Broken Bottle & Firework To The Face!? How Not To Celebrate With Lando Norris

Well, what a weekend it was in Brazil. Lando Majestic. It was one of his best drives ever, ever. Although we have to address right at the top, banging glass on anything is not a good idea. But also don't stick fireworks at a point where they can hit the driver. Max's coming from the back to finish in second with a car that he was far, far, far than happy with. Let's actually, I mean, it looked like they were playing let's talk Lewis at the same time. a computer game turned on to easy. We keep going back to one of the oldest tracks on the calendar and getting great racing. Mercedes constructors, champions. Do you think George Russell considers himself a world champion? This is a global production. To speed. It's Will. It's David. Welcome to Up to Speed. Well, what a weekend it was in Brazil, DC. It's a track, it's a race that always, seemingly always, gives us something to write home about. And once again, the weather played its part. Lando Majestic from qualifying and that brilliant pole lap all the way through the race in changeable conditions. Max from P21 to P2. Mercedes, Constructors, Champions, it pretty much had it all. Yeah, look, there was a lot of great things to reflect on. And I was sitting on my sofa. I wasn't in Brazil in the rain, which did not make me feel like I was missing out at all. But it was a Grand Prix that you didn't want to get up and make a cup of tea. Because there was always something going on. And I guess there's a bit of muscle memory in the fact that... Driving what is a fairly short lap, but a lot of lean on the rear of the car corners where it's easy to lose control, especially in those changing conditions. You know, the goat did exactly that as he came towards the pit lane and we've seen many others lose it in that very space. So I was really impressed across the board with some standout performances. The obvious one is Lando. Absolutely brilliant. Although we have to address right at the top. He's got to stop doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Banging the bottle. Like, right here, kids, banging glass on anything is not a good idea. You teach your smallest of children, don't do that. And yet he continues to do it. He's very lucky in all seriousness. He hasn't, like... Gashed his hand. Sliced his hand off, yeah. And, you know, FIA obviously need to have a little look at the podium and do a little sense check on anything that could sparkle its way into the eye of a driver. So there's the first thing. That needs a rework. Thank I think Isaac Hadjer, very strong performance out of some... Emotional weekends in the past. Alex Albon stood out. you You've got to say Kamara. Okay, he had a little ouchie in qualifying. very A couple of little ouchies. Yeah, but there was a lot of really quality driving and some questionable stewarding much. in terms of, you know, if you miss out the first chicane, well, I'll call it the Senesses, but if you go straight over there, I don't really see how you can gain advantage. And anyone who's, well, other than the fact that you haven't done the corner. I get that, but you know, a few seconds or giving the place back, but you know, I think there were some 10 second penalties for gaining advantage, which just seems, you know, how do you gain 10 seconds in any corner? Yeah, pretty mad. I mean, there's so much to talk about. George spinning in the pit lane, Lewis's amazing start, then drop off, then the kind of determination of when to stop, when not to stop. Did the team listen to him? And then when it came to the second eventuality, did he stay out too long? So, I mean, so it's one of the brilliant things about Brazil, mate, is like you end up getting so many really fascinating stories. Lawson, did I mention Lawson? Brilliant qualifier. Brilliant. Great running. Phenomenal with his job under pressure. Like what a stellar weekend for him. But yes, I was watching it in the sports bar here at Centre Parcs, which is where I'm spending the weekend for my son's first birthday. We've had the whole family here for the weekend. It's not for your son, is it, being at Centre Parcs? It's all for you. Anyway, it's... Honestly, I had to get out of the swimming pool and going down the rapids. I was like, oh God, the race is about to start running to the sports bar. It's been a great, great, lovely weekend. But brilliant weekend. I mean, look, should we start with qualifying? Should So we start with Lando's run in qualifying because... Yeah. You know what it's like to drive Brazil in those conditions. It is, as you said, like, it's such a great track. It's such a tricky track. The undulation, the off camber corners, as you said, like really having to lean on the rear of the car. And when you are in a deluge like that. How bloody hard is it to pull off a lap on the limit as Lando