In short
The episode debates the biggest second-half-of-season storyline: whether Kimi Antonelli’s current dominance will persist, or whether George Russell will rebound after a disappointing first half. Guests discuss pressure dynamics for Mercedes (Russell) versus youth/consistency for Antonelli, and how Lewis Hamilton’s resurgence affects the title fight. They also preview the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, including the possibility of rain and how power delivery on a low-grip track could create chaos and opportunities for smaller teams. They cover Aston Martin’s Honda engine upgrades, expecting meaningful horsepower gains after a strong Hungary step.
Notable examples
Hamilton’s comeback after being far behind, Verstappen’s near-title recovery last year, and Norris/George needing to convert “having the car” into wins.
Guests
Naomi Schiff, Will Buxton, David Croft, and DC (Daniel “DC” something; referred to as DC throughout).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOKimi Antonelli's Consistency and Future
0:45 to 3:14
Discussion on Kimi Antonelli's impressive performance and consistency.
“And he almost won the championship last year.”
Pressure on George Russell
3:14 to 5:30
Exploration of the expectations and pressure on George Russell this season.
“And hopefully it becomes a scenario for them where they won't need to answer that question because one driver will emerge as the out-and-out favorite for the title.”
Team Dynamics and Championship Threats
5:30 to 8:35
Analysis of team strategies and potential championship threats.
“because, yeah, I think Kimi is just what you see is what you get.”
Upcoming Races and Expectations
8:35 to 12:26
Preview of upcoming races and potential impacts on the championship.
“Yes, he had a car that was ever improving, but it could be exactly the same for McLaren.”
Aston Martin Engine Upgrades
12:26 to 14:05
Discussion on Aston Martin's engine upgrades and their potential performance improvements.
“I think Aston did a great job with that upgrade package.”
Engine Developments and Team Prospects
14:05 to 17:49
Discussion on the potential of engine upgrades for Aston Martin and Cadillac's prospects for the second half of the season.
“I think there's a, it feels like a quiet, I'm not going to say confidence, but there's certainly sort of a level of certainty that they've made a pretty advanced step forward.”
Chassis vs. Engine: What Matters More?
17:50 to 19:36
Debate on whether chassis updates or engine power are more critical for drivers' performance.
“Well, we're going to look on this week with keen eyes.”
Race Weekend Predictions: Zandvoort
19:37 to 22:26
Predictions for the upcoming race at Zandvoort considering weather conditions and track suitability.
“So there's a few factors that we should bear in mind because, yes, it's a tight, twisty circuit.”
Favorite Memories from Zandvoort
22:27 to 23:48
Hosts share personal anecdotes and memorable moments from their experiences at Zandvoort.
“But sometimes when you put wet tires on an average car, its performance profile relative to, let's say, better cars in the dry picks up because of the way the air diffuses off those wet tires.”
DC and Naomi's Zandvoort Experiences
23:49 to 28:02
Further personal stories from hosts about racing experiences and mishaps at Zandvoort.
“and or who you think will be giving him a run for his money.”
Show all 14 chapters
Race Day Preparation and Disappointments
28:02 to 29:00
Hear about the frustrations and challenges drivers face leading up to a race.
Memorable Moments at Zandvoort
29:01 to 29:45
Reflect on unforgettable moments in Formula One history and the fan atmosphere.
Traffic and Scooter Mishaps
29:46 to 30:58
Listen to a humorous anecdote about navigating to the track on a scooter.
“they're just booming the music out and the whole place is shaking because everyone's dancing in the grandstands.”
Pre-Race Predictions and Insights
30:59 to 33:06
The hosts share their predictions for the upcoming race and discuss team performances.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:01This is a global production. I don't think it's a simple run-in to the end of the year. It's high stress. He's doing it. He's been doing it. And he's proving that he can do it now. The George comeback. It has to come. It has to come. Do they focus on one driver? Do they prioritize one driver? Who around them should we be looking at in terms of real championship threats? Pre-race predictions, guys. Naomi, you start us off. Thank you, Will, for throwing me under the bus like that.
