[intro music]

00:00:09 Hannah 

Hi, I'm Hannah. 

00:00:011 Rachelle 

Hi, I'm Rachelle and welcome to Box Box F1 Pod. Today we're talking about the French Grand Prix, which was exciting and different than the last couple of races. But before we do that we're going to talk about other stuff. 

00:00:24 Hannah 

In preparation for the French Grand Prix at the Paul Ricard Circuit, which if you didn't listen to our last episode, Paul Ricard is the father of the pastis of Marseille. So, I bought the Ricard pastis and now I have it. And I opened it like 5 minutes ago and now I will do my live react to my first ever pastis tasting. 

00:00:54 Rachelle 

Very exciting. 

00:00:55 Hannah 

It's kind of interesting cause in the bottle it's just like a, you know, a typical brown liquor kind of looking thing, but then I poured it in with ice and it really became a milky yellow. I don't like it. OK, it’s like straight up like liquid licorice. It's disgusting. I'm not in the wrong, here, right? Like, do many people like licorice? 

00:01:23 Rachelle 

I have a Norwegian friend who is obsessed with black licorice, and she gave me a bit once and I've never tasted anything worse in my life. 

00:01:31 Hannah 

Yeah, like this can't universally be loved, this is such strong licorice flavor that I don't know what I could even mask it with. I guess other alcohol. 

00:01:44 Rachelle 

So it doesn't taste like anise? 

00:01:47 Hannah 

I mean, anise does kind of have like that licorice flavor too, so I do think actually the main flavor is anise. But just my point of reference is it just tastes like if you melted licorice and drank it, you know. 

00:02:03 Rachelle 

Yum. Yes, I asked, I made my French food with a French guy and I asked him about pastis and he like couldn't understand why we're making such a big deal about it. He was like meh. 

00:02:16 Hannah 

I would not recommend buying an entire bottle, but if you end up at some sort of bar where you can just get like a little tasting of it, I think it's worth a taste because it's actually growing on me. I actually think with more like water, which I actually think is the Milk of Marseilles recipe is just kind of like a watered down version and maybe with some grenadine or something. I actually think I can acquire the taste for this. 

00:02:44 Rachelle 

Yes, but you don't have to because there's better things to drink. 

00:02:48 Hannah 

I actually do because I bought a whole bottle.

00:02:50 Rachelle 

That's a good point. You can have a French party. And tell them that this is exclusively what's drunk in France other than wine. 

00:02:59 Hannah 

OK, we can do that for my birthday. 

00:03:01 Rachelle 

Oh great. I wasn’t meant to be on the receiving end of that.  

00:03:06 Hannah 

I'll bring my bottle Ricard Pastis to the Hotel Monaco. 

00:03:12 Rachelle 

Great, I look forward to it. 

00:03:15 Hannah.

Where we'll watch the Sochi Grand Prix.

00:03:18 Rachelle 

If it happens, apparently COVID is rampant in Russia. Unless we ask Putin in which case, it's not. 

00:03:24 Hannah 

Yeah, does Putin care?

00:03:24 Rachelle 

I'm pretty sure. According to Putin there's no COVID in Russia. 

00:03:29 Hannah 

I think we'll move on.

00:03:34 Rachelle 

But I was going to say before we round up our pastis segment. In our last episode, we couldn't figure out why anise-based drinks were banned during the wars.

00:03:47 Hannah 

Oh yes. 

00:03:48 Rachelle 

Other than, the go-to explanation is that it interfered with French spirit or something or the war efforts or something. I found out from a reputable source, that really why it was banned is because anise is a base ingredient in, what’s the word?

00:03:48 Hannah 

Absinthe.

00:04:09 Rachelle 

Absinthe. Anise is the base ingredient in absinthe. And they had decided at the time that, the French doctors, during the First World War, decided that absinthe made you go literally, mentally insane, and they couldn't have insane people running around defending France, so they just put a blanket ban on all anise-based drinks, which included pastis. Obviously, that wasn't true. And they started making exceptions one anise-based drink at a time. 

00:04:40 Hannah 

That's ridiculous. because, well, have you had absinthe? 

00:04:46 Rachelle 

Yes. 

00:04:47 Hannah 

I have too. I mean, I assume it's more regulated now and the versions we had obviously didn't make us crazy. But I'm just like take everything in moderation and also to ban like a whole category of drinks because one is too powerful. It's always like the concept of one person ruins everything for everyone. 

00:05:11 Rachelle 

Yes, at that time it was actually a lot of the like artists and writers that were, if they couldn't get absinthe, they would resort to pastis. Ernest Hemingway loved a little pastis.

00:05:26 Hannah 

So, Nikita and Mick on Haas. Last weekend there was a bit of controversy because Mick tried to overtake Nikita, but then Nikita aggressively swerved and jerked in front of him, and Mick was understandably upset. 

00:05:47 Rachelle 

Yes, he, but it was a very polite angry radio message like I think he said fuck once. It was not a Yuki thing. And compared to the rest of the people that get into issues with Nikita, it was quite polite. He was just very like sad about it. He was like I can't believe this has happened. And then they've been asked about it a lot. Almost in every interview. And the commentators kept bringing it up. One incident between teammates and it's like the end of the world! But Mick was basically like the team, he apologized, and in that sense we're OK which sounds like they're not OK. 

