After a legally required three day cooling-off period the pod reconvenes to share their thoughts on the finish to a tumultuous '21 F1 campaign which ended with Max Verstappen being crowned as World Champion in Abu Dhabi. We share our thoughts on FIA regulations, and the race deciding call made by Race Director Michael Masi before musing about our favorite moments of the season as well as wildly speculating about which teams and drivers will come out on top next year.
And a big 'Thank you' to our fans, friends and family who've stuck with us and listened to our often deranged, but always entertaining, banter!
The penultimate race of the longest season saw the two title contenders draw level on points taking this year's championship down to the last race of the season. But inaugural Saudi Arabian GP wasn't without controversy both on and off the track so join us as we calmly and respectfully discuss in one of our longest pods to date.
0:00 - 4:00 Intro to the circuit and some of the drama both pre and during the race. Whitney sows the seeds of impending chaos.
4:01 - 19:30 Still pretty tame as we go over Practice and Quali incidents. LEC's unfortunate accident, a precursor of things to come. MAZ's excellent save (not sarcasm). GIO's excellent qualifying in contrast to VET and STR's abysmal run of luck. VER's Q3 heroics are for naught as he crashes out and has to settle for the third slot on the grid behind HAM and BOT.
19:31 - We get set to be mean to each other, battle lines are drawn, emotions run high and it's Red Bull vs Mercedes fans. We debate the merits of the track, safety vs speed and excitement. MSC's crash and the ensuing Yellow Flag to Red Flag chaos. Opinions diverge on whether tyre changes be permitted under a red-flag. We discuss the unusual 'negotiation' between Michael Masi and RB before proceeding to argue whether Max's "strategic" attempt to give his place back as instructed by the stewards was a fair racing move.
With no race to recap, we spend this week's track walk talking about the current state of F1 with hot takes, pour one out for legend Frank Williams, and discuss what F1 leaders would thrive in college football.
Join us for one of our longest track walks as we get closer to wrapping up the season!
We're a little late getting this one out with the holiday last week, but finally we recap the Qatar Grand Prix, discuss Alonso sneaking into the podium, Ferrari and Alpine separating themselves in 3rd and 5th respectively, and is Lewis and Mercedes going to pull it off again?
Brazil saw a spectacular HAM performance during both the sprint race and the main event as he passed every single driver over both events to secure a win. The championship battle isn't over yet with only Hamilton and Verstappen now in contention! We cover the heroes (Ga4ly, Sainz and LeClerc) and the losers (Tsunoda, Stroll and Ricciardo). We also go slightly insane and have our most deranged, but funny, podcast to date!
00 - 3:12 Mexico Intro and Fast Facts. We invent a new multi-sport discipline that takes advantage of F1 venues that host baseball, football and racing. Also Miami listeners apologies as we disparage your sports franchises.
3:12 - 4:32 We lament our cancelled trip to MX after the race was moved by a week. Whitney recounts tales of out-running Mexican law enforcement in her youth.
4:33 - 18:19 We jump into quali which we were able to see live for a change and discuss the impact of the dust and low grip on drivers like Stroll and Perez who spun. And poor Yuki who did nothing wrong!! (Also we say "gravel" but we mean "run-off"
19:45 We jump into the race and disucss the post-race fall out from split second decisions made by Bottas, Verstappen, Ricciardo and others going into the first corner. The discourse covers the growing popularity of F1 in the US, Lewis' chances of winning the title and, of course, buggies... (if you know, you know).
In this episode we recap the United States Grand Prix weekend in Austin, Texas!
Finally a race in our timezone. We talk about Ricciardo leaning into his Texan personality, Red Bull's magnificent strategy, and of course discuss the helmets, plus much more.
The squad is back (minus Ash) to discuss Turkey and relive the tire strategy madness!
The gang discusses the positives and negatives of Netflix's "Schumacher" documentary and provides their extremely objective ratings. Then we chat about the latest addition to the '21 calendar, Qatar, and discuss the overwhelming 23 race schedule for '22.
2021 Sochi Grand Prix, 2 races for the price of one! Lap 1 through 48 in the dry and then 49 to 53 in the wet! Drama!
MCLAREN 1 AND 2! ZAK BROWN DOES A SHOEY! RICCIARDO TAKES THE WIN! LANDO IS SUPER COOL ABOUT IT!
Oh and Max Verstappen tried to squeeze into a corner and while Lewis Hamilton closed the door and the Red Bull car ended up sliding over the top of the Mercedes, with the halo saving Lewis' life.
