top it just all trickles down because a no one feels like safe and confident to like really push on in their roles in their job and B it means that this whole environment is just very
Like no one is really confident that they’re heading in a direction like when you’re in a team and like a Formula One team you need like a direction to be heading in and when the top of your team is just looking a bit all over the place
The rest of the team it just trickles in to all of that and that’s kind of like where alpen are is the analogy like I would put together yeah I think that’s a really good analogy and a really good point like they just don’t seem to have
Any direction that is coming from people that like matter you know what I mean like if you’re in charge of it you have to set the tone almost and set like this is our expectation but it seems to be with alpine or previously Renault their expectation was we are Renault we will
Come in and we will just start winning we will bring in the best driver look we have Daniel Ricardo he won races he will win races in Renault or Fernando Alonzo is back Fernando Alonzo is a world champion he will win races at Renault and it’s like no no no you can’t
You kind of have to have everything moving in that direction you can’t just say well we we are Rena therefore we win it just doesn’t quite have that direction especially considering what they did haven’t won a World Championship since Fernando Alonzo and haven’t looked anywhere close in a very long time
Gone through many iterations with lotus coming in and the Kimmy reiken situation like none of it’s really had any kind of semblance of okay this makes sense for a very long time and it does just feel like yeah you’re right I think Daniel Ricardo is that kind of first Domino
Isn’t he just decided to leave then siral lost his head then sill was out and then it was just gorgone it’s there’s just no there’s like no confidence in it yeah and it’s almost like people within the team don’t have confidence in it you know it’s one thing
For the outside to like look at it and be like I’m not sure about this I don’t know how this is going but it’s another thing for people inside the organization to sort of be like I’m not sure about this so that’s what I would I’d probably
Kind of sum it up you contradict that I guess like moving on to Aston Martin they kind of have the opposite of that you would say say in that Lauren stroll well Lauren stroll just seems set on being the man right Lauren stroll is like this is my
Dictatorship I will I will make all decisions Aston Martin related I will build you a new Factory and you will start winning it’s a shame that he hasn’t quite understood that maybe there’s a driver in the team that doesn’t quite live up to the expectations but you know right Fernando
Alonzo for me you know he’s just a bit old he’s just a bit old as Fernando Alonzo just surely needs to step aside yeah but no for Aston Martin I suppose it’s weird with Aston Martin because they such a good start to 2023 and it feels like if they can just kind
Of do that again maybe 2024 will be okay like what what would you say with 2024 yeah I mean effectively when we when we look at these kind of like resolutions or goals it’s kind of looking at what happened last year or the last couple of years and going try
Not to make that mistake and for Aston Martin last year they were like extremely I’m not going to say fortunate because I presume thatly there would have been work that went into it and it was earned but they were quite fortunate to start off the year as far ahead of
Everyone as they were bar Red Bull like bar red pool they were the second quickest car in the hands of like someone who can drive so effective effectively then they kind of just tried to upgrade and it it almost shouts it it shouts very much of like you know when
They were racing point and they brought in the like pink Mercedes and the whole thing was like yeah you’ve done that but now you have to develop it MH it’s kind of like they did a similar thing it’s like they brought in this Aston Martin that’s like
Really good but it’s like now you have to upgrade it and like do more and they just got it wrong like and got it wrong to the point of they got worse like they actually got slower yeah like you know when you see the graphs that I think AWS
Produced showing the time teams have gained like ason Martin went backwards yeah because they just went in completely the wrong direction to the point where they just we don’t know what’s going on go back to the old one yeah yeah it took them a little while to
Do that as well though it was like Austin I want to say like it took them a good kind of 10 races before they were like just go back to what we started with that was pretty good and like and and I would say with it like for this year like to kind
Of sum that up is that effectively what they need for their goal is just like not develop in the wrong direction just get a steady line of development going just head along the right path like there will be bigger upgrades that come along there’ll be smaller upgrades that
Come along but as long as you’re overall increasing it and you’re heading in the right it’s almost a little bit like Mercedes in a way like just get a development Direction that’s right they get that didn’t they almost Tred to like overcompensate just because of how good the start of the season was
As soon as it’s as soon as it started to go a little bit wrong they tried to almost do too much to like correct it I kind of yeah it’s a little bit like you know when you hear the phas is like trying too hard like especially in
