In short
Q&A ahead of the first ever sprint weekend in Canada (Montreal), focusing on whether George Russell can win, Mercedes vs McLaren/Red Bull upgrade impact, and how team orders might affect a George–Kimi wheel-to-wheel fight.
Key claims
Montreal is psychologically and physically punishing (tight walls, high-speed braking into the final chicane/“Wall of Champions”); George needs a strong result to counter Kimi’s rising confidence; Mercedes may try to prevent media talk of a number-one driver; if Mercedes upgrades correlate, their advantage could grow; Toto Wolff has historically threatened severe consequences for teammate collisions (Barcelona 2020), so any on-track clash must be “clean.”
Notable examples
Schumacher/Häkkinen/Hamilton-era “Wall of Champions” lore; Jenson Button’s 2011 Canadian comeback (race suspended, six pit stops, drive-through, last-lap pass of Vettel); DC’s cockpit “wheel nut” failure story; groundhogs/marmots as a Montreal hazard.
Guests
Will (host), Naomi (host), David (host), plus DC (guest/driver commentator) and Will’s references to Lando’s intel; questions from Emma (email), Bertie (TikTok), Graydon (Instagram), Camilla (listener).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Unique Challenge of the Canadian Circuit
0:46 to 2:31
Discussion about the characteristics of the Canadian racetrack and its challenges.
“but we've got another race ahead of us and it's another sprint weekend, which I completely forgot about, but it's the first ever sprint weekend in Canada.”
McLaren's Upgrades and Competitive Outlook
2:32 to 4:25
The hosts analyze McLaren's recent upgrades and their implications for the championship.
“So talking to a few of them, and if we start with our current world champion, there's a lot of optimism in the McLaren camp going to Montreal.”
Psychological Stakes for George Russell
4:26 to 8:10
An exploration of the pressure George Russell faces in the upcoming race and its psychological implications.
“But I think I agree with you guys in the sense that the other teams never stop.”
Team Dynamics and Racing Freedom
8:11 to 14:00
Hosts debate the balance of team orders and driver freedom within Mercedes amidst current competitive tensions.
“important for him to swing that momentum again.”
Toto Wolff's Team Management
14:00 to 16:48
Learn about Toto Wolff's approach to managing driver dynamics.
“And he was just like, you're making both drivers redundant.”
Driver Relationships and Team Orders
16:48 to 20:14
Insights into the challenges of driver relationships in F1.
“And then your heart will kind of sing, and you drop your head and walk out crestfallen.”
The Challenges of the Wall of Champions
20:14 to 23:16
Explore the dangers and intricacies of the Wall of Champions in Canada.
“Now, we've got another listener question here.”
A Race Day Mishap: A Story from the Track
23:16 to 25:55
A gripping account of a race day incident involving a loose nut.
“Yeah, well, as I mentioned earlier, it's a sort of Monza in Italy, high speed circuit with the barriers right there.”
Reflecting on Jenson Button's 2011 Victory
26:35 to 28:00
A look back at Jenson Button's iconic race win in Canada.
“and make sure that you are following us.”
A Thrilling Race Recap
28:00 to 28:49
Learn about a dramatic race involving Jensen Button's unexpected victory.
“It made us wait for about two and a half hours until Lewis came out to talk to us.”
Show all 12 chapters
Fun Anecdotes and Mishaps
28:50 to 30:40
Enjoy humorous stories about post-race experiences and mishaps.
“I mean, you've got to hold on to hope until the very end, even if there is a nut floating around in your cockpit.”
Groundhogs at the Grand Prix
30:41 to 33:10
Discover the quirky presence of groundhogs at the Canadian Grand Prix.
“I am never going to accept an invitation to eat at your house.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:01This is a Global Player Original Podcast.
0:30Up to Speed.
0:36It's Will. It's Naomi. It's David. Welcome to Up to Speed. And it's race week. How exciting. It feels so strange. The season's been kind of like a slow to get started, but we've got another race ahead of us and it's another sprint weekend, which I completely forgot about, but it's the first ever sprint weekend in Canada. It does feel strange to have a sprint in Canada because Canada somehow feels more perilous than other tracks. It'd be like having a sprint in Monaco in a way. So I'm curious to see whether there ends up being a bit of accident damage. Yeah, I totally agree with you there, man.