0:36up to speed
0:41it's will it's naomi it's david welcome to up to speed and a special episode today where we get to answer your questions as we get back to racing ways at zanvort we love to get your questions in so whenever you guys want to send us questions please make sure you do because we want to answer them and that's exactly what we're going to do as we promised on monday so um to kick things off everyone's talking about this going into the second half of the season it's the same question we've been asking all season long but rebecca on tiktok has asked us how surprised would you be if kimmy kept this amazing form up until the end of the season what do you think john not at all
1:26I'll go with somewhat we have seen on many occasions where first half of the season someone's looked dominant and then it's kind of gone soft isn't it after the break and we've also seen guys come alive after the break Lewis Hamilton someone that historically has always been pretty good at recharging Max Verstappen of course came back from, God, he was a country mile behind, wasn't he? And he almost won the championship last year. Yeah, 100 points. So, yeah. But the thing I'm loving about Kimi is that his consistency has been super impressive. My question would be, and this is not a cruisism, it's an observation, as his fame grows and he starts popping up behind the DJ booth at parties because if he goes to a party like any teenager should, of course, he's now internationally internationally famous and that dj is going to want to bring him up and he's going of course you're going to go so does he handle the distractions off track i think yes i think the good news is we've got two races in america in the second half of the season he's not old enough to drink yet so he won't have any distractions in austin or vegas it's do you know what it's it's it's such an interesting one you know and dc i think i think you're right to point to the two halves of the season if you look at last year the expectation coming into second half of the year was all on Oscar and that momentum and pace and the potential that he had to win the championship.
2:54And it all just kind of tailed off, didn't it? And we were asking the questions of ourselves and of him, of could he handle the pressure? Could he maintain that momentum? So I think for Kimi, it's going to be about that momentum. The same question exists today that existed at the start of the year that Mercedes are asking themselves about. Do they focus on one driver? Do they prioritize one driver? Do you get team orders and all of that? And hopefully it becomes a scenario for them where they won't need to answer that question because one driver will emerge as the out-and-out favorite for the title.
3:27Whether that's because Lewis has a great second half of the season and takes the fight to Kimi or one of the Mercedes drivers just naturally places themselves into that position. But I don't know. There's something about Kimi that there's almost this naivety to him that comes with his youth where I can't imagine a scenario in which he does freak himself out because it's also new to him, because it's also fresh. there's just kind of this this inherent joy that that exudes from him when he when he's racing and i i don't know i did that i just can't see that crumbling and i hope i'm not wrong but um i think we're we're living through one of those great seasons where you see a true potential great of the sport take their first step on that that path to becoming something truly special i totally agree with you well i think that there's something that we see in his body language it's like he doesn't seem to have the same kind of baggage or weight on his shoulders and maybe some of the drivers around him and that obviously does come with his age it comes with the fact that he's only in his second season in Formula One and that you know isn't really in a position maybe that George is where it's kind of like okay buddy what's going on here we really need you to start delivering these victories for us to justify your position in the team whereas Kimi's very much you know in the early stages of his career they've taken a big bet on him it's paying off But and that definitely plays in his favor.
4:50But I think we also need to come to a point now where we stop looking at him like this young kid who's just like, whoa, you know, a teenager. Wow. How is he doing this? He's doing it. He's been doing it. And he's proving that he can do it now. And of course, those two things can coexist. But I'm going to be less surprised if he keeps up this form. But I'd be more surprised if George wasn't able to turn his situation around, because, again, he's a driver coming into the season that we had really high hopes on. and it just hasn't worked out for him in that way. And I know Lewis is sandwiched in the middle of them there, and we're not going to exclude him in this battle, but that would be the thing that would surprise me most is if George doesn't turn this around.
5:27I think that's a very good way of looking at it, actually, because, yeah, I think Kimi is just what you see is what you get. And please, racing gods, may that long continue because it's a breath of fresh air when you have drivers that are not only quick, but they are understanding of being a professional, which is to work with the media, the marketing side, the partners, the sponsors and all that stuff. So I think the George comeback, it has to come. It has to come. George has gone toe to toe with Lewis. And OK, we know Lewis is rejuvenated, but he wasn't scared by Lewis in the couple of years they were together.
