Can Kimi take title fight to George? Lewis back to his best? – 2026 Chinese GP Review with Jolyon Palmer + Bono

0:02The second youngest driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli wins at just 19 years of age. Yes, Kimi. Come on, my son. Yes! We did it, we did it, we did it, man.

0:21Jolyon Palmer:It reminded me how nice it is to have a first-time Grand Prix winner as well, to see what it means of people achieving a dream. Do you think Kimi can challenge for the championship now? I have my doubts before the weekend, but I'm a lot more confident that he'll take the fight to. This is Lewis saying, no, Charles, I am your equal. He's getting his elbows out and it feels like the Lewis of old. To be there up on the podium, Lewis to my left, Kimi to my right. It's a real special moment. Oli Behrman leading the way for Haas in P5, for me, was one of the drives of the day. I think he's a driver, cementing himself as a star of the future, absolutely.

0:56Welcome everyone to Shanghai for F1 Nation's review of the Chinese Grand Prix. A new winner, a champion back on the podium and action everywhere you looked. I'm Tom Clarkson and with me is F1 TV commentator and former F1 driver Jolien Palmer. Now JP, I loved that race. What was your take?

1:18Jolyon Palmer:It was, yeah, I mean it was breathless wasn't it? There was so much that went into it. The battles were actually brilliant. I think the Ferraris gave us a lot, didn't they, from it? But there was loads through the midfield as well. It was a real thriller. Now, let's start with the winner, Kimi Antonelli. Win number one. And it was pretty emphatic, actually, wasn't it? It was really good. Obviously set up yesterday with qualifying, taking the pole. and then the most crucial part was keeping George behind him at the start. So it didn't matter that the Ferraris came through or one Ferrari came through because his big threat was going to be George.

1:56Jolyon Palmer:And he dealt with him fairly well off the line and then just did everything he had to do. Controlled the safety car restart. Obviously, it was very difficult on a hard tyre. George struggled a lot more getting that tyre fired up. Kimi was there out front, had the pace when he needed it. and yeah I mean what a what an emphatic drive kept the tyres alive for the whole thing and barring a lock-up that had everyone a little bit on the edge of their seats with a few laps to go it was it was faultless he was very emotional too wasn't he and I I kind of loved that about him it reminded me how nice it is to have a first-time Grand Prix winner as well to see what it means of people basically achieving a dream like he said uh I you know what I really liked was how he gave us a massive burnout coming out of the hairpin the race was still going on if that was me i'd have been thinking just short shift just keep everything alive don't try and do anything um but yeah the confidence the the i guess the emotion of the thing just booting it out of the uh the final hairpin lighting up the rear tires uh good celebration for a well-deserved and well felt victory well let's catch up with his race engineer pete bonington you have won many races in formula one how special was this one genuinely at first it was it was just a relief and i just thought good it feels like we're on the right path but now just sort of seeing the reaction and seeing what it means to him what it means to everyone it's super special it's his first one and to be there up on the podium lewis to my left kimmy to my right and it's it's a real special moment um the race itself was i think relatively straightforward the start wasn't brilliant but the rest of it kind of went to plan and yeah i think had it under control there was no real sort of dice that we had remember bahrain 2014 that was a real ding dong this one was just okay this executed ferrari tour strips off each other which really helped us out but yeah getting back to him seeing how much it meant to him and seeing how much it meant to his dad and and the fans um yeah it was really good you've worked with great drivers Lewis Hamilton and you have so much experience in Formula One tell us a little bit about Kimi now you've been with him for 14 months 15 months how has he evolved in that time um he has grown as a human being just because being so young I mean we're all on that really steep curve you know when you're learning by your mistakes but with him it's been a process I mean there was initial you know there was greatness initially and we had that real slump in Europe last year and that was a real hill to get over it was a real speed bump but in a way it was a good learning experience to sort of say actually you know this this isn't easy these are the best drivers in the world you need to work hard at this otherwise yeah it's just going to pass you by you're going to miss the boat and from that he takes everything on board that's the great thing is that he just listens and adapts and moves forward all the greats are very bright aren't they when you look at the grid now look at Lewis look at Fernando look at Max is Kimi really intelligent yes I think he's got that capacity that mental capacity it's it's one of those things that you can tell when a driver is absolutely operating at max cpu you know the old the the clock speed is absolutely at max and the computer is working as hard as it can and it's doing the sums as quick as it can and unfortunately it's going to drop the ball at some point and as they as they get a little bit more experience that sort of bandwidth opens up and the driving becomes a smaller part of what you actually need to do because you need to think about the race in its entirety not just drive as fast as I can it's no I need to manage the race what happens now is going to affect me six laps later ten laps later all the way at the race race finish so yeah it's having that ability to focus and focus forward and what do you think this win will do for Kimi what I am hoping it does is that it will just give him the confidence in that the process is working and what we're doing is the right thing and we just need to stay on this path, not get carried away and just keep cracking on with the things that we're good at and working hard.