did? Because that was something pretty special. Yeah, absolutely fantastic. Because you are driving on the edge of adhesion of that rear tyre when you come through some of these very long corners. Even the end of the lap, which traditionally in dry is just path of least resistance, absolutely flat out. There is a point where, for those who know Interlagos well, there's a little chicane that they put in there for the motorcycle riders. Just as you go past that little chicane and you then open the steering out towards the concrete wall on the exit, as close as we'll ever get to experiencing what you watch every weekend in America with the IndyCar. Yeah. You know, you are fingertipping at incredibly high speed. I'm just going to pull a figure out of my head, probably around 150 miles an hour. You are floating a Grand Prix car on that right rear tyre. If you remember several years ago, Mark Webber managed to drop his Jaguar there and then Fernando Alonso managed to pile into him. We've seen Max Verstappen do the save of the century just beyond that very corner. Lewis Hamilton this weekend, exactly the same and amazingly got away with a little bit of contact with the barrier. So... To be able to extract more out of the performance is for me the perfect example of prime, prime quality driving in Lando and clearly a McLaren that was giving him confidence. Yeah, totally. George really annoyed that he was told to pull out of his lap and he thought he could have got a P1, had to settle for P2. Obviously he had the grid drop. But we had this amazing, I mean, obviously, already a jumbled up grid because of the weather. Fernando pulling off heroics, getting the Aston up there in the top 10. Brilliant run from Liam Lawson to get up as high as he did. But we had this bizarre scenario where there were so many grid penalties that only the pole sitter ended up starting in the position that he'd qualified in. Everybody from P2 down. ...had been manoeuvred around and had either, you know, snakes and ladders from P2 down on the grid. Utterly bizarre. Yeah, it's one of those scenarios, isn't it, with engine penalties, which I think we've touched on. In previous podcasts, I think it was of its time, the engine penalties. I understand that it does lead to watching Lewis and Max work their magic from the back. But in a meritocracy, being penalised beyond, let's say, the individual, the driver, I know it's a team sport and I know there'll be... A lot of people that can just absolutely shoot down my desire to see engine penalties be put to one side. You know, if we really want to do, just have randomness, then, you know, let's do a reverse good at some point. Although I wouldn't be a big fan of that either. But anyway, thankfully for those who did have penalties, Brazil is a circuit that you can race, you can overtake. Pay attention, Madrid. Pay attention, Rwanda. Everywhere. Yeah, pay attention anywhere. We keep going back to one of the oldest tracks on the calendar getting great racing. So what don't we learn when we go to some of these new facilities? I know, man, I know. It's madness. We will have the debate, my friend. We will have the debate about engine penalties on this week's Up to Speed Plus. So if you haven't subscribed already, make sure you do that, folks. And DC and I are going to get into the nitty gritty on engine penalties. Should they stay? Should they go? What do we replace them with? Not reverse grids, according to DC. But we'll debate all of that. To the Grand Prix itself, mate, it's easy to look at a win from pole as an easy win. And yet, I don't feel like the race yesterday was an easy win for Lando. I think it was actually one of his best drives in Formula 1 to handle the conditions, to have the team call the strategy, to have him keep his head, make the most, to win by the margin that he did and to seemingly have something still. in store that he could utilize if he ever did come under pressure. I thought it was an utterly phenomenal drive in changeable conditions. It was world, world class. It was one of his best drives ever, ever. It was awesome because of the nature of that track, the nature of the of the changing conditions. Just... Absolutely phenomenal and you know I've said in previous pods as well we're in a wonderful era of Formula One where we've got a number of world-class drivers that given the moment and given the car and given the confidence they've all got a chance of getting out there and mixing it up rather worryingly I guess for Lando and for the other guys. Is, you know, Max coming from the back to finish in second with a car that he was far, far, far than happy with, which again is just remarkable. We get so used to it, you know, and this was the sort of coming of Kimi when he went from the back in Monza to what he did there was a sort of mark in the sand of, you know, I am, I am one of the, yeah, I'm