BUT MCLAREN!
Ferrari also quietly stays in the hunt, as the overall championship picture doesn't change much.
We talk about it ALL!
After a little delay uploading the episode, the squad covers Zandvoort in full from qualifying to the snoozefest that was the race. Next we FINALLY HAVE DRIVER NEWS! We discuss the big news of the week with George Russell to Mercedes, and other predictions for the 2022 driver lineup.
2:06 - Qualifying
2:55 - Haas Drama
4:35 - Lando Struggles in Quali
6:05 - Gio Makes it to Q3
7:00 - Kimi Caught Covid and Retired
8:10 - Pierre Gasly is Peaking
9:00 - Wrap Up Quali
11:00 - Tech Talk: Track Design
20:40 - Race Review
21:00 - Perez goes Beast Mode
22:00 - Podium finishers dominated
22:50 - Bottas Not Holding Back on Fastest Lap
25:00 - Max Dominated the Weekend
25:50 - PUPPY INTERRUPTION BREAK
27:00 - Mercedes Engines struggle due to design flaw?
29:00 - Fights for 1st, 3rd, and 5th still tight
32:10 - McLaren and RIC
33:30 - GEORGE RUSSELL TO MERCEDES CONFIRMED
36:35 - Talk of 2022 and how we hope for parity
38:55 - Albon Back in F1???
43:50 - Other potential moves
47:50 - Monza Preview
In our fittingly shortest podcast ever we discuss the "race" that was both the longest and shortest in F1 history.
2:00 - "What grinds my gears!" Ash gives his restrained and totally not insane perspective on Sky's F1 commentary along with a shout out to the old SpeedTV/NBC commentators - Steve Matchett, David Hobbs and Bob Varsha.
6:00 - Karma visits the crew as we regret wishing for rain on the last pod and then waking up at 6:00 am to watch the ... event.
9:00 - Happy Birthday to Whitney, Valterri and Daniel - two of you have a good shot at a podium finish and the other one is Australian.
14:00 - Lando's quali accident and the long term implications for the damage he took as well as the wear and tear that RedBull saved on their second engine.
18:45 - We pop the champagne for RIC's 5th place
22:30 - Show of hands (I know, I know) as we vote on whether the race should have just been cancelled as opposed to the two lap parade.
30:15 - Shiny helmets distract us once again.
We talk about the teams in 6th through 10th position in the points and cover a few news items from the break thus far.
1:25 Haas
3:55 Alfa Romeo
8:40 Kimi and Gio - will they drive for AR in '22?
13:55 Williams
17:10 Puppy zoomie break!! Checkout our insta @theF1pod for behind the scenes look at Mario.
20:10 Aston Martin
24:55 Alpha Tauri - the impact of Yuki's performance. Where does Pierre go?
35:40 Second puppy break!!
39:10 Summer break update - Valtteri, cycling god! Lando, no es bueno. Nicholas and George's big fat Greek vacation. Carlos and Pierre are on a boat! Daniel goes Hollywood. McLaren's Rhude 'inexpensive' fashion line (really McLaren $700 sweat pants?)
47:40 The Mercedes announcement. Whom does Toto choose?
Welcome to this week's edition of The F1 Pod, where Matt, Whitney, Ash, Erika, and a car alarm discuss the chaos that was the Hungaroring! We cover every angle of the restart, the surprise podium, and get a millennial's Space Jam 2 review.
0:10 - Welcome and Hungaroring Facts
1:19 - Qualifying (and where our car alarm guest kicks off)
5:35 - The Scrutineers
10:25 - The Race
52:25 - To Summer Break and Beyond
We're back after a brief break (Erika how's the hand?) just in time to recap the 2021 Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix.
0:10 - Welcome and Introducing Mario
2:15 - Friday Qualifying and the Saturday Sprint
12:05 - Safety Tech Talk
19:05 - Silverstone Race and Looking Forward
57:10 - Fan Questions
Another week, another race at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. Finally recording in one room again (sans Ash because he is on vacation or something), we talk through Quali, recap the race and all of the penalties and major moments, divert to talking about the future F1, and of course we had to play Stupid Questions/Stupid Answers.
4:24 - Qualifying
9:54 - Race Recap pt. 1
23:34 - Future of F1
29:10 - Race Recap pt. 2
32:20 - Stupid Questions/Stupid Answers
42:58 - The News