1:13Canada's such a strange little circuit, isn't it? Because we call it a road circuit, but it's really a street circuit in its feel in a lot of the areas because the walls are so close. and it's so tight and twisty in other parts, but then you have those huge long blasts and the huge long straights and the top speeds are massive around the place. So it's that great kind of combination of the two. But Canada's always a city I loved for a race. It's one of those cities that for decades has properly embraced the Grand Prix and you really feel like Formula 1's come to town when you're in Montreal. It's a brilliant, brilliant city for a Grand Prix.
1:51Yeah, they close most of the streets downtown for fan zones. They've been doing that for a couple of decades. So before this modern Formula One boom, Montreal were going, yeah, we have Formula One. And I think that for Canada, for North America, that was the place for everyone to head. It's only a few hours drive from New York. So Montreal is actually very close to the American border. And it's always had that European mix and feel to it. But I think the summary of the racetrack for anyone who's new to Formula One is it's like Monza, but with the walls and the barriers right beside the white line.
2:31That's the racetrack. One mistake at 220 miles an hour. That is a very long crash. Yeah. I was in Monaco the weekend at the Formula E where if you watched any of that, you would have seen that we had a number of the drivers from Formula One on a weekend off pass by to visit their buddies who were racing in that. So talking to a few of them, and if we start with our current world champion, there's a lot of optimism in the McLaren camp going to Montreal. They've got further upgrades. They brought upgrades to Miami and it brought them forward to get that sprint victory. And they were still pretty competitive in the Grand Prix itself.
3:08They've got even more, which is supposed to bring them, based on their simulation, at least three tenths of a second per lap. Now, we do know that Mercedes are targeting upgrades and we could get into in a moment the inter-team battle between George and Kimi. But I think there's a real sort of sense of anticipation from McLaren that after the difficult start, they're getting themselves back into this world championship battle. I think that's really key, isn't it? Because we all made such a big thing out of the fact that Mercedes were holding back their upgrade package until Montreal. all. But the work never stops for any of the other teams.
3:45So just because, you know, a McLaren or a Red Bull brought a big upgrade package to Miami doesn't mean that's it. And we're not going to see anything else from them for the next few races. And when we look back over the last few years, you know, Miami traditionally was where McLaren would bring the big package, but it was all those other incremental gains that they made in the races afterwards, which also correlated perfectly because McLaren have just got that absolutely set up perfectly between their wind tunnel and what they're putting on their cars, that saw them turn the tide and ultimately become championship winning, you know, the double championship winning team that they are.
4:18So can't wait for that, mate. That's a great bit of intel from Lando. 0.3 of a second's massive. Oh, yeah. Night and day. Night and day, exactly. But I think I agree with you guys in the sense that the other teams never stop. But I have to say, I was still very impressed at Mercedes' pace in Miami, given the fact that they were out of sync with upgrades. And so, yes, while the ball never keeps rolling for the others either, they still felt like they were sort of ahead of the game with everyone bringing that huge set of changes to Miami. So I'm very interested to see what Canada is going to deliver, particularly because, I mean, we talk about it a lot.
4:52Correlation is so important and performance really can't be measured until it's delivered on track, can it? No, that's true. You've got to see, as we keep saying, two things you need in this game, stopwatch and checker flag. Will's really rubbing off on you, isn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Listen to the question. We've got one here from Emma who sent us an email asking, could we see wheel to wheel racing between Kimi and George in Canada? And it feels like George has to win this one, don't we think? Well, I'll go first. I do think this is really, really important weekend psychologically for George.
5:26It's a track that he's historically gone well at. We heard him amazingly, in my mind, go through the whole Miami weekend saying, hey, I'm not really good here. the tracks never worked for me you know it was very negative building blocks in his mind that just become difficult to get over that wall if you keep building those negative blocks but if Kimi goes to Montreal and puts in the sort of free spirited performances that we've seen from the 19 year old that could be a real punch in the gut for George so there's a lot at stake at what only race 5 of the season I totally agree with you on that we're going to attract That Kimi does well as well.
6:09He got the podium last year here in Montreal. But I totally agree with you, DC. It's bizarre that we're saying it so early into the season, but it does feel like a make-or-break weekend for George because if Kimi wins it again, and we're already talking, unfortunately, about do Mercedes bring in team orders? Will they let them race? they can't bring in team orders for the guy who's sitting second in the championship they'd have to do it for the guy who's leading the championship and i hope and i really really hope that they don't and i hope we get a good fight between them so i'm actually hoping that we do see george step to the fore because if mercedes do have this advantage that we that we assume that they do and if they have upgrades that work then that advantage will only increase then all we are going to have to pray for for the remainder of the season is that their drivers are allowed to race And the best thing to see that happen would be George to win and close that gap.