Sports a lot of things should kind of come like you got to work hard obviously but like should come a little bit naturally whereas with ASD Martin it felt very like it’s almost like they s going we should be better than this we should be doing more and kind of skip
Like try and skip the middle steps and just skip to like really good at the end don’t if that’s a fair way the development plan that they kind of need moving forwards which I guess is everybody but ason Martin in particularly just the development really did fall didn’t it
And I I guess you could say that with McLaren as well they obviously did develop the car really well didn’t get it to the track on time it was sort of Andrea Stella I remember when they unveiled the brand new car they were like ooh look at this
The MCL 60 and he was like yeah it’s going to be rubbish it’s going to be rubbish for for a good 10 races and everyone was like oh great yeah cheers so I suppose if you think about McLaren it’s also that development but also I would say more
Consistency race to race it felt even when they had a good car it felt very track dependent it felt like any track that had two or three corners that did not suit the package and like they weren’t dropping out of the points or anything but they were nowhere near the
Level that they’d shown you know at Brazil where Lando Norris is finishing right behind Max Sten and is kind of keeping not keeping up with the Red Bull but at least you know staying within a distance that he can see the red ball right and then other races it was just
Like what on Earth has happened to this McLaren car what why why is it not doing anything yeah it seemed to be one of the most like track dependent cars on the entire grid as in it was a lower Midfield car at Vegas to back marker car at Vegas
It was one of the quickest cars in Brazil yeah um so definitely on the car front it needs that consistency like they’ve definitely improved in the sense that they now have a race challenging car potentially like towards towards next year I’d also extend that consistency theme a little bit now into um
Pastry okay because he’s no longer a rookie yeah and you know how he mentioned earlier about drivers and both of them kind of having similar number of points obviously last year p a is a rookie and he did really really well but he did get like less than half of
Norris’s points and so I would say you combine a consistent race car with drivers that can get consistent results and by that I mean like with pastri he won the Sprint in qar finished on the podium and then in other races was kind of like quite way back when Norris was
Higher up few instance and things but in general if you can get those consistent Point scoring places and consistent race pace and car performance you combine those two and you have like a really good combination and I would say starting with that car as the main one
But also tying then into like pastry’s improved performance into his second year yeah that is a good point I suppose yeah you know if you think about title challenging teams not often do they have a rookie and that’s the thing like um with McLaren last year even if they
Would have had a race winning car or a car that could match the Red Bull the likelihood of piastri coming in rookie season and being a title Challenger very very unlikely I know leis Hamilton did it yeah back what driver whatever I know I know there’s exceptions to all rules but generally
Speaking you don’t come in and in your first Formula 1 season you’re right up there with the best of the best drivers on the grid and in one of the best cars like you know we’re talking about rookies coming into Formula 1 and they’re being spots for them maybe at Williams
But yeah you you don’t generally go well if Ferrari need a new driver they’ll obviously just get someone straight from F2 you know that’s not what we usually go for we go for like oh who will they pick from the Midfield teams it would bee pressure shock
Yeah charir even Charla Clair had one year before he like went into the Ferrari right you don’t generally go straight to a rookie if you’re one of those top top teams and I suppose Claren weren’t expecting to maybe be in the contention of being a top top team but
Yeah he has now had a season so I agree there’s definitely OS piash moving in the right direction needs to improve his racing a little bit you could argue Lando Norris also needs to improve his qualifying there were quite a few errors in there but yeah there’s definitely
Things for the drivers consistency yeah and with piastri it’s it’s a development thing it’s not like just raw performance type thing a development you know second year versus first year it’s not a a he’s absolutely rubbish because Norris is insanely good and has like four years of
Experience now no it’s just a case of just keep developing improve that consistency same with Norris is qualifying car performance and McLaren as a whole just yeah nail that down yeah that is a good point moving on to Ferrari then kind of breaking into the
The big three and this is where it can really count right so so if you can get it right up this end you’re probably looking at a title challenge or at least getting close to that Red Bull possibly winning some races for Ferrari they were
The only team to win a race other than Red Bull last year I was looking at my resolutions or my kind of ideas last season and it does feel like Ferrari are in a very different place because from 2022 to 2023 because of how good they started
2022 it did feel like 202 three if they get it right they could be like really close to the Red Bull again that just didn’t happen at all over the course of 2023 they really weren’t anywhere near the Red Bull I think there were lots of points during the season where they were
