Will Aston Martin live up to the hype?

[Musiikkia] Kun maailmaan täynnä hänlyä, kotikaipaa tikkurilla muteja. Mute on syvämatta sisustusmaali, selua kauniin sametin pehmeän mattapinnan, joka vaimentaa visuaalista hänlyä, tikkurilla mute. Maalaan rauhallisuuskotiisi. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. [Musiikkia] Hello and a very well welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast, presented by Sam Sage and me Ben Hawking. Back with another midweek Wednesday episode. Sam, we are living the dream. We are living the dream. I'm not a very good week, but then you must be living the dream is podcast time. You look podcast time. Yeah, not anymore, I don't know. Why? Because of the very sad news that came early this week that we were overlooked. I think it was the Oscars or I don't remember which award ceremony it was, but they handed out their first ever best podcast award. I'm sorry about it, you forgot what award ceremony it was giving out. I've never stayed in my Amy Poler and her podcast one, which it must have been close between the two of us, but it still hurts. Ms Poler. Great Poler. I'm not aware of Amy Poler's podcast, but is it about pole position? Poler? I don't think so, no. But she won the best podcast award. So I guess we need to give our congratulations and assume our invitation and indeed our victory was lost in the mail somewhere. We'll get going actually. I don't think we will. Okay. Moving on. We've got plenty to talk about in the world of F1, not in the world of awards ceremonies that we can't remember the actual name of. GP Lambiasi, he is going to be staying with Red Bull. We believe for the 2026 season, so a little bit on that. Some of their drivers going into their second full seasons in the sport, but a discussion about what their expectations and aims should be for this 2026 season. But let's start Sam with Aston Martin, because there's a lot of hype going into Aston Martin, going into this new season. Some fairly obvious reasons as to why Adrian Nui is now on board in terms of the project. And whilst his role might have changed, I'm sure that will come up in our little discussion in a bit, but he's still there. It's a big hand in the design. They are now a de facto factory team. Now that they have Honda power and they're the only team being supplied by Honda, they have a boss that is not afraid to spend whatever is required. And of course, they have a two time world champion in one of their race seats. It feels like the pieces are all there, I think. Does that mean the hype is justified going into the year? They're going into 2026 in these new regulations. It's like, if you put the Avengers on paper, you brought all the best superpowers of Formula One and put them into one team, and you brought this concoction together. Look at the satellite images of Aston Martin's headquarters, for example, from when before Lodstrold took over to now, it's about five times the size. They have a mini silver stone in the back garden for crying out loud. They're bringing incredible members of the team around them. We're just talking about Adrian Neue, Kyle is there as well. Fernando Alonso is staying on the wind tunnel development that's going in there is phenomenal. And yet something just doesn't feel quite right. It feels like something might go a little bit wrong. And like you said, Ben, that hype, maybe it's going to be over hyped. If I was asking Martin, I almost want to go into this season being downplayed a little bit. I want to kind of be like under the radar, you know? Just like really play up how old Fernando Alonso is. But we can't win with that guy in the car, right? He can't actually walk, you know? Did you see him in the pit lane in Canada? He can't keep his hands still. He was really trying. So there's a few things going on at Aston Martin that troubled me a little bit, which when you think about how good they should be, these are the kind of problems you don't really want to have a reason with close to a new season. Let's talk on the first as you explore them up. They have become a de facto power engine. A manufacturing manufacturer, so to speak. Now, Honduran, they're only there with them having transferred from Red Bull. Now, when you say they've transferred from Red Bull, it's not like they've literally walked out the garage at Red Bull and moved into Aston Martin, of course. Technically, they quit Formula One a few years ago. And when the decision was made, got to properly quit Formula One. They only kind of moved back into a century, assemble the engines that they were providing and hand them over to Red Bull. There was no research and development going on. But their offices down, it wasn't being put together anymore. So moving into a team like Aston Martin is actually almost like a brand new venture. They shot so much of the project down back at home in Japan that they were behind. And they've had to play a lot of games picking up. And you can hear from the rumours going around in the paddock, that they haven't managed to find the little loophole that Mercedes and Red Bull have potentially found, which might gain them up to four attempts of a second, which is crazy numbers if it does ring true. Part of this, of course, is they are not just relying on Honda to do the work we come to power. They've got the logging partners that have been involved for a very short amount of time, as well as such as their oil provider. That's coming from a brand new location as well. And that's very, very new here. And that's something in the middle east. Now, that's very difficult to make, where you've got something in the middle east, something in Japan. You've got the chassis people in the UK, parts of the operation in America. It's by far the most geographically spread team going on in the world. And I think some of the feedback we gave to Haas, when they first came into Formula One, was actually that they were spread to thing. I meant that their logistics and their operations were struggling to deal with how to put everything together. You can mind that with the fact that they've had so much change, up at the top with their head office, such as Adrian moving into this team principal role so soon, Kyle moving away from it so recently as well. In fact, they've changed team principal what three or four times in the last three or four years alone. And then you top that all off with the fact that long scroll is still the racing driver who's expected to go and help them with its title. It doesn't fill you with absolute confidence, does it? So there's a lot going on at Aston Martin. Who knows if it's actually going to be a package that can be truly competitive in the year. I'll have to say. Yeah, it's a safe way of living, but I tend to believe hype when it all comes together, rather than beforehand. I understand why the hype exists here because in theory, the combination of two, let's call them masterminds in Adrian Nui and Andy Cowlett. It should work. And we said this when the announcement came that both of these guys were coming in on the project. You essentially have Adrian Nui who has had a hand in multiple championships, drivers and constructors. There's not only, most recently, of course, at Red Bull, but McLaren at Williams. He's been for a lot of regulation change, and more often, the not has been very successful in them. And of course, Andy Cowell, he was one of the leading guys that oversaw the engine development for Mercedes back in the day. Mercedes, very successful to start the hybrid era, particularly owing to the advantage that they had in the engine department. Andy Cowell might sit at the top of the tree when you look at people to assign compliments to us to why that was the case. So in theory, you put both of them together, you might be in