[Intro music]

00:00:08 Hannah

Hi, I'm Hannah 

00:00:11 Rachelle

and I'm Rachelle and welcome to Box Box F1 pod.

00:00:12 Hannah

So before we get into the Portugal Grand Prix, we're going to start with a digital roundup, starting with F1 updates. First, we heard that this season the Canadian Grand Prix is going to be replaced with the Turkey Grand Prix. That's because Canada still has a 14-day quarantine period for visitors, so it just wasn't going to work out with the current schedule with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix right before Canada. So now that it's replaced with Turkey, people seem pretty excited and it just works out well for everyone. 

And then the other piece of news is that they're going to be introducing sprint races this season, which entails moving up what we know now as qualifying, to Friday. And then on Saturday, are going to be Sprint races, so it's significantly shortened and probably won't require any tire changes, so people are just sprinting, you know, going as fast as they can. It's supposed to be entertaining; I think is the main point, but the drivers don't seem to care.

00:01:14 Rachelle

No, they all give the same spiel that they're happy that fans will be happy. They don't really like practices. Uh and Lewis didn't even know what was being talked about, so they really don't care at all.

00:01:29 Hannah

And we'll get into it more once it comes. They said that the first race where it'll be introduced is Silverstone. And then in Monza and the third race isn't fully confirmed, but we think it's Brazil so. There will be 3 races that will analyze this and dig into it further.

And then, on social media, there was a three-day blackout that all the drivers participated in. Most of the European sport leagues all boycotted social media platforms in a stance against racial discrimination. There is a controversy with a European footballer, so we didn't really have a lot of content to go through over the weekend. However…

00:02:09 Rachelle

We did want to issue an apology for a statement we said in our first episode where we criticized Mattia Binotto for how he looked in the red Ferrari jumpsuit. We would like to formally apologize for disrespecting one of the most iconic and historic colors on the F1 grid. However, we stand by our claim that Mattia Binotto does not belong in a Ferrari red jumpsuit. He looks like Ronald McDonald, and it is just not for him. But based on what we found on the Internet, we might be alone.

00:02:45 Hannah

To our shock, there were many fan accounts for Mattia and we still can't believe it and these fans call themselves Binoholics.

00:02:59 Rachelle

And there is a lot of content to sift through that is hard to put into words. So, we recommend searching for being a Binoholics on the Internet. If you want the shock of your life.

00:03:12 Hannah

OK, so now we will get into the Portugal Grand Prix that occurred this past weekend. And to recap, Rachelle will give a monologue.

00:03:27 Rachelle

OK, well it's more of a quick story to set the scene for y'all, but here I go.

Friday, we arrived in Portimão, Portugal, where the air was windy and the track was winding. And like the track itself, it was a rollercoaster of a weekend.

With little grip and an intense breeze all drivers struggled during Friday’s practice. In weeks past, we’ve seen the oldies driving new cars failing to adjust, and these unprecedented conditions have not made that task any easier. The unprecedented conditions, however, did not favor the young and the settled either. For example, the collision of tire to Portimao track created so much vibration that Max Verstappen declared a Monday trip to the dentist to be in order.

As we blew into qualis, the light breeze bordered an aggressive gust. The incredible aerodynamic features of F1 cars, which help make them so fast, were suddenly a hindrance as they were far more susceptible to drafty weather. No one knew how to ride into the wind. No one knew how to strategize tyres. And no one knew how to avoid getting blown off track, making it harder than ever to adhere to the obscure track limit regulations that have plagued our drivers so much this season!! Ricciardo, however, may not have gotten blown off track, but he certainly blew right out of qualis in Q1. His frustration was felt through the screen, as he was forced to start in P16. Will the Honey Badger be able to overtake his way back to a point-scoring position? That is a question for Sunday. 