The second fastest car but they were never really at the level to challenge the Red Bull or get close to it apart from a few sh Clair pole positions and the Singapore win from Carlos sints where Red Bull just got it completely wrong but I was kind of looking at that
And I was thinking the drivers are pretty good at Ferrari the car seems okay because like it’s generally pretty quick sometimes in the races it doesn’t quite have the tire degradation but Ferrari it’s there seems it seems like they’ve got all the pieces of the puzzle they can’t quite put it
Together yeah it’s almost almost like you have all of all of the ingredients mhm but you’re just not quite adding the right amounts of each one kind of thing like you’re just slightly out here or and it’s almost like yeah in each batch or each cake you’ve made you’ve missed
Something slightly different in each one so in one of them it’s your reliability like only one of your cars has started this race in another one it’s the strategy that’s let you down in this case just I don’t sometimes we looked at Ferrari last year and we were like what
Are they doing like uh USA with lir everyone was like what’s going on here and then another one might be something like I don’t know pit stops for example there’s always Ferrari pit stops going wrong and and I think while last year it was definitely better in the sense of
The things that went wrong tended to be like more reliability based as opposed to just the driver bends it in the wall during the race or the strategy is a total mess like total absolute race ruining mess um whereas last year felt a bit more reliability based but I think
It’s more a case for them of just optimizing what they have just making sure that they get the easy decisions right that their car is more reliable like there were a number of times they just didn’t start races you SCS didn’t start in Qatar lir didn’t start in
Brazil lir didn’t finish in Bahrain there’s a number of times with that reliability that it just needed to be a bit better and they would have got second in the championship for sure mhm so it’s just about when you do have the pace of that car really making the most
Of it like there were times towards the end of the year when science would get knocked out in q1 a couple of times or just have like a bad race when the clir was up in second or something just things like that yeah I think you make a
Good point I suppose it’s the it’s the inverse of what we kind of say about Mercedes whenever Mercedes seem to have a bad car they always seem to at least you know limit limit the damages Come Away with some points Come Away with something whereas Ferrari when they have
A bad weekend as you say it’s the strategy is wrong and Char Clair started in fourth and how on Earth is he on soft compound tires running in 16th it’s like how is this H what’s happened here when everyone else has done something different how have you got to this point
In the race and yeah the reliability with Ferrari was I mean if you look at if charlot Clair gets a podium in Bahrain rather than not finishing it’s like the season just seems like it’s on a completely different trajectory because you’ve got the the kind of positive from the first
Race whereas it started with well that went wrong and now we’ve got to take an engine penalty for the second race and now we’re under pressure to start delivering some points pretty soon because it’s been two races now and we haven’t really done anything and we’re supposed to be know trying to push
Forwards although on the flip side with Mercedes saying that they are pretty good at damage limitations that was maybe not the case so much in 2023 mainly due to the drivers I would say yeah like it seems like team was still there drivers not so yeah it felt
Like it was the first time like in 2022 and I’m sure that we talked about this last year um or the year before last whatever you want to say now that the drivers never seemed to be on the same bit of Road in 2022 they always kind of
Seemed to be like either one of them had qualified well the other was further back they just didn’t mix whereas this year much more often they were on the same bit of road I think it’s because they were done with like I think they spent a lot of time in 2022 with
Hamilton kind of just being like try this setup out he starts in like 15th Place or something just didn’t work whereas this year it was more like just see what you can do and they would be in similar places and almost like it wasn’t necessarily obviously like crashing
Obviously that happened in qar but I that’s obviously like more of a a quick in the- moment incident type thing but it was almost like the amount of times when they’re running behind each other and it’s either Hamilton on the radio saying like I need to get
Through guys or Russell saying like are we going to pick up the pace like what are we doing are we fighting each other or are we doing this and it felt a little bit more like that this year sorry last year 2023 and going into to
Next year in order to try and get up towards Red Bull you sort of just can’t have that yeah it’s only go it’s only going to detract points yeah that’s yeah they were just as you say kind of stumbling over one another all the time and they were on
The radio all the time so what’s he doing what are they doing can I move past them are they going to let me through and it’s like you you just kind of don’t need that as a team where you’ve got a constant battle on the radio between your two drivers like can