one of the true greats. Um, but... But... Traffic doesn't seem to phase these guys at all. You know, I'm thinking Bernoldi, Monte Carlo, and whatever it was, 2000, yeah, 2000, where I spent 50 odd laps behind the guy. If only I could muster up some inner Kimi or some inner Max, then it would have been fine. Too late. Oh, man. Yeah, I thought it was a brilliant drive from Lando. McLaren's strategy team got the calls absolutely right. He. He weathered the weather perfectly. And yeah, just an absolutely phenomenal drive. You've already pointed to his difficulties on the podium. I like his champagne. I don't like it smashing, but the way he's in it, he's done it for years. I know, but I bet you like starting fires as well. No, but you need a, it's, it's, you need a, you need a big kind of jeroboam and it needs to be like thick glass in order to pull it off. Let me stop you there. Let me stop you there. At no point in the history of mankind has anyone said we've made this bottle sufficient that whilst opening it, you're going to whack it on some wood or a podium or anything. Right, do not try and start a campaign for him to, you know, lobby Moet & Chandon to come up with, hear my French accent, Moet & Chandon. Moet & Chandon. The only way that's going to work is if they give him a wooden bottle or a plastic bottle, which is not the name of the game. Do it properly. Spray it. It looks to me like they're just, you know, they're trying to save money on the thickness of the glass because it used to be fine and now it's breaking all the time. So I blame, I blame. He's just getting stronger as he gets older. This is it. This is probably it. But yes, but also don't stick fireworks at a point where they can hit the driver. Probably a good, a good tip for the future. Let's talk Max though. Let's talk Max. Let's talk that drive from 21st to 2nd. Let's actually, let's talk Lewis at the same time because Both of them had, I mean, it looked like they were playing a computer game turned on to easy in those opening laps. Lewis was up to 10th or in the top 10, maybe even higher than that within the first lap. Like it was for both of them. It was ludicrous. It was it was a joy to watch. But my God, it just looked crazy. Yeah, look, it was absolutely fantastic. In many ways, we saw quite a reserved Max on the opening lap. You know, certainly going into the first, the Senna S, Lewis's start, once again, absolutely fantastic. You know, he just picked beautifully using the outside line and he really looked like he was in the game. And on the opening lap, initially, it looked like Max, hmm, does he have an issue? But then he... Gained some places towards the end of the lap and then, you know, found his feet and off he went. Lewis, brave to want to be one of the first to pit. I actually feel that the strategy team did their job in telling him that we're not at the overlap. It's not the right moment. So I feel, with the benefit of hindsight, that he was brave, but a lap early. And I think that in the case of Kimi and Max, they were conservative and a lap late. And you could argue that neither of them had anything to lose. And therefore, why take a risk? Where for Lewis, that could have been the decision of the race. Clearly, the middle sector lit up and that got everyone excited. Yes. But it was difficult in pit lane. As we saw from George Russell, it was difficult at the end of the lap. So, but yeah, look, what's interesting, he went brave at the first stop and then not so brave at the second one. Well, brave on the second one, but ultimately foolish on the second one. Whether he missed the entry or stayed out, an additional lap is, I suppose, is up for debate. It's that interesting quandary, though, isn't it, of who do you listen to in those moments? You know, should it be the guys on the pit wall or is it actually the guy whose bum is in the seat and is feeling the grip out there? If the driver, you know, Lewis. believes that the grip is sufficient of give me the slicks now, like I can make it work. Ultimately, it's in their hands then. And if it all goes wrong, it's on them. But we always talk about it. A driver is the most expensive and ultimately important sensor on that car. At what point do you... Do you keep overriding the driver, or do you actually trust in the driver at that? Because obviously they've got all of the data, and they know that coming out of Juncal, that's the wettest part of the track. It's where you need the grip the most. It's where you're going to lose the grip, where Lewis ultimately did lose the grip later on in the race. If he has that firm belief of, guys, look, I know what the data's telling you, but I can hold it. I can do it. Just bring me in and let me show you. Thank you. It's a tough quandary. It is indeed. But I think that Lewis... In those changing conditions, ultimately the driver has the ultimate call. Because