Inside Line F1 Podcast - A Legit Hamilton Beater?

After years of waiting, does Formula 1 finally have a Lewis Hamilton beater in Max Verstappen? Frankly, we don't care who beats who as long as we have a battle to witness for the seasons to come. Sorry, Seb, but the narrative does seem to now be all about Verstappen vs Hamilton.

Photo: Octane Photography

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, we discuss Verstappen's talent, form and his psychological attacks on Hamilton. Is Nico Rosberg the new Jacques Villeneuve? Did Toto Wolff drop the biggest hint yet of his aspirations to becoming the next F1 CEO? Pierre Gasly deserves a hug and everyone needs to stop playing Helmut Marko. And finally, is Captain Planet Sebastian Vettel racing in the wrong motorsport series? Tune in!

(Season 2019, Episode 29)
Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes, audioBoom (RSS feed), Spotify and Google Podcasts for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Wake Me Up When September Ends...

In this episode, we discuss of the delay in announcing the 2021 regulations, the possible headlines you could still read come 2021 and how Mercedes can achieve even more greatness in Formula 1.

Photo: Octane Photography

Formula 1 unanimously decided to defer the announcement of its 2021 regulations 'til October this year. The WEC announced its 'hypercar' regulations from 2021 just a few days ago. Basically, everyone is leading fans to believe that 2021 is the year when motorsport will undergo a revolution.

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, we talk of the possible headlines you will still read come 2021. What else could Mercedes do to prove its superiority as a Formula 1 team? If Ricciardo and Hulkenberg had wet dreams of a Ferrari power unit in their Renault car when Fiat Chrysler was talking up Renault and finally, will Formula 1 teams hire 'gladiators' instead of drivers for 2021? Tune in!

(Season 2019, Episode 23)
Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes, audioBoom (RSS feed) and Google Podcasts for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

Here's what's in store for you in this episode:
0:00-3:00: Five headlines we could still read come the 2021 Formula 1 season. Also, how Christian Horner pulled off a massive stunt to prove why he should replace Chase Carey (if at all)

3:00-6:00: Formula 1 teams to hire gladiators come 2021?

6:00-9:00: Mercedes is controlling Formula 1, alleged Helmut Marko. But Red Bull Racing is controlling Formula 1's Raft Race

9:00-12:00: Three audacious things that Mercedes could do to prove their greatness and superiority as a Formula 1 team

12:00-15:00: If you're a budding Formula 1 racer, here's some advice for you and it is probably better than what Jacques Villeneuve has been telling you

15:00-end: The possible Fiat Chrysler-Renault merger, did Ricciardo and Hulkenberg have wet dreams of a Ferrari power unit in their Renault for at least a few nights? Finally, Ferrari should promote the race strategists from their Le Mans operations to Formula 1!

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Play Party (Mode) Pooper For 2019

Photo: Octane Photography

So much for Red Bull Racing chasing the infamous 'party mode' in Formula 1. The FIA have introduced rules in 2019 that could see the end of the (legal) tricks used to engage the power boost during qualifying. Level the playing field, we hope. This means that in 2019, Red Bull Racing will miss the 'party mode' and their party boy, Daniel Ricciardo.

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, we dissect Racing Point's alternate theory to Darwin's - the 'survival of the slowest'. It seems best to interview Helmut Marko in the winter period, we tell you why. Sebastian Vettel should become a coffee drinker to further his title campaign in 2019 - we share what our random research brings out. And finally, is the Liberty Media-Ecclestone combination that Formula 1 needs to propel itself into the future? Oh wait, last we heard, Liberty Media were seeking liberty from Formula 1. As expected, things as spicing up as the winter period comes to an official end in the next few days...tune in!

(Season 2019, Episode 03)

Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes, audioBoom (RSS feed) and Google Podcasts for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Why Ferrari Codenamed Their Car '670'

Ferrari's '670' (or their 2019 Formula 1 car) will be unveiled to the public on 15th February, 2019. But what significance does the number '670' have for Ferrari? We try to decipher further in this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

Photo: Octane Photography

Also in this episode, we replace the What Wolff Said This Week section with What Marko Said This Week, because he did say one thing too many and everything too funny! Charles Leclerc's target of '2 wins in 2019' seem unambitious, we tell you why. Could Brendon Hartley be Porsche's Formula E driver for next year? We share an important life lesson from his Motorsport career. And finally, did you know that Lewis Hamilton is open to playing second fiddle in Mercedes? Tune in!