In the meantime, we proceeded to Q2 and then Q3. Strategies reflect the characters underneath as Hamilton fights his way to P2 by executing a build lap before doing a push lap. Max, on the other hand, was on a push-lap-only kind of vibe, pushing all the way to P3. Pole position went to Bottas, who seemed to have channeled his inner Pierre and let the humiliation of his performance in Bahrain and Imola drive him to success in Portugal. But, will he be able to maintain his grit (on a track with no grip) come Sunday?

The feat before him was no trifling matter. The grid was set to continue the battle between Mercedes and Red Bull with the former occupying the first row and the latter, the second. None of the top four should have rested easy, however. Because looming behind were the pretty, yet imposing figures of Carlos in P5, Lando in P7, and Charles in P8. Could Ferrari and Mclaren lock out the top 6? We waited with baited breath. 

And then, the sun was shining on Race Day. Gone with the wind were some of yesterday’s problems. But other concerns remained, like how, or more specifically, on what, to navigate a gripless, rollercoaster of a track. Tyre strategy was the name of the game. But the rulebook must have blown away with Saturday’s gale. So even though the top 10 were bound to the tyres chosen at qualis, those with free choice, were not necessarily granted an upper hand. However, tire issues were momentarily wheeled to the side as Kimi became the victim of a slipstream gone wrong when in just the second lap, Kimi slips mid-slipstream and taps into Antonio. Luckily, for Alpha Romeo, he was left unscathed. but Kimi’s front wing was unhinged, and he was forced to retire into the gravel. In our eyes, the safety dance that followed was nothing more than a funeral march for Kimi’s race potential. But though we were ready to move on as soon as the debris was cleared, it seemed the safety car was not and stayed out at least a couple laps past its welcome. 

But as soon as the safety car exited the track, the action re-entered.  Lando zoomed his way into fourth, leaving a stuttering Checo demanding the move was illegal. Eventually, Checo seemed to embrace the words of Rihanna, and just shut up and drove, overtaking a feebly-defending Lando. Not too far ahead, a similar situation was unfolding. Though Max overtook Hamilton almost immediately after the safety dance, it was to no avail. Lewis re-overtook in just a few laps time, before sailing past Bottas into first. And that left Bottas exactly where he belonged, fighting off the bulls so Lewis maintained the lead. But with Lewis complaining to his engineers that his tires were shot, could it cost him P1? No sign of that yet as Lewis drove so many fast laps, the track became just a purple blur. 

Way, way, way back on the track, where the Mercedes-Red Bull tussle was just a whisper of a legend, George was dropping places like hot cakes. Despite starting in P11 (the stuff of Williams’ wildest dreams), George was now found in P16. His car, he claimed, was undrivable around other cars. Which just makes it a hunk of carbon fibre and renders the entire purpose of that car utterly moot. Poor George might as well be sitting in Kimi’s gravelly Alfa Romeo.

Meanwhile, friendly neighborhood Honey Badger was badgering his way past other cars, as racing cars do, all the way from P16 to P9, cementing Daniel’s finishing position. 

Meanwhile, the engineers and principals back at the paddock huddled together for a quick strategy sesh. How long will tyres last? When do we undercut? Which tyres do we pick next?

Over at Mercedes, that meant boxing Bottas, which took a whopping 3.3 seconds. Since Bottas didn’t mind the gap enough, Max closed in and overtook him almost as soon as he exited the pit lane.

But, wait! Lewis’ tires were shot almost THIRTY LAPS AGO! He was just going so fast he never had a chance to box. Mercedes called Lewis and his destroyed tires in for a 2.5 second pit stop. We love to see equality at work over at the Mercedes paddock. 