7:04It is incredible, though, how quickly things change in Formula One, right? Like one minute someone does well and they're a hero. Next minute they don't and they're zero, which I'm not saying is the case here with George. But I think going into the season, there was a lot of doubt still about Kimi's pace, whereas now that's totally not the case anymore. He's proved he's really quick. He's proved he can win multiple races. and now the conversation I guess for Mercedes is how do we keep this conversation out of the media in terms of who's going to be our number one driver for as long as possible but just to go back to the question I think from a from a numbers perspective I don't think it's that crucial for George to come out on top this weekend but obviously from a psychological perspective I think it'll do him a lot of justice because I mean everyone's expecting him to be the top dog right he's been there a lot longer he's been in F1 a lot longer he's a lot more mature he's got a lot more experience and therefore there's this kind of like unspoken expectation that he should be the title contender rather than his much younger counterpart so the pressure is going to be on George's shoulders for sure and so I think for that reason and that reason mostly alone it's going to be important for him to swing that momentum again.
8:13Yeah I think it's subtle isn't it the if you put your race helmet back on Naomi it's that subtle sort of competitive ebb and flow in a driver's mind if you're half a tenth quicker than your teammate you feel all powerful it's like you've got a big s on the front of your race suit if you're half a tenth slower it's a tiny margin but that's the difference between pole position and second it changes the dynamic it changes the position on the grid by four meters first of all it changes your opportunity to out launch and lead and control the race psychologically in the debrief with the engineers the guy on pole his voice is listened to more than the person who's put it second so I really do feel this is a a super important weekend for George he is the more experienced driver he is a Grand Prix winner everything was sort of momentum building towards this being his championship yeah and it may well turn out to be the case but his confidence will be waning whilst the confidence of Kimi is just growing he can't do anything wrong right now and even if he does do something wrong people are going to go, yeah, but he's still only 19.
9:19If George goes and puts it in the wall of champions, which he's not a champion yet, which is the last chicane, so named because Schumacher, Wielner, Damon Hill, many others who've won world championships have plumped it into that wall, then suddenly our job is to ask the questions and that in itself builds the pressure on the drivers. So I see this as a big, big weekend. You did have an S on your overalls. DC raced in Superman overalls in Monaco. Yeah, I did. I finished third in a Red Bull, their first podium. So it did feel a little bit like super, not me, but Superman's power was in the car.
9:56Well, just on what you were saying, DC, about putting my driver's helmet back on when you were talking about the numbers and the half a tenth here, half a tenth there, just got me thinking, like, I know that this is the crux of the sport, right? It's all about the lap time. It's all about who's the quickest driver. But it's true that there's nothing quite that quite can explain that feeling given your value as a person is all dictated by a number on a stopwatch and so you're right in the sense that it can take a massive knock on your confidence because as I said that's what people value you by is how quick you really are but at the same time I think for George as you mentioned expectations are very different for him as opposed to Kimmy in the sense that we're expecting Kimmy to make loads of mistakes across the board.
10:38And so George should hyper focus on that, shouldn't he? Because he said time and time again that consistency wins the championship, which is true. If he can just consistently be there and thereabouts, whilst his teammate makes some mistakes, he shouldn't necessarily allow that pressure to build and then force himself into mistakes because he's sort of like losing psychological strength, you know? Consistency does win championships. The only Time it doesn't is when the other guy is consistently finishing first. And that's what Kimi's doing at the moment. So, right, here's the big question for me.
11:12Are they going to be free to race? And I think to answer my own question, of course they're going to be free to race. But what Toto, I'm sure, has read the riot act on, if we go back to Barcelona, what was it, 2020? was it 2020 when Rosberg and Hamilton crashed on the first lap? That far back? Oh my God. Yeah, man. That's why you're with us, Will, because you are the man that knows all the stats. So way back in the history of Formula One, we had the two Mercedes drivers crash coming out of Turn 3 on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix and Toto flipped his chips. I don't know if that's an expression everyone's familiar with, but he blew his top and from that moment on apparently he made the drivers pay for the crash damage which would have been hundreds of thousands of pounds.