6:28He's flying home tonight. He's going to party tomorrow. Same with you? I'm going to fly home tonight and I'll probably go down the pub and I'll have a couple of beers.

6:37Jolyon Palmer:Many congratulations. Thank you very much. I find it really fascinating to hear Barno talk about the journey with Kimi because he's been on one already, hasn't he, with Lewis for all those years. and Kimi's only been in Formula 1 for just over a year, but it feels like he's had all the ups and downs at that time already. He came in so young, and they've built up a really good rapport, obviously, and he's still rebuilding. He's still getting that confidence together that he can take the fight and fight for the championship with Russell this year. So they're a team, they're a unit, and I think Bono as well knows how to build the team, doesn't he?

7:13Interesting point you make. Do you think Kimi can challenge for the championship now? Do you think this will propel him? If there was a step to make to join George, do you think this will be it now?

7:23Jolyon Palmer:I had my doubts before the weekend, but I'm a lot more confident that he'll take the fight to him. I think just the attitude of simply shutting the door on George on the way to turn one. And you just feel like, because he's so young and so inexperienced, was he going to be sort of playing second fiddle and almost be happy to be second fiddle? Because it's what I said, actually, after Melbourne. He was kind of happy to be second. It was a nice result. Well done. The team's won two. We're all happy days. But to have the confidence to say, all right, I'm on pole. Obviously, there was an element of we didn't see what George could do in an absolute all bells and whistles Q3 thing.

8:00Jolyon Palmer:But it didn't matter. Kimi's on the pole. And he's going to go and cut his teammate off into turn one. I just like that he had that in his locker, to go aggressive at the start rather than just play it safe for the team and be one, two in any order. I was surprised that George didn't close the gap to him more once he was through the Ferraris. Me too. Because you had that feeling that George has been a little bit more comfortable still in this generation of car. But I think probably there's a level of maybe George did hurt his tyres a little bit more coming in the traffic with the Ferraris. That fight was, it just felt like it was endless at the time.

8:34Jolyon Palmer:And they were swapping places. And that's going to hurt George's tyres. But also let's not play down Kimi's pace. because when the gap started to come down, Kimi could respond and pump in fastest laps as well. So I think what we saw anyway, the gap closing between Kimi and George, even before George had the issues in qualifying, I think it was only half a tenth that he was quicker in Q1. So he's learning, he's getting closer. And if George is fighting, if he is not able to have a clean race, then we are seeing that Kimi is capable of beating him. This episode is sponsored by Quince, a brand that makes everyday essentials that feel effortless to wear even as the seasons change.

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10:56And Lewis Hamilton finally, finally has a Ferrari Grand Prix podium. Fantastic job. Fantastic job, guys.