(Season 2018, Episode 41)
Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts and audioBoom (RSS feed) for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

Here's what's in store for you in this week's episode:
0:00-3:00: A teaser for the 2018 Inside Line F1 Podcast Awards

3:00-6:00: We speak Formula E; the only series that rewards drivers for racing off the line? Are Formula E cars as strong as go-karts?

6:00-9:00: Why have Ferrari codenamed their 2019 F1 car '670'?

9:00-12:00: What Marko Said This Week - are Red Bull really not interested in Mick Schumacher? Are Red Bull drumming up unnecessary PR with regards to their Honda partnership?

12:00-15:00: WHAT IF Verstappen gets an unreliable and slow engine in 2019?

15:00-18:00: All the funny PR stories from Formula 1 in the last week! Also, we tell you why Charles Leclerc's targets for 2019 are disappointing

18:00-21:00: Life lessons from Brendon Hartley's Motorsport career; will he be Porsche's Formula E driver? Lewis Hamilton is open to playing second fiddle at Mercedes, did you know?

21:00-24:00: Ashley's 2018 Formula 1 Season review

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Mick Schumacher To Join Red Bull Junior Program?

Helmut Marko has denied being in talks with Mick Schumacher to join the Red Bull Junior Driver program. Could this actually be a hint that Red Bull are already in talks with the young Schumacher? There's going to be a race to sign him - who will win this one?

In this week’s episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, we have Ashley give us a brief summary of the Singapore Grand Prix and her experiences from the Marina Bay Circuit. Also, we discuss the ‘mini race’ in Miami, how Ferrari may have beaten Red Bull and Mercedes to the ‘junior driver’ game, if Formula E is already using the ‘concept 3’ Formula 1 car and if a certain Flavio could be the ambassador for Formula 1’s newly announced betting partnership. Tune in!

Here's what is in store for you this week:

2:00-5:00 - HAM seeking a new challenger in his title battle, LEC could be one?

5:00-8:00 - RBR has seats, but no drivers. Mercedes have drivers, but no seats. Can RBR give KUB’s Formula 1 dreams wings?

8:00-10:00 - Ferrari ahead of the ‘junior driver’ game. We tell you WHY RBR could be talking to Mick Schumacher…

10:00-13:00 - Todt vs. Brawn when it comes to new teams joining Formula 1? And of course, a ‘universal engine’ for Motorsport? Btw, Todt said ’23 Grands Prix’ calendar, yay or nay?

13:00-15:00 - Just how many manufacturers has ALO pissed off? IndyCar vs. Formula 1 at COTA in 2019

15:00-17:00 - Formula E using Formula 1’s Concept-3 already?

17:00-20:00 - Let’s make VAN have some fun; c’mon. Hats off to SIR - fantastic defences in Singapore!

20:00-23:00 - Are RBR and VER talking down Renault way too much? Did you know that VJM is RT’ing Force India’s tweets? Miami to host a ‘mini race’; what does that even mean? Turkey to make a comeback?

25:00-28:00 - What Wolff Said This Week section

28:00-end - Flavio to be the ambassador for Formula 1 Betting?

(Season 2018, Episode 32)

Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes and on audioBoom (RSS feed) for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

New Grand Prix Times article: Red Bull - ruthless but right

Photo: Octane Photography

But a single race after a fine drive to the podium, as punishment apparently but for two clumsy crashes early in the Russian race, the famously ruthless Red Bull programme strikes again. Daniil Kvyat is out with immediate effect, demoted to the Toro Rosso B team but that part is presumably a stay of execution only. While the young prodigy Max Verstappen as a swap is in the plumb A team drive in Kvyat's stead.

Some have sympathised with Kvyat. Some have said the team's got it plain wrong in its decision. But as I argue in my latest Grand Prix Times article, there's more to this than is being let on. And ultimately it's hard to argue with Red Bull's logic in doing what it's doing.

You can have a read here: http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/id/11964

Red Bull and equalisation - the wrong people but the right idea?

It wasn't the greatest surprise in the world. But it still had its intended jarring effect.

Yes, Red Bull didn't miss the opportunity of hosting (and funding) its own F1 event at the track it lends its name to in Austria to step into the pulpit.