12:04Didn't Rosberg just admit the other week that he fired them both? Okay. And then reinstated the following day. I have to double check this. You keep talking but I'm positive Rosberg said Toto had fired them both and then brought them back for the next race but it was like you're on thin fucking ice my pedigree chums. that was you know well there is a clause in every contract i've ever seen including um when i was a young driver a young test driver i was able to do some work experience in a lawyer's office who just happened to do the uh the williams contract so i got to to see airton senna's contract with williams confidentially at that time but one thing i will share from way back in in the 90s was the one clause that's in every contract is that if you bring the team into disrepute then that's a sackable offence and that's a fairly loose term which covers things like public embarrassment crashing, those sorts of things.
13:05So yeah I can believe he was able to threaten him with that but god that would be the worst nightmare for George should he come wheel to wheel with Kimi. But here's the thing guys and I'll try and say this as quickly as possible Kimi's still the puppy and little baby so Naomi you've got a small baby we accept little mistakes from youth we're not quite so forgiving when they've got a bit more experience so in that respect George has got more responsibility and more pressure I've just checked it wasn't Rosberg who said it it was Toto Wolff who admitted it he said that He basically told them that they no longer represented the team.
13:50And if you're going to crash into each other and you're not respecting the 2 ,500 people that work for this team, I don't want you to be a part of that. And he actually emailed, it was called Dieter Zetcher, who was running Mercedes-Benz, and had drafted essentially their redundancy letters. That's brilliant. My goodness. Yeah. And he was just like, you're making both drivers redundant. And he says, yeah, because otherwise they won't understand that basically that the team is more important than they are. So obviously in the end brought them back in. But it was sorry, it wasn't Rosberg. It was Toto admitted that he was going to fire both.
14:25Brilliant. That's that's this is the guy we're talking about here. Right. And so if this is exactly 10 years ago, you don't mess with Toto. If they're going to fight this out, they've got to do it clean. Exactly. And I do think that if anyone knows how to manage the situation, by putting their drivers in line is probably Toto. He said in Miami that he was going to make sure the drivers knew that neither one of them was more important than the team as a whole. So I think the pressure is going to be on their shoulders to make sure they don't mess up. I mean, do you remember last year seeing Lando run into the back of Oscar?
14:58I know that there's a bit of debate around whether it was, you know, sort of a boost issue at that time in the moment that Lando wasn't expecting or if it was just a real miscalculation from his side. We don't know. but it was a moment where we all thought, oh goodness, is this the beginning of like real team orders for them? So let's see how long it's going to take here. DC, did you ever have any situations with teammates or a team principal that sort of had to pull you back into your lane kind of thing? I had a number of incidents with Mika when we were teammates together. 96 in Estoril, Portugal, where we used to go for the Grand Prix.
15:35He spun me around and there's an image as I'm going backwards and I'm giving him the birds because I was not happy. and then we know in Austria I think it was 98, 99 I touched the back of him in the first lap and spun him around and then embarrassingly then failed to win the Grand Prix I ended up finishing second to Eddie Irvine in the Ferrari so that just rubbed salt in the wounds so yeah, you get brought in you get brought into the office and you're sat down and in that case it was Ron Dennis who was the Toto Wolff equivalent and I remember him shuffling his papers on his desk for quite a long time while we both sat there like naughty scoge children and then eventually he kind of looks at us and uh he used to have his seat with the window behind so the the light coming in would mean it was quite difficult to see his features you know he just became a sort of image a sort of Darth Vader type character and uh he was made it absolutely clear that it was unacceptable for us to be crashing together and if it happens again then there'll be big consequence and all that sort of thing so yeah it was a proper proper telling off I think a bollocking from Toto, I think he'd be more of the parent of, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.
16:47And I think it'd be more like that kind of level with Toto. And then your heart will kind of sing, and you drop your head and walk out crestfallen. Upgrades, we've got to talk upgrades. Do we think this is going to change the lay of the land or do we think Mercedes is still going to be, you know, absolutely? Will this upgrade take them even further into the four? Is there a potential they get it wrong? And this brings McLaren and Red Bull into the mix? Well, there is that potential. And with the Sprint Weekend, we get to find out pretty quickly how good people are on their simulation tools and delivering a setup that enables them to have that one practice session straight into quality for the Sprint.