6:04So I've got to imagine he's going to start finding some form in the second half of the season. I think the second half of the season, the most pressure is on George. um you know for lewis it's an outside shot it's only a second season at ferrari still rebuilding still so many question marks over over him and the team you know rightly or wrongly um but we always say um or we always i should say we always hear from the drivers you know the the the line is always you know i just need the car right if i have the car then i have the opportunity and i can prove my worth and i can fight for a world championship lando did it last year george has got the car so in the second half of the season if he can't redouble if he cannot find the wherewithal to attack for the title there will be question marks as to whether he has the beans and whether he has a world championship in him because the excuse of i don't have the car doesn't exist anymore he does um and so it's going to be very very telling um and i think the pressure of you know there's not much pressure on kimmy if he doesn't win the title okay it's only a second season in Formula One and he's shown brilliantly and everything else.
7:12I just, I genuinely think the pressure's on George to, to have a really good second half of the year. I think I honestly, I can't wait because the storylines are so fascinating and you have, you know, rejuvenated potential for, for Red Bull racing. You've got McLaren coming off the back of victory going into the summer break. There's so many great storylines that could also play into the world championship because if you have other teams, you know, that aren't Ferrari and Mercedes up there and fighting for podiums and wins, that starts taking points away from the guys who find themselves in the midst of a championship battle.
7:43And that for the viewers, for the fans, is wonderful. So I think it's going to be a great second half of the season. Well, listen, George dropped a knee in the summer break. So I think that that will at least be his gorgeous girlfriend, well, fiance, I should say now, Carmen Munt. And that I'm sure will be a level of pressure that's relieved from his shoulders. I've never had to drop a knee. I know you two have on a couple of occasions. So you tell me, will that be, you know, relieving some pressure off your shoulders? And also, who around them should we be looking at in terms of real championship threats?
8:20I obviously mentioned Lewis a little earlier, who's 50 points behind Kimi in second place in the championship at the moment. But is there anyone else? Where do we draw the line on who is kind of still in it and who's not, even though numerically quite a few of them are still in it. Well, if you remember, Max came back from a long way last year. Yes, he had a car that was ever improving, but it could be exactly the same for McLaren. Could deliver an upgrade and then suddenly they're in the hunt. Ferrari could dominate the second half of the season. We know well that this is a development race and that will therefore shape who's going to be bringing home the big points.
8:56But I think that for me what's been interesting irrespective of the overall performance of the cars is that inter-team battle between the drivers. The fact that Lewis seems rejuvenated. Charles, you would have put money on him all day long at the beginning of the year to be the lead Ferrari driver. That hasn't turned out to be the case. Likewise with George. Max, you could say that Hadjer has been closer to Max than maybe would have been expected and certainly closer than some of his other teammates. So this formula is, let's say, neutralising some of the drivers and enhancing the performance profile of others.
9:35So yeah we've got to get to Holland and find out Max of course will want to try and come away with a victory in the final Dutch Grand Prix, the final chance in his racing career to win on home soil. So it'll be interesting to see whether, we spoke about it on Monday with the home advantage. I know you claim him as half Belgian which he is but you know that everywhere he's going to see an orange flag and home support. So not long until we find out there. And of course, the other thing as we get into the second half of the season, Williams have an update. Aston probably will have something else.
10:15So they'll be exploiting the update that they brought to Budapest, which definitely moved them forward. So there is something about the second half of the season. And I remember when I was racing, I get to the middle part and we didn't have the break. but I would look I'd go god we're only halfway because it's so all-encompassing you're so focused you're so you know to keep that momentum and energy so the the break is fantastic for the mechanics and the engineers but it's going to be really interesting to see which drivers come back having learned from whatever it was was not working for them in the first half I don't know if you guys find this but the second half of the F1 season is it's really bizarre in terms of how time kind of rolls by because you come out of that summer break and you've still got a couple of those European races and it's kind of like a nice soft launch.
11:06And then as soon as you get to Singapore, it's like Singapore to the end of the season just disappears. Bizarrely, those races just seem to tick by so, so, so fast. There's no time to think. And it's an incredibly heavy duty time periods in terms of the number of races and the amount of travel. And then suddenly the season's just gone. And you get so many great curveballs in that end of the season as well, because there's so many different circuit types. You're visiting countries where the weather can play its hand. You know, Singapore, you get the rain. We're going to Malaysia, right? We could have a championship showdown in Malaysia, which is always famous for heavy downpours and lightning.