11:06Jolyon Palmer:Really well done. Back at Baronello, we've got work to do, but I believe in you. Let's keep pushing. For the Ferrari. Now, what about Ferrari? In our preview show, JP, they were your shout. Don't remind me, TC. Was it Ferrari or was I just passionate about Italians this weekend? They were quick in the race, again. I mean, Lewis is maintaining the line that Mercedes still have that 0.4, 0.5 per lap over the red cars. I'm not sure it's that big. I don't think it's that big in race trim. In qualifying, it was about 0.4, wasn't it? But I think it's shrinking as well. I think in race trim, you know, the bit that surprised me the most was how easily George cleared the Ferraris at the start.

11:49Jolyon Palmer:and I thought okay this is a guy that's going to he wants to go and chase his teammate but once they were one two they didn't just romp away from from Lewis and Charles obviously the fight between the two Ferraris if we think that George has hurt his tires in that they have exploded their tires fighting with each other that hard so I think you know they if you wanted a clear picture the end result isn't that between the Mercedes and the Ferraris because of how brutal their battle was with each other and I think they're in the mix it was definitely closer but I think regardless if Ferrari had played their best cards here I still think they're third and fourth at the moment what about the battle between Lewis and Charlotte felt like there was a lot at stake both of them enjoyed it Lewis actually said at the press conference afterwards it was he thought some of the best racing he's ever had that's great in Formula One isn't that fantastic I love it honestly see we're watching it in in commentary and i was thinking this is is the scrapping is unbelievable so how they get there is obviously a lot to do with energy deployment and one one driver has a little bit more available they then use their battery and then they're ahead but they don't have the battery to defend and so the shoe goes on the other foot but when you actually look at the battles the wheel to wheel through the corners it's phenomenal stuff really trading blows lap after lap corner after corner they're fighting each other so hard on the limit of grip cars moving around and they're giving each other just enough space i mean lewis did mention that they they had the faintest of touches but i thought you you have to say that is unbelievable skill and it's not just drive-by passes they are having to duke it out through the corners well but that's the point right i know you said there's an element of energy deployment but i saw them side by side on parts of the track where energy deployment had nothing to do with it it was wheel to wheel racing like we haven't seen for a long time it probably did have something to do with it to be honest because it would have been all of the racing does center around it does center around energy deployment and it's you know you could be 10 lower on battery and you're gonna every corner just start to harvest and even if you take the middle sector which is where some of the the great fighting was there'll be a level of harvest for for one of them whilst the other one's thinking no i'm not gonna i'm gonna just deplete the battery here and catch them by surprise so i still think it does come down to energy deployment but you still have cars at high speed on the limit of grip racing each other through multiple corners and then that extra mental game of okay it's like a boost button now where literally it's called boost so that's that's convenient i've read the rules and but it is effective you get a chance but you can't you You can't blow it all or you're going to be repassed.

14:30And it's tactical, right? You raced in Formula One with DRS. I always struggle with the idea that you could just press a button and nine times out of ten get an easy pass or someone. This is something with this deployment where drivers are having to think two, three, four, half a lap ahead sometimes. That, to me, is what being a racing driver is all about.

14:51Jolyon Palmer:There are two sides to it. But I do love the wheel-to-wheel. and I do love the mental game of it as well and you do see when you know when drivers make the moves I'm also thinking of the the Colopinto, Ocon, Gasly, Bermann, Verstappen all five of them brawling through the midfield as well you see you have you have a one chance to pass and if you don't make it you're going to slip backwards and if you do make it you've then got to make your car as wide as possible so that the racing is different but it's very quickly going to what is immediately entertaining isn't it and the drivers are going to understand more and more how to how to do it It's basically like a super slipstream effect, isn't it?

15:28Jolyon Palmer:You know, when you watch low-powered cars, long time on the straights, and everyone's just fanning out at some point on the straight to try and overtake. And you think, oh, the guy in second is so much quicker. Then they take the lead, and the slipstream effect again is that big. It's effectively like a super slipstream from the energy. Lewis said afterwards that he's back to his best, both mentally and physically. You agree? Good to hear. He seems it. Yeah, I mean, he's walking around with a smile all the time, isn't he? I think my favorite thing about Lewis's driving at the moment is how aggressive he is.

