United States GP & Mexican GP Prerace 2026

Yeager Meister knows that there's people who watch the game, and people who know the game. No worse, no rivalries aren't heated. They're ice cold. They know rankings change. Traditions don't. And they know that when you drink Yeager Meister on game day, you drink it ice cold. Otherwise, you just don't know the game. So drink it ice cold, or don't drink it at all. Yeager Meister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Yeager Meister Lecker, 35% alcohol by volume. Imported by Master Yeager Meister US, Wipe Tanks, New York. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Football has a play for just about everything. You can go deep, keep it on the ground, or draw up something nobody sees coming. And whether you want to run a flea flicker or the tush push, you need a plan to fit your unique situation. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you, so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now that's a solid game plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. I think it's a good game plan. Yes, it's an idiom to say spacing out or being lost in thought. Thinking about it. Okay. Good work, Krabs. You could be forgiven for spacing out during most of this race. But don't worry. Another crab is right around the corner. I'm Drew Scalen, joining me, Danny O'Dwyer. How are you, Danny? Once again, I was saved by the shift of one discord watching the race live and meaning with all those fine patrons helps to this race be probably more entertaining than it should have been. We lived in the possibility space of a more interesting race for the entirety of the lap cat of Austin this year. It did not happen, but we were there. Indeed. Rob Zachary, not here with us today. He is on assignments this week. He's still asleep after that race. But if you are new to this podcast, a very warm welcome to you. And if you are new to Formula One itself, we've got an episode just for you. Our pre-season primer episode assumes no prior F1 knowledge and explains how the sport works and who everybody is. So if you would like to go back and listen to that. And then speedrun through the entire 2026 season. It's episode 338. Also, this show would not be possible without our audience over at patreon.com/shiftf1 where every month we release ad revisions of the podcast early, along with bonus pods and videos exclusively for our patrons that cover racing documentaries and films. F1 video games, experiments with other racing series and a lot of weird things. So if you would like to support the show and get access to all the fun stuff, head over to patreon.com/shiftf1 or click the link in the show notes. I'm going to I should maybe read. Yeah, redo the script because it's not really racing documentaries and films these days. It's no car related. We car Jason. Car Jason. Yes, I was about to say. Yeah. Well, we've been doing this podcast for, you know, over a decade. And the patreon element of it for a decent amount of that. And we have, yes. Unfortunately, due to them being monthly extra podcasts, we have rinsed most of the documentaries. I don't know if that's actually true. I don't think so. I still have a giant spreadsheet of movies and shows that we could do for the patreon bonus episodes. And there are a lot of actual more sports still on there. I think we, and probably our listeners, would like some variety. So, you know, we're keeping it cars as much as we can while also keeping it fun, Danny. Yes, we did. This month we had that we had a catch up to do because some of us went and had twins. Yeah. Goomed up the works. So we did two movies this month. And given that it is a sound Halloween spooky season. We decided to do some harm, horror car movies voted for by the patrons. We recorded maximum overdrive, which went up last week and rubber, which is going up later this week. Perhaps our most divisive episode. Yes, yes. In the history of some of us really got into the swing of what rubber was putting out there. It's a pretty esoteric movie. And it did not land for others. So, yes, plenty to talk about. I was quite pleased about the divisive opinion on that. It led to some good conversations. Yeah. Both pretty fun episodes of it. Yes. Yes, interesting movies. And maybe a good double feature given the way they tackle what a horror movie is. Yes. Yes, especially when it comes to inanimate objects, deciding to wreak havoc. We will be continuing the, I guess, seasonal representation within the movies. November, we have decided to do planes, trains, and automobiles, and American classic that I have never seen. That's right. As an American, Danny, you. Yeah, surprise. Surprise as well as an on the test. Yeah. I was about to say the same thing. We've been doing this podcast too long, mate. I'm sorry. It's getting ridiculous. Is this a national improvement spin-off, is that what I'm remembering? Is Chevy Chase in this? I know what's his face is. No, it's Steve Martin and John Candy. John Candy, I knew it was in it. Yeah, Steve Martin. Okay, okay, great. Yeah. And it's a Thanksgiving movie. Okay, is that why John Candy's in home alone? Is that like a bit of a wink and a nod? Because he's also trying to get on an airplane. Remember with the polka band? No, John Candy was just doing a bunch of movies in this era. Okay, mostly for his friends as like. Just character, actor, insert. Well, I think he. So there's a good documentary about John Candy actually directed by Colin Hanks. Oh, interesting. Yeah. From "Bounded Brothers." That's right. Yes. Anyway, John Candy just apparently was just such a nice guy. Really wanted to. Would just do a movie for a friend of his who is directing it or writing it or whatever. He's like, "Yeah, I'll be in your movie." And just. Yeah, and subsequently, it has just a lot of small parts throughout that kind of era. Nice. Okay. Well, I'm excited to do this. This is. This is a. Yeah, this is not a. Yeah, a small role. And one of his. My opinion, better performances, meteor characters. Excellent. Yes, looking forward to watching that in November and. Much easier defined on streaming. Yeah. Apologies if people wanted to watch a rubber along with us and could not find it. I recommend playing streams and automobiles if you're going to listen. You should watch it. Yeah. And if you want to watch rubber, just google a bit. And click around and turn on your adblock, maybe, for a couple of these websites. Anyway, massive thanks to all of our patrons, including our title sponsors, The Military Industrial Complex, War Isle, or IP Agberto in Igor Furman. That video game podcast. Let's Margot Racing. Eaching Well. Dr. V. Deanj. It's a me, Ferralio. Nicotine Patches. Mojo Nixon. Get Rich O'Day Ryan. Agave ATX. Cypher's training. Turf SCS. Michael Maves. Cigarettes. Telemetry deck emoji. FTC. Bottas Moustache Rides. Drew Stewart. The Ugly Building. At Turn 1. Bayley Foot. Abraham Gettel. The Space Above Us Podcast. Bunny emoji. Devil emoji. Snigs. Alex Gouche. Jeff Foster. Sorry, Jeff. Your name's not Treff. It's not your name. Troy Stammer. William Rump. Fancy Triceratops. Lecklin. The Maddened Man. Samurai Love Story. Jason Kelly. Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you, everyone, for supporting us. More. It's fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. Oh, yeah. Our shots part do. Oh, my God. Any cars in that? I know. I was just about to say. I don't think so. There is a part where he picks up a bunch of bullets and throws them at people, though. That's great. Is there a zucker or, like, is there a zaz or zaz style car movie? It's probably talented at night. It's really though. Yeah. God, I watched that movie so often. It's embarrassing. That. Hot shots part do. Talladeganites. I have a hot shots part too. It was my favorite comedy movie for, like, the first 20 years of my life. Yeah. Me and my brother watched it, and we were crying laughing. It's so good. It's, it's, like, movies like Airplane are still in the public conscious, but I don't think hot shots, the hot shots movies are. Maybe because, like, Top Gun fell out of. And Rambo and Rambo. Yeah. And, you know, that was like the first big one. Yeah. Right. Wrongfully accused. Another of my favorites. Oh, I'm sorry. Exciting who same was. No, no, absolutely not. Have you seen that one? No, what's wrong for the cute? Oh, it's a parody of the Fugitive starring Slingelson wrongfully. It's time. Who? Leslie Nielsen. Oh, you can't really? Yeah. Wow. It's really stupid. What are man? I bet there's some what are man jokes in there. Absolutely. Yeah. Should we talk about the United States Grand Prix? Sure, it'll take about three seconds. Let's run down the grid here. Kimi, Anthony Leone, Paul. I guess there was a the wind kicked up in the second half of Q3 and thus not a lot of people improved their laps. Yes. He'll start. Kimi will on the medium tires, followed by Max or Stappen in second. Isaac Hadjar getting his red bull up there into third. Then the two Ferrari, Sherlock Clare and Lewis Hamilton in fourth and fifth. George Russell, the other Mercedes in sixth also starting on mediums and then the other McLaren's, they're starting on mediums. Seventh and eighth. Oscar Pastery and Lando Norris. And then the two, sorry, the two racing bulls qualified in ninth and tenth. Liam Lawson will start ninth. Interestingly, the team had him not go out at all in Q3 because Lynn Blad had a five place penalty for engine components already. So if Lawson had qualified ahead of Lynn Blad, Lynn Blad would have started 15th instead of 14th. While in either case, Lawson would start ninth anyway. So they just said, don't go out. You'll qualify 10th and start ninth. Right. So Pierre Gasly will move up into 10th place to start. Then we got Nico Hulkenberg for Nanowalanzo, Oliver Bareman, Arvid Lynn Blad down there in 14th. Then Esteban Ocon, Carlos science, Alex Album, Sergio Perez, and Valdor Botas, the first of the hard tire runners. He and Franco Colapinto behind him will start on hards. Franco qualified 14th. He was penalized 10 places for power unit elements. Gabrielle Bordeaux starts 21st. He qualified 13th, a place penalty for power unit elements. This is the largest grid drop penalty ever in Formula 1. You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, but he's not starting from the back because Lance Strohl is starting from the pit lane after modifying his car under Park Fermé. He qualified 18th starting on the medium tires. That's a pub quiz question. Who got an 80 place grid penalty but didn't start from the back? That's right. Worth pointing out heading into this race that Antonelli could win the championship if he wins the race and Russell gets ninth or lower and Hamilton gets fifth or lower. So Danny, yes, take us through the start. What all eyes on Kimmy's got to get a good start here, especially in Austin where you are on a less sympathetic side of the grid, perhaps. And also, it's a weird start because it's uphill. Traction is usually good at the start, but it's uphill and even with the speed, if there's a gap for someone to go up the inside and to push you or swing around the outside and get you into the S's, it can happen. So it's a tricky one. A good thing for Kimmy Antonelli. He had such a good start that in the Discord, I was wondering if he had jumped us because his reaction time was incredible and his second phase was excellent as well. So he gets off the line really good, surges into first. For Stappen has a fine start. Maybe not as good as the cars around him, but Kimmy was so powerful that he was away. So for Stappen is basically under pressure for the Ferrari cars almost immediately. On the exit of turn 1, that hairpin at the top of the hill, they're both yapping at his heels for either side, but because of the way in which the car is sort of re-progressed into the racing line, it's Le Clare who ends up being in the most advantageous position and then pulls off a remarkable high speed overtake on the entrance to the S's. Hamilton attempts to do it as well, but just based on, again, track position where the braking zones are, there's not really a window for him to get an overtake on. For Stappen, so he does retain third place. Maxwell Stappen, meanwhile, further down the grid, our friend Arvid Limblad in his, what was it, place 14, he said he was in. He has a not great start and signs tries to go up the inside of him against the pit wall and then ends up touching the pit wall because he runs out of space because Limblad slides over to the left. So a little bit of a, a little bit of a damage to car to signs his car right at the start of the race. Yeah. For Stappen, just not getting the start that he wanted and the same goes for his teammate, Hadjar, who is after the first few corners, being hounded by Russell, Russell going off the track and then as he rejoins, touching tires with piastery, which earns him a five second penalty. There was some confusion on the broadcast about whether that was for going for it on Hadjar, but it was. Yeah, they showed it completely different replay on the TV of him going off at the end of the straight, which was not where he got the penalty for. Right. So the stewards were apparently considering a 10 second penalty for that contact with piastery, but they mitigated it because Russell had been fighting with Hadjar and, you know, lap one stuff. Hadjar said he thinks that the Red Bull clutch needs to be redesigned because it is on his, in his opinion, too sensitive to temperature. Yeah, both of them were really hammer in the car today are this weekend. Yeah. And for Stappen also hammering the circus, which we'll get to later on. Yeah. By the end of the lap, though, for Stappen has found the gas pedal again and retakes second place from LeClair. We did get some yellow flags and a brief virtual safety car, if