with a good shot of winning and doing very well. But whilst past success is a good indicator for future success, it doesn't guarantee it. And this is very different from both of them. And that's even before we got into the fact that they've been moving jobs around, so late into 2025, of course, on the eve of 2026. The work environment is very different for both of them. Andy Cowell has moved over to work closer with Honda, rather than a bit more Aston Martin only as a role. The reshuffle does concern me a little bit. And even with everything that is, you know, that they do have going for them, they will need a pretty remarkable turnaround on what we had in 2025. You can say that everything's changing, chassis, arrow, engine, it's all changing, 2025 doesn't really mean anything. It still does. They are still going to need a pretty drastic turnaround on where they finished last season. If you look at, say, again, or go back to Mercedes, everyone talks about their dominant run from 2014 onwards, they will run it up in the championship in 2013. They won three races. They had eight polls. The last time you really have to go back to Braun for the last time there was a dramatic turnaround in fortunes when Honda, of course, who previously, the previous incarnation of Braun, they finished I think 9th in the championship in 2008. They win the title in 2009, but they found a very serious loophole that is if you're, you've already alluded to Sam, it sounds like at least in one potential loophole, they're actually behind their competitors and not in front. In terms of Adrian Nui's role shifting a little bit to being team principal. Do you think this is his first test of really leading a project? I think so. I think he's very used to maybe being in charge purely on design side, and he can run his own ship, and he's very confident in going right, not being a room. I'm going to sit here with Penguin Paper, and I'm going to come up with the best design. The world has ever seen, and he has done that on multiple occasions. And we've seen the proof is in the pudding. He's won many a race, but doing that alongside also running a full-blown Formula One team with the likes of Lawrence Stroll around you. It's a very different premise, a really different challenge to actually get your head round, and he's more intelligent than I can ever imagine, and I imagine that that allows him to do a number of brilliant things. But is he a man-manager? Is he able to sit there and put together a team of, I don't know, two or three hundred people and pull that all together across the entire globe and make sure that people in Hungary, Japan are as happy with how things are operating in the Middle East. He was in Valvallings, that they're oil providers. And then across to the likes of their chassis department in the UK, it's very difficult, the logistics around this, the communication you have to manage. He's got to be on top of so many different things, and delegate when necessary, be aware and involved where also prudent and appropriate, but also he's the design guy. So he wants to keep it, and rightly so, that's where his expertise is, and he shouldn't be a part of that, but it does make you wonder, as brilliant as he is, is there a real risk that he stretches himself to thin, and he cannot give 100% of his brilliance to the right area of his job title that he's so well known for, and what you expect out of him. That's why they hired him. They hired him to design the car, not to run the team. I'm still surprised about this, and I know it happened for the November, it still surprises me, they've gone down this path, and I'm assuming they didn't just do it for no reason. Surely there's some logic behind this, but I would think he would know, perhaps more than anyone who hasn't been a team principal, kind of what is involved in being a team principal, he's had to work with Christian Horner for so many years, and he's not the only team principal, he's worked alongside. There's more to team principal work than just what is on the surface. It's a big role, and it's often very time-consuming, which with Adrian Nui's ambition to keep everything design wise that he was signed up for, is a little bit worrying. The supposed reason that he gave back in, again, I think it was November, is equally baffling because he was asked about this, and he was ahead of the guitar GP, and it was Sky Sports, and he spoke about how Andy Cowell was stepping to one side, and what they were going to do about that situation. He said that left a kind of, okay, who's going to be team principal, and since I'm going to do all the early races anyway, it doesn't actually particularly change my workload because I'm there anyway, so I may as well pick up that too. It's not a job you just pick up, right? It's not like a paper round in the morning when you're kid sick and you go, well, I should do it for them because I need the pocket money. It doesn't work like that. It's a lot of work to do, and the job of team principal is different team on team. You look at how Stella and Brown work together, for example, Stella doesn't do a log of the outward talking for the team, he will do some of the press conferences, but on them that, that Brown is the spokesperson, whereas Total Wolf does everything. He's more than happy to sit there on social media as he has a press conference. He's also a part owner. It's something that he's very happy to deal with, but this isn't something you just go, oh, I'm there. I guess I'll take the bings out. I was the last one in the kitchen. Guess I'll take the banger. It's not that simple. It's quite a big job to do. It sounds to me pretty aimless for Master Martin. It sounds like they don't fully appreciate what a great team principal can do for you. Again, it's a pretty. It's a forward-facing role, and Adrian knew his reasoning of, "I'll be there anyway." It doesn't really add up. It kind of points to me that this might end up being a short-term thing, and maybe they've got someone else in the wings, or they've got someone else that they're targeting to take on the role in a more medium to long-term sense, because I don't think those are the words of someone who is looking to do this for the next five years. It just didn't quite add up to me. Oh, great. You mentioned Honda, and it is worth mentioning that loophole that you referenced, because this is about the compression ratio, which refers to the difference in volume inside an engine cylinder between the piston's lowest and highest positions. So, one of the new regulations that ratio has been reduced from 18 to 1 to 16 to 1, and it's measured with the engine not running. So, while other manufacturers, including Honda, have interpreted this as meaning the ratio, could never exceed 16 to 1, it's believed that the FIA has accepted Mercedes and Red Bull's view that the limit only applies under static ambient conditions. And once the engine is running, he that causes the metal components to expand, increasing the effective compression ratio, in results in a bit of a small but meaningful gain in power. We don't yet know exactly how the FIA is going to rule on this, but it does sound like even if the FIA rules in the favor of Honda and presumably anyone else who hasn't caught on to this, it's not going to be in effect straight away in the 2026 season. I'll be surprised. Maybe they make them change it midway through the year or give them a deadline. I don't know if they're going to make them change anything before Australia. I think this is what I thought was brilliant, brilliant loop holes that you hear about at the start of new regulations. The brawl and double diffuser was another one, and I think this is what I thought was absolutely separate. A couple of things Mercedes running engines again, they've