17:26and then they get the opportunity of course off the back of the sprint to then have a second bite of the cherry in terms of changing the setup of the car but I think this will be quite telling at this early part of the season how well the correlation is between not only the upgrades but their ability to arrive at a track and give the the drivers confidence in the car you need confidence around Montreal much more than you did in Miami where you could open the steering and go straight and miss an apex because you could and that when you have it in your mind you can do that it changes the way you drive there are a number of corners you've got to commit to be quick and once you're committed the momentum will take you to the wall if you've made a mistake so i think we're going to learn a lot in montreal i just want to bring in a little spanner in the works and i know we never trust weather forecasts but have you two taken a look at the weather forecast for this weekend in montreal no it is very cold first of all and it's looking like rain every day but it starts with a sort of dry day and ends with sort of rain so i know we don't ever know what's going to happen in montreal but i do think that this is going to make it so much harder if the conditions are as the weather forecast predicts for mercedes to really get an understanding of their parts however it's also probably helpful that we did just come off the back of a sprint weekend so yes the teams will have collected a lot of data over the sprint race and and the Grand Prix on the Sunday in Miami, but they didn't have loads of time to sort of test things, make changes to the car in terms of setup.
18:55So I think this keeps everybody closer together, even though there is this sort of, you know, delay for Mercedes parts. But I do think that they are clearly comfortably in front, right? They didn't bring upgrades to Miami yet. They were still quick. So I think that they probably will still come out on top in Miami whilst the pack is going to be closing up. I think McLaren will be there. We saw Verstappen, you know, qualifying front row of the grid in Miami. And we know that he loves these kind of tricky conditions. So what's for sure is that it's going to be a very interesting, entertaining weekend.
19:30It's one of the races on the calendar with the most chance of safety cars. So that should tell you enough. I mean, we've had some crazy weather systems flowing through the States over the last week. You know, our running at the 500 has been disrupted all the way through, not just with like rain but proper big thunderstorms and uh yeah it's been a bit wild and as dc says you know it's just montreal's just just north of new york um so the weather will be fun montreal always is we've not had any wet weather running yet i mean there was all this talk about the rain coming on sunday in miami and then we delayed it so much that we never even got one lap of dry of wet weather running so it's all a bit of a mystery at this point isn't it it is it is indeed but anyway thankfully not long until we find out who's hot and who's not Now, we've got another listener question here.
20:17We've got Bertie on TikTok and we've mentioned already, but he specifically wants to know what is the Wall of Champions and why is Canada such a challenging circuit? so that wall of champions is at the very final chicane so as you and it's actually just before you go into that final chicane it's a slightly odd one because it's also the pit lane entry which can catch a driver out because if you're following another car over 200 miles an hour and approaching the let's say 120 meter braking point into that chicane if the car in front is heading to the pits you you're trying to anticipate them braking for the chicane and then suddenly they don't slow down because they're going to the pit lane and it confuses you because suddenly you think the brakes have failed but of course then you realize quickly they're heading to the pit so that can catch a driver out as you commit you know 800 kilograms of race car over 200 miles an hour to braking more than 5g of longitudinal braking force and as the speed's coming off the downforce is coming off the car starting to load itself onto the left side that inside wheel is is getting light and you've got big kerb apex to hit and as you hit one kerb it bounces the car onto the apex of the left kerb you hit that and if you hit it too much it bounces you into a concrete wall if you hit it perfectly you get on the power you drive the car out to the wall just missing it by millimeters and then drive to the line and finish your lap so it's it's an interesting one because as a race driver you're approaching for several seconds at very high speed thinking if i get the corner right I can be on pole position if I get this corner wrong I'm going to lose one side of the car so you have the sort of you know good racing driver on one shoulder and the negative racing driver on the other shoulder and somehow you've got to blank all that out and commit to the corner and the greatest of the greats your Schumacher's Hackenens I think even Lewis Hamilton who certainly is one of the greatest but I'm just not picturing him in the wall of champions but it's so named because some of the greats have ended up in that wall when you stand next to it it's the same thrill that you get when you stand next to uh the swimming pool chicane in monaco that quick kind of change of direction except you know the the swimming pool doesn't have like a mile and a half long straight where you're hitting 200 plus miles an hour on it before you're trying to attempt that chicane with the with with a solid wall you know not an armco a solid wall on the other side is truly one of the one of the great challenges in international motorsport it's a it's fantastic sequence on a street circuit you you're very well aware of the walls because they're everywhere and you know you kind of can't push yourself past the limits unless you're very very comfortable with what your car's doing and so that's why setup and balance is very important on circuits like that whereas this one is kind of like a combination of the two so you almost forget sometimes where you know on one corner you can push and go past the limit and then And the next one, you've got to remember, oh, no, here we've got to be a little bit more restrained.