I remember correctly, debris from a collision with Colopinto. Yeah, I think somebody was saying like this guy's pieces of his car are coming off in front of me, but I don't think we ever saw that. No, they never showed it on the broadcast, but I did see later actually once they'd cleared the yellow flags that it seemed to be at the start of the straight is where stuff landed. But I think maybe stuff landed lots of places because that didn't seem to be where the stewards, sorry, where the marshals were picking up the debris, but yeah, it was a bit confusing because there was yellow flags up, but nobody seemed to know where because they would clear the yellow flags by the time the cars got around to that part of the track. And then they re-engaged the yellow flags that they were clearly sending marshals out in between while the cars were sold backed up into each other and just thrown up the yellow, just in case. Lapto, more contacts between gasoline and baremen who dives up the inside of gasoline as he turns in, making contact with gasoline's barge board, earning himself baremen a 10-second penalty. Yeah, it was a bottle. And eventually he goes out baremen does with damage to his front wing. I don't know that I've ever heard this, but on the radio replay, YouTube highlights, you can hear his team ask him baremen to, like, all they tell your version of the events through the stewards. Funny. Like, actually, like, we hear drivers explain all the time, like, what, like, he turned in on me because, you know, in making their case for the stewards, but I've never heard a team actually prompt the driver to do that. Yeah, so like, come on, this is part of the game, you're supposed to do this, you know, give us some evidence here. We're like, you don't wait until after the race happens. We might be given a penalty turns out they were 10 seconds. Maybe interesting to write something on. Yeah, potentially. The commentators, the sky commentators, it's funny whenever you can tell that they've decided, oh, this might be a race that new people are watching. Oh, 100%. Yeah, we got this one. They were explaining, like, what a barge board is. And in a way that they don't usually do. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, Brundel does the whole explains what DRS thing is or whatever, or, you know, yeah, they throw in all the, all the usuals, which, I mean, makes sense. It's a race that's on, you know, in the relative. I wonder who's telling in America. Like, because sky doesn't have a vested interest in. I'd say they're there so they know, like, they know the vibe and the stadium is probably, oh, to America again, like, historically, this was the one that the American watching. Yeah, like this was always the race where the American drive to survive audience was, you know what I mean? Before the two other US races. So I bet it's just, you know, something that I doubt they're told. I'd say it's just, honestly, there's that. And also the fact that it was nothing happening in this race probably helped. Maybe. Yeah. I mean, I guess I just, it feels normal to me when they were doing this on the drive to survive up swing. But now I kind of feel like, yeah, we're, we're there. I've got it's, well, I hope this isn't your first race. That's all I'll say. Yeah. Okay. So lap nine, Alonso tries to make things interesting here by attacking Albonne up the inside of turn one for 15th, but he goes deep and signs or um. well boy, Albon gets him back as they head into the S's. I would say the most interesting thing about this race is the pit strategies here and how they differ and how they may or may not pan out. Verstappen is the very first driver to pit going from second place from soft tires to soft tires committing himself to a two stop. Yes, slot 14. He comes out in eighth but a lot of drivers are ahead of him that need to pit and they shortly do and by lap 18 he's up to fourth right behind Russell and gets by at the end of the back straight. Russell finally pits on lap 23. It serves his five second penalty. Hadjar interestingly also started on the soft tires like Verstappen but goes long and on lap 23 is running in second because of everyone pitting ahead of him. He then is told by his engineer to let max buy. Of course there are different strategies. Hadjar responds, "I don't want to lose race time. I can't let buy. Sorry." His engineer is like no mate. This is what you'll do. I thought that was really funny. Well, it was just ridiculous because Verstappen was like eating up seconds per lap on everyone. Yeah, it's just like what are you doing? Yeah, Verstappen not happy with this sarcastically commenting over the radio. Like great strategy sticking me in dirty air. Another race where his radio isn't working too well, though. Yeah, he had a big trouble with this. And also, Jean-Pierre Lampiace was he's away for the next few races which presumably is someone in the discord reminded me is because GP is leaving. That's right. It's probably just to get the new relationship orientated ahead of next season. Yeah, or some stipulation about him not being able to be with the team for proprietary reasons. Oh, I don't know. I think it's only for next few races, but maybe. Okay. All right, let's take a quick break and then we will be back with the end of the United States Grand Prix. How do you guarantee your Jaeger Meister is always ice cold? Well, you could move to Antarctica. Sure, frostbite is a thing. Your dating apps won't let you send your radius to 3,000 miles. And your neighbor is an emperor penguin who honks outside your egg blue. Or you could just keep your Jaeger Meister in the freezer. Drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jaeger Meister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jaeger Meister will occur 35% alcohol by volume imported by mass Jaeger Meister US White Plains, New York. You can go deep, keep it on the ground or draw up something nobody sees coming. That's why State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. All right, lap 24, Anton L.A. finally comes in for his one and only stop with a race going from medium to hard tires. Comes out and forth behind the Claire. But again, those other guys are going to have to stop again. I saw that they tried a first person camera on the Ferrari pit crew. But I think it didn't work. The camera was kind of pointed at the ground. So maybe they'll tweak that for Mexico. I'd like to see that school angle. lap 26, Hadjar Racing, Piaestry coming out of the pit. And is weird, Hadjar super slow as Piaestry encounters him and has to honestly take avoiding action. But suddenly Hadjar speeds up and keeps the place. Some real hectic radio here from him and his engineer. I guess he had some issue where he got stuck in a pit mode or something. The engineer saying, I don't fully understand control is a lease. Yeah, like you have only have throttle above 40% or something. Hadjar just