11:47And even when it's not raining, it's super, super muggy. It's a track that no one's visited for a very, very long time. You know, so what does that throw into the mix? And then factor in also, we still don't know where this season's going to end. And so how does that change things? You know, not knowing the definitive list of racetracks that we're visiting. It's going to be, again, like I can't wait for it, but it's not, I don't think it's a simple run in to the end of the year. It's high stress. And at the moment with a certain level of uncertainty. Yeah, well, nothing's been decided on the final two races, which are scheduled originally to be in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
12:21We're still waiting to hear if those races will go on or if they'll be replaced. There's a lot of rumors about them being in Imola and Portimao, possibly, which, you know, although we always love to go to Qatar, we love to go to Abu Dhabi. it almost feels like as to your point Will the end of the season is always so relentless and I feel like we spend all of December and January trying to get our body clocks back on schedule and having the final two races in Europe might be a little bit helpful from that perspective but let's move on to our next question which is from Josh on YouTube and just to your point DC a little earlier his question is what do you think we can expect from Aston's engine upgrades in Zanfort?
12:58Well improved performance I would think I would hope Josh how much i think there was sort of there was a general rumor feeling um that it was a couple of seconds in the car lacking and a second in the engine so if that rumor is somewhat accurate then let's say if they get half a second in this this first phase of upgrades um which is a huge amount of performance in racing terms suddenly they're really hunting for the middle of the grid Yeah, I agree with that, DC. I think Aston did a great job with that upgrade package. And, you know, they won't have maximized that over the course of, you know, one race weekend into the absolute perfect package.
13:40There's still going to be a lot of time for them to find in that as they, you know, refine it. And then they get this engine upgrade. And it's something we've been saying right from the start of the year. you know the disappointment with the honda engine had um you know shadows of what happened the last time honda re-entered the sport with mclaren and how difficult they found it and let's not forget that honda developed that engine to a place where it was the power unit of choice that brought home world championships you know honda may start off a little bit behind the curve but when they get on it there are few engine manufacturers who can compete with them so i'm very very excited for Aston um you know they've had a horrible start to the season if the step forward in engine power uh can be what they hope it is and again that's only going to help the car itself because if the car's not going as fast as it should then the aero is not going to work as well as it should either so you know all of those things combine together um and they've got experience of this they've got experience of pulling it back and getting themselves back to the front so um yeah I've just seeing the quotes out of Honda today.
14:45I think there's a, it feels like a quiet, I'm not going to say confidence, but there's certainly sort of a level of certainty that they've made a pretty advanced step forward. So yeah, bring it on. I mean, it's a shame for the gang at Cadillac who were so close to points in the opening half of the season, but I think they're going to be stuck now firmly at the back of the grid as Aston continue to make these big leaps forward. Well, I wouldn't count them out though, because as we mentioned earlier in the show with this year, sort of ebb and flow in the development race, a lot of reliability issues.
15:17You never know. You can still sneak a point here and there. But, you know, to your point, they obviously made major gains in Hungary. We're expecting more gains from them with these engine changes in Zanfurt. Could they be the big surprise turnaround in the second half of the season? I mean, obviously, as you say, Honda is a very respected company, a very respected engine manufacturer. They obviously got it very wrong. Let's not shy away from that, both from the chassis perspective and the engine perspective. But where do you think the bigger gains can be made? We saw how much the chassis was worth.
15:51Do we think they can do as much with the engine or will it not account for quite as much? I think engine horsepower is a key element, isn't it, in performance as well as downforce. So I think that they can take a step forward. There's no question. The worrying thing for whoever has got the best engine, and it was rumoured from the FIA, it was Red Bull who they've been trying to contest that, haven't they? Mercedes have been quite happy about that one. So just on that, I don't know how you can separate out the internal combustion engine from the electrical element of it. You know, I see the powertrain as a whole.
16:27They're combined. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it was the only look, as agreed by the manufacturers, the only look at the internal combustion engine, which just seems bizarre. But anyway, it is what it is. and we will find out soon who are the movers and shakers. But I guess those who are, let's say, budget limited or headcount limited is probably a better way of describing it, will already be turning their attentions on to next year's car. You know, they've got diminishing amount of opportunities. And yes, being higher up than the constructors is worth money. But, you know, if you know, like Cadillac or Williams, you know that you're basically getting towards the end of the track so to speak then you want to be coming out next year with something really racy.