if you don't think you can stay on the track when you're on slicks, you pit. If you think that you've run out of tyres and in turn it can do the crossover, then you pit. But the engineer was very clear, we're not at the crossover. They have crossover known simulations and the lap time wasn't there. And as I said, middle sector he nailed, but first and last sector he lost a little bit too much. to gain everything that he needed. So let's just be absolutely clear. Lewis was pushing the team. The team held firm. And they came in when they felt that was the earliest moment that they could come in. Had Lewis come in a lap earlier, or two laps earlier, it would have been terrible for them. And had they come in a lap later, it probably would have been perfection. But I think it was a normal, mature debate. And the driver, if Lewis felt... that the team were wrong, he would have pitted. But what he can't see is pit lane, he can't see pit out. We saw everybody tiptoeing. A driver spinning on pit out tells you everything you need to know about how difficult it was there. Totally. And listen, when we talk about it being difficult, Max, obviously, with that brilliant run from P21 to P2. Car was not perfect, though. Said it was sort of unbelievable. Uh, never experienced anything like that in the wet or the dry really, really bad, uh, for about 85% of the race. Um, once again, though, just kind of displaying the phenomenal talent that is Max Verstappen to be able to push through a car that was not, you know, even 20% to his liking, um, and pull off that kind of result. There's just, and this is three years in a row, mate, three years in a row. He's now come from the back to fight up for the podium. It's wild. Yeah, look, it's like Interlagos is the equivalent of your favourite armchair or your most comfortable pair of slippers. He just slips into it and goes, ah, I'm home. So, So, and I guess fitting that his partner, the mother of his child, Kelly Piquet, is Brazilian. Nelson Piquet, of course, a three-time world champion. So, So, yeah, does that make her officially... The most celebrated spouse having seven, not spouse, daughter and spouse were, you know, between her partner and her father, the seven world championships. So equals Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. I hadn't really thought of it like that to be honest. Here's the thing. Here's the thing, actually. I'm going off a thought here that when I was watching the podium ceremony and stimulated by the silliness that I've just said. All the Mercedes team up on the podium, George Russell up there. I felt for George because here's a thought that I've experienced. The team have won the Constructors World Championship. So every member of Mercedes, Formula One team and Mercedes high performance engines can consider themselves a world champion. But do you think George Russell considers himself a world champion? And before you answer that, I was part of McLaren when they won the Constructors' Championship. Every member of that McLaren team can say they were world champion. I never would refer to myself as world champion, even though I contributed as much as any other person in the team did. But as a driver, you either win the driver's championship or you're not a champion. So George is up there celebrating with the team, hurting inside because his teammate... And this is something I'm quite used to. His teammate has beaten him and won the world championship. So put yourself inside his head for a moment. And we will do that when we return, because still to come, we will discuss Mercedes' return to the Constructors' World Championship. Send us your thoughts on the Brazilian Grand Prix and on Mercedes' incredible return to the title at UpToSpeedShow or UpToSpeed at Global.com. Subscribe. on YouTube and shout out, as always, to our Up To Speed Plus members. Hit the join button on YouTube or hit subscribe now on Global Player. We've now also started releasing our Thursday episode a day early for Plus members. So it's not a Thursday episode. It's a Wednesday episode, which tells you we don't record it on the Thursday. We actually record it earlier in the week, sometimes on a Monday or a Tuesday. That's probably too much information. We'll be back to talk more Brazilian Grand Prix. Well, DC, after that. I think beautiful and heart-wrenching explanation of what it is to have to celebrate a world championship when you as a driver have been bested to the world title by your teammate. Thank you, mate. Let's talk about the job Mercedes have done, because they were the team to beat for a decade in Formula One, and then the new regulation set came out, and they got it wrong. They flat got it wrong. We remember when they launched that car with practically no side pods, and everybody looked at it and thought, this is either going to be brilliant or absolute dog turd. It