in true Hadjar fashion. Absolutely losing. Oh, yeah. He did not have a fun race. I mean, neither of them days had red belt, but yeah. lap 30, Leclerc closing, you know, for Stappen, who's complaining about his car being undrivable. His engineer asked him for a front wing update. And he's like, I have no idea. I don't even know what to do. I don't know if I want more or less. He finally, his second pit is on lap 32, puts on mediums. And it's a slow pit stop, too. Yes. Just see the frustration. But the front, Ansonelli doesn't have to wait Leclerc to pit again and passes him on track at the end of the back straight. Hamilton gets by lap 43 on Hadjar up the inside to turn one for fifth place. Leclerc asking if his pace is enough to catch Ansonelli. And his engineer responds that it would be, but he still has to clear Norris and for Stappen. And by lap 47, there's kind of a train here of Verstappen, or sorry, Norris in second, then Verstappen and Leclerc. Yes. And as they run up the hill to turn one, Leclerc looks like he's got a run on Verstappen. And Verstappen dives to the inside. But instead of merely defending from Leclerc, overtakes Norris, for second place. I thought this was kind of like an illusion, like a trick of the eye. I thought, you know, oh, he's just blocking him, but oh, he's by, he's got by Norris. I thought that was a good move. Yeah, it was great. Especially because we were so thirsty for any action by the stage. It was pretty nice to see three cars racing each other. Because by the way, by this stage, Ansonelli is like 17 seconds off the road. Yeah. I mean, the, the, the big one is, is Hamilton, because he's, he's been told by his engineer that a podium in the cards is in the cards. And therefore, you know, we might get a Hamilton versus Verstappen battle at the very end of the race. And worth mentioning as well, the Russell is in eighth position at this stage. So as the math works out, that is the lowest place he needs to be in to stop Ansonelli from winning the championship. Where did Hamilton need to be? Like four or something? Fourth or higher. Okay. And Hamilton's in fifth at this stage. Yes. So it looks like it's, he's, Ansonelli's not going to win the championship here, but unless a safety car or something weird happens, Danny. Exactly. Before we get there, though, look, Claire gets by Norris, letting Norris defend at the end of the back straight and then cutting back underneath him in the, in the next session. I thought this is a pretty good move. Sort of shows the awareness of an F1 driver, the four site of like knowing what the other car will do. Norris's engineer talks to him about options. They eventually decide to stay out even though it means that Hamilton will probably pass him, because they'd still stay ahead of Hajar presumably, whereas Pitting would drop them behind. So I rated this a two out of four strategy race stretch going on. But that is not much else. The Claire lap 49, the Claire has just too much pace for her staff and his hard tires. Eight laps newer than for staffens. And steams by on the back straight. And then two laps later, Hamilton gets by Norris up the instead of turn one. But instead of getting that for staffen, Hamilton showed down in the closing stages. Botas pulls over with the problem, bringing out the virtual safety car and robbing Hamilton of time to catch for staffen in the park in the middle of the truck or something, you know, puts out their battery. And smelly's told that if it switches to a full safety car, then pit, but it doesn't. So he stays out. And the VSC ends with three laps to go with Botas's car, still hanging in the air as they go green. They did a good job grabbing it. The truck there just like extended over the wall and just went, oh, don't mind if I do. It was like Monaco, you know. Yeah. And that's how we ended. Kimi and Sonelli wins the race. Sherlock Claire's second Max or step in third. Lewis Hamilton not able to catch him. We'll finish fourth. Landonora's fifth. And yeah, that's that's Hamilton above. That's fifth place magic spot. Isaac had your sixth Oscar PS. Three seventh George Russell eighth ahead of that magic spot in ninth. By the way, race fans pointed out, Russell has scored as many points as Hulkenberg in the last three rounds. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. Hulkenberg as well. Hulkenberg watch was was in effect for this to see if he could get points, but in typical Hulkenberg forum. He came in in 11th. That's right. Yeah. Just behind Liam Lawson in ninth and Pierre Gasly in 10th. And yes, Hulkenberg 11th, Arvid Lindblad 12th, Gabrielle Bordeaux in 13th followed by Ocon. Who was like, hey, I'm faster than the bearman. This team was like, we don't care. Yeah. You're a sucker. Yeah. If you're our least favorite child. You're going away to college next year. We don't care about you anymore. Lance Droll 15th followed by Alonso Albon signs and Perez, then the DNFs of Botas, Colipinto, after that contact with somebody and bearman after that contact with Gasly. And that is the United States Grand Prix. 2026. Should we take it to the news, daddy? Yeah. Oh, just a quick little update on the championship. I mean, oh, yeah, I was trying to think if this is. the most, like the least competitive championship deciding situation of all time going into this race, because, for him, for Kimi Antona to not win the championship, for the rest of the season, requires him to basically score zero points on Russell to win every race, because they're like, is it like a point now? It's like, it's, it's like, I think it might just be like a point or two is the Delta required to clear, you know, so basically Kimi wins if the two, if either of those races in the Middle East could cancel two wins, and if he manages to get a point in the next in the rest of the season, how many races are there? Like, I don't think there's ever been an F1 season where it's been like the odds on this must be appalling, you know what I mean? Yeah, not that I enjoyed sports back. I imagine there was probably some Schumacher era seasons where the championship got wrapped up earlier, or you know, that all, or Hamilton, you know, we're in their dominant areas, but I don't know. That's a, that's a good question for the stats heads out there. Yeah. Let me, let me run down the while we're talking championship, the driver standings here. Sure. Because despite Kimi Antona's 123 point lead, and I think there's a maximum of 125 points, as you say, Danny. Okay. So two and yeah, easy as one, two, three. George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and LaClaire are separated by nine points. Wow, that's wild. With five races to go, that is completely up in the air. Lando Norris in sixth, followed by Oscar, Piazdry in seventh. Lando's 22 points afield, and then Piazdry, a bigger gap. What is that? 65, 65, 65. Yeah. He's in seventh, Isaac Hadjar, eighth with 105, Liam Lawson in ninth with 77, Pierre Gasley in tenth, 42. Arvid Lindblad is 11th, and we've got Colipinto, bearman Hulkenberg, Bordeletto, Okan. Okan Alonso in sides are all tied on points. Alex Albon is in 19th with five, Yuki Senota still hanging in there. 