17:17DC to your point I find it bizarre that for a decade or more since you know hybrid came into Formula One we've been told not to call them engines we have to call them power units because it's more than just an engine it's all of the different elements that create a unit and yet when it comes to determining who has the best power unit we're not looking at the power unit as a whole we're just looking at the it's weird it's so weird anyway i mean to your point of like who stands to have the biggest turnaround in the second half of the season it's far easier to have a massive turnaround when you're the slowest right if you're like a ferrari or a mercedes you can't really have that big a turnaround because you're already at the top so i you've got to look at cadillac and aston martin because they're you know they're at the back at or a williams you know they've all had trouble starts to the season And so all of them could be in line to have that big switch around and suddenly find those gains that are going to take them up into the point scoring.
18:09Well, we're going to look on this week with keen eyes. And of course, we'll get some answers answered on that on those points. But DC, just before we move on, for the listeners who've never been in a race car before, from the driver's perspective, would you pick the chassis updates over the engine? Or do you almost want to say the engine might give you more gains, but the experience is more linked to the chassis? I don't know. Which way would you go with it? I would say chassis, I'd say overall packaging of the car, because in this era of the sport, and especially with the ability for the manufacturers to do the upgrades on the engine, if you've got a team, and I think McLaren are a perfect example of this, they've got the same Mercedes power unit as Mercedes Grand Prix as they had last year.
18:52But last year, they had a better chassis package. So the bigger differentiator is the car. So I would totally agree with you, DC. I mean, especially because I think as a driver, you can extract more out of your car. You can extract more out of yourself when you have a car that you know is going to do what you want it to do. You can push harder in the corners and it just makes it more fun. However, if your engine is doing the job, it kind of also bails you out of a lot of stuff if things aren't going perfectly. So you definitely want the package, obviously. But as drivers, the chassis is probably top of the list, isn't it?
19:25Guys, on that topic, when we're talking package, chassis, engine, Amanda on Instagram was wondering, which team do you think this track could suit best? So I'm going to give that one over to you guys. You're the drivers. Who do you think it's going to suit? There's a couple here. So there's a few factors that we should bear in mind because, yes, it's a tight, twisty circuit. The banking gives you a little bit of like this roller coaster sensation. so that to me would lead me to say probably Ferrari however I don't know if you guys have had a look at the weather forecast now having come out of heat wave after heat wave after heat wave in the summer top temperatures in Zanford are scheduled to be 19 degrees celsius with rain across the weekend I think Sunday is probably the only day at the moment that looks clear but we might have our first, if I'm not mistaken, running with these cars in the rain.
20:21So it could just open things up, maybe even to McLaren who recently won in Hungary, which is a sort of similar tight twisty circuit. So yeah, difficult to say, but I'm going to say Ferrari or McLaren. Chaos. Chaos. Chaos. Yeah, if it rains, it could be chaotic because there's very little margin for error. and I would expect Max Verstappen to show his wet weather skills if that is the case. But I think Zanvoort for me is kind of Budapest with an even longer straight. It feels like, well, the entry speed to the straight is so much higher because we've got that banked corner. Now, I've raced there a long time ago in Formula 3 in the Marlborough Masters.
21:03We touched on it on the show on Monday. Basically, the only thing they've done is change the last corner and put a nice banking. It was always flat anyway, so all it is is even more flat. I guess a bit less scrubbing because the banking, of course, helps give the sensation of grip. But it's a long, long straight there as well. So straight line speed, you know, what we saw in Spa could be an indication. But I'm jumping onto the bandwagon of look out for McLaren because they were genuinely quick in Hungary. They genuinely had the car working for them. But track temperatures will probably be a little bit colder or even wet, as you've just said.
21:46It'll be interesting to see. I mean, what challenges do we think that this is going to pose for drivers if it does rain? Because every time we've potentially had rain this season, we've either moved the race three hours earlier like we did in Miami or it just never came down. It's like somehow we've avoided the rain all season long. But if it does come down in Zanford, what about this generation of cars is going to make it even trickier for the teams and the drivers out there? Power delivery, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. Are you reading my mind from afar, Will? I was exactly going to see. We've been doing this so long, mate.
22:18This is... Yeah. What did you guys actually say? Because you spoke over each other, so I didn't actually even hear that. Oh, we spoke over each other. But at least you heard each other. Yeah, Will said... Should we do it again, DC? Power delivery. Will said power delivery. And go.