turned out, unfortunately for Mercedes, to be somewhat of the latter, and really set them on the back for an entire regulation cycle. But how they have redoubled, how they have got back to basics and established for themselves the two principal foundations of any brilliant world championship winning team, which is the power unit and particularly for a factory team, the power unit, a solid, dependable and very strong, very powerful engine, which has been the bedrock of this new regulation set and then a dependable car and a good aerodynamic foundation for them as well. Well, two brilliant drivers. A team all pushing in the same direction and Mercedes are back on top and back to the kind of form that we saw in those brilliant Hamilton, Rosberg, Hamilton, Bottas years. Yeah, and I think we have to acknowledge Toto and the other senior managers of each of the departments, each of the departments that come up with the creative brilliance aerodynamically, mechanically, electronically, you know, the vehicle dynamics side. You need all of those working in harmony. What I think Toto's leadership, to talk about him, has enabled them to do, that in the difficult times, we've said this before, he comes out and answers the questions. In the good times, he comes out with a smile on his face and answers the questions. Leadership is about dealing with the good and the bad. And I think that's enabled. There's been very few changes in terms of headline names within the structure of that team because they were winning before. So therefore, why do you need to throw everything out? Just because you suddenly hit a difficult period and yeah, all credit to them. They've bounced back, they've bounced back with all of the excitement that comes with Kimi Antonelli and thoroughly well deserved and I thought it was quite an interesting sort of comparison when we saw Toto up on the podium and they were saying look you're now matching Frank Williams in terms of constructors championships and of course he intuitively and understandably acknowledges all There's all of the men and women that... go into designing and building that car. But it has been an incredible journey for Toto and he will be remembered for decades to come. I'm not retiring him off, but you know what I mean? He will be someone that we reflect on in the history of the sport. Yeah, it's one thing to establish a run, but then to kind of go off the boil. And bring it back again is incredibly tough. And, you know, it doesn't happen often. And when it does, I think it should be, you know, it really should be celebrated. And what Toto has done is phenomenal. But I think what's really incredible is when you look at everybody up there on that podium is how many people remain. uh from five six years ago from that run of you know that decade where they were running to those championship successes how much of that team remains as as it was or how many people have kind of come up through the ranks they haven't gone and and picked and chosen and tried to nab from from other teams obviously some have but for the most part they've come up through the ranks or they've they've been there in those roles or similar roles um for a very very long time and And that's, I think, a huge part of the... The strength of Mercedes and they all just love to say they love working for the guy. I think the the philosophy that he operates and lives under at that team. I think that the notion of kind of the not it's not no fault, but it's like it's it's. not making people feel guilty for for making errors you're free to push to to take that responsibility of your position to make the mistakes um and in making those mistakes to learn and to push forward but there's kind of there's no there's no guilt associated with it you're not you're not you know you're not you're not sort of pilloried for it and made an example of um they want you to push they want you to explore they want you to to you know If you aim for better and if you stumble along the way, so much the better because you discover more in so doing. I think the way that he operates that team, the way in which he's run it, I think it's I think it's phenomenal and Seeing that group up on the podium is a testament to those who've wanted to stay around and work for him and with him to deliver this kind of success again. Yeah, I echo what you said. There'll be a lot of nice celebrations that will happen in Brackley. And where high-performance engines are based, I forget the name of the... Bricksworth. Yes, I used to go there back in the days when it was Ilmor that blended. That was the foundations of what became Mercedes high-performance engines. So, yeah, look, congratulations to them. But we haven't quite answered the fact that should George Russell consider himself a world champion or not? Well, yes, we haven't. Yes, because I don't, even though I was a member of