00:06:27 Hannah 

And they're not like they're not like friends, you know.

00:06:30 Rachelle 

They seemed like they got along though. Like when I watched a few of their videos and they seemed to get along more so than. 

00:06:37 Hannah 

Well, yeah, they're coworkers. 

00:06:39 Rachelle 

Yeah. but now it's it's probably gone a bit more sour. And Nikita was basically like I apologized to Mick if that was how he felt. Which is the worst apology.

00:06:49 Hannah 

That's the worst apology. 

00:06:53 Rachelle 

Yeah. He was not sorry for doing it and he said Mick shouldn't expect an easy ride from him. I don't know if that was in reference to Mick’s dad or to the fact that he's a pay driver and no one expects much from him. But Nikita is not going to make Mick’s life easy. Apparently. And Guenther was like, oh well! Can't control them. And I feel like that's a Guenther response. 

00:07:15 Hannah 

Yes, there's not much he can do and honestly, Guenther's priorities are in improving the car. They're not scoring any points, and they're always dead last, so he's just like OK, do whatever you guys want, just don't wreck the car and let us proceed. 

00:07:31 Rachelle 

Didn’t he say that they're doing absolutely nothing to the cars this season and saving all their money for next year?

00:07:37 Hannah 

Yeah, that's what I meant. Like his priority is in improving the design and development of the car for next year. Obviously, his priority is not on anything this season, so he's just like whatever. 

00:07:49 Rachelle 

He's, yeah, given up. 

00:07:51 Hannah 

Just don't embarrass me too much. 

00:07:54 Rachelle 

Literally, all of Guenther’s interviews are like, well everything went to plan. And I’m like, well I guess if your plan is.

00:07:58 Hannah 

To be dead last. 

00:08:01 Rachelle 

Adjusted his expectations and he's always happy with the result. Another thing we wanted to discuss is our Where in the World Was Cyril? Segment. And we are working on a playlist for the emotional state of Cyril. It is grouped by states from when he acquired Daniel to their honeymoon phase to Daniel’s breakup but when he was still on the team and then Cyril’s fired phase and his grieving process.  So look out for that, I guess.

00:08:36 Hannah 

We'll put it in our LinkTree on Instagram.

00:08:40 Rachelle 

And also, we do have a message from Cyril up on TikTok. Highly recommend you guys look at that. Because I love it. So check it out.

00:08:54 Hannah 

So, about the Paul Ricard track. There are stripes.

00:09:01 Rachelle 

The commentators kept calling this track, the one with the stripes. And that would be because it's covered in stripes. Red and blue stripes like cover the grid. I assume they're red and blue for France. I don't know. There's also like very thick track limit lines on the track, so it's hard for people to not know when they're going off track, which is good. But the blue lines and the red lines serve to slow the drivers down. Because as we talked about last episode, Paul Ricard Circuit is known for creating very speedy tunnels, I guess. I don't know like the cars can go really fast cause there's like a wind draft there then makes them go much faster than they want to necessarily go. People have died. One person died. So, I guess these are there ways of making the track safer. So, the blue lines is made out of a material that will slow you down a bit and the red lines is made out of material that slows you down like a lot. And that's just safety measures I guess. And the barriers are super far away, so it's really hard to crash into them. Luckily, some drivers managed to prove doubters wrong. You can crash into barriers. I guess that's all. Also, it was weird that the safety car was Aston Martin. I think they were the safety car at Monaco also. Anyway, I just didn't understand how safety sponsorship works. I thought Mercedes always sponsored it. 

00:10:27 Hannah 

No. So, in 2021 it's both Mercedes and Aston Martin that are the safety cars. 

00:10:33 Rachelle 

Got it. Makes sense.

00:10:36 Hannah 

OK, and this is the seventh race out of 23, or, well. It's always changing, I don't know. But anyways it is the 7th race of the season. 

00:10:40 Rachelle 

Did they ever replace him Singapore? Or not yet?

00:10:49 Hannah 

I haven't seen it. So I don't think so because I am really looking forward to that news. If it is in America, I really think we should try to go. 

00:11:03 Rachelle 

I agree. And they'll want us there because we represent the American viewers. 

00:11:08 Hannah 

Yes, they need to look at all of our followers that we've gained. The numbers speak for themselves. 

00:11:15 Rachelle 

I know I don't know why they're not looking. 

00:11:19 Hannah 

OK, on to the race. We'll do a little recap. First, it was sad in Quali, Yuki crashed like in the first few turns. I think it was like turn 2 or something. He crashed and it required a gearbox change, so he was like out and Yuki was disappointed. Per usual. 

00:11:40 Rachelle 

We were disappointed for Yuki as well, because he can do so much better. 

00:11:47 Hannah 

He seems to have really good days or just really bad days like kind of barely ever any in between. 

00:11:55 Rachelle 

Which is bad. You need at least a little consistency. Or at least have your good days be like good days. But yeah, he had to start from the pit lane. He wasn't even allowed to start from the grid as a penalty for the gearbox change. 