20th place with one point and straw, Botas and Perez all have zero points. Team standings, Mercedes is on top with 607 to Ferrari's 474. Red Bull is in third with 355. Is this right tied with McLaren? Wow. Amazing. See, there's still stuff happening. It's all to play for. Raising Bulls in fifth, Alpine in sixth, Genos in team in seventh, Audi's in eighth, Williams 9th, Aston Martin 10th, and Cadillac in 11th with zero. Ok, the news, Danny. The news. He's speaking of the potential cancellation of races. Yeah, so obviously when it comes to Los Serial and Qatar and the Abu Dhabi Gompri and the United Arab Emirates, these are both races that are on the eastern side of the Middle East, if that's confusing. Sharing a little bit of water there with the nation of Iran, who was currently embroiled in a war with various folks in that region. Various folks. Various folks in that region and not in that region. And obviously, you know, they have FOM and AFI have repeatedly stated that these races will go ahead, despite the fact that lots of other racing bodies have cancelled races in the region. And Stefano Domenicale, CEO of AFI has also indicated that this decision would have been made by mid-September. However, they are sort of just biting their time at the moment over this and saying that it should go ahead. But we got an interesting quote from Carlisign's junior. I'm not quite sure what, because he's not the head of the-- He is the Grand Prix driver's association director. Oh, okay. He is. Okay, yeah. Well, that clears up the first quote a bit, because yeah. So he said, well, it's weird then that he's giving these quotes, not wearing his director hat. Right. Yeah, the quotes, yeah. He says, on my personal side, I'm not speaking as GPDA director. It's very difficult to be convinced right now, because there are still things happening, plenty of things happening in the Middle East. And also, there's obviously an election that's going to happen in the US and things that are going to happen in the political side of the world that could affect the next month and month and a half very suddenly. The elections he's referring to are the midterms that are happening over the next few weeks here in America, which largely dictates the balance of power with regards to some of the houses that sit underneath the president. This is the Domino theme meme, right? Yes, exactly. Yes. And there's likely to be a fairly-- If not a blue tsunami, a blue wave when it comes to Democrats getting seats in the House and the Senate. So I think it's-- Oh, don't say that to me. So I think it's relatively premature to be so convinced, but as it stands, we will go to Katar and Abu Dhabi, if the FAA and Formula One decide that it's not a safe and good scenario. I think we as drivers have to do whatever they say. We don't have as much political information, as much inside information as they have for sure. So we have to follow their lead and trust in their decision-making, but only as it stands. We have to be surprised at this. The fact that he is saying, as the GDPA, they are prepared to follow F1's guidance. Oscar P. Astre also in this article says he's prepared to quote, "put our trust in the FAA and F1." Really? Not because-- I don't know. They have a vested interest in going there. Like you have a vested interest in your own safety. So while yes, they may have more information. I don't know. This is just kind of a surprising to hear them say that. MotoGP writers, I think, are of the opposite opinion. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, I'm not that surprised considering the sort of political inertness of many of these drivers. I mean, it's not even a political thing. Like, this isn't like when they canceled. It was Bahrain, right, back in the day when the Saudi tanks went over the bridge. And a number of drivers pulled out. Button, I think, Weber, maybe? I forgot. Yeah. Here's from Motorsport. MotoGP writers consider legal action as guitar, grand prix, concerns, grows. So complete. And listen, I think someone pointed this out in our discord. When MotoGP writers think something or is too dangerous, listen. Yeah, exactly. They don't suffer fools. Those bike riding maniacs. They're like, the only person who can be put myself in danger is me. Thank you very much. Yeah. So, you know, it's less of a, this is obviously less of a capital P political issue for these drivers. This is obviously more of a safety concern. But yeah, like, I don't know. We're a month out from guitar. Yeah. And you know, they're Iranians have been, they've been able to hit Saudi cities on the other side of the peninsula. Like, you know, this is, you know, I don't know. I think this is. I understand the money reasons behind us on a sporting level. There's almost no reason, except for the constructors battle for third or whatever. There's almost no reason to run these races anyway, except. So it's, if there was ever a year, if there was ever an easy year to cancel the last couple of races, it's this year. Do you think, I mean, there's got to be some pressure at least to pretend that these are going to happen so that the championship isn't wrapped up faster, right? Although the article points out that if there is a contingency plan, if they can't go to Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the final two rounds will be hosted in Emola. They said both. I think that's true. I knew they're going to do one race in Emola, but it's going to, we're just going to have the Emola ending to the to the seas. That's very funny. Yeah. So while this is from race fans, while FOM and the FIA has repeatedly stated the races will go ahead. They have made arrangements for Emola and Italy to take over as the venue for the, oh, for the finale. Yeah, yeah. Okay, folks, here we go. We can run the last two races in these brand new, you know, as dangerous location, but purpose built F1 tracks. So what we're going to do is we're going to go to the narrowest track that we can find to ensure that. there's much like the rest of this, the most of the latter half of the season, there is as little overtaking as possible. Yeah, that's the well, we'll just hope that a couple of people have been at Akra Minerali and then, you know, speaking of fear of injury, Danny. Yeah, this has been an interesting development. We don't necessarily hear about, you know, we hear about tracks that have weird surfaces that are old or, you know, in cities or whatever it is, but, and lots of the drivers predominantly max are stopping complaining about the surface of circuit of the Americas. Apparently, you know, since it's been built, there has been, they moved a lot of earth to build this track. It