the world championship winning McLaren team for constructors. Now, are drivers exempt? I'm not trying to elevate myself, by the way. I'm just trying to understand why we do that. It's a really interesting one, isn't it? Does Rubens Barrichello consider himself a world champion? Does Valtteri Bottas consider himself a world champion? Does Sergio Perez? ...consider himself a world champion. It's, yeah, it's bloody hard, isn't it? Yeah, but their mechanics, their mechanics are. Of course, of course. And they'll receive a bonus. Did you receive a world championship? Did you receive a world championship bonus when the team won the world championship? Because if the answer's no, then that kind of answers the question as to whether you can consider yourself a world champion or not. If you didn't get the payment, if the cheque didn't clear, then you're not. Yeah, I only got a race bonus. I never got the benefit. And I remember when Mika, in his last season, moved over on the last lap in Suzuka, primarily so, one, he didn't have to do the podium because he was running third, I was running fourth, so he could get back to Tokyo earlier. And I think it meant he didn't finish in the top three in the championship. So he didn't have to go to... Some far-flung place to sit in a black tie function to go on stage and be interviewed for five minutes, which I think this year the top three have to go to Shanghai to be celebrated, which is great for the Chinese delegation of the FIA, but it's... Probably not the best thing at the end of a long season that the top three have to whiz themselves off to Shanghai. Well, is George even going to finish in the top three in the Drivers' Championship? Because Max, obviously, you know, brilliantly strong end to the season. He looking at the moment for all the world, like he might take second place in the Drivers' Championship. It was a difficult day in Brazil for the Mercedes drivers. George, as we've said, with that spin. On pit lane, then feeling that the car wasn't really under him at the end and asking if Kimi was experiencing similar problems. And Kimi himself, with that change from the inters to the slicks, seemingly having problems getting the temperature into them and losing all confidence, not just in the tyre, but in the car, believing that he had a suspension problem. The team couldn't find anything in the data that said there was anything wrong with the suspension. And for me in that moment, there's still that element of how young he is and how inexperienced he is that you've got Bono, you know, trying to say to him, kid, look, the car's fine. Everything that we see on the car is fine. You've got to reset yourself. You've got you've got to get in your life. Get this out of your head. Reset. It's not the car. It's the tire. Get the temperature in them and and go because like you're working yourself up. Yeah. Did you see it like, I don't know if you, did you see it like that or do you think that there maybe there was and and they just weren't seeing it? Well here at the risk of daring to make make a criticism of the new world champion who as you know I'm a big big fan of how he's gone about his business but there was a point he came on the radio and said there's something weird with And it's like, okay, Kimi, I'm thinking, how about you give us a guide here? There's something weird with the right rear. There's something weird with the braking. There's something weird with the engine. Give the engineer, the engineer is not a mind reader. He's not a psychologist. And of course he is, you know, engineeringly educated, but you can't just say, blah, blah, blah. You've got to put more meat on the bone. So it's a good reminder for even... You know, even the world champions say what you need to say to give your team the best chance of being able to interpret what it is they need to look for rather than just a magical mystery. I think I may have said this before to you. There was one of the early days of McLaren 96 and I was testing in Jerez and we were in a difficult period of the car and I made the mistake of saying to my engineer off radio. Car ---- at the moment. And he got on the radio and said to the entire team that had been up all night for three nights going, okay, everybody, can we have a little bit less ----, please? A bit less ---- from everybody. And of course, at that moment, I understandably felt this big and I learned my lesson. You don't, you just don't see, mate. If you are going to be constructive and a professional. It's about sucking up your emotions as best you can. And I'm not trying to take the emotion out of the whole thing, but there's got to be a way of expressing your emotion, but being succinct with what it is you want the team to look at. Yeah, in that moment where, you know, obviously in the end he said, you know, suspension, I think there's something wrong with the