got it right again, right? Whatever there's another engine change, the sales are able to seemingly think two or three steps ahead, and forward the Red Bull have done well to go with the finalist out as well, but I wasn't expecting it from from Red Bull, if I'm honest. As they're so moved to the engine game, they've had that transition from managing this Honda relationship to going into four to a new to Formula One. I didn't think it would be them that would go, ah, we've spotted a cheeky loophole here in this engine that we've made from scratch for this new regulation. So well done to those guys. If you're estimating, you've got to be kicking yourself at the moment, because not only are you no longer with Mercedes who have found the loophole, Honda are behind, supposedly, in how their engine is performing in comparison to the rest of the competition. So they've almost got from being possibly one or two steps in front. So that mean one or two steps behind. It's a real poor term of events for the way that Aston Martin and Honda are going to end up being, and this could cost them not only just time, but genuine chance at a championship. I don't think they'll make them change this season. I think it'll be a 2020 seven change. Well, see, I'm intrigued by how people treat Honda in 2026, because you've already laid out how they, they were an engine manufacturer, then they kind of weren't, but was somewhat on the fringes, thanks to the Red Bull deal. I do wonder whether they will be treated with the same, in the same sort of light as Audi, as like a brand new power unit manufacturer, or will they be judged closer to Mercedes and Ferrari, who are just continuing from the previous era. Maybe there's some middle ground that they'll find themselves in. The final question on this one's, let's just create a hypothetical scenario where Aston Martin this year, if they finish, fit in the constructors championship, they get a win and five podiums, let's say. Is that a successful season? It depends how much you're going to buy into this hype right now. I don't think it is. I don't think fifth is good enough, because soon when they want, if you take away points, that's pretty much what they managed to do over the last two or three years. It's really just a clear average, that's why they've been between 56. They wouldn't take that at the beginning of 2023, because I know 24 and 25 were worse than 23, because again, a lot of the emphasis was on this era. If then that doesn't replicate that, they were the second, I know they were a long way off, but they were the second best team at the beginning of 2023. All of that, sort of, biting and waiting until this new era has resulted in a fifth place constructors championship, even if it comes of a win or a few podiums. I don't know. It'll be even worse if the teams that finish in front of them are a couple of the teams that finish behind them for the last few years, such as the likes as Williams or even an Audi or a Cadillac. I think Aston Martin might be the team going into this year that have the biggest difference between ceiling and floor of how this season could go. I just think it could be really successful. It could also fall flat on its face, and I'm not certain either would massively surprise me. When it comes to our predictions, that is the one I am struggling to place. Yeah, including teammate wars as well. That's going to be interesting. I nearly did it. I nearly went a whole lot to the bottom segment without a lunch roll dick. Well done. You nearly got there. The interests of how Fanny wants to jack his Honda as well. What do you mean? He's always really positive about Honda. Yeah, the last time he went together, he loved them. Yeah, yeah, lots of much. Early hybrid era, Fernando Alonso versus Honda guys, if you weren't a fan of the sport at that time, go back and just listen to some of the radio clips to get a sense of how Alonso's morale was at that point. Not great. Let's take our first break on this episode on the other side. We're looking at some drivers going into their second full season in F1. We're in one of the most difficult times in F1. When we're in the most difficult times in F1, we're in the most difficult times in F1. We're in the most difficult times in F1. Welcome back, everyone. Sam, I've neatly titled this segment "Soft for more seasons." I love that. I don't really, but I'm going to tell you I love it. I appreciate the support. Essentially, we're looking at drivers who are going into their second complete season. Because we know quite a big rookie intake in 2025. Less so in 2026. We've got Avid Limblad, of course, going into the racing ball's car. But outside of that. It's still going to be last year's rookies that make up most of the inexperienced drivers on the grid. Start us off with this question, Sam. Who has the best situation going into 2026? There are two that spring to mind immediately. I'll cover one to see if maybe you pick up the other one. I'm going to go for Kimmy Antonelli as my first one. Whilst 2025 was a really interesting explorative year for him. We saw the highs. We saw some lows. Mercedes are currently set to be the team to be if you do believe the room. If this compressing issue is real, if they found this loophole. If the team are looking to push for championships again. Kimmy Antonelli could go for being a podium sitter to potential multi-rates winner over the course of 12 months. And there's every chance that if he drives well enough, he could be fighting for a title. It really is that high. And the possibilities are that high and he also isn't going through the troubles that someone like Isaac Hager might go through with Red Bull. Well, we don't know if that second seat is again going to be built entirely in mind that Max Verstapp gets everything. Or is he going to be considered? Is the car going to be built in a way that he enjoys driving it or rather going to see a seat one seat two deficit. How we saw it with Yuki Sengoda. We don't know that. Unlike Mercedes, where they seem to build their cars in a line of pretty equally. You saw it towards the end of the season. That rustling and the enemy were much closer than they were at the start of the season. Poe games were going both ways for both drivers, top four, top five finishes. Regularly going both ways for both drivers, which was great. And I just think with the car pushing forward the way it is, there's every chance that we could see Kimmy Antone going to pick up multiple race victories. I agree with Antonelli. I also went with him because I think you're right. He'll have the best chance of wins across this group. He had a few close opportunities last year and particularly towards the end of the year. He did improve his standing versus George Russell. So yeah, I'm curious to see. Can he be in the mix for at least some wins? Could he be in the mix for even more than that? We'll have to wait and see. We'll have to wait and predict that in about a month's time. I imagine. Having said all of that, even though I think he might be in the best. He might be in the best opportunity. There might be the most pressure on him as well because of that. I don't think he can be, I don't think he can afford to be as far away from George Russell across the full year in 2026 as he was in 2025. We know that again, there's that little, the staff on the shoulder. Is he still interested in a seat potentially if things go well for Mercedes and things don't go well for Red Bull? I think by and large, Sam, last year. Antonelli got a little bit more leeway than some of the other rookies just based on his age, first and foremost. He was only 18 coming into the sport. Less experience in junior formally at one F two season, no F three seasons. I'm not sure how much of that leeway he still