15:59Jolyon Palmer:It's like he's getting his elbows out and it feels like the Lewis of old. I think even taking the fight so hard to Charles, also George in the sprint. And I think you're doing that because you're loving the racing. You want to just throw caution to the wind sometimes and overtake in the quirky spots. Just think, OK, let's give it a go. He's really quick and it does feel like he's just completely rejuvenated. I felt this was an important race for Lewis as well because Charles rubbed his nose in it last year, right? to be frank and this is him striking back this is Lewis saying no Charles I am your equal I think that's why the battle's so intense so intense isn't it because Charles has been uh King Kong of Ferrari for quite a while now and even if the fights have been close with some of his fights with Carlos back in the day uh and with Lewis there was you know some some touchy radios and some battles last year but it felt like Charles was the was the guy and I think Lewis is basically saying no i'm here and and this is not just your team so he's he's really trying to trying to take the fight to charles and trying to prove that he's he's an equal to him he he's always been good in china and he's always been really quick in melbourne and charles did say this has always been a bad track but he's never finished on the podium here right his qualifying record he's i think he's out qualified his teammate twice in eight which for charles claire is actually a pretty miserable record so i think there's an element of are we going to see a better version of charles coming up but i i nonetheless love the version of lewis that we're seeing i thought their battle also proved that you can follow closely in these 2026 cars lewis agreed when i put that to him it definitely looks like it's working i mean that that gap of like two or three seconds that we used to see doesn't look like it's the case anymore does it and also this circuit is there's a lot of long medium speed corners where normally you'd start to feel that wash and the dirty air effect we actually saw it a bit from um from norris last year when he before he picked up brake issues so a lot of positives tc a lot of positives from that race you mentioned the name norris not so many positives down at mclaren this weekend it's i mean poor poor old oscar piastri has yet to do a racing lap in 2026 yeah first time a mclaren driver has failed to do a lap in two consecutive races since Bruce McLaren.

18:18Jolyon Palmer:It's so tough, isn't it? I was actually sat next to Oscar. He came into the McLaren hospitality to watch the race. And as that stat was offered up on the TV, he gave it a little sort of fist bump. Record-breaking weekend, eh? He's got a new performance engineer as well who's just had his best Sunday in the role by making it to the grid. That's how ridiculous his start has been. is so tough on him not to have had a race start and given how tricky the race starts are you want all the experience you can get so really unlucky i spoke to tom stallard on the grid and had no idea at that point that he wasn't going to make it i thought okay this is not good for mclaren having having lando out with electrical issues but yeah then they wheeled off oscar's car as well so really really tough day it's the it's the worst case scenario for for mclaren just to not get any learning in the infancy of these cars and i'm yeah tom said he wouldn't speak to me again on the grid so that's the end of that one but i still find it weird that we had relatively trouble free running from people like mclaren at the bahrain test and yet here we are chinese grand prix they can't even get either car to the to the start line yeah i we've seen the complexity of the cars they're doing more miles as well aren't they in more you know in in qualifying spec and in in more tuned up but i tend to agree when they've had a you know overnight to to as obviously The Parc Ferme rules and there's a curfew and they can't take the cars to pieces and inspect them quite as much as they would have done.

19:50Jolyon Palmer:But you still think that there's enough time to see these things before fire up. So I think that's the really tough thing for McLaren, that they have found issues so late in the day. But it's not just them, is it? We saw there was four cars that didn't make the start. Albon as well, who was only due to start from the pit lane. And Bortoleto got wheeled off. What about Red Bull? Second DNF in a row for the team. Verstappen forced to retire a week after Hadjar did the same in Melbourne and almost worse than the DNF for me was Max was so negative about the performance this weekend yeah you'd take the you'd take the Hadjar race from last time out where he's at least qualifying third and running in the in the top five and then you need to work on the reliability but that I think yeah Max being so disappointed with the level of performance and it's the worrying thing for Red Bull is this is not necessarily down to the the power unit which is what we should have been the their achilles heel starting a power trains from from scratch but they've done a really decent job on that so this is not a massively energy energy sensitive circuit where they did a really good job in melbourne which which was so it seems like it's and there's still a little bit of performance there but it's mainly down to the the chassis uh downforce package finding some grip mechanically as well.