was one of the most talked about aspects of this race track was them building the massive hill, which involved piling and also digging lots of earth and then using that earth on different areas of the track. And it turns out that a number of places, apparently, one of the worst spots is the end of the long back straight and have considerable amounts of bumps on them, which when you are a F1 car, you know, riding a couple of inches off the ground is very, very uncomfortable for them. To the point where Max just happened to apparently has some lower spinal issues due to being an F1 driver, I guess, much like being a rugby player. You're just going to walk away from the sport with a bit of a dodgy, bad back, but his apparently are quite poor. And he raced in a whack earlier last month and drove around Coda and said that the bumps had gotten worse, but we have a quote here from the race. This is from for Stappen. You can make the excuse that the soil is the problem, but then you should have known that and you need to make sure you reinforce it more. I love this track. I love this place. It's one of the best layouts ever. And it's one of the best venues, best cities to be asked, but for me, the bumps that we have here are unacceptable. One time they've been grinding a little bit here and there, but it's just, but it's just you're putting a plaster on a big problem. And that's just what's coming underneath. That's what you need to actually tackle in the first place. But the means you need to really fully open the track. Sorry, but that means you need to fully open up the track that costs a lot of money and time, but honestly, that's the only way to get rid of it because these bumps are not natural and they are out of control. His words echoed by a number of other drivers, Landon Ars, who apparently is also taking headache medication here to deal with some of these issues. George Russell as well, and making similar accusations. So yeah, I mean, I don't know what you do, you know? Yeah, I was going to pull a couple of quotes here from this, this article on the hyphenrys.com for seven says, I can tell you from the checks that I've done from my spine, the bottom end doesn't look that great. Russell points out that we're not an Indie car or an F2 car that runs ride heights reasonably high. Our ride height is 10 millimeters at the end of the straight. So any tiny bump, you really feel it. And yeah, Nora says, there are a lot of places I need to take headache tablets before I go out simply because it's so bumpy and you're hitting your head pretty hard against the headrest and things because of the bumps. So certainly not a nice thing. No, right. We talked about that a few years ago, the what was it called? It's like the micro concussion issue of constant head rattling over, you know, a concussion being a particularly forceful shaking of the brain right with that stalling action. Yeah, yeah, the poor person and stuff. So I mean, that's not that's not wonderful. No, these guys aren't getting like set on fire anymore or launched out of their cars into the Ardenne forest, but they are suffering in lots of other ways. You know, first happens is people can say they're worse sports out there for damage to parts of your body for sure, but that's why I'm not doing them. That's why he's like, I could have been an amazing quarterback, you guys. I just, I just, that's why I picked, I picked the sports that is easiest on the body. You're right. Not table tennis. Oh, no. That's a great line. That's a great line. Finally, the race also has an article here with a headline, "Herda could replace Botos at Cadillac." Speaking of one of the people who are a herda. Whoa, it was right there. Wow. Sorry. I just wanted to point this out because there are some teams that have not confirmed their drivers for next year. Cadillac is one of them. Are we confirmed that they're going to be here next year? It's going to be like, you know what? It's didn't work out. They like the last two races of the season. Think that they're going to be racing bulls also has not confirmed their two drivers lost in and Lynn Vlad. And I don't know if bearman has been confirmed at house. I know he is in a contract dispute at the moment. Apparently, it's over a salary. It's over wages. Okay. So apparently both parties want him to stay, but they are having trouble agreeing on a number. What I did think was interesting here in this article that the races has compiled the amount of super license points that are required for a new driver to enter F1. It's 40. Herda is at 39. So as a result, Cadillac is putting him in another practice session where you get one super license point. He's already done quite a few for Cadillac. So if you're not planning on hiring him, why are you doing that? Yes, because I'm guessing the penalty points that those points are a time gated in some way. Yeah, I don't know when they expire. So it could be that they're just preparing him for a potential 2028 seat, because he's not, he's currently in the 19th. He's 19th out of 22 drivers in Formula 2. And the race says it's unlikely that he'll stay in F2 for another season. But he has made it clear he'd still like a racing program of some kind next year. Right. So I don't know if that means Formula E, super formula, something else, or just continuing test driver, I don't know. But it sounds at least from all of this that he is the heir apparent. It's just a matter of when. Which I guess is good for him. All right, that's it for the news. Danny, let's take it to Mexico. Off we go, folks, we're here. We're arriving. That's America. Keep going. We are going to Mexico are my friends, the Mexican Grand Prix. It feels like a new Grand Prix. We've had a Mexican Grand Prix over the years. As early as 1963, we enjoyed racing here up until 1970. And it went away for a while. Then in 1986, it came back and then it went away again in 1992. We just could not stick it. But in 2015, we returned to Mexico at AutoDromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The Rodriguez brothers, hermanos. You're an arrested development fan. Oh, yeah. Thank you. I'm going to find these hermanos. Exactly. I'm going to find these hermanos, brother. Yes, we returned here. It's a funnel, funnel race track is the circuit. Hermanos Rodriguez, we've had, I'm interested in the form book here. I feel like it's mostly been fine races. We had a couple of great ones where we had some incidents and whatnot. And yeah, it's an interesting track. The first section is largely occupied by the two main straights on this track. The area at the end of turn one, always reminded me a bit of Sochi. I don't know why I think it's because it's like a bunch of turns and then straight into another straight, although that's fairly common. We've had a lot of incidents here at the end, a turn one. Then sector two is largely technical as a bit of an asset section, but there's not many