suspension. It doesn't feel right. And then we see him running off track. multiple occasions and hemorrhaging lap time and hemorrhaging positions and Bono ultimately coming back and saying, look, Kimi, we've checked the data. Suspension's absolutely fine. It's tyre temp. You've just got to reset yourself and go after this again. It's easy for us to forget how inexperienced Kimi Antonelli is. It's easy for us to forget how young he is and that there will be these occasions on which, you know, he doesn't have the full library. of experience to be able to call upon, you know, a Lewis Hamilton, a Max Verstappen, a Fernando Alonso, as great world champions ultimately do have, that he's still learning and that these moments will be educational for him and, you know, will be the things because he's a fast learner. You know, I doubt we'll see that kind of thing again, that if he... If there is a situation where he thinks there's something wrong with the car, the team tells him it's not, and it's actually why, not X, he'll be able to lock that in far faster now and go, got it, okay, move on, rather than get himself, wrapped up as he did, just I feel perhaps just a little bit got himself, you know, into a bit of a bad space yesterday. But yeah, 100%. He's at the beginning of his journey. Can you imagine how clear his mind is about life in general, having been, you know, part of the Mercedes system? He's been a racing driver. He knew his profession. He may not have known he was going to be Formula One world champion, but he knew what his profession was. For the first, you know, the end of his teenage years. So he doesn't have the learnings of Lewis and Max and these guys who've been, you know, done many more laps. But yeah, still a very strong performance and weekend from him. Just want to come back on the point standings that you'd mentioned about George might not finish third. He's on 262. And Max is on 279, so what's that? We've got 17 points between them, but he's only one point ahead of Hamilton. And we've got Leclerc is on 249, so he's not that far behind either. Oh, and let's keep an eye on Norris, who's only on 246. It's actually looking incredibly close. You could finish second, or you could finish sixth in this championship. And if you're George Russell... And to your point earlier, DC, when you stand on that podium with your whole team and have to celebrate a championship that you didn't win because your teammate won it, even though you're part of that team, you're not getting the bonus check for having won the championship. Do you really want to be flying to Shanghai at the end of a very bloody long season when actually you'd far rather be in the Seychelles than Shanghai? I can imagine George might just... Lift his foot off that throttle a little bit in the remaining tripleheader of the season and say, Lewis, Lando, have at it, boys. Keep going on holiday. On one hand, that is correct. He will not want to go to Shanghai. On the other hand... He doesn't. He can't. I know, I know. I'm playing, I'm playing. But it shows. It actually kind of highlights the difficult year that Oscar Piastri's had in seventh. You know, he's almost 100 points behind Lando. How mad is that? Top six have all been pretty tight. Well, with the exception of Kimi, of course. So let's say the next five have given us a fairly impressive battle for the world title. I was going to say, how brilliant is that as well, you know, within a regulation cycle? First year of a new regulation cycle that you have these teams that close and these drivers operating at that level that are that close. Because normally the gap's a huge year one of a new set of regulations. So to be where we're at, I think is an incredibly positive time for the sport. Now it's time to thank our partner for this episode, AWS. Every practice, every quali and on each and every lap, F1 teams are harvesting and analysing massive amounts of data. Well, the good news, fans don't have to wade through all of that raw data. AWS AI is using it to enhance how we experience the world's biggest sports. Think about it. We're getting advanced analysis that was previously only available to the teams. We can see who's gaining or losing hundreds of seconds in every sector. And we can even predict when intense on-track battles are about to happen. It's a game changer for fans and broadcasters alike, helping everyone understand the race weekend in much more detail. AWS is redefining what's possible in sports and not just in Formula One. They're helping the German Bundesliga and the PGA Tour too, delivering tailored coverage and bringing fans closer to the sports that they love. Search AWS for sports to find out more. I just wanted to sort of pick up some other things happening down towards the back of the grid. Fuel for Lance Stroll, another non-Finnish. You know, that guy just can't get a break. Um, uh, Fernando