21:05Jolyon Palmer:They're a long way off it. And yeah, Max said that they changed the car. They had the chance to change the car between the sprint and qualifying, changed it a lot, which they've done historically to massive success all the time. And it made very little difference. So something inherent in there that they're not on top of. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of this show, booking guests across time zones, tight turnaround edits and constant time management. And when things get chaotic, you realise pretty quickly how important it is to have the right person on your team.

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24:34Let's look at some positives now in what I call the midfield madness, right? It was hectic in there and Oli Behrman leading the way for Haas in P5 for me was one of the drives of

24:47Jolyon Palmer:the day yeah don't you find with these races you forget how drivers have ended up in the positions they are because the the fighting is is so chaotic in that midfield and you know eventually that he's got ahead but you can't remember was Behrman ahead of Gasly three times or was he ahead five times or one clean pass it was it was so chaotic but I think he's a driver operating at an incredibly high level and cementing himself as a as a star of the future absolutely but he's p5 in the world championship in a has his points every time best of the rest last time in melbourne was seventh couldn't do more than fifth today and i mean he got caught up behind hajar's spin early on in the first lap uh in melbourne he had a really bad start so it's not like he's just qualified high and and race cleanly he's had to then find his way through the field with some good overtaking he's done that and then and delivered the maximum and he got a point in the in the sprint what aspect of his racing do you like the most is it his coolness under pressure is it his feel for grip i think fundamentally he's rapid so when you when you've got the speed he's got it gives you tools to to overtake you know you can get people out of position you're not you're not trying to hang on you feel like you can you can apply a lot more pressure i think that his speed is is obvious to see now and he's putting a lot of pressure on um on Esteban on the other car uh I do think he's got a great awareness as well of of racing he said he struggled to um to pass Arvid Lindblad in in Melbourne for so many laps but it felt like he's put the lessons to good use for this weekend he had the pit stop underneath the safety car and just managed to pick his way through that that melee of of Pierre Gasly and Colopinto and his teammate just cleanly and it is difficult because when you have this um this set of regs you know we have a bit of yo-yo racing where you go ahead and then you have to defend but he's he's basically attacking at the right time and then managing to to hold that position and then moving forward to the next one so it's sheer pace that's putting him in a good position but he is very very clean at um at his at his race craft as well and utterly fearless and i'm actually going to quote iokamatsu the team principal of has who comes on f1 beyond on the grid sister podcast to this in a couple of weeks i always said when he made his debut replacing carlos science in the ferrari at saudi do you remember he said you know he only got in the car on saturday morning and the ferrari engineers said to him that you know he was touching the walls in his first ever qualifying session in a ferrari you know fearless he's just got talent he's just got he's is that what we're talking about here just it's just talent it's it's It's a feel for grip, which is what talent is.

27:25Jolyon Palmer:The rest of it is work ethic. It's patience, which I think he's shown a lot of maturity as well with his race craft and not panicking when he gets a bad start or he loses positions with a spin, just methodically picking it back and getting back to where he was. But I just see a driver that's got just the feel for grip, having the car on the edge. He's got a good brain on him as well. And I think he seems to be the real deal. And you mentioned Ocon. I feel the gap we're seeing between Behrman and Ocon is we're looking at sort of the same territory as when Ocon was teammate to Fernando Alonso at Alpine.

28:00You know, it's kind of more, maybe more and certainly more than when Ocon and Gasly were teammates at Alpine.