00:12:05 Hannah

Poor Yuki.

00:12:11 Rachelle 

And then, I know I'm so sad for him. I hope he had some good food after to feel better. 

00:12:17 Hannah 

Well, he was in France so I'm sure he had some. 

00:12:20 Rachelle 

I think I saw a picture of him eating gyozas. 

00:12:23 Hannah 

Oh OK. 

00:12:24 Rachelle 

Diet doesn't change no matter where you go.

00:12:27 Hannah 

Well, gyozas are a solid food.

00:12:29 Rachelle 

Choice? I agree. Comfort food at its finest. Then Q3, I mean Quali were really boring. Q3 ended  pole with Max followed by Lewis, Bottas, and Perez/Checo which is business as usual. 

00:12:48 Hannah 

But it's nice to have normalcy. 

00:12:51 Rachelle 

Yes, we craved it. It was all crazy for a while.

00:12:54 Hannah 

So, then the race itself. The tires, the track, and the weather all seemed to come as a shock to every team and there was an overhaul of strategy. Well, I'll just say for the weather at least, it was predicted to rain that weekend. 

00:13:15 Rachelle 

It did rain. 

00:13:15 Hannah

And like Lewis Hamilton wore an outfit when he got to France, that was very rainy. Like it was leathery and he wore tire boots.. 

00:13:27 Rachelle 

Yes, he wore tire boots, prepared for anything. I don't know if those are waterproof though, so I'm not sure if that's they are. 

00:13:34 Hannah 

They are. I think so. I mean, they're leather, but I think they're like protected leather. And they're called tire boots because the bottom of them have a heavy tread. 

00:13:47 Rachelle 

Wow, so he was prepared for anything. He was more prepared than his own car. 

00:13:52 Hannah 

Yeah, like his noots had more tread than his car. I don't know why though. 

00:13:58 Rachelle 

Mercedes should, or Pirelli should really collaborate with Bottega. 

00:14:02 Hannah 

With Bottega? Yeah, I agree. They could learn a lot they could. 

00:14:08 Rachelle 

I bet that I could make fettuccine Alfredo tire boots. 

00:14:12 Hannah 

Yes, please someone make fettuccine Alfredo tyres. We’re dying. 

00:14:21 Rachelle 

And if you don't know what we're referencing, watch our Cars episode. It was great. Anyway. I think the track ended up being kind of weird because formula three race there on Saturday after qualifying, which changed the track, I guess. Then it rained a little so it was just in a weird condition. 

00:14:39 Hannah 

Yeah, but I mean for the race itself, even though it did like rain earlier that weekend, there was no rain or wet tyre issues. So, I guess that was the shock. And people were trying to determine then which tyres to use during the race. 

00:14:56 Rachelle 

I never understand why this is always such a shock to them. There is only so many weather conditions that could happen, you can prepare for all of them. Shouldn't they have a plan for each one? 

00:15:05 Hannah 

And there's not that many tyre choices. There’s like five. And if you're not using wet tyres, there's three. 

Listen to a tyre strategy episode.

00:15:18 Rachelle 

Sounds like the engineers might need to listen to it as well. Because there's like a shock to the system every time something goes a little awry. Anyway. As we said, the first two rows were Mercedes and Red Bull, which, again business as usual. In turn, 2 Hamilton overtook Max. Like almost immediately, and then it was just a mess on the grid. 

00:15:40 Hannah 

I just have to say I really appreciate that whether it's like Max or Hamilton on pole, I like that so far this season, a lot of the races have had really exciting like first or second turns between the two of them. Like one of them just becomes extremely aggressive and it's really exciting. 

00:16:01 Rachelle 

I agree, except for that one. Where was Max like way, way ahead of everyone? When the tyres exploded and everyone was like he did everything perfectly, in Baku. 

00:16:11 Hannah 

Yeah, so he was really ahead in that race where his tyre popped off. 

00:16:15 Rachelle 

Off, yeah, but Hamilton wasn't even close, was he? He didn't podium. 

00:16:20 Hannah 

Well, that's because on the restart he ran into randomness. 

00:16:21 Rachelle 

The magic happened.

00:16:25 Hannah 

Oh yes, the magic happened.

00:16:29 Rachelle 

Anyway, sorry we're diverging. So, after that happened it was kind of just weird overtaking all across the grid. Ricciardo seemed to have found himself again and was back in form and overtook a lot and he worked his way from P10 to P6. 

00:16:49 Hannah 

Yeah, that was super impressive. Lando also did really well. He started, I think in P8 and overtook people to get to P5. So great day for McLaren and Zak Brown.

00:17:03 Rachelle 

Yes, we're very happy for Zak. I did want to say that at one point, Daniel overtook Lando, and Lando swore on the radio. Like he was really annoyed, and I honestly thought that would be the end of his race. But he really got his like shit together and like didn't let it throw him off because people have been warning him of this moment for a long time. That Daniel was going to be on full form again, Daniel’s a good racer. Or Lando was always like number one and his confidence really soared, I think. 

00:17:32 Hannah 

Did Lando swear, and was his frustration from like Daniel overtaking him or like from Lando’s own pace and at himself? 