overtaking spots into this one. And then sector three is one of the shorter sector threes on the calendar and is largely dominated by a baseball stadium that the drivers drive into and then out of historically, there has not been many overtakes here. But last year, I think it was where people were suddenly making moves in the turn 14/15. I mean, that's one turn. I don't know why they gave it two turns there section. So plenty of places to try it up the inside, I guess. It's 4.3 kilometers, 2.67 miles, pretty good in terms of what I have heard. Both the capacity, 300,000 people can get into the stadium here, sorry, get into the various seating and standing positions around this track. And we've also heard anecdotally from people emailing in that this is one of the easiest to get to and subway lines and buses and everything, bringing you straight there from the center of Mexico City. So yeah, apparently if I want to go to, I definitely want to go to it. The other thing to mention about it is, of course, Mexico City is quite high in terms of altitude. I actually don't remember how high. Let me look it up. - It's more than a mile, I think. - Is it really? - Yeah. - Take that Denver. - God, you're, woof, seven point, 7,350 feet. - That's a lot. - Like this guy on the plane, you feel that. - That is, God, no, Denver's like only six, is it? That's Denver. Denver's 5,280, yeah. So 7,000, yeah, that's like the highest point in Tahoe or something, isn't it? - Yeah. - But it's quite high. So yeah, so the cars run hot here. They wheeze a little bit for air. And historically, I remember Red Bull always doing well here as a result of that. But I'm not so sure with the current monkey gear box that they have according to our good friend, Hadjar, whether or not that will be the case. So we'll have to wait and see. But yeah, it'll be interesting and likely to crown a champion and unlike Texas, land of the free, where you need to be 21 to enjoy some of that champagne Mexico, the drinking limit is 18. So our good friend, Kimi Anstelli will be spraying some of the good stuff if he wins the race. - That's right. All right, yes. I was surprised to look at my document. Rated all the races and see that I've rated the past three as entertaining, three out of four. - Oh, Mexico. - Prior to that, it was a two and then a one. - Okay. - Yeah. - It's good. I'll take, you know what, you know what true? - Yeah, I'll take it. - Great. - I'll take it right now. - Give it to me. - Weather-wise? - Hot. - So we are, are we doing a sprint? - No. - We're doing a regular old race weekend. - Thank God. - Sadder. - I'm not printing down on F1, folks. I'm not. I'm not. Could you imagine if you won the championship by the sprint? - That would be so depressing. - Oh, that would be awful. - Yeah, maybe that's why they don't have a met the end of the season. - Maybe. - You don't want the bad press. - That would be awful. - Oh my God. - We're looking at 77 on qualifying day, Fahrenheit, and dips just a little bit to 76 on race day. That is 25 and 24 degrees Celsius. Respectively, precipitation across the weekend is zero percent. - Great. - Any wind? - Wind looks light. - Okay. - Four to five miles an hour, or, you know, six to eight kilometers an hour, out of the north during qualifying and race time. So just balmy. - Do these cars, you're asking a pilot here. Is this a situation where the cars need to worry about density altitude? - I mean, yeah. I mean, the temperature definitely has an effect on the density of the air and the hotter it gets, the more the already starved engines will be starving. And, you know, aerodynamic elements as well. - Oh right. - So I imagine that just like Monaco and Monza, you've got Mexico specific aeroplane. - Set up parts, you know, and set up. - So. - That's wild. - Can I do a little bit of a rundown just to remind people about the end of the season? Just to be safe for gas, yeah. So Mexico City is, we're kind of back to back to back on these ones, folks. You know, we just came off the U.S. Grand Prix, Mexico's next, and then the following week is Sapello. So we're down to Brazil. Congratulations to Lula. The vibes might be good there. Who knows? I'm not sure how Sapello is about it. And then we are back to Vegas after a week break. And then allegedly a week later they're in Qatar. So they're in Vegas for basically Thanksgiving weekend. Is that what that is? When it's Thanksgiving in 2026 is on November 26th. So, okay, so it just got that's a late Thanksgiving, isn't it? Isn't it usually the last Thursday of the month? Second last Thursday? - I don't know. - I forget. Well, I, you would know, excuse me. - Yep. - I can master them. - I look at the calendar as well. - It wasn't on the test. So yeah, just before Thanksgiving. And then, so wedged between Thanksgiving is, yeah, is between Las Vegas and allegedly Qatar. And then Abu Dhabi is supposed to be a week after that. So the last two races are supposed to be back to back 'cause it's like a triple header and a triple header. Basically, US, Mexico, Seattle, altogether, Las Vegas, Qatar, I can't believe they're going from Las Vegas to Qatar in like eight, eight, seven days. That's, yeah. Less, sorry, seven days, five days for whatever it is. So that's allegedly what's supposed to happen. But we could have the final race of the season in Vegas on November 21st. We'll have to see. Honestly, the problem I have with those last two races is if they don't have the reason to cancel them now, I don't think they're going to get them. Unless there is a significant increase in activity on that side of the peninsula. I mean, you don't, you don't think there's, I think there's gonna be doubt right up until. Yeah, you know what I mean? I don't think we're gonna, yeah, yeah, that's why. Yeah, what point do you, like do you cross the Rubicon of? Right. Like we are now in the zone where we can't spin up Emola. Right. Yeah. And then oh, no, we can't actually go to Qatar. We have to cancel. And at what point does Emola even, yeah, I don't know. There's so many things 'cause obviously like legal issues when it comes to like, you know, some teams will want Emola because maybe they can grab third place or whatever it is. There's all these things going on. Millions of dollars for the team for it to stay here. But it is weird. At what stage is running Emola even? Is there any point to it? You know what I mean? If they're gonna have to prepare the track presumably, they're preparing a track to some degree already just to make sure, you know, like those tracks aren't set up for an F1 weekend. Em, you know, 24 hours of the day. So that was the wrong thing to say. It's 12 months of the year. There we go. Yeah, very bizarre, very bizarre, bizarre end to a season. Yep. Well, they've canceled races at the very last minute before. So hopefully there's no global pandemic this time. You're right, yes. Oh, all right. Well, I apologize again