28:06Jolyon Palmer:Which is a statement of how good Behrman is. So Ocon's under pressure. He drifted away a lot as the year went on last year. But then you have to say, has Esteban lost performance or is Oli just actually a really, really high caliber driver coming through? And when you compare Esteban to, yeah, to Fernando, to Pierre, any number of teammates, he's never been a slouch. But the routineness of Behrman extracting so much from the house is, looks good for him. Right. We mentioned Alpine then. And big, big, big congratulations to Franco Colapinto, right? I mean, he's had a torrid time since he replaced Jack Doohan at race six last year, right?

28:48I think we can say he hasn't been that impressive. And I felt this was the first time we've seen Franco driving with confidence. And I thought the way he held up all those cars, lap after lap, faster cars, was great.

29:02Jolyon Palmer:It was good. Car positioning was great. Yeah, and again, having the intelligence to use the speed when he needed to use the speed. he was a bit unlucky as well with the the timing of the safety car because he was running in sixth early on didn't get the pit stop because he was on the hard tire to start so yeah really good really good race day from him nice good good level of awareness uh obviously got drilled by by Ocon which which cost him a better chance of of more points but qualifying pace was much better as well because it feels like he's been chasing it a little bit as well compared to um to Pierre who's who's still the standout driver for Alpine but hopefully it takes a bit of confidence oh it was a great day for Alpine double points Franco coming home P10 Pierre Gasly coming home P6 how much potential do you think the Alpine's got it's a good question because I feel like they almost got the most out of what they can do here at the moment the Mercedes power unit they've really explained that since working with Mercedes switching from Renault last year they're having to get used to a new way of working and it's it's taken a little bit of time to get the most out of that power unit and you can see with between them and also McLaren um I mean who knows about Williams but those two you can see the gaps closing the knowledge getting better and they also just had a better car performance as well got the car into a good window there's a big gap isn't there between the fifth team and the fourth team even if they were ahead of Red Bull this weekend but i think best of the rest is still i'm not going to get loftier expectations of them than that look just a couple more um liam lawson very good it was a tough weekend for him in melbourne in that in that his teammate on debut was getting so much praise and i mean you know what it's like when you're in the other car sucks it absolutely sucks yeah i thought he bounced back well this weekend yeah perfect response yeah it's always difficult because everyone everyone was sort of saying the pressure's on liam he's got more experience uh arvid linblad came in and showed what a talent he is but again just a kind of quiet weekend for him that was very very competent the strategy that racing bulls had in the sprint got him through on the hard tire and he made the most of it and again the strategy came towards him a bit in um in the grand prix today because he started on the mediums was kind of struggling on that but the safety car came at the right time for him but he had a lot more pace i would say arvid linblad had uh had a tough weekend in terms of mileage and reliability but yeah liam certainly made the most of it and was unlucky not to be in the top 10 probably in qualifying as well carlos saints gets those points for williams in p9 um he's been really solid all weekend actually he said he he was getting the limit out of what he's got and what he's got isn't great at the moment so you know those couple of points are important for Williams yeah spoke to him after the race I thought he'd be a lot happier than he was but he's still not happy no not happy just because of the I think where Williams are at and this is a guy that's capable of winning races and I think he he knows the level of performance that he's just put in this weekend and he's done it for a ninth place so I think yeah he's his drive was i think amazing i mean i cannot believe williams has scored points this early in the season with a car that's not able to compete in the midfield so it's incredible what he's done but i think there is a frustration there that a drive like that should be worth a lot more than than two points i was running the track on friday night jp i did five laps no no you didn't take that look of disbelief i didn't do any laps this week but i passed james vowels early on in the lap my fourth lap his first and then i was running down today tc five laps clearing past loads of other people in the park but and then i was coming down the the long back straight and i had to pass james vowels again and i as i ran past him the second time within a lap i was like mate i'm i'm confused now how did this happen and uh 30 kilos of weight it snuck through the barriers but i'm pleased for james because i think he's a man under pressure formula one is a pressure business but never more than when you're not performing well never more than when you've spent the last two years saying that 2026 is what they're looking to so i think unfortunately he's invited the pressure on himself because he's he's joined the project a few years ago and williams were making all the right strides it seemed like he was putting everything in plan uh back at the base the upgrades were bringing performance even just signing carlos that was a was a sign of you know this is a team that now have finance to go and get race winning drivers and that made a big difference to get a couple of podiums as well but then this is the chance when you say what alpine can do at least they are at the front of the midfield with a new power unit williams know how mercedes power units have operated i mean this is a whole new game and they're they're learning about that as much as mclaren are but you feel like there's not really an excuse for why they're this poor they are massively overweight there are fundamental parts of the car that aren't working and they're you know major issues and they just don't have downforce on the car alex albin didn't do a race start this weekend because he just he's finding the car so oddly behaving that he wants to try things and treat it as a test session so great that they got points and carlos did say hopefully it's a nice little catalyst for them to to keep their hopes up and keep optimistic one of the engineers told me that in weight alone it's about a second a lap compared to people who are on the weight limit i heard in bahrain that the car was heavier this year than it was last year bearing when the weight limits come down by 32 kilos tc that's outrageous and that's that's what they're dealing with so the weight is a natural penalty that makes about a second a lap probably there's a few sensors on the car in testing that they can take off and trim it down a little bit but so the weight's a second good that's a chance that you can take off the weight and find it but you need to still be able to take off the weight there's a reason that it's heavy because uh they've had to make the parts that that they have they obviously were a little bit late to it so maybe with a bit more refinement and they missed the shakedown so scrabbled to get parts on the car for these early flyaways they've got hopes that miami with a bit more time now they'll be able to uh trim weight off the car but we're not talking about one magic fix.