00:17:44 Rachelle 

This is hearsay because they didn't actually play the radio. The commentators just said Lando swore out Daniel a little bit to his engineer.

00:17:52 Hannah 

Release the radio! We need to do our own analysis cause I love psychoanalyzing inner-team rivalry. 

00:17:58 Rachelle 

Same, I agree. But especially theirs. Theirs has been very confusing. 

00:18:08 Hannah 

Yes, it’s very combative for such nice men.

00:18:11 Rachelle 

Yeah, two people you'd never expect to be combative at all, seem to like be at odds. 

00:18:18 Hannah 

There must have been a bad interaction that. 

00:18:21 Rachelle 

I guess they're just two different forms of nice. So they clashed.

00:18:24 Hannah 

Release the tapes. 

00:18:29 Rachelle 

Yeah, anyway Lando also did well. There was a great move from him where Daniel overtook Alonso. And Lando also overtook Alonso, which was a bit more unexpected. It seemed to come out of nowhere and it was quite aggressive, and it was an impressive move. So good for Lando. Good for Daniel. Good for Zak.

00:18:46 Hannah 

Yes, OK, Ferrari struggled. Despite being iconic. We respect Ferrari, but objectively they did struggle in this race and did not score any points. 

00:18:57 Rachelle 

Yes, but they're still iconic. 

00:19:00 Hannah 

Yes, but you know what they said in the post-race interview? Cause you know Charles is cursed in Monaco, cause that's like his home race, and he's infamously never like scored any points there? Yeah, he's never done anything there cause of some disaster. The French Grand Prix, this Paul Ricard circuit is in southern France which isn't very far from Monaco so the curse may have drifted over. 

00:19:25 Rachelle 

Quite windy. 

00:19:26 Hannah 

Charles should not be racing near his home. Not good. 

00:19:30 Rachelle 

Clearly the curse like extends beyond the 45-minute walk of Monaco. 

00:19:36 Hannah 

I hope he comes to America and finds his stride in Austin, TX. 

00:19:42 Rachelle 

Charles and Austin, TX for some reason is funny. I have a friend who's currently watching Drive to Survive and he literally just texted me yesterday, Charles is a Disney character, right? He looks animated. And it’s so true.

00:19:55 Hannah 

He really does. He looks like straight out of a cartoon. But like as like the handsome, nice guy. Like a cartoon in a respectful way. I don't mean he looks like a joke, he actually just looks like perfectly illustrated. 

00:20:11 Rachelle 

Yes, he looks like abnormally symmetrical. 

00:20:14 Hannah 

That’s a great way to put it. 

00:20:15 Hannah 

People with abnormal symmetry scare me. 

00:20:20 Rachelle 

Like it's so handsome, it's bizarre. Don’t really know what to do with his face. But we love Charles. And Ferrari's iconic. 

00:20:26 Hannah 

Yes, we don't mean any disrespect. 

00:20:31 Rachelle 

Love red. Anyway, so the radio sucked by the way, so it was really hard to figure out what people were saying. But the general gist was everyone was complaining about their tyres.

00:20:44 Hannah 

Well, I think a big sticking point in this race was, it's meant to be or expected to be one pit stop race. But of course, how it turned out, was a lot of the tyres didn't really, they were just wearing more quickly than expected. So, for many people it ended up being a two stop race. 

00:21:07 Rachelle 

Yes, which some people called. Bottas, for example, called it at like, in the very beginning and he was just ignored.

00:21:15 Hannah 

Yeah, and Max called it too and he was ignored for a while until they were like oh yeah, good call. 

00:21:22 Rachelle 

Yeah, but we'll get more into that in the analysis bit which we will do. To sum up the end of the race, Max had a glorious comeback and overtook Hamilton in like the last two laps, or the penultimate lap. 

00:21:36 Rachelle 

Do you remember? I think it was the 2nd to last lap he. 

00:21:39 Hannah 

It’s penultimate. 

00:21:39 Rachelle 

Overtook him, penultimate yeah. 

00:21:41 Rachelle 

And he won. And Lewis wasn't an asshole about it. On camera. 

00:21:44 Hannah 

Yes, in the post-race interview, he said the team and I will go look at what happened where we could have done better. He was not like, everyone but me sucked. 

00:22:00 Rachelle 

Yeah, but they did not shake hands as they passed each other to do the little post-race interview, which they did yesterday at qualifying. So, Netflix will certainly dig into that lack of a handshake. 

00:22:11 Hannah 

Yeah, I cannot wait for Drive to Survive season four because you know, the main plotline will be about Max and Hamilton's intense rivalry all season. Which is so much more exciting than the previous. I mean, the previous Drive to Survive seasons were dramatic for other reasons, but not necessarily for like the top contending spot. 

0

0:22:34 Rachelle 

Yes, that's what everyone gets confused about. Like the first two seasons don't even touch on Mercedes and it's just like why are we only focusing on like 5th and 6th?

00:22:40 Hannah 

They're like wow, you got tenth OK, so that was the race. So, we're going to get into analysis now. Do you want to talk about the pre-race strategy at Mercedes? 