gets in a second year. Yeah, it's very valid. It's very valid. I think he's like a lot. He's come a long way over that last year. He's got that raw talent, that raw pace. It's just hard getting more into race management and we saw that once the confidence was there in the car, suited him. He was really up and running and now we're the whole new formula coming into place with these new regulations. He and Russell are on equal playing fields. They're having to start again, having to learn a whole new setup, whole new car again. And I think the team will want to give him as much help as possible. I don't think he'll be left out in the car. So give it a couple of races. I think once he settles, there's a real chance he could really thrive. I don't think he'll beat Russell across the season. But I think he'll really thrive this year. I don't necessarily think this applies just to Anthony, but maybe because of the expected competitive position he's expected to be in. It might apply to him more than some of the other rookies of last year. I think the template is almost there and that template has a name and his name is Oscar Piastry. We've got three years from Oscar Piastry and F1 is rookie year comfortably off from Lando Norris. Not really. They didn't have a few good moments, but quite comfortably off. Second year, starting to he got a win, of course, starting to get there. Still not quite on Norris's level, but a match for him at a good chunk of the season. And then of course last year, I know he doesn't win the title, but he leads the title for a long stretch. And is in the mix for the last race. I feel like that is the three year template that a lot of team bosses will want their young drivers to follow. Does Anthony, I think Anthony could do with a second year Oscar Piastry year this year, if that makes any sense. I see your point and I think it's a very good template to follow. I'll allow him the slight benefit of the doubt due to the age difference between himself and PS3. But if by year four he's finishing three points, four points away from your drustling a title fight. I think they take that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. No problems. Yeah. Agreed. The other one I thought of as well was, was he's a catcher just based on him being in that red bull again. A car in theory that was capable of winning many races last year. Of course, the staff and the only one that could get those race wins. Is he in a better spot this year because it's a new set of regulations? Yeah, I think if it was ever going to fall in the way of the second driver at red bull, this is the perfect way that that happens. There's been so many changes at red bull. Not just the regulations, which are a massive benefactor to any new second driver, I think at that team. The change in leadership, I think massively helps. So I'm like, he's of course worked. We've had jar for a small amount of time, and I do think that that will help. I think he wants to see the whole team progress. They have seen me stow on the constructors title, far off what they did on the drivers title. Max Stappel of course nearly brings that home in the final eight of the season. But they have been a little hit and miss over the last four or five years when it comes to the constructors. They've only won two of the four that they were up for. Not really putting up realistically for how good the car's been. It's not necessarily really more grumpy or necessarily challenging for Stappel, I don't think. But closer is what they'll need. So whilst I think that it was still favor Max for Stappel, and it was always favor Max for Stappel, and you can't have to understand why I do think now really benefits the second driver at red bull has the talent. I think to hang is that beneficial time period. When you pick had jar and teammate wars, that's going to slap. Can't wait for the clickbait. Yes, I tend to think you might be in a better spot compared to say definitely loss. But probably also Sonoda as well. I don't like to predict things when it comes to red bull and their inability to keep a line up because they seem to always prove you wrong when you're positive about them. I don't think they will do the same thing as what happened with Lee Wilson. No matter how bad it goes, because of this being a new era. And I don't know how they're approaching that internally with had jar. Are they guaranteeing him that you will be in the car for this amount of time, no matter how well or badly it goes? I'm not sure how they're handling it. But you need to, I think, dedicate the season to him. I can't see, and I wouldn't want to see Lee and Lawson situation unfold again. I don't know how many times we've said that. Literally that phrase, you have to give me two races. I know. I just can't see that happening. I also think the dynamic has changed. I have to elevate Limblad up. And unlike last time, you know, Lawson had already done some races. So I go, of course, was very experienced. The kick will have literally done two or three if you were to bring him to red bull. It just feels like it's a real unnecessary amount of pressure. If you're not going to let had jar have a proper go. There's no point in letting Limblad have a proper go. You're just going to ruin two careers, let alone one. So yeah, seems like a silly choice if that's what they do. What about Gabriel Bautiletto? What do you need to see from him this year? This is the other one that's really on my mind, actually, because with this Audi project, and by the way, that adding a strip on that they've got going on is, it's beautiful. Good job, Audi. For a second, let us know. The box is in the little description. I will pick them up myself. Hopefully you walk there. Yeah, I think Gabby's got a real opportunity to shine. Now, Audi again, another team that are opting to try and get Mercedes and Red Bull engine optimization removed and brought back to what they are expecting it to be. So, Audi might be on the slight back foot when it comes to engine power, but we are expecting them realistically to move forward overall. And I would like to see him much closer to Holgerburg across the entire season. Not just picking it up as the season goes on, not hoping to maximize kind of the mid to end point of the season, but genuinely being there with him in qualifying and the race around the entire year. And I think the car will be there where they should be going regular points on many different occasions. So, for me, more consistency right out there with a very experienced man like Holgerburg. That's the minimum that I want to see from Gabby. Yeah, I agree. I think he's in a reasonable spot going into 2026 based on what he did in his rookie year. I think it's tough to say how Audi's engine project is coming along until we see it in the flesh just because it is a brand new power unit, you know, manufacturer, even if the team itself is a Salma legacy team. But I do think him not being in as much of a win-win, sorry, win-now situation as Holgerburg. Holgerburg needs things to happen in the next couple of years in theory. Or Teletso has got more time than that. So I think that he might benefit from that situation. And like you say, he just needs to qualify. Qualifying, he's pretty much there already. Can he optimize races more in 2026? Abby was a very good reference, I think, because you've got Holgerburg in P9. Bautiletto was 11. Like, he's not that far off. But Holgerburg has found a way to just execute on a few more situations than what Bautiletto has been able to, as he would expect, very experienced driver versus rookie driver. The one thing I'm very interested about, and it kind of leads nicely into a conversation about Olli Berman, actually. You've got Antonelli in a Mercedes, could be very competitive. You've