But that was enough for Checo to work his way into first. Still inspired to just shut up and drive, Checo charged forward on his original tires. Several laps into his unexpected lead, Checo crossed paths with the F1 tortoise: Mazepin in a Haas. The blue flags go up for Nikita to allow Checo to lap him. But the Russian driver in an American car stays true to tradition of both cultures to stick yourself where you do not belong. But when Checo finally lapped him, he sniffed out a “what a fucking idiot”. And if you listened carefully, a resounding ‘hear hear!’ could be heard around the track, through the paddocks, and around the world. Unfortunately, this holdup slowed Checo down enough for Lewis to catch up. As he approached Pérez, Lewis looks for the blue flags, assuming he was about to lap away at yet another slowpoke. Boy, was he surprised when his engineers informed him that he was in P2 and in fact racing Checo. Lapping or overtaking seemed to make little difference to Lewis as he went back into P1. Checo, still on his original tires, stayed out for another two laps, falling back into P4, before finally boxing. Whatever the reasoning for keeping Checo out so long, he wins driver of the day for exquisite tire management. Our hearts broke as Max found out mid-interview that his fastest lap time was deleted at turn 14 for going outside track limits. The fastest lap instead went to Bottas instead.

The race was a game of musical chairs across the grid, but the top ended as it started, with a Red Bull-Mercedes lockout. The reshuffling resulted in a podium with Lewis in first, Max in second, and Bottas in third. Reflecting upon the race, all drivers seemed to echo the same sentiment that they did not have enough pace. And so, Portugal left us with a lot of questions ahead of the Spanish GP. Will Carlos retain his Netflix-awarded title as King of Spain? Will Mazepin learn to drive? How are Max’s teeth? And will the pace be with them?

00:09:55 Hannah

Wow. What a rollercoaster indeed. You deserve an Oscar for that performance.

00:10:02 Rachelle

Thank you, Hannah. Thank you.

00:10:04 Hannah

All righty let's get into analysis. OK, so a few highlights. First, the fact that Daniel got out in Q1 in qualis was just mind-blowing because he calls himself the Honey Badger for being ruthlessly deceptive. And that was just pathetic. 

00:10:34 Rachelle

He deceived us into thinking he could do better. 

00:10:35 Hannah

That, yes, so, but I mean. It's just sad because Lando is younger than Daniel and less experienced, but they are worlds apart at this point, or at least this past weekend.

00:10:51 Rachelle

But I think that's like a, that's a pattern among all of the all the teams that have an older driver that's new and a younger driver cause the younger drivers are used to the car. And the older drivers all seem to be struggling to catch up.

00:11:05 Hannah

Yes, I agree with that. We'll get into that further in the race. But also from qualis, Max had his fastest time deleted. I think he could have actually gotten pole position if that counted. It was like one of the fastest times, but because I think of turn 14, or turn four, track limits he got that deleted, which apparently, he did not learn from.

00:11:32 Rachelle

No. And he was angry. Like when Lando had his track time deleted, he was just like sad and you wanted to hug him. When Max got his track time deleted, you wanted to run as far away as possible.

00:11:44 Hannah

Needs to be a better middle ground. You know. Like you need to accept that these are the rules, but don't tell the world you hate yourself. But also don't be so pissed that you just run away in anger. It's like, it was fair, he was inches out like all four wheels were out of the limits. He just needed to learn next time cause his quali results weren't even bad. He was in P3. So it's like just don't mess up in the race, but…

00:12:15 Rachelle

Keep your car on track. God.

00:12:18 Hannah

Can't be that hard.

00:12:22 Rachelle

Color within the lines, guys.

00:12:25 Hannah

Yes, but yeah, the biggest result out of qualifiers was that Bottas got his first pole position in the 2021 season, which was a very welcome redemption because he's had a rough past few races.

00:12:40 Rachelle

Yeah. Like bad. Like to the point where Toto had to come in and tell him to get his shit together and then he didn’t.

00:12:50 Hannah

He did, he did in quails. But I don't think people expected that at all. And then they also didn't expect him to actually win the next day. But it was a nice little ego boost. And just like nice to see Bottas.

00:13:03 Rachelle

Yeah, like whatever good job Bottas. No one cares.