00:22:56 Rachelle 

Oh yeah, so I will talk about it. That doesn't mean I fully understand it. Bottas and Hamilton switched chasses, which is normal. And they said it was always the plan to switch. But Nico Rosberg who loves stirring up drama, which means we should like him. But for some reason he just grates. So, Nico Rosberg said that that Lewis demanded that they give him Bottas’ chassis. 

00:23:22 Hannah 

Oh my god. Why though?

00:23:24 Rachelle 

Because his was underperforming, I guess. Not that Bottas’ was like a flying success, but that was what Nico said. I don't know. 

00:23:34 Hannah 

I have a genuine question and if you don't know it, that's fine because we can maybe explore it later, but like, do you understand how chasses affect performance? 

00:23:47 Rachelle

Nope.

00:24:00 Hannah 

OK. That might be something we address as our own listener question Cause like, obviously there's different designs and everything, so I assume, and if Lewis is demanding a chassis change, there must be something to it, but I think it's worth figuring out.

00:24:07 Rachelle 

Well, it's also really important because like there's only four engines on the grid. So something else makes the car better or worse. Another interesting thing that when Yuki’s car, the gearbox, there was an issue with it, they asked Christian Horner like don't you guys use the same gearbox? And he's like, well they use a previous year’s iteration of the gearbox. So, Red Bull has like a newer, shinier version of it, so that. Also makes a difference, so we should really talk about non-engine related car parts. 

00:24:41 Hannah 

Yes. If you would like to hear more about these topics DM us.

00:24:46 Rachelle 

Yes, and as we say, we're learning with you. We are not experts. We are not car mechanics. We are not engineers. We are just two gals.

00:24:53 Hannah 

Where F1 for the laypeople. 

00:24:57 Rachelle 

Lay people? Is that like laymen? 

00:24:58 Hannah 

Yes, but more inclusive. We’re for the lay women, mainly. And one lay man. 

00:25:08 Rachelle 

Yeah, we've got like 10 women for every man. We’re for you guys.

00:25:11 Hannah 

Yeah, so I just want to say, as we mentioned, Bottas wanted to do his second pit stop cause he knew his tires were wearing. And also yeah, he called it super early on in the race that he would need two pits. But the team, Mercedes, didn't let him.

00:25:29 Rachelle 

Like they're the one driving. He can tell. I don’t know why they won’t listen to him. If Lewis had said that they probably would have pitted him. 

00:25:37 Hannah 

The team believed if they kept him out, then he could block like, Checo. Or, just like have the pace where it's like good enough where he could still like have the speed and so they like didn't believe him or whatever. Cause I don't think the team wanted him to end up fourth, like that doesn't help anyone. 

But yeah, I guess they don't trust his instincts. Cause he obviously was correct. 

00:26:02 Rachelle 

Yeah, I don't know. I feel like I need Bottas to switch teams so that I can root for him properly. Because for some reason he really frustrates me on Mercedes. But I also feel like he's not really given the room to shine. 

00:26:13 Hannah 

I oscillate, but I think for the majority of the season, I've just felt really bad for him. 

00:26:19 Rachelle 

Me too. Cause we hate on him a lot but. 

00:26:21 Hannah 

I think it's pretty rare for a driver to be like, I need to pit or like something and the team just being like, no. So, like with Max, they did initially like, not really let him, but they eventually did. And it’s just like why can't Bottas just get a shot? I don't know. Also, the other thing that happened with Bottas that was unfortunate in the race, was kind of towards the end of the race when Checo did eventually overtake him into third, his overtake was under investigation because as Checo was overtaking him, Checo ran wide and exceeded the track limits. But, of course with track limit rules, it's so vague and hard to enforce, because if he exceeded the track limits during the overtake, that would be illegal. But if it was after the overtake was completed, then it's fine. And they determined that it was after the overtake. So Checo was able to maintain his P3 position. 

00:27:24 Rachelle 

And what was interesting. When Toto was doing a post-race interview, they asked, it was actually Nico Rosberg, asked him why he didn't pit Bottas then so he could at least get like a fast lap timing or fastest lap timing. And he was like, well, we thought that Checo those investigation was going to like come out in our favour or whatever. And it's just so unfair that. 

00:27:45 Hannah 

Yeah, that's a bad strategy. 

00:27:47 Rachelle 

It's just so complacent when it comes to Bottas. 

00:27:49 Hannah 

Yeah, I agree, like Bottas easily could have gotten P3, I think. 

00:27:54 Rachelle 

Yeah, he was doing well. Although I love Checo, so I'm glad he got P3, but. 

00:27:58 Hannah 

Yeah, I mean OK. If I were building my like Dream Team, I actually think it would be Max and Checo. But the emphasis on Checo as your D2, because he is like the best support driver ever. And, again, in this race, he was the longest on his first set of tires, I think until like lap 24 or something. And it's just like so impressive. 

00:28:23 Rachelle 

Yeah, his tire management is insane. Because he's a great D2 driver in the sense that like he's not worse, but he accepts his position. Do you know? Like he has enough ego to be a good driver, but not enough to like turn into a Bottas where it just like consumes you and like tortures you. 