Dietrich Mateschitz (left) had a lot to say around the
 Austrian race
Photo: Octane Photography

And even though the broad thrust of what it said was long since familiar the fact that it was this time delivered with such blunt aggression meant that its reverberations were a great as, perhaps greater than, ever. As all gathered for the Austrian weekend the Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz fired a grand opening salvo, mainly against its beleaguered power unit supplier Renault, in the Red Bull-owned publication SpeedWeek: "Besides taking our time and money they [Renault] have destroyed our enjoyment and motivation. No driver and no chassis in this world can compensate for this horsepower deficit. How many more things have to happen before we lose all enjoyment?" Crikey.

Then its Red Bulletin Austrian race weekend freesheet followed up with some fire of its own, with 'What's wrong with Formula 1?' emblazoned across its front page early in the weekend (albeit contrary to common assumption it was related to the views of Niki Lauda on what F1 needs to change rather than those of a Red Bull figure). Come race morning too presumably in an attempt to make a point about what it viewed as the sport's predictability that front page declared Lewis Hamilton already the winner of the Spielberg race, along with a few other future ones besides. The irony wasn't lost on Nico Rosberg afterwards.

New Grand Prix Times article: Sympathy for Red Bull amid threats to quit F1

Photo: Octane Photography

Red Bull hasn't been winning any popularity awards lately. You only need to glance around some comments from rival teams, or from fans on social media and the like, to work that out.

In large part this is because since the team flopped in the season-opener in Melbourne team boss Christian Horner has been arguing for some kind of equalisation to allow the team to catch up, while Helmut Marko has hinted that the team might quit the sport. Talk which led to many branding them as sore losers and perhaps even hypocrites.

But for Grand Prix Times I outline under my breath why things aren't quite as simple as have been presented, and why I have some sympathy with the team's point of view.

You can have a read here: http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/10027

Bulls to provide the horses?

Pretty much ever since the RB10 made its first faltering attempts at turning a wheel in Jerez testing pre-season back in January, audible muttering from the Red Bull camp about its power unit partner Renault has been persistent background noise of the 2014 season so far. But even with this, at the team's home event just passed it all seemed to step up rather.

Helmut Marko wasn't just active on track last weekend
Photo: Octane Photography

First off, early in the weekend Helmut Marko when being interviewed by Martin Brundle on Sky stated that if Renault can't provide a unit on a par with the standard bearing Mercedes 'then we have to look for alternatives'. Then after a very trying time of it in the race itself team principal Christian Horner escalated hostilities further, calling both the unit's reliability and performance 'unacceptable' before adding 'the situation hasn't really improved from Melbourne' and that 'there needs to be change at Renault.'

Of course, taken at face value these are statements of the obvious, and indeed Renault deputy managing director Rob White put some words out outlining that it shared Red Bull's frustrations (though also emphasised that there is a plan in place to improve matters). But of course in reality it'll be taken to mean much more. And as James Allen noted, imagine if the Renault engine was being let down by a poor chassis and the French company was to suggest that the guilty constructor's technical director should be sacked...

The vision thing - the importance of eyesight to a racing driver

I'll admit it. When the words crackled across the airwaves my immediate thought was 'I've heard it all now'. But it was nothing new; such is the way of F1's past parallels almost always lay therein somewhere, pretty much no matter what you encounter.

There was some mirth around when in the late laps of the Monaco Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton was heard over the TV feed complaining on his team radio of having got some dirt in his left eye which was impairing his ability to see. Lewis - while afterwards keen not to make a big deal of it - reported that it rather restricted him, to the point that he needed to close that eye on low speed corners. 'I was driving with one eye which is virtually impossible to do' he said. It showed in his lap times too as he at the same moment fell away from his team mate's pace for the first time all afternoon.

Denis Jenkinson (right) - knew the importance of vision
By Gillfoto (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

But we should have had more sympathy. The extent that your eyesight is functioning is no small matter for a racing driver.

Indeed the legendary motorsports scribe Denis Jenkinson in his book The Racing Driver - even now pushing half a century on from its first publication still considered the seminal work on analysing and categorising the attributes of a top level racing competitor - having observed many great drivers close at hand concluded that vision was the most important attribute of all. And it is the information acquired from the vision that a driver's brain transmitted to all the other faculties required for the task.

Jenks in his study noted the almost other-worldly eyesight capabilities of just about all of the top-level racing drivers that he knew. This included the ability to read small text that Jenks could only decipher with a magnifying glass, as well as Stirling Moss's superhuman skills in identifying several details of an opponent behind on the road from the tiniest speck in his rear-view mirror, when Jenks navigated for Stirling in the Mille Miglia.