00:13:05 Hannah

Whatever no one cares. OK, so to the race. I think, well, based on what you were saying earlier about the oldies having a bit of an issue. Kimi. I understand this is a hobby, but, like this is embarrassing. He on lap two, ran into the back of his teammate and popped his front wing off and caused so much debris that they had to bring a safety car in in lap two.

00:13:39 Rachelle

Yeah, and the thing is that Kimi isn't new to Alfa Romeo, so like he has nothing to adjust to, he just fucked up and he over-slipped.

00:13:47 Hannah

It was apparently, like he he's done over 300 races.

00:13:53 Rachelle

He’s 41. He's had the time.

00:13:56 Hannah

That's insane though, and I just, I don't know. Again, he has no goals, so he's just having fun I guess.

00:14:04 Rachelle

You really don't like Kimi and I love Kimi. I think he should stay here forever. As long as he stops crashing into his teammate.

00:14:18 Hannah

OK. Wait, so when we first started out, it was impressive that Bottas continued like from his pole position to fend off like Hamilton, Max, and Checo and he was in the lead. However, once the safety car came in and they were able to restart the race, Max got really aggressive.

00:14:39 Rachelle

Yes, which is so out of character for him. I don't know where it came from.

00:14:42 Hannah

And Lando also took a more aggressive strategy after the restart and moved up to 4th.

00:14:50 Rachelle

Yes, much to Checo’s chargin. Who seemed to think it was illegal.

00:14:54 Hannah

Yeah, yeah, I think Checo thought that Lando exceeded the track limits on his overtake and he wanted to report it. And I think they did some minimal investigation, and they were like it's fine. But, weirdly Checo ended up overtaking Lando back for like the 4th positions. And it was so confusing to the announcers too, because it looked like maybe the ruling stood and Lando had to give his position back because it was so like, casual. But I think, I don't know what happened to Lando. I think he just gave up.

00:15:31 Rachelle

I know he almost stopped his car and was like, there you go Checo go ahead. It was very weird. I'm sure he had his reason.

00:15:39 Hannah

It was weird. So Hamilton said his tires are shot. And they were not.

00:15:48 Rachelle

Or if they were, it was very impressive, but he said they were shot like in a lap 11 and then in lap 37 he actually went off to box and that does not hold and so some of the commentators were like was that a code word?

00:16:07 Hannah

Hamilton, saying his tires are shot, could be code for they’re absolutely perfect because he executed the fastest lap like right after that. But I mean he didn't like win fastest lap overall, but he like did one of his fastest laps right after that. So, and yeah, he didn't pit ‘til way later. So, he's obviously fine. And it's part of the Mercedes mind games.

00:16:33 Rachelle

Mercedes loves a mind game but they hide it a lot better than Christian Horner.

00:16:40 Hannah

Well, would you like to elaborate on what these mind games are?

00:16:44 Rachelle

Sure, Hannah. So, this is my theory and I think some people share it, but I feel like Mercedes have been playing mind games all season. Because in interviews all they keep saying is, “wow Red Bull is so good. Wow, Red Bull is faster than us. Oh my God, they're the fan favorite.” And like, shut up Mercedes like this weird humility like humble act seems like a mind game to get into Red Bull's head where they like feel all this pressure to be the best and to win. And then what's going to happen? Mercedes is going to come in and win the World Championship. So, I feel like it's a tactic and you can see Toto doing this in interviews and Lewis kind of echoes that as well. I don't think Valterri can be controlled how he speaks, only how he drives.

00:17:29 Hannah

I think I think that's true to an extent. However, because of how great Max has been performing, it is actually a bit of a threat. 

00:17:39 Rachelle

It is a threat, but instead of saying like, oh, we're probably on even ground or like it's too close to call, the way that Red Bull is doing it. Instead, they’re going they're totally the fan favorite like it's like it's miles ahead.

00:17:50 Hannah

Yeah.

00:17:51 Rachelle

When it's, it's not like.

00:17:53 Hannah

Yeah, I agree. It's more even if anything.

00:17:56 Rachelle

Yeah, it's like it's too humble like you need to take it back a notch. Be less humble.