got Hadjar in a Red Bull, could be very competitive. You've got Berman in a house, which I'm not expecting has to be on the same level as those two. But he could in theory be next man up at Ferrari. You've got Bautiletto, who beat all three of them in F2. And if Audi doesn't get underway very well, he might be looking around his fellow rookie class saying, "I beat you all. I'm now in the least competitive situation." No, no, it's highly possible. And maybe he gets looked at by a bigger team. Maybe they go and there's a youngster there, then we will pick up and develop. If Audi don't get off to a good start. But for Stapp and Vouch for him. I think there's a chance. I think there's a chance especially if for Stapp and Leaves and decides that he wants to go elsewhere and there's a seat waiting. Yeah, I'm intrigued by that. Full disclosure, I was having a think earlier about a potential future topic. Maybe looking at what the grid might look like in a couple of years' time. Stapp and Bautiletto together as team. It's like a mini-alongstone pairing. Yes, interesting. Speaking of Olli Behrman, what do you need to see from him this year? Oh, God, just hope that the car isn't on the back of the grid every single race. I think it's going to be a much tougher year. Come back, Susan, the kitchen! Come on! Oh, man, click up a feast for us. I know Toyos are coming in, but that relationship is coming in late. It is nowhere near as established as a log of the new entries that are starting to join. I don't really mind how that happens. I think points are going to be hard to come by consistently. I'll qualify him. Don't be starting in 19th place, 20th place, maybe 21st or 22nd. Because that exists now. I don't believe in me. We got there. I'm finishing 12th or 13th. Start 12th, finish 12th. That's what the cars go. I just need you to go ahead. The maximum extracting out of it. Put yourself in the shop window for a Ferrari seat. Should Lewis Hamilton go, I am sick to death of this. See you later. Yeah, I think it'll be. If Hass can't give him a great car. Give him a good enough car to show Ferrari. Or potentially others what he can do. And he does need to build on what he did versus Esteban Ocon in 2024. Yeah. He beat Ocon on points 41-38. He outqualified in 1311. So he wins both the qualifying and the race record. Or be it only just in both categories. Can he do that a bit more convincingly in 2026? That might be the key to at least. We don't know whether a Ferrari seat is going to become open in the near future. Or in the long view. We don't know how that's going to happen. But at least he needs to be there for if a situation arises. He's already, I guess, showcased what he can do in a Ferrari once for a debut. It went all right. So, yeah, be interested to see what he can do this year. The other thing I wanted to see from Bermann. Bit of maturity around these silly penalty situations. Because it would not surprise me whatsoever if Bermann misses a race towards the beginning of this season. Owing to going over that penalty limit. Not a time you want to be missing a race either if that happens quite early on. You know, you get as many minutes in the car as you can get. I also just think it shows a real worry inside to you as a driver. If you rack up that many penalty points, you know, the likes of Grojo was the reason that they are reaching to you. So those kind of drivers, you know, you Grojo should mac this into. Yeah. You have drivers. It has. It has. It has. We're the problem. We love going to do these drivers for a very particular reason. I don't want Bermann to fall into that category. Those are the drivers that I noted down as sort of fitting the category. I guess you could say, well, Franco Colopinto is actually not entering his second full season. He's entering his first full season in theory, right? And maybe you've got Liam Lawson on the fringe of this category as well. At some point, we're going to have to not call him a rookie or close to a rookie. Lawson is a rookie. Well, okay. Well, that Colopinto, did you have any thoughts on it? Yeah, I just think he needs to be closer to gasoline across the whole year. And we need to see almost a middle ground between his time at Williams, where he was really, really fast, quite silly. And if he went to L.P., where he was really, really slow and not very silly at all. And I mean, that's okay. A bit of both is what we're really sitting in. Or he'll be quite fast. Also, don't crash. That would be great. And I think if you could compete with Pierre Gassey across the whole year. And wherever that L.P. might be, who knows, it could be 22nd and 21st. But it could be 1st and 2nd, if you're Fabiabriatory. And if that's the case, you could be right behind Pierre Gassey. And that's what I want to see from him. I don't expect him to be in Gassey's a sensational driver. Then the saying is engine is pure luck for their manager, get back in their car. I just want him to be closer to him. I mean, looking up and down the grid at the various teams and team principles. I have a relative confidence that most teams and drivers. They'll stick around for a good chunk of this season at the very least, giving, owing to the new regulations. The one I'm not sure about is Colin Pinto or Alpina. Not because of Colin Pinto, but because of Pierre Taurik. You just never quite know what's around the corner with him. So doing got dumped. Yeah, I wasn't sure how to read that. Whether it was doing got dumped or doing wanted to look for something else and Alpina decided to stick by you. Yeah, either way, he's got. Yes. Good luck to Jack Doon, whatever is next in your career. But it won't be an F1 with Alpina, honestly. That might be a good thing. Let's take our second break on this episode on the other side. We're chatting GP Lambi Assi. [Music] [Music] Welcome back, everyone. Jean-Pierre Lambi Assi will remain as Max Verstappen's race engineer and Red Bull's head of racing during the 2026 F1 season, despite interest from other teams. Lambi Assi has been linked with other teams such as Aston Martin and Williams. Autosport reporting this understand that Lambi Assi will remain in the same roles at the Austrian Alpfit for this year. That said, it does not necessarily mean that a move in the longer term is completely ruled out. It is understood that no final decision has been made yet regarding the offers from other teams. And senior F1 figures are often subject to periods of gardening leave anyway or held to their contracts. Lambi Assi's contract with Red Bull runs until the end of 2027. How important is this for Red Bull that they have some moniker stability at a time where it feels like they don't have a great deal of it? This is like two race wings good for them, I think. I think if you said to Red Bull, you don't get to win the first two races of the season but you keep GP for another year. Yes, it's the answer. Because he is that integral. He's that important. And he's that close to Max Verstappen and away that relationship works. I think if he spoke to Max about it, he'd go, yeah, I like GP, nice guy. And that would be all he'd say. Because that's Max Verstappen. But I think if he suddenly swaps out GP and you put someone else in there that he's what used to work in. I think it very quickly goes south and you see. I've put Ricky in there. Matt, there you go. That's exactly what I'm about to make. You see Lewis Hamilton with Bono and you see Lewis Hamilton with a dummy in there and look at the difference between the two and the way they operate in the car. It's not a day, your race engine here can make or break your race time. And Max is sensational, Lewis is sensational and look at how much of a difference it makes to a driver. So there's a part of me that's wondering if they're a bit of a