What's up with Vettel?

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I? Look at the matter of Sebastian Vettel I mean, and why the appearances so far in the 2014 campaign are that he is struggling. Moreover whether - despite everything - the opening four rounds of this said campaign are evidence that he's not all that after all.

After the China round last weekend wherein his team mate Daniel Ricciardo was well on top, it all went into overdrive. Kevin Eason in The Times for one wondered out loud 'whether this race had illuminated the claims to greatness of two champions', one of which was Vettel of course. Eason went on: 'Could this be the end of the Vettel era or are we too quick to underscore those doubts about the true talent of a young man who exploited a truly superior car to the full for four seasons? The argument has often been put forward that, for all the excellence of Mark Webber, Vettel has never been up against a truly gifted team-mate - a Hamilton or a Fernando Alonso.'

Sebastian Vettel - under siege in 2014
Photo: Octane Photography

And he wasn't the only one. The BBC's Andrew Benson noted similar: 'There is no arguing with the scale of Vettel's statistical achievements in the last four seasons. But there was always a question about how much was driver and how much was car.'

As you might imagine, social media and internet forums were also awash with such deliberation.

Of course the tendency to believe that you're only as good as your last game isn't one exclusive to F1. And social media, which seems to rather cater for pendulum thinking, everything being opined as an extreme, appears highly fertile territory this sort of interpretation. But in F1 the tendency appears especially strong.

Final thoughts on 2013: Dark matters

The 2013 F1 season was a year that promised much and in many ways disappointed. It was a year undermined by political intrigue, aggravation, sometimes scandal. A year that perhaps won't linger in the affections, aside from recollection of a driver and team in unison performing at the top of their respective games in taking the honours, a partnership that has been formidable for a while and was increasingly so as this campaign went on. We might have witnessed the team in some ways at its worst this season, but we also saw it at its very best.

And yet at the campaign's outset we were full of optimism, coming off a season wherein the fare were was more competitive and varied than had been so for a long while, and was played to a close and dramatic climax. There were not many reasons to think that things would be much different this time, yet we didn't to any great extent get more of the same, and worse the main thing that we did get more of was politics.

The Pirelli tyres dominated the discourse in early 2013
Photo: Octane Photography

The F1 fraternity is a fractious lot, and the sport can never be detached completely from disputes; the tendency merely has to be managed. But this campaign contained rather a lot to manage, and much flowed over the brim. The matter that dominated the discourse in the first half of the year - much more than any driver or team - were the dark matters of the Pirelli tyres. Dark in more ways than one.

Early in the 2013 season some noticed that the rubber, with Pirelli deliberately engineering degradation in, didn't allow drivers to push all the time. This really shouldn't have been a surprise, as that had been Pirelli's approach (at the behest of Formula One Management) since its return as the sport's supplier in 2011 in order to add a variable to the racing and to strategies. And as had also been also been its way it also this year went more extreme with the tyres than in the season before, given that each year the teams' tendency to get on top of the challenges as the season went on resulted in more tepid fare.

Further thoughts on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Kvyat deserves the keys
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend wasn't just about F1. The two feeder series - GP2 and GP3 - reached their respective season crescendos, and unlike F1 still had their titles hanging in the balance at this advanced stage. In the event the GP3 championship title was taken by one Daniil Kvyat. The same Daniil Kvyat who has recently been confirmed for a race seat at Toro Rosso alongside Jean-Eric Vergne next season.

Danill Kvyat - against expectations - is to
race for Toro Rosso in 2014
Photo: Octane Photography

Few at the time of the announcement saw Kvyat's selection coming; Antonio Felix da Costa as far as most looking in from out of the camp were concerned was a shoo-in for the drive. But perhaps it's one of those decisions that - if such a thing is possible - should simultaneously surprise us and not surprise us. We've seen before that when it comes to choosing those to promote within the Red Bull young drivers' programme that candidates can be skipped over, sometimes dropped altogether, rather pitilessly. We've also seen that the Red Bull collective is not shy of making decisions - such as with picking Daniel Ricciardo over Kimi Raikkonen to partner Sebastian Vettel in the big team next year - that do not appear the obvious ones to outsiders.

Many got cynical at Kvyat's accession, stating that it was all about money. There's a Russian Grand Prix next year after all, and someone worked out that in that vast country the soft drinks market was worth $14.5 billion in 2011. But just like with the Ricciardo decision, despite cynicism there is evidence beneath the exterior that this selection was in fact made for all of the right reasons.