00:28:40 Hannah 

Yes. Like, OK, in a very perfect world, of course you would always want to finish first and second. But then you always get into the conflict of them competing too closely. But Checo is perfect cause he's always like third or fourth-ish and Max is going for like first or second, so they're like just slightly removed enough where Checo knows he's supporting, but always has a chance at a podium. 

00:29:09 Rachelle 

Exactly. and that's like where they struggled with like Gasly. I don't actually know what happened. 

I think they just didn't like Gasly, actually. I don't know what the issue with Gasly was. But with like Alex Albon, his nerves definitely got the best of him. And he like, the panic of being a D2 and the pressure of being behind Max was too much for him. Like he didn't have enough ego. He's just too kind-hearted. 

00:29:30 Hannah 

No, I think Checo is incredible. Which is so surprising for me to say. Ccause do you remember when we barely noticed Chaco as a driver or a person? 

00:29:40 Rachelle 

We did not, I did not like Checo. 

00:29:42 Hannah 

We were like, he’s just very meh. But now, I'm just like if I'm building a dream team like yeah he's 100% on it. There's no better D2 driver. 

00:29:53 Rachelle 

I also love that like when they got out of their cars, him and Max, didn't just like high five or shake hands. They like had like a full like 15-second embrace and then they walked embracing each other to the team. 

00:30:07 Hannah 

That's hilarious to me because, you know, Max. I mean, I think Max is a great person and I am obsessed with Max now, but he is only super nice at least, like observing his interactions with other people, it seems like he's only super nice to people who serve him well. Or like you know, like he's in his best moods when he's interacting with people he like, beat or like they really helped him. And I'm like, yeah, of course he's in love with Checo. He's his right-hand man. His bridesmaid. 

00:30:45 Rachelle 

His ride or die. Literally.

00:30:47 Hannah 

His ride or die! He really is. Yeah, so I'm glad Max is reciprocating his appreciation through an extended embrace. 

00:30:58 Rachelle 

Same. Well Max’s dad also like hugged, Checo. Jos.

00:31:01 Hannah 

Oh, of course they're the same person. I was going to say, Christian must be really thrilled with how everything is turning out because this is the D2 he's been looking for. 

00:31:15 Rachelle 

I'm glad he has succeeded.

00:31:16 Hannah 

Yes. I mean this, cause people were like Christian’s being too harsh and not giving other drivers like Albon and Gasly a chance which still, there's a fair point in saying that, but obviously that kind of worked out for him cause he found Checo. So, he knows what he's doing. 

00:31:37 Rachelle 

Yeah, there was nothing visible wrong with Gasly as a D2, but I guess, I mean Christian was right. Checo is the correct D2 for them. 

00:31:48 Hannah 

I was going to say, I just love Red Bull. Which I can't believe. 

00:31:53 Rachelle 

It’s a shock? 

00:31:55 Hannah 

Yeah, I strictly I love Red Bull the Formula One team. You know next weekend is Austria which is the Red Bull home race. Yeah, I don't know if I should go to the store and buy a Red Bull to commemorate. Cause I love them so much. But that drink is so disgusting, I don't know what I can do. 

00:32:14 Rachelle 

It's repulsive. Have you noticed that they all walk around with Red Bull like cans and cups? I don't think any of them ever drink them. 

00:32:18 Hannah 

Well I sometimes see really long straws in them. 

00:32:21 Rachelle 

It’s water.

00:32:25 Hannah 

Oh, in the Red Bull containers? That makes way more sense cause I do see them drinking that. But yeah, I’m like there’s no way, as like an athlete you’d want to put that in your body. Let alone as a person with taste.

00:32:42 Rachelle 

Well, this is actually great, so the Euro Cup is going on right now. And Ronaldo, the football player after a game went to drink his water. But it was standing next to a coke bottle, and he threw the coke bottle to the side and reached for the water. And the next day, Coke stock fell, like aggressively. Which is what I think F1 is very smart. They're all drinking like out of their sponsored cups, but it's water. Who’s going drink coke after a soccer match?

00:33:15 Hannah 

No, it's really bad for your body. And as an athlete that's your main asset. That’s hilarious though. And yeah, Red Bull knows where they are in the beverage world. So, but yeah, we'll do something to celebrate Austria next weekend, it just won’t be a Red Bull drink.

00:33:35 Rachelle 

I’m making schnitzel.  

00:33:38 Hannah 

I'm making their national dish which is boiled meat. But it has spices. 

00:33:44 Rachelle 

Is schnitzel not their national dish? 

00:33:50 Hannah 

No, I was shocked. It’s a very low key humble boiled meat in water and spices and vegetables. Root vegetables. 

00:33:58 Rachelle 

I bet Toto grew up eating that. 

00:33:59 Hannah 

Yeah, I mean he didn't grow up wealthy.  

00:34:03 Rachelle 

No. That's why his mother always said, it’s easier to... 

00:34:04 Hannah 

Oh yes. OK. So, Toto’s mother told him, cause they grew up really poor. Or not really poor, but definitely like lower middle class. And she said:

00:34:14 Rachelle 

“Toto, it is easier to cry in a Jaguar than it is to cry in a Volkswagen.”