package deal. And I wonder if Max Verstappen decides he wants to leave. I wonder if there's a payout clause there which Max Verstappen actions on and takes him with him. The Hamilton and Bono that never happened. And of course Verstappen I guess I know he's not watching the races but he's aware of what's happening in F1. He'll know how much that relationship between Hamilton and Ricky seems to be struggling. Yeah. Maybe he might learn a lesson if he goes elsewhere. I think it's a good one to race. I think this is incredibly important as well because again, I know we've sort of run through the list of names multiple times on this podcast. We do have the likes of Christian Horner and Hall of Famer Rob Marshall. And he's got Jonathan Wheatley and I've got Hamamako had him to the list as well. They've all departed the team. Will Courtney who was the former head of strategy at Red Bull. He is now of McCarran but he's been released from his contract. So it's very important that in this time of let's call it turmoil. It's good that they have at least one constant in there in GP Lambiasi. And I wanted to echo what you said really about the role of race engineer. It is absolutely critical and I think sometimes it's not always seen that way. It's one of the more not quite sure what the word is but it's quite public facing even if you're not dealing with the public. If you were to go like a list of most recognizable faces or voices in a team, you would go drivers, team principle. After that, it's probably race engineer. You hear that voice is a lot of the time on the F1 broadcast. And because it's one of the more one of the things you hear more in the public in the way that the F1 broadcasts work. Sometimes I think part of what the engineer does is should we say mean? You've already brought up Ricky, of course. Hello is a Hall of Famer and it's so bright for good reason. Charles and Brian and all their discussions. I realized this is just Ferrari but I don't know. And GP Lambiasi sometimes maybe those that aren't following the sport massively but maybe on the fringe of the sport will. Oh, the guy who's sometimes sassy with the Stafford on team radio and he is but that is such a minuscule part of what he does. The F1 feed is always likely to pick up the most grabbing sound bites from driver race. Sure. It often misses out some of the critical communication that happens throughout the race. And it's not only with this job like what you say a lot of the time is what you don't say. There's things that need to be these drivers don't need to be inundated with details. And GP Lambiasi seems to have a good mark of knowing when to keep his mouth shut and when his driver. And that comes with time, that relationship builds over time. And I think that's why your point about this maybe being a package deal in the future could ring true. That all of that doesn't even take into account that he's the head of ahead of racing. I think that the title is he's covering a lot more than just what's happening on the track in those in those 60 or 70 laps. I think Rebel will be very glad to be holding on to him. It leads on to the next question. Will it just be the short term? Is there a chance that the GP wants to branch out and make this a bit more long term somewhere else? I'm intrigued to see where GP's career goes. To me, there's a little bit of team principle about long term. And I wouldn't be surprised if he is being groomed a little bit to be a future team principle. That might be by Reg Bull as a family overall. You know, if Lauren Meckis is aware that maybe he's a successor. If Max was definitely chooses to leave and they're not a package deal. Instead of staying on as a race engine, he moves up into a leadership role completely for the team. We maybe see quite a similar situation to James Vales, for example. Where maybe where he goes from a say you see Williams. GP maybe goes from Red Bull to V cup. I'll be for a cup of seasons to learn as a team principle. And then comes back up to Red Bull and we see the progression that way. I do think he's got those communication and leadership qualities. He's been around a long time with some very high pressure situations. So I think he'll have learnt well. He is a man manager. I'm like what we were saying earlier about Adrian Neue where that is, you know, maybe we've got necessarily untrue, but he's debatable. And so I think it's something that he could see his future moving into. Should he want to otherwise. If Max for staffing is where he sees his future going. Red Bull, I've got to do whatever they can to hold to Max for as long as they want to. Because otherwise they can lose such a giant chunk of their organization. The moment the staff leaves. Yeah, it's tough to know, of course, what his ambitions are in the sport going forward. Again, he's so got this dual role at the moment, whether he wants to move on to something else. Whether does he want to stay trackside that that's going to be a question. And I appreciate there have been some elements of his, of his private life that have become rather inappropriately made public because nothing has, as far as I'm aware, come from him. So I don't think they're worth discussing or debating here until, you know, he. If he wants to say something, then so be it. I wonder whether he's he wants his career to go down a similar path to Rocky, who. Longer term F1 fans will know was sort of tied at the hip as the race engineer of Sebastian Vettel. Yeah, he was the engineer before that as well. But he he oversaw the four championship wins very similar to what the staff and the lambiasi have achieved. And as soon as Vettel left F1. Sorry, left Red Bull wins Ferrari. There was a question as to whether Rocky would go with him. He didn't, he stayed at Red Bull, but that was when his time as a race engineer came to an end. He actually then went on to do the same role as what lambiasi's doing now, as I think they called ahead of racing engineering at that point, but it was the same role. And then a few years ago, he actually moved away from trackside operations and he now has more to do with the junior team. Who knows whether that's something that that lambiasi wants to follow, and whether that's at Red Bull or elsewhere, but maybe that's a way he wants to go. Last question on this is just what could Aston Martin and all Williams and or someone else commit. Is it just Aston Martin shoveling the cash over to him? I don't think it's about cash for these people. I think GP is not going to speak too much on his financial situation, but I'm sure it's comfortable as old GP. It must be understanding what he wants in his career goals and his life goals and what he deems as a, yeah, this suits me. This allows me to go after my personal successes whilst managing whatever life he wants to manage. And if Aston Martin were able to open that door for him, isn't being open at Red Bull, that would be the way you get someone like GP to come over because he's clearly very happy at Red Bull. He clearly likes the way Red Bull operates. He clearly enjoys working with Max Verstappen and earning money is all well and good. But if you hate doing it every day of your life, you'll have to take a bit less money to actually enjoy what you're doing with your life. And I think you want to offer GP the perfect life scenario. You give him that, you go, you have whatever you want, you write your contract, that's how you're getting essentially. I've been naive of me, but I feel like that applies even more for F1, particularly those that are a trackside, all of this Grand Prix. Can you really be away from home that many days a year without loving what you do? I don't think money can be too much of a replacement for having to go through a slug like if you don't like it. So we'll see what