The case for Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull doesn't get much benefit of the doubt these days, it seems. And this week we got just the latest demonstration of it, after the team made its much-anticipated decision on who is to partner Sebastian Vettel there next season. No sooner had it announced who is to fill its Mark Webber-vacated race seat for 2014 as a round of knowing and cynical nods could be sensed among many of those watching on.

The Sebastian Vettel/Helmut Marko axis had prevailed again, they said. Kimi Raikkonen - for a long time the apparent front-runner for the ride - had been passed over on the grounds of being too much of a potential intra-team threat to the lauded Seb. Daniel Ricciardo of the sister team Toro Rosso was being promoted instead as he is less likely to challenge Vettel's supremacy. More malleable. A rabbit for the second car.

Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel will be a pair next year
Photo: Octane Photography

But is this fair? I as much as anyone am disappointed that we're being deprived a Seb and Kimi tete-a-tete, but is Red Bull likely effectively to write off one ride simply in order to appease Seb and Marko? Red Bull after all wants to win constructors' championships, and in constructors' championships it is the 'second' driver as it were, the points they accumulate, that is the key discriminator. And one point that I struggle with is if a Kimi move was always going to be vetoed then why pursue it for as long as and as far as Red Bull did? Seb also in Hungary talked in positive terms of being paired with Kimi (though in mitigation that was in response to a question about the prospect of being team mates with Fernando Alonso, so the lesser of two evils may have been on his mind) as well as hasn't let on in public any fussiness about whom he's to be paired with next year.

Furthermore, is Ricciardo's elevation to the Red Bull race seat really a travesty? Is it possible that part of it, perhaps a major part, is that Daniel Ricciardo has made a compelling case of his own in recent times?

Not convinced? Well here are a few considerations:

Further thoughts on the Belgian Grand Prix

Ric in?
As I've said before, F1's 'silly season' isn't called that out of any sort of irony, in the same way as someone big-boned might be nicknamed 'tiny'. It's called it because it's usually silly. During it rumours about who is to go where for the following season ferment all around you: some have basis in fact, others are deliberate curveballs put about with an ulterior motive. Others still are simple speculation, someone putting two and two together and sometimes getting four, more often getting five. Occasionally getting 17.

Mark Webber - making mischief?
Photo: Octane Photography

By this time of the year, late summer, silly season is somewhere near its peak. And this year's seems to be of a fine vintage: what with a Red Bull vacancy created by Mark Webber's departure to LMP1, Felipe Massa's Ferrari overalls hanging on an immensely shaky peg, Kimi Raikkonnen appearing minded - for whatever reason or reasons - to move from Lotus and fill one of those gaps (or go to McLaren, or go back to rallying...), as well as of course the inevitably domino effect right down the grid of these moves. My personal favourite heard at Spa was that Michael Schumacher is to make his second return from retirement to fill the Red Bull vacancy. I'll, erm, believe that when I see it.

Reading between the lines

It often pays when noting what is being said, to also note what isn't. Sometimes an omission is as telling as the prose.

And so it may be with Mark Webber in his words which followed the confirmation that he's quitting F1 at the year's end in to drive for Porsche in sportscars. Looking into his utterances which followed the Porsche announcement perhaps there are some revelations in there, that the words themselves didn't outline explicitly.

Mark Webber - waving goodbye to F1
Credit: Mark McArdle / CC

Webber has faced criticism of the amount of warning he'd given the team about his impending announcement. Team principal Christian Horner said subsequently that he was only given a few minutes' advance notice that Webber was going to confirm his future with Porsche, while others alleged that the ordinary members of the Red Bull team only found out about it via the media.

Webber nevertheless defended how it was handled, among other things explaining that: 'Dietrich (Mateschitz) has been completely up to speed with my thinking in the last six to eight months, so Dietrich has been absolutely on board and on message with where I’ve been at.'

And later, when outlining what we would miss about F1 Webber, among other things, noted: 'working with people like Adrian Newey'.

What's so strange about this, I hear you cry. And you'd be right, as the sentiments shouldn't surprise us in isolation. For all that we talk about Webber being a stranger here myself within the Red Bull organisation, it is known that he has had two key allies there, in the company's big boss Mateschitz and in the Technical Director and design genius Newey. Webber and Mateschitz are very close, indeed Webber often negotiated his deals personally with him. While Newey has always been highly appreciative of Webber's technical feedback.