00:18:02 Hannah

The humility and F1 needs to be evenly distributed because some people have none. Mercedes has too much.

00:18:12 Rachelle

Especially when it's imbalanced with talent. Like you have so much talent, acknowledge it.

00:18:17 Hannah

Not a great segue, but to the entirely opposite end of the spectrum, Mazepin. OK, so… Kudos to him for not spinning I guess. But he did something even more egregious, in my mind. He was about to be lapped for the second time by Checo. So this isn't like a surprise, like he knows he's being lapped by people so he should be looking in his rearview mirrors and for blue flags which tell you when you should let people pass because they're going to lap you. And so he ignored, not one, not two, but five blue flags to allow Checo to lap him. And Mazepin literally like steered in front of Checo aggressively. And, I guess, now after the race he's saying he just didn't see him, but I don't see how that could even be true.

00:19:19 Rachelle

I mean also like what is the point of defending, someone lapping you?

00:19:25 Hannah

Well yeah, I have no idea but yeah, Checo said “what a fucking idiot” and the announcer said Checo just expressed what many are thinking.

00:19:36 Rachelle

And I can't wait until the end of the season when there is just like a compilation of all the drivers complaining about Mazepin who is just so weird, he's so weird.

00:19:48 Hannah

I'm just afraid that because he's the son of a Russian oligarch...

00:19:53 Rachelle

Don't give them any ideas. Hannah! Don’t give them ideas!

00:19:57 Hannah

Well, it's been widely reported what they do to critics. But how could… it's just objectively true. He's a bad driver, and a bad person. And a fucking idiot.

00:20:11 Rachelle

Yes, but Dmitry Mazepin, please don't kill us. or poison us. Or seriously maim us.

00:20:17 Hannah

Please make it quick.

00:20:21 Rachelle

You know how we’d probably die? He’ll probably send Nikita to drive past us on the road.

00:20:27 Hannah

He'd run us over. Probably not even on purpose.

00:20:32 Rachelle

I just didn't see them. Where did they come from?

00:20:36 Hannah

Oh man, but I really think if anyone were to be poisoned, it would be Netflix first. We're just, we're a small podcast, we only have 100 downloads.

00:20:48 Rachelle

I mean, Netflix will probably know better than to insult that family. They'll probably be like wow this glorious family has arrived into the F1 circuit. And everyone just worships the ground they walk on.

00:21:01 Hannah

We need to learn from Netflix.

00:21:03 Rachelle

We need a better PR team. Which is us.

00:21:08 Hannah

Anywho, so. Oh, also notable highlight from the race, Checo went like 52/53 laps on the same tires and won driver of the day.

00:21:22 Rachelle

Yeah, which is insanity because apparently, I think the hard tires, the Pirelli hard tyres are meant to last 47 laps, maybe less. I think less, like low 40s. And he was on the intermediate tires which are definitely not supposed to last that long. 

00:21:41 Hannah

So that was impressive. But I mean, when he pitted, he did fall back to 4th place, which is where he started. So overall he had a good race.

00:21:51 Rachelle

So, he fell back to P4 before he pitted. He pitted two laps after he got overtaken. Yeah, but like they kept him out, which some are theorizing was to help give Max an advantage. Which is unfair to Checo and didn't help Max, so that was a dumb strategy. If it's true. But, we'll never know.

00:22:12 Hannah

Also, more inter-team conflict, or just controversy. So, when Bottas pitted, his pit stop took 3.3 seconds. And then Hamilton went into the pit right after him and it only took him 2.5. That's ridiculous.

00:22:32 Rachelle

They must have practicing between pits. 

00:22:36 Rachelle

They couldn't warm up for Bottas? Do their practice before?

00:22:38 Rachelle

Did Bottas even deserve that though?

00:22:41 Hannah

Yes, he deserved it this week.

00:22:44 Rachelle

I think he deserves it every week. I just don't think Mercedes thinks he deserves it. Anyway, especially, when once he lost first and second, they're like whatever.