22:36Fine, okay. Power delivery will spin. It's a huge amount of power. Yes, exactly. on a on a low grip wet circuit um so yeah it's old school what it might do with a high squeaky voice i think i just had a high note there what it might do is show us a little bit of a differentiator between some of the teammates um and also if it does rain it gives sometimes the smaller teams an opportunity to shine because for whatever reason aerodynamically and i don't have that aerodynamic knowledge to explain this. But sometimes when you put wet tires on an average car, its performance profile relative to, let's say, better cars in the dry picks up because of the way the air diffuses off those wet tires.
23:22We need to get an aerodynamicist on the show too. Now, let's do that. Let's try and get Adrian Newey on the show. He can explain to us why that happens. Give him a call, DC. Okay, well, stick around because as we mentioned, this is the last Dutch Grand Prix, the last Grand Prix in Zandvoort. So in a minute, we're going to be talking about our favorite memories from the Dutch Grand Prix from Zandvoort. So stick around for that. If you're not following us on socials already, it's at UpToSpeedShow. Let us know what you think Kimi's title chances are and or who you think will be giving him a run for his money.
23:53And otherwise, please make sure you hit that red button and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
24:04Okay, Gary on Instagram has asked us to name our favourite personal moments from the Dutch Grand Prix. DC, shall we start with you? Because I know you have fond memories of Zandvoort. Yes, indeed. 1991, I was racing in British Formula 3, competing for the championship with Rubens Barrichello. And the Marlborough Masters, when cigarette sponsorship was still a thing, was a invitation to the British, the Italian, the French, the Scandinavian, whatever, all the various Formula 3 championships globally. and you went there you went on a a neutral tire um that wasn't being used in the other championships which was a fun little exercise and putting different compounds of tires on your car when you're just stuck with one in your own championship and i won and i and i won seven and a half thousand dollars which was a huge amount of money back in 1991 which helped go to into the pot for future racing career I didn't head to the casino and see if I could turn it into one million one billion but um yeah so it was wonderful and I actually went to Zambo the first time 1984 as a 13 year old and it was just after the Formula One Grand Prix had been there because my father sponsored a long circuit karting team and I was in junior karting and we went with the long circuit karting team to Zanvoort and I slept on the floor of the Mercedes karting van and I went to the communal showers each day where in the communal showers as was the thing back in the 90s there was no dividers between the showers and it was just a selection of men and women in what looked like a sort of football team type shower block Anyway, it was the first time I think I'd seen a naked female.
26:04So I came back from Holland cleaner than I'd ever been. I spent a lot of time in the showers. Oh, my goodness. Where do we even go from there? DC, you won the inaugural Melbourne Masters, didn't you? That was the first, 91 was the first time they'd ever held the Masters. Oh, was it? I didn't realise that. I think it was the very first one. Oh, OK. So I won the first of that and I went on to win Macau later in the year, which again was every driver from around the world. So don't judge me on my Formula One career. In the lower formulas, I was quite good. I would definitely say the same about myself, especially considering I never made it to F1.
26:43But anyway, listen, my favorite... You're a star of Formula One, Naomi. Well, you know, at least with a microphone in my hand, although should have been, would have been, would have loved it to be with a steering wheel in my hand, but I can only just dream on. um so my favorite memories from zanford put always leaving um unpopular opinion unpopular opinion because i do i do i do really enjoy driving on the circuit but i seem to have always always had terrible luck around that circuit so let me give you an example i participated in the 24-hour series which is an endurance racing championship with multiple different categories in it at the time I think I was racing in a category called SPX um which is anyway I won't bore you with the details of what it is but it's like kind of between GT4 and GT3 um and we'd had pretty successful practice sessions um qualifying went pretty well uh you never really bothered too much about qualifying and endurance racing anyway but um we got to the grid and the car set on fire so that was the end of that literally had you forgot to put out your cigarette well thankfully I don't smoke so luckily I didn't have to use that as an excuse but I didn't do the lap to grid so I was blissfully in the in the in the garage watching the screens and I could just hear on the radio the driver was saying like I can see smoke from the back and I was like are you actually joking like the race hasn't even started all the prep you do like getting your hydration right making sure your sleep schedules right for whatever stints you're going to do and you do all of this to get to the grid and the race is just never going to happen so that was the end of that oh man another year i went there in the gt4 series and i ended up not driving at all because i was so sick and now dc you will back me on this most drivers don't ever miss a race like you get sick adrenaline kicks in and you you suck it up and you get through it this year i there was no sucking it up i was so sick i couldn't get in the car so basically love love the view of the beach but you know no luck for me around there it's a funny that's just your favorite that's not fun i think one of the greatest memories of zanvort is something that i wasn't i i didn't see um in the flesh but it's like one of those great moments in formula one history which is gilville nerve with the flat tire absolutely banging it around the track to get back to the pits and this you know tire kind of hanging off the back of the car i think everyone remembers that pretty fondly but i think the overarching thing isn't so much what happened on the track it was what happened off the track and it was just the support and the level of fanaticism and the orange flares going off and the army of fans and the techno music that's playing out at every possible moment around the grandstands you know even during like a red flag period during a practice session, they're just booming the music out and the whole place is shaking because everyone's dancing in the grandstands.