23:15So, yeah, what kind of challenges did that cause for you in the cockpit, DC, would you say? Yeah, well, as I mentioned earlier, it's a sort of Monza in Italy, high speed circuit with the barriers right there. So one mistake and the consequence is terminal. But I love that challenge because I, if I can pick myself up for a moment, I was always very good in braking. I had limitations in other areas. But on those circuits where you had to carry very high speed, well over 200 miles an hour, down to a low speed chicane, then that was a happy place for me. Although when I had a pole position there in the 90s, on the way to the grid, I'm driving around and I can feel something in my footwell where my pedals were.
23:56And I sort of accelerated and braked and accelerated and braked to warm up the tires. And this large nut appeared between my legs. and I remember taking it in my hand and going on the radio to the team and saying I've found a nut in the cockpit, which is probably around a 25mm nut. You know, I'm not a mechanic, but I sort of know roughly the sizings. And they were like, we'll get back to you. Oh, like a nut for a car, not a walnut. No, no, not a walnut, not any other kind of innuendo, an actual nut that goes on the end of a bolt. Like a wheel nut. Oh, no. Like a wheel nut, but smaller. Like a wheel nut, but smaller.
24:31And anyway, so I'm on the radio explaining to them that I found this in a pull-up and pole position, and they said, can you throw over the pit wall? And in the cockpit, you're very tight. And I'm trying to throw this nut from the car while sitting on the grid, waiting for the last car to come into position to start the Grand Prix. I managed to lob it over the pit wall. Race starts, I'm leading the Grand Prix, and then all of a sudden, after about 10 laps, I feel the car start to crab because it was a nut that holds the rockers. So the push rods had come from the wheel No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
25:06Which then actually against the springs. And anyone who's technical listening to this will know exactly what a rocker is. Anyone who doesn't, then Google it. Don't type in rocker just generally because you might get Brian Johnson from ACDC. Type in a rocker on a race car and that'll explain. And so the nuts had come undone on the way to the grid. And I drove with the car kind of crabbing. And I'm explaining on the radio and the team were saying retire the car. and I'm like I'm leading I can it's fine I'll keep going I'll keep going and then eventually because of the uh the nut missing it put an extra stress on the car and the chassis and the engine and the engine blew itself to pieces as I was coming down towards the last chicane and I was so pissed off I arrived into the pit lane with my foot still planted and I put you can google this or look it up on YouTube I I went down the pit lane with this stream of smoke of petrol and water and braking engine parts and parked the car in the garage and got out and stormed away because I was so pissed off that something so small had cost us a potential Grand Prix victory.
26:16Oh man, that's a great story. And as you remember, it was a million bucks for a Grand Prix victory and it's not about the money, but that's a million bucks, kids. We're going to take a little break, okay? Don't go anywhere because in a minute we are going to come back and answer more of your questions. But whilst we're on this break, why don't you head over to your social media platforms and make sure that you are following us. We are at UpToSpeedShow. We recently hit 50K on YouTube. So if any of you guys are watching this but not subscribed yet, please hit subscribe. It'd be very helpful. We will be back in a few moments.
26:56Okay, so get straight into another question here. Now, this is from Graydon on Instagram. And, well, this is a great one, actually, because he goes, why and how can you mention Canada without reflecting on that brilliant race victory? Jenson Button, 2011. He came from the back all the way forward to overtaking Sebastian Vettel on the final lap and winning that Grand Prix. It was a race that I remember being in the commentary box. It was delayed. I think it was a four hour total broadcast. And at a certain point. It was his longest race in history. Yeah, exactly. There was a point where we were actually commenting on what type of bird was drinking from the lake under the terrestrial rain because there was no cars on track for a couple of hours.
27:38But yeah, what a moment for Jensen to really show how world class he was. The craziest thing about this race was it was suspended after 25 laps and held for two hours until it restarted. By which point Lewis Hamilton was already out of the race because he'd had contact with Jensen. and McLaren made us wait outside for Lewis. This is why we were all soaking wet. It made us wait for about two and a half hours until Lewis came out to talk to us. We were not best pleased but they did at least bring us cups of tea. But Jensen went from the front to the back to the front to the back. He made six pit stops.
28:16He had a drive-through penalty and then somehow fought his way through, passed Seb on the last lap and won the race. Like it was hands down just a phenomenal