I overtake him am I allowed to go for a move am I not allowed to go for a move you know you want your drivers to be working together as a team you want some sort of Harmony there there’s a reason that you are a team rather than like
Individuals on that racetrack and I suppose that’s the the tricky thing about Formula 1 is you are an individual in that car you are an individual in terms of your race but you are part of a Duo and that’s maybe you know not quite the same as other team sports where it’s
More obvious that you are on a team and you’re both kind of working towards the same goal and Mercedes yeah really seem to struggle with that I don’t know how they sort that though Lewis Hamilton is not going to bow down to anybody because he’s just going to be like I’ve won 100
Races and seven World titles I deserve to be the number one and George Russell is going to be like well I’m trying to you know displace leis Hamilton I had to wait so long at Williams you told me that I was going to come into this team
And be you know the man for Mercedes kind of of the future if I’m the future why is he still here why why are we not getting rid of the past then it it’s almost a little bit like the way that it always tends to happen is like
They do listen to the if the team asks them to move out of the way or position they do but it’s almost kind of in like a sort of oh I’ve held him up for like 10 laps and now I’ll kind of move out of the way because it’s should be the other
Way around kind of thing you know it’s never like an obvious this person’s quicker they should like the one that comes to mind is like Singapore where to most people watching that race like it was obvious that like Hamilton was just quicker but in that situation the team can’t say to George H
We think LS probably has the the better shot to win this race it like they just can’t do that and so they end up kind of getting in each other’s way but not like not significantly enough that it then is a a real easy like oh that should have
Swapped it’s more like a did that cost them time probably yes did that cost them maybe a finishing position probably yes things like that like in do you remember Japan when they were like trying to sort out how to keep SS behind and they just kind of messed it up a
Little bit what Hamilton like got past and then moved ahead and so Russell had no DRS and SS got things like that they just trip over each other a little bit Yeah is it’s an awkward one I suppose with Mercedes as well just kind of winning a race next year would be great
Because obviously I well you could say that about any team but just the fact that Mercedes went an entire season without winning a Race For the First Time a long time especially considering that the whole development Arc is supposed to be like completely different going into this year which is really
Interesting because if you look at it and go they’ve completely changed their design philosophy are they going to be like two years behind yeah like it’s is that a possibility if they’ve completely gone down this route there’ll be like yes you you you’ll probably say there’s more
Potential time lock because again if you start further back but is it going to be a bit of a painful start to the year possibly because they have changed their Direction yeah maybe another kind of waiting until I would it be Spain this year I I always think of Spain as when
They bring upgrades but I suppose Spain is a little bit later now so it’s what like IMA is like the 647 for something like that the first big European race so yeah i’ say I’d say IMA it Bahrain Saudi Arabia Australia Japan China Miami and
Then you’ve got two weeks to Ima yeah so it might be kind of a six or seven races at the beginning of the Season where it is teething pains and then only when they can kind of bring that first big upgrade package bringing back into the European races that maybe we see the
True pace of Mercedes although that was similar to last year where they finally got rid of the zero POD at Monaco and then it still took them a little while to kind of Click into gear it’s It’s Tricky with Mercedes I suppose to to round out Red Bull
How do you improve upon what was a near perfect season T and I’m not I’m not going to allow you to say win all of the races because I know they won all but one you what you do is you take that bit that was basically perfect you don’t
Touch that part of the team you leave that how it is and instead what you try and do is fix the other part of the team that most definitely was not perfect and most definitely could have been a lot better last year don’t know who I’m
Possibly talk about no for Red Bull it’s a pretty clear and obvious just they need to sort out what’s going on with that second driver yeah not even as much as like performances but them just kind of deciding like who do they want in that seat because personally I feel like
Ever since Daniel Ricardo came back in that Alpha to in my mind I’ve gone Ricardo is in that seat for 2025 yeah like I almost feel like Perez is just whatever happens they’re going to be like nah we want Daniel Ricardo and if that’s the case then like make that
Decision yeah you know don’t just kind of sit in this limbo this whole time but either way like Perez still just needed better results for that second seat so the on the whole it’s just fixed that second driver slot yeah way you’re doing it it’s something that has kind of
Hovered over Red Bull for so long now isn’t it like it felt like they had sorted it out with Sergio Perez you know you kind of think before that with gazley and albor and all of that situation and not being able to hold on to Daniel Ricardo first time around like