29:53There aren't many circuits in the world where you have that level of fanaticism and that level of kind of just crazed, literally crazed fans. Yeah, it's a real bloody shame that we're leaving it because it's got one of the most unique atmospheres in international racing. I think it's a great place. and it's great because as we said on monday's episode it's like you really get the sense that this is max's race everyone at least everyone on the grid anyway it's wearing orange you can tell that they're all there to support him and that makes it special because it's different and unique to other races so you're right about that i just remembered i also once got stopped by the cops on the way into the circuit on a on a little scooter but like a little ridiculous scooter one of those that are too slow to go on the road you've got to go in the bicycle lane and every day i've gone to the track wearing my helmet like a good student and I could see friends of mine who were not wearing helmets and I thought why are you not doing that and they were like oh no you don't need them on the bicycle lane so I was like next day I was like okay well actually I keep messing up my hair wearing this helmet I'll probably just not wear it tomorrow obviously the day that I take the helmet or following all the others I get pulled over by the cops and it was so tight for you know work and schedules and stuff like that and anyway as I said best part of Zanford is leaving so thank god we are i'm joking it's obviously very sad that we're leaving as you said it is awesome and in a minute we're gonna get to do what we love best which is give you our race predictions pre-race predictions guys Naomi you start us off thank you Will for um throwing me under the bus like that um race predictions great as we mentioned always very excited to do one of these but we kind of talked about a little bit earlier in the show with regards to weather and what that might mean for certain teams so my prediction today might be a little bit more left field um but i'm gonna say antonelli the staff oh sorry well oh i'm gonna say antonelli hamilton norris okay dc uh i am going to take the most recent form as as my guide and go that because I think Lando was just drove like a world champion funnily enough so I'm going to go with Lando Antonelli Charles nice covering the bases of three teams I think Max Max is going to win there's something about that place and Max and he can just you know he drives like an absolute bloody superstar there and there's i think it'll be something beautifully fitting about him winning that race having had such you know crushing dominance there over the years so i'm gonna have a max win uh kimmy second and lewis third and i'm gonna say fernando points in the upgraded astum oh nice at the end there yeah very nice and as you say, would be great to see Max up on the podium for his last home race, although he will, of course, have Belgium every other year.
33:12Never going to let that one go. Never going to let that one go. Anyway, that is all we have time for today. So make sure you let us know your predictions. At Up to Speed Show is our handle on social media. So make sure you head over, give us your opinions. Or if you want to send us an email, it's uptospeed at global.com. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review and we will see you every Monday and every Thursday, like every week. See you and have a great race week.
Read the full transcript
33:42This has been a global production.
From the publisher
We're answering your questions ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix! From race predictions to our favourite Zandvoort memories (expect fire and the police!)
So, how surprised would we be if Kimi Antonelli kept this amazing form up till the end of the season? Who can take him on in the World Championship fight? And what can we expect from Aston's engine upgrades?
We recorded before the news about Isack Hadjar missing the race but don't worry we will get into that in detail next week!
Socials & YouTube: @uptospeedshow
Email: uptospeed@global.com
Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides
Senior Producer: Sophie Penney
Video Content Producer: Arvind Badewal and Daniel Aihiee
Social Media Producer: Jasmine Wissart
Head of Video for Podcasts: Samson Falodun
Production Coordinator: Sophie Angus
Head of Podcast Talent Operations: Jo Brock
Director of Podcasts: Vicky Etchells