00:34:23 Hannah 

That was incredible. I actually think you're spot on. Yeah. Well, of my limited knowledge and exposure to Austrian accents, I don't think you were, I don't think you're that off the mark. 

00:34:38 Rachelle 

Yeah, my only exposure other than Toto Wolff is Arnold Schwarzenegger and Captain von Trapp, and he was played by a Canadian man. 

00:34:45 Hannah 

No, Arnold is my standard. Like if you sound like Arnold, you're Austrian. I don't know where else you would be from. It's so distinctive it's not like even, It's not like German, it's just Austrian in its own right. 

00:35:01 Rachelle 

Also, why are Austrians so big? 

00:35:05 Hannah 

It probably their boiled meats and root vegetables, I mean, seriously. 

00:35:10 Rachelle 

I think the Irish eat that too and they are not quite as hefty. 

00:35:15 Hannah 

That's a great question. 

00:35:17 Rachelle 

Because there was, they did a post-race interview today with Christian and Toto. And the size difference is just like comical. Christian reaches like his waist.

00:35:28 Hannah

 Toto must workout. Cause he's built. 

00:35:31 Rachelle 

Oh no, he works out. Although Christian also works out. Christian is also fit. Like he fills out the shirt. 

00:35:38 Hannah 

Christian works out for sure, but he’s more of your like, normal fitness.

00:35:42 Rachelle 

Like a dad. 

00:35:44 Hannah 

Yeah, like a dad going to the gym three times a week, Toto could probably bench Christian. To be honest.

00:35:53 Rachelle 

Lewis and Max were asked in an interview how they feel about the rivalry, like the fighting words between Christian and Toto. And Lewis and Max like We'd love to see them in a fight. And then Max was like, that might be a little unfair Christian. 

00:36:09 Hannah 

Christian’s better at the mind games. Well, in that Toto doesn’t even fuck with that. But that's where Christian’s strong suit is. He's mentally torturous to others, but if they were to get into a physical battle, Toto could lift Christian and throw him into a river. 

00:36:30 Rachelle 

Yes, he could. poor Chris. Well now Toto has to learn the mind games because he's no longer like. 

00:36:36 Hannah 

Yeah he has to participate now unfortunately. Well, that's pretty much that was pretty much it for the highlights. I mean, we just watched the race. 

00:36:47 Rachelle 

Yes, we did it, it just finished. I do want to talk about undercutting though. Quickly. So that was like a big word that was, not a big word, not like a SAT word, but it was a word that was thrown around a lot. And basically, if you don't know what an undercut is, it's a strategic pit stop to get fresh tyres, which helps you get an advantage over overtaking, whoever is in front of you. And what you'll usually do is you'll, like, push to the limit until the gap is quite small, pit, and then, since you're on fresh tyres in a couple of laps, you might be able to overtake because it takes a while for tyres to warm up, but their tyres are severely degraded by this point. So it's just a trick and everyone seemed to be doing it. That's what the two-pit stop thing was for, really. 

00:37:31 Hannah 

Well, not everyone. 

00:37:38 Rachelle 

No, not Bottas. 

00:37:39 Hannah 

Cause I guess the opposite of undercut is an overcut where you try to extend the life of your tyres and not take the time to do a pit stop, so then you can get an advantage over people who do take the time to do a pit stop. But I mean that's also kind of banking on the pit stop taking the amount of time that you would be able to get like a significant advantage. But once they're out on fresh tyres, it's like OK. If you didn't like, just push super hard on your old tires, like obviously they're going to overtake you. 

00:38:10 Rachelle 

Yes, and it seems like undercut is definitely the more popular. 

00:38:14 Hannah 

It is. Cause, I mean tyres as we know, now, wear very quickly. So, one of our new favourite listeners wanted an answer to WTF is wrong with the French trophy? 

00:38:30 Rachelle

It’s a gorilla. 

00:38:31 Hannah 

Yes, it's a gorilla. and I think it's blue, white and red like the French flag. 

00:38:39 Rachelle 

It was in 2018. I'm pretty sure today they gave them solid-coloured trophies. Like a blue and a white one I think.

00:38:46 Hannah 

Yes, so it's a gorilla sculpture and also in 2018 it was holding up a Pirelli tyre. But this year, or today, it was not holding up a Pirelli tyre. Which I think is all you need to know about Pirelli. They've been disowned by a gorilla. 

00:39:02 Rachelle 

Do you think someone sat all night and like wrenched tyres out?

00:39:08 Hannah 

I mean, seriously, after Pirelli's last performance in Baku, you can't have a gorilla holding up a Pirelli tyre with pride. 

00:39:18 Rachelle 

You don't deserve this. But yes, so, we were put on a mission to find out what the hell is going on with the gorilla. 

00:39:30 Hannah 

So this gorilla sculpture was made by Richard Orlinski, who is a famous French artist and sculptor. And he actually makes a lot of animal sculptures in this kind of like 3D, almost like angular, like there's kind of a lot of flat and sharp edges to them. One of the prominent ones is his King Kong gorilla, which has been showcased at a lot of like exhibits and venues. I mean, he's one of the best-selling contemporary artists and sculptors in France. So even though these random gorillas seem random to us. I guess in France, I assume, are just slightly more recognizable and like make sense. 