I think they would have preferred to hold on to Daniel Ricardo he was talked into going to Renault then they went through that whole cycle and yeah it felt like maybe for a I reckon for a year and a half I thought sergy Perez good solid second driver Red Bull
Of the second half of 2021 and 2022 yeah and it was like yeah 2023 I guess yeah and then they finally done it and ser P just throws it all away I mean and the thing is like people will say well it’s like oh but it’s Max for stappen like
How do you compete with that the thing is like in races his Pace was good last year it genuinely was it was just the fact that the qualifying was so awful like so awful that it didn’t really matter he’d still be finishing like fifth after recovering up the grid and
That’s what it is like no one is sat here going you need to be challenging Max for staff and like sure enough yes it would be lovely if we had two drivers in the same team fighting for the title if they’re the only team that can realistically win but for Red Bull it’s
Like you just need a driver who is like qualifying in the top five therefore finishes second yeah that’s all you really need and he couldn’t do that and so for them that’s just what they need that second driver to be doing in this case because then they know eventually
When teams do catch up and they will eventually do it whether it’s this year next year whatever that you have someone in that who’s then going to help you to win still oh yeah it was definitely that I remember that period I think it was like
Four or five races in a row where serg Perez didn’t get through to Q3 it was was it was it more than that I yeah sort of merged in my head but I just just that poor qualifying over and over and over again and kind of that
Whole middle chunk of the Season where everything just seemed to be going again against him and then it almost became desperate that I think of um Mexico where he went for that lunge into turn one and it it did feel like a a desperation move it felt like a if I can
Get into first here I’m at least you know showing that I deserve this seat in some way or like he was trying to do something that wasn’t really like the door was a millimeter open and he tried to run through it it was like okay yeah but if you’d
Have waited a couple of laps then you maybe could have got parir finishing second place in your home race that would have been amazing but he was like no I I need to go for that win I need to go for that first place like it was a
Little bit desperate in my opinion from Sergio Perez towards the end of the season like he still got second place in the driver’s standings I don’t know how much Merit you really give that considering how much quicker the Red Bull was than everything else second place was like
The bare minimum yeah realistically and he’s only kind of not scraped it but like you know he’s not that far away from second and third sorry third and fourth yeah so yeah second was the bare minimum it’s like imagine you look back to 2014 15 16 Mercedes and like you’re
Going Nico rosberg or Hamilton is finishing in almost third place you’re like what that doesn’t happen even valter botas to an extent like like he yeah back when I was it 20 I want to say 2020 when the Mercedes was really dominant and botas was like almost beaten by Max
V stappen yeah and then it was kind of yeah it’s like that was kind of the well it was wasn’t it the season that they kind of swapped around 2021 they then announced George Russell and then ever since maybe that’s it 2020 is this is the 20 so that means that that means
Next year we have an amazing title fight if this is the same as 2020 but for Red Bull rather than Mercedes yeah that’s very true we swap around and then a young uh driver gets announced next year to come into Red Bull so who would that be that gets
Announced so that would be what sonoda sonoda comes into the red B Liam Lawson I what happen Ricardo replaces Perez halfway through the year Lawson comes into Alpha to Lawson gets announced for Red Bull next year there we go the prophecy is complete wow yeah Lawson’s probably the only one isn’t he
I think that’s another thing that Red Bull maybe that’ll be Red Bull’s New Year’s resolution in 2025 kind of sorting out their young driver program it’s gone from being like Elite where it’s just like okay every driver that comes through from Red Bull is pretty good and will probably be on
The grid for a long time and I look at their drivers in Formula 2 now and I’m like I don’t really fancy any of you for like a proper Formula 1 SE anytime soon no that’s definitely something for a for another podcast to to go over most
Definitely so there it is then I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments down below if you can think of a New Year’s resolution for a team that we maybe missed was there something that we got wrong let us know in the comments down below I’m sure moving into 2024 all
Of the teams will be listening to this taking very very detailed notes and making sure they are ready cuz the car launches around the corner Taran like how quickly it turns from the end of 2023 like I like the end of Abu Dhabi the teams being just bored of Formula 1
Like when they had a they were given the option to race for an extra hour during the testing session and all of the teams just unanimously said no that’s how we kind of done with racing they were but now we’re moving into 2024 car launches in February on track in March underway
In Bahrain once again 24 races ahead of us though going to be a long one going to be a long season but we will be here to cover all of it thank you so much for watching like subscribe all of that good stuff and we will be here every single
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