Alonso, you know, in amongst it, doing his thing. Thank He's forever young. Thank you very much. What did we think about... Camara's debut, it's kind of all happened amazingly. you Sorry for my high-pitched voice. Amazingly, he'd never driven Sao Paulo before. Yeah. very A Brazilian. But it's a thing, isn't it? The kids, they don't because they come to Europe. much. So young these days that, you know, the first time they end up... Listen, America. America, listen to your Uncle Will. If you want to be in Formula One, you've got to come to Europe and karting. Well, Colton did, didn't he? Colton Herta came to Europe, raced with Lando in, I want to say... Was it Formula Ford or something like that? Yeah, but I'm talking karting. You've got to live in Europe, is what you've just said, and I'm backing you up. Totally, totally. Yeah, look at Connor Zilich, who's doing great things in Cup Series at the moment, in NASCAR. He raced alongside Antonelli. I interviewed him earlier this year, and he was talking about racing with Kimi in European karts. A lot of the American kids come over. But for camera, yes. First time ever at Interlagos to be racing. Let's put this all together, okay? Okay. 10 days ago, he had just signed to be their driver for 2027, and now he's making his Formula One debut at home in a car he doesn't know, hasn't really tested much of. Okay, yeah, FP1's fine, but, like, no real experience of the car. Pressure. Of being in front of your home crowd and making your Formula One debut, needing to impress the team that has signed you for next year and not make them think that they've made a terrible, horrible mistake in signing you. Uh, impressing upon Ferrari who have put their faith in you and then doing it all on a weekend where the heavens open and the most treacherous, difficult conditions where even the goat in Lewis Hamilton, a seven time world champion finds himself facing the wrong way on race day, um, to be able to even make the finish I think is, is, is chapeau worthy. Um, so look, I can forgive him a couple of slip ups. I can forgive him. Running off track a couple of times, I can forgive him not really factoring in the Grand Prix, in the fight for points. I think to bring it home, brilliant. He qualified 11th, finished 20th. The fact he qualified 11th, ridiculous. The fact he even brought the car home is noteworthy. So I think a solid job and he can move on from there. But just imagine the bloody pressure on his shoulders. I thought you did a cracking job. Yep, I think I concur. And I really enjoyed actually when he was with Bortoletto in the drivers, the FIA, and Bortoletto was giggling away. I like how... How open and how communicative, I can't say that word, how good they are at communication. I'm going to get a little bit of a I'm going to get a little bit of a I'm going to get a little bit of a conversation. I just like how open and relaxed they are. I think we're continuing in a sort of golden era of drivers that give out of the car as well as in. Yes. I mean, listen, people are going to, so to your point, completely agree. I love that the personalities of these guys coming out. And I think that's one of the strong Um, facets of, of the modern era that we, that we live in, um, is how much driver's personalities are allowed to flourish and, and are positively enforced that, that way. Um, listen, some people are going to say here, Hirokuro did a better job, uh, in Mexico City finishing 10th and, you know, getting points and all of that, um, uh, Camara didn't impress as much. You've got to look at the fact that Hirokuro was in his thirties. The guy is. desperately experienced. He's a world endurance champion. He's been racing for a lot longer than Rafa Camara. He was far more ready to step in and do a job in a car and in a set of circumstances that lent itself towards the possibility of scoring points, which we should also add only came about because cars ahead of him were penalized after the flag. So I stand by, I think that For the circumstances that he was thrust into, he did a wonderful job. And he's a personality that I can't wait to see more of in the future. Yes. We've done Aston Martin. I guess the only other note really is Valtteri Bottas once again having a wheel nut that won't come off. Poor bugger. Right. That's about it for this show. As always, folks, you can get a hold of us on the socials at UpToSpeedShow. On the email, [email protected]. Subscribe on YouTube. And DC and I are going off now to record. I said we're going off. We're staying right here to record this week's special UpToSpeed Plus episode for your nerdy deep dives on all things Formula 1. Subscribe for your free trial on Global Player and YouTube. And DC and I and Naomi and Joey will see you very soon. Up to Speed is brought to you by American Express. There's always more with Amex. This has been a Global Production.