00:40:12 Rachelle 

Yeah, because if you go to F1 forums, everyone’s like there's a gorilla. Why is there a gorilla? But yeah, like Hannah said, he's a famous French artist so to the French it probably makes a bit more sense.  I think there’s also a giant gorilla at the front of the Paul Ricard Circuit. Maybe it was a bear. No, it was a gorilla.

00:40:28 Hannah 

Yeah, well in 2018 they had a gorilla, huge sculpture along with a huge bear and horse. That were red, right and blue.

00:40:38 Rachelle 

I guess they’re moving around now. My favourite is the list of his sculptures. It’s all animals, there’s a gorilla also holding oil, I don’t know why. And then he has a Pikachu and a pair of denim jeans.

00:40:52 Hannah 

In America we have a very famous animal sculptor named Jeff Koons who had one of the highest selling sculptures in the world, or actually like two of them. His balloon dog sold for like almost 60 million and then a rabbit sculpture sold for over 90 million. So, I think they're onto something. 

00:41:16 Rachelle 

Unfortunately, I don't think the Austin, Texas GP organizers.

00:41:21 Hannah 

Can afford it. 

00:41:24 Rachelle

Other they’re just not artistically sound enough to think of that. It’s not France after all.

00:41:26 Hannah 

Yeah, but you know, I actually could see in Miami it being a little bit more artsy. 

00:41:34 Rachelle 

Yes, I can see that as well. 

00:41:36 Hannah 

Like the wealthy part of Florida, and like Miami like to be very ostentatious. Which is why when I went to Florida, I saw a bright blue McLaren on display in the middle of the parking lot. 

00:41:53 Rachelle 

How artsy. So, next week is Austria and we already told you what we're going to make, but we're probably going to try predicting. And I predict Ferrari will do better.

00:42:04 Hannah 

OK, so, you're predicting Leclerc…

00:42:06 Rachelle 

Will score points. Both Ferraris will score points. 

00:42:09 Hannah 

So Carlos ended in P11 and Charles ended in P16. So yeah, your prediction is that Ferrari will score points. That’s a good prediction. Since it is, OK, it can really go either way. Since it's Red Bull’s home race. Of course, you kind of want to say they’re favoured a bit.

00:42:33 Rachelle 

Wait, do they train there? 

00:42:38 Hannah 

I don't know, because I don't think you're allowed to really practice or train that much. 

00:42:39 Rachelle 

Oh you’re right. 

00:42:50 Hannah 

But I'm also thinking cause do you remember in like 2018 like Germany, where it was like Mercedes’ home race? They like crumbled under the pressure. And like Toto was even wearing lederhosen. And like it was like the worst race ever for them. Like sometimes when you have too much hype you can just disintegrate. Let me start with a more low-key prediction. I think Lando will for sure have a chance at podium like, he’ll either be like P3, P4. I think cause he's he's just incredible. 

00:43:19 Rachelle 

Everyone loves Lando and wants him to succeed. 

00:43:21 Hannah 

Yes we do. I also think that, unfortunately, I think Bottas is going to have a really tough time. Like I don't think Bottas is going to podium unfortunately, even though I do think he's fully capable. I think he's just in a rut with his team. 

00:43:39 Rachelle 

I mean I would be. 

00:43:40 Hannah 

Especially with this heightened situation of this being a Red Bull home race. They're just going to put everything into Hamilton like winning. At any cost, yeah, so I think I think Hamilton will get a podium cause all Mercedes resources will be invested in him. Like barring any, you know, unexpected disaster. I think Hamilton will do really well. Yeah, I honestly I do think that it'll just be a reiteration of today where it's Max Lewis, and Checo. Today was like what you would expect from your standard Grand Prix. It's good when even though it's kind of fun to like, see disasters strike and drama from that. It is kind of nice to like, let the drivers showcase like everything they have without any weird interruptions. Are we going to do a pre-Austria episode?

00:44:32 Rachelle 

I think we should.

00:44:36 Hannah 

OK, here's what I propose, then. Listeners, if you have an Austria story or some aspect of the Austrian Grand Prix that you want us to cover in our pre-grand prix episode, please email or DM us. 

00:44:54 Rachelle 

Yes, and we will cover it. Otherwise, we will do our usual hefty research on dramatic stories or dramatic people. We like drama.

00:45:06 Hannah 

But basically for these pre-grand prix episodes, like we have to do a lot of research cause it's not as obvious what to cover, so we're especially, for these episodes, open to suggestions.

00:45:21 Rachelle 

Yes. Cause we did a couple where we covered like dramatic races. But, in the end, dramatic races are just, people crash. And then someone won. 

00:45:31 Hannah 

Which isn’t as fun to tell.

00:45:33 Rachelle 

No. But we did like covering the drama in like Singapore where they cheated. That was fun. Yeah, so we'd love to cover any cheating scandals.

00:45:43 Hannah 

All righty. OK. Well, that wraps it up for today. 

00:45:45 Rachelle 

Yep. Box box!

00:45:46 Hannah 

Box box!