for being unable to log in to the shift F1 fantasy league. Oh, no. I don't know what's going on here. Yeah, you're so bad. So I'll try to remember to shout out everybody, all the winners from this weekend. In subsequent episodes, we can also send us an email if you like. Shift F1 podcast or Gmail.com or fn.co/emails and you can hit us up on the socials, if you like, using the link in the show notes. That's us around the internet. Should we take it around the world, Dan? ♪ Let's rinse around the world ♪ We've got those craftsmen trucks at Martin'sville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia for the Blacks Tire 200 presented by Down East Heating and Air Conditioning. The name of the race was so long, it broke the word wrapping on their web page. Fantastic, that's always a great sign. We gotta get them all in there. The NASCAR O'Reilly series, also in Martin'sville for the National Debt Relief 250. That's depressing. Is that payday loans thing? I don't know. Hey, look at, Supang, it's hosting MotoGP this weekend. Selengor, Malaysia. The integer array is in Vegas. Yes. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Las Vegas Nationals. And we got NASCAR. Yeah, we are Martin'sville. How's we, Martin? Sure are such a great host, Martin. Xfinity 500. That's a short name, that's real good. That's how many bytes per second you're getting on your Xfinity connection. Yeah, you can do as big a total on your website. You can go H4H1H2, even H3, would you believe? I think those don't, don't those get smaller as you go? Yeah, one's the biggest. Yeah. And, and for me the one, maybe you've heard of it. Friday, October 30th, things kick off this weekend with Free Practice 1 at 2.30 p.m. Eastern time, followed by Free Practice 2 at 6 p.m. Eastern. Saturday, October 31st, Halloween. Ooh. Yeah, I get ready for a Dia de los Muertos in full effect. Sugar skulls everywhere, baby. That's right. Free Practice 3 kicks off at 1.30 p.m. Eastern, followed by qualifying at 5 p.m. Eastern. But the race everyone Sunday, November 1st at 3 p.m. Eastern. I should have gone to Mexico this year. Dia de los Muertos as well. Oh my God. Yeah, this one in Japan are up there for me. Yeah. Good shining. Nice people, good food. Yeah. I feel Mexico City is just a cool place. Yeah. Too. Well, that's what's going on this weekend. Danny, what happened to this day in history? October 27th, Jim Clark wrapped up another flag to flag victory today in 1963 when he stuck his Lotus on pole for the Mexican Grand Prix. in Mexico City and then dominate the race to win by a minute and a half, like seeing it used to be worse guys. That's gotta be a lot for it. It was his sixth win of the season which meant he equaled Fangeo's record for championship wins a single season with a race to spare. Wow, six, six. Okay. In December, he won the set African Grand Prix. Oh, at East London, I forgot that was the name of the town that they did the set African Grand Prix. We're just naming towns after other towns all over the place. Well, when most of the people there who are dominating the culture. Well, we've got Baghdad, California, though we got Lebanon, wherever that is. Have you been to Baghdad, California? I've not. I have been to Baghdad. I drove through it. It's just south of the Mahave. It's got a gas station. It's got a subway. Great. It has one of those gas stations that has a subway in it and that's basically it and then a bunch of trailers. It's amazing. I didn't I didn't know. I was like, just I didn't know about it. I was just driving down and I was like, you were fucking kidding me. This is basically the Baghdad. Yeah, amazing. Well, Clark was out at the front in his own in the Mexican Grand Prix. His rival, Jack Braben, had a far more interesting race. He had started 10th on the grid but produced a great drive to work his way up to second before the checkered flag fell. This guy has never seen Isaac Hajar. There are so many towns named Lebanon in the United States. Must be a lot of Lebanese people came over here and we're like, all right, it's a good spot. It's a good spot. We're good. Okay, you can also go to lebanonusa.com. Meet America's Lebanon's all of them. That's danger. I would not be giving the this idea. I would not be giving the IDF coordinates to all of the Lebanese places they can invite. In the about section, my name is fatty. Excuse me? F-A-D-I. Oh, sorry. Bucaram and I am a photographer from Lebanon, the country, in the Middle East. I'm going on a five-month road trip to document all the 40 plus cities, towns, and villages called Lebanon in the United States. Amazing. I would 100% buy that book. That is. Wow. We got Lebanon, Michigan. Lebanon, we got to put this in the show notes. This is so good. Has he done it already? Let's see. The most recent was 2020. Was it was it was it February 2020? August. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That is such a good idea. I should do the same here. There's obviously this Dublin, California. Radio lab, interview him. Oh, cool. Brilliant. There's also a Waterford, California. I should go to all the waterfronts. There's a Waterford, Michigan, I know. It's a Detroit. Yeah, check out some of those. Man. That's that's very funny. That's I liked that a lot. That's a that's a great idea, especially for a Lebanese person, I think. Yeah. Yeah. That's very funny. Yeah. All right. Cool. Final thoughts, Danny, after US ahead of Mexico. Yeah, looking forward to Mexico, man. That US code is a good track. This is this is the confusing thing about it, because like earlier this season, man, these cars, they were overtaken, they were following, they were having a good old. Listen, they're still doing that. It's just that Kimmy is kind of pulled cold water on, on things here, by being so good. But like, there's not that much overtaken happening around the rest of the field either. I mean, even if there was, would we be interested, I guess, is a there was a three, eight, five for second. Yeah. And you would have had that for staff and Hamilton battle, if not for Botos. Devils advocate Scanlon over here. Listen, maybe trying to put things in maybe. Yeah, look, that's the thing. The thing about F1 is, look at Dakota for boring areas. Last five years, you're, I've only got two, three out of fours, two entertainings. The other, yeah. The others have been stradding races. All right. All right. Perception. That's yet. That's true. That's true. I don't trust myself anymore. But we'll see. We'll see you about Mexico. And we'll see, most likely, a brand new and the youngest ever for when I want to have. That's right. That's right. All right. Well, if you would like to support the show and get access to all of our bonus episodes, the early ad free version of the podcast and the official shift F1 Discord, you can do so over at patreon.com/shiftf1. Have a good race week and everyone. We will see you all next week. [Music] (upbeat music)