00:22:51 Hannah

Yeah. Well, in the end, so Hamilton ended up being in P1 and really holding that lead. And so, Verstappen was behind Hamilton, and Bottas was in P3. And so, Verstappen and Bottas, since they were kind of all like in distances or intervals where they probably weren't going to overtake. They were fighting for fastest lap to get that extra point. And so, Verstappen and Bottas pitted, like towards the end of the race to do their fastest lap on new tires. And Max actually did end up getting the fastest lap time. But then found out that he went off track limits yet again. Like kind of the same thing that happened in qualis and so Bottas got the fastest lap point.

00:23:46 Rachelle

So there's an automated tracker or whatever at specific turns. That will check if you go off track. He went off track on turn 14, which was found by like a human being watching the TV and calling it out, so he was confused and had no idea because I think he, I guess he assumed that it was only at the automated tracker or tracker turns that he could get it deleted from. So, I guess he was just really confused and unfortunately had to find out on live TV.

00:24:19 Hannah

Well, I don't know, I'm just like not many people went off that track limit, cause I think they at least knew turn 14 was one of the turns where you're not supposed to do that.

00:24:32 Rachelle

I don't think it was, though. It wasn't the one listed. Because in the interview he said that, but they weren't tracking a turn 14, but all it meant was that there was no automatic thing, tracker.

00:24:42 Hannah

Yeah, yet again, track limits make their strike.

00:24:49 Rachelle

When will they ever learn?

00:24:52 Hannah

Never, they just can't stay in the lines.

00:24:57 Hannah

So the race results were Hamilton, and then Max, and then Bottas, Checo, and then Lando in 5th.

00:25:05 Rachelle

Good going Lando. He's been top five all season.

00:25:09 Hannah

Lando has been amazing and everyone is rooting for him.

00:25:12 Rachelle

Yes, we are sad that Carlos seemed to underperform significantly.

00:25:16 Hannah

Oh yes.

00:25:17 Rachelle

He didn't even score points. I don't think he went super low.

00:25:22 Hannah

Yeah, cause I think he started in like P5 or something like that. Something highish where he could have podiumed and so people were really hoping for it but it was just like a rough start like he was immediately getting like passed by everyone in like the first half of the race. And then I forgot about him.

00:25:42 Rachelle

I know. Poor Carlos. And speaking of Spanish people, Alonso thrived this race. He worked his way all the way up to 8th which he's been struggling a lot in his new Alpine car so I guess good for Fernando but...

00:26:04 Hannah

Woo hoo. So, the world standings or the World Constructors standings for drivers. Lewis now has 69 points and Max has 61. So, a much better lead than what was just a one point lead last week, but definitely within striking distance so it's still really the two of them up top. Lando has 37 and then Bottas has 32 and Leclerc has 28.

00:26:35 Rachelle

Before we sign off, we did have a question from a listener in Salt Lake City. She wrote in asking what it means when a driver asks for power. Hannah, do you want to explain?

00:26:49 Hannah

Yes, so there's multiple engine modes that a car can have. And they're controlled by the driver, but each mode is based on different factors like performance, engine durability, and fuel. And so when a driver asks the engineers for more power they're basically asking to switch to a different mode that puts performance first. But they need to check with the engineer to make sure that the rest of their car is in an OK condition to do this, and the engineer has all this information. So they're not like asking the engineer to necessarily do anything, just to give like the OK for the driver To switch their engine mode to give extra power without causing any other issues in the car.

00:27:37 Rachelle

Yep, so we're here to answer any technical questions you may have. However simple or complex they may be. So, if you want to DM us on Instagram or email us, do that. 

00:27:57 Hannah

Our email is boxboxf1pod@gmail.com and our Instagram is @boxboxf1pod

00:28:00 Rachelle

Hope to see ya there!

00:28:01 Hannah

All righty, box box.

00:28:02 Rachelle

Box box.