35:26Jolyon Palmer:We're talking every single component, trying to shave off grams here or there and add downforce. So it's a double-edged sword. I think they'll do it. But remember, everyone else is going to be finding performance as well. So they've got a lot more to come as a ceiling. That's the good news. The bad news is they've got another second to find before they're in the midfield. And that is why Carlos Sainz wasn't that jolly when you spoke to him after the race because he knows it's a long road, doesn't he? Precisely. and I think it's the hope of Williams on the end of last year to Williams this year.

35:58Jolyon Palmer:That's why I think there's such a disappointment to me. Yeah. Look, final thing. I saw some extraordinary footage watching the race today of Fernando Alonso taking his hands off the wheel, driving down the straights because of the vibrations coming through on the Aston Martin. Extraordinary. I've never seen anything like that before. No. No, that's... I don't really... I don't know what to say about that. Aston Martin are in all manners of trouble, aren't they? So we know the vibrations are bad. We heard all the talk from Adrian Newey in Melbourne. The drivers are really struggling inside the cockpit.

36:32Jolyon Palmer:I heard that they couldn't feel their feet in Bahrain because the car was rattling them around so much. The only thing is, hopefully, Honda are working on fixes for this, and they're understanding, and they're doing at least a few laps to figure things out. But it's pretty bleak, isn't it, for Fernando Randall? Home race for Honda coming up next. It's a write-off race though, isn't it? They're all just testing sessions. And it's sad to see because you've got race-winning drivers in all those back-end teams, in Williams, in Aston Martin and Cadillac. And for all different reasons, they're not able to fight.

37:04Jolyon Palmer:And for Fernando particularly, I do feel like he's giving it full commitment, full attention, you know, carrying on, hands off the wheel, but desperate to try and get a bit of feeling back in his digits. And quick and poorly compared to Stroll. Yeah, Lance, I think, was entirely miserable yesterday after qualifying, being out qualified by a Cadillac. I think Fernando's giving it an honest shot. And I think Adrian Newey will appreciate that as the team principal. You need to have galvanizing forces in the team. That is difficult when you're being shaken about. And also he made a great start today, Fernando.

37:34Again, back up in the point.