happens in the future, but at least for now, GP is sticking with Red Bull. Let's laugh at Alpine. Sorry, let's discuss Alpine, because they're managing director Steve Nielsen, who is their managing director of the week, I don't know, it'll go next week probably. He has played down the idea of long term recovery timelines as the endstone based team looks to rebuild in Formula One. The stands makes a clear shift from Alpine's previous management, which committed to that infamous 100 race plan launched in 2021 following Renault's rebrand aiming for podiums by 2024 and race wins by 2025. Steve Nielsen said, "I'm not a person who believes in a 100 race plan or a three-year plan or a five-year plan. I believe you put the best people you can, you can get in the right positions, you give a clear mission, get the army marching all in the same direction, and you work as hard as you can and do the best job you can. You mill away at it, it's a slow grinding process and you hope eventually you do a better job than everybody else." So it doesn't sound like Steve Nielsen's all about targets. Is that a good thing? As he picked up one of those toilet books that you read, it's called like "Business Jargon for Morons". Sorry, it's actually Steve Bartlett, my bad, I misread. Obviously, what a crap that is. Well, do you have a target? They just come up with generic "Business Corporate PR" speak. Okay, when you call it a 100 race plan really, 100 race plan is a bit too specific, a bit too silly, but a three-season plan does kind of make sense. Oh, he's means about putting people in the right places and having them all marked. But no one has thought of that before. Wow, brand new information. Thanks, Steve. I laughed at this when I read this quote. I just made me think this is so outpeeing. The fact that already we've moved into 2026 and again, it's a statement without vision, without direction. It has no quantifiable objectives involved in it at all, or any actual substance, how they're going to get from a to be and actually be successful for once as outpeeing. Now, I thought at least Ottmar had a bloody plan in mind. It wasn't successful, but they teased her off. You also wasn't there to see it out. I'm sure if we got to 100, they'd be world champions. Sure. Steve's just said words, and to me, they don't mean anything. Yeah. Hey, the Arby is marching the right direction, everything's positive. Is the Arby any good? Is the Arby? We call it an Arby. There's only three of them, and two of them are you? It's the Arby of San Marino, something which is five people on the day off. They're half of them are butchers and bankers and canals think they're because of a lift. In some regard, I understand what he's saying here, because Albedo Redo has been burned so badly by targets in the past. And also, F1 is admittedly a very fast moving world. It is difficult to apply targets for years into the future just based on. Take the lineups from the driver lineups for 2026, only two of them were the same in 2023 as they are today. Things do move a lot in F1. I understand that. Imagine Red Bull, for example, planning out 2026 in 2023. I don't think it's Christian Horn has sat there with all of his team no longer there. It probably looked a bit different to how it's turned out. The other difficulty in applying targets is just what targets do you go for in terms of? Do you go for race wins? Do you go for championship titles? Do you go for percentage pace deficit versus the leader? Because I often feel like that's probably the most important one of the lot. It's not very sexy styles. It's not really one you can wow the shareholders and stakeholders with. But that one is quite an important one. How far off are you from the best team in this sport? Evidence of that is same Mercedes. You look at the last four years and they haven't won any titles in those four years. They finished second in 2022, third in 2023, fourth in 2024, and then they finished second last year. You think, well, okay, their worst year was 2024 then they were fourth. They were the worst of those four years. In terms of points, that was the year they were closest to winning the title. It doesn't tell you everything just from that one stat. So having said all of that, I do think some targets and some guidances is very much useful because you are just going to be a bit aimless as a team if you don't have that. Now the engine split is finished as well. It feels like a good time to reset these targets. Even if we disagree with the fact that they have gone with this engine split, it is a good time to reassess this and Steve Nielsen is just focusing on his armies. You just love playing risk. I mean, it's great. What successful business does it have a target of some variation? You know, every single major corporation ever, every sports team, whether you have it at a mind level or it's a grandiose overview of how you all run your company, whether it's we need to take one tenth of the way that we do our aerodynamics and the front wing is to actually be mind us one tenth to our overall speed. That makes sense. You can put that on the aerodynamics department. You put it to win time on time and then you can run it through your system to try and gain one tenth of speed over a lap. That's a target. You get that target. Go and do that target. It hasn't got to be. We'll be world champion by 100 races because that's just silly. Sorry. It's very funny. There is a middle ground that you could find. It's all about armies. You know, Steve. I think it might be. It might be all about armies. Should we play armies? Sure. End of podcast. Have a good one, folks. The last thing I want to say, this is just like, Steve Nielsen doesn't sign up to target. It's okay. I know someone who does his name is Flavia Breatori and he works quite closely with you. He has been on record Flavia Breatori saying that he wants to win races in 2026. He wants to fight for a championship in 2027. I worry about how that might work because Flavia Breatori is still lingering like a bad smell. He was kind of given this, I don't know. Look at Domeo, signed him up and not as part of the Alpine team. It felt like he was there as a bit of a, a bit of a gunslinger, a bit of a ghost at the face. Right. Oh, God, I'm going to get right. There's a ghost in the corner. But with Domeo, God, he doesn't really have a mandate anymore. A lot of his early job was to almost appraise the team to see about, can it be sold, I think, was the leading question. But Domeo is not there anymore. But Breatori still is. It's a bit, it's weird. He's still what even technically the team pranks to Paul is, is odd. Is he young, fireable? Who's his boss? I don't know. Is it just if he leaves the building, he can't get lacking. I don't know how it works, but he's still there. Will he ever leave? I don't know. I thought he was banned. Apparently not. No. Why would he be banned? I'm interested. I'm not sure actually. There was a race in 2007. I think you're making that up. Right, let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, we're playing guest of the year. There's a bracket in there. There is a bracket in there. Welcome back everyone to the final part of today's episode. It's time for a quick little game to see us out. And it's called Guest the Hybrid Era. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, Seth Wong. Yes. We don't play this very regularly. So I'm certain I asked this every single time. We might have a more up to date version than that. I don't know. I don't think we do because we go. That's the last time we're going to play this game. And then we use that theme again. The good news amongst our thousands of people listening right now. I bet none of them care. It's a conversation only between you and me. Yes. Guest the Hybrid Era. Yeah. So it works exactly the same as Guest the Year, but we're only talking about the Hybrid Era. So that's 2014 through to, I mean, I guess 2026 will still be part of the Hybrid Era. That's not going to be an answer unsurprisingly. But anything from 2014 to 2025. I'll give you three clues for each one at the end of those clues. All you have to do is guess the year I'm talking about. How are you going to smash this game? He would absolutely would. Okay, here's the first one for you, Sam. The driver with the most pole positions does not finish in the top three in the championship. Okay. The driver's champion scores points in every race. George Russell is the only driver not to score a point. Oh. 2019. We're off to a great start 2019 is absolutely correct. The driver with the most poles in 2019 was Charlotte Claire, but he finished fourth in the driver's championship. He championed that year Lewis Hamilton suffered no reliability issues. He scored absolutely every single race. And George Russell was the only driver not to score a point because his teammate in that God awful Williams, Robin Cubitz scored a point at the 2019 German Grand Prix. Question number two for you, Sam. A driver who finished 11th in the championship wins a race. The championship winner finishes on a half point. The second race of the season is in Europe. 2020. One hour, I'm afraid 2021 is the correct answer on that one. The driver who finished 11th in the championship, that was Esther Banachon at the Hungarian GP. Because of the Belgian GP that year, and it being a short and race, half points were awarded. So the staff and Hamilton who finished first and second in this championship will both fall both left on a half point to end the year. And because of COVID, which is why you weren't for 2020. The second race of the season was held at Imola after Bahrain held the opener. It's called off in 2020, wasn't it, Imola? Yes, of course. So question number three. Two drivers achieve a podium at the first race of the season. And then don't get another one for the rest of the year. Entrez Lotterer competes at the Belgian Grand Prix. And Mercedes achieve a pole every race except one. Also great lotterer. I think he was asking the same question. What am I doing? It's Wednesday 15th. He's a year out again. It's the first year of the hybrid is 2014. So Magnusson and Button both get a podium at the first race of the year in Australia. They don't get another one for the rest of the year. Andre Lotterer does compete at the Belgian Grand Prix. I'll be honest, I've completely forgotten the reason why. He competed at the Belgian GP that year. And Mercedes had every pole position apart from the Austrian GP where I believe it was Philippe Massifel Williams. They got the pole. Yeah, a clean sweep for them. Question number four coming up, Sam. Three drivers failed to score points this season, but they were all from a different continent. Okay. Seven drivers secure a race win. And Carlos signs secures his most points in a season. Oh, 2023. Man loves being a year out. Oh, it's 22. No, one. 24. Yeah, if we're doing like one year out is acceptable, you four to four. Yeah. So three drivers who failed to score in the 2024 season were Bottas from Finland, Jack Duen, technically from Australia and Logan Sargent from the US are three different continents. Seven drivers secure wins that year. So the staff and one race and then both Mercedes, both Ferraris, both McLaren's winner, Grand Prix, and signs scored his most points ever in the Ferrari, of course, that year. And that was it for him. A Ferrari question number five. The driver's champion does not win any of the first three races. Kevin Magnussen achieves his best F1 championship finish of ninth. And Kimi Rykonen wins his last race. I know this is encoder. We've just got on what year and that is the game. He's got it. He's got again. Or literally the game. I will just by the way, I haven't duplicated any year, by the way, in mid-snake like that. Okay. Well, I don't go in there. I think this was one. 2018. Yes, 2018. I was so worried you were going to say 2017. Yeah. So Lewis Hamilton didn't win any of the first three races that year. And Kevin Magnussen in the almost quite a good house managed to get a ninth place. And you were right with the circuit cota was the last place where Kimi Rykonen won a Grand Prix. Which means question number six is the last one. Lewis Hamilton overtakes Sebastian Vessel in races one for a career. Well, McLaren received a total of 310 grid place penalties to be clear as well as not 310 individual penalties below 310 places combined. And Ferrari finished 212 points better off than the previous season. Or what year were Ferrari significantly crap and then quite good. Oh wait, I'm stuck between almost two wings of the era here. Yeah, that's what I'm struggling. Because Ferrari were terrible in the early 2020 period. But they weren't great in 2014 either. I'm going to say 2015. He's got it. Yes. 2015 is the right answer. Yeah, Lewis Hamilton, even though Vessel won a couple of races that year, Lewis Hamilton at this point was winning a lot of races he overtakes Vessel in the overall standings there. Yeah, this was the Jensen button Fernando Alonzo get a penalty nearly every week. And Ferrari were terrible. As you said in 2014, they were better in 2015, even if it didn't give them a championship. Beans in a game of well, not in a game of 50, 50, but you've ended up 50%. If technically, if I was playing someone, I would have scored all I could score. You know, you definitely would have picked questions one, five and six. So you would have got three out of three. So my numbers. Not three that you love so much. Well, that's going to do for guests here. We don't have a question of the week this week, folks, but we will bring that one back next week. I know you're all dying for the first question of the week of 2026. So we'll have to make it a good one. We'll have an episode around and put someone together, but we'll make sure that returns next week. But we will have an episode before then. Sam will have one on Sunday. If you wouldn't mind getting us out of here until then. Yeah, folks, please come and join us for Sunday. Thank you for being with us in the off season. We're getting very close to some proper F1 action now. The teams will be revealing there. Their liveries very soon, which is very exciting. We're going to be following along with each of us. They go as well. We're going to have red bull and racing balls to chat about on Sunday. We will. That's very exciting. The first ones are coming out. We're going to see our responses as well and see how we talk about different things. And just relives from the fake clips. We're just on social media, like breaking F1 everywhere. For some YouTube as well. If you've ever seen this in video, be great to you and come and see us. A lot of people will think we look anything like what we expect. So come and let us know what you think. These faces are meant to look like. Clearly not more beautiful because that's got possible. So let us know. Discord, the link is in the description. We'd love you to join our community. We'd like to support the show against some extra content and being around even more. Come join the city. Patreon is available. Flats are open and welcome for you. All the sign ups in the last week. Really appreciate it. Massive appreciation. We heard some people go. It is a gift as well for Christmas. Yes, yeah. It's obviously a wonderful thing that someone bought a little leaky Patreon city subscription for Christmas gift. Thank you so much. We will see you on Sunday for more F1. Check that out in the meantime. I'll be sending a message. And I've been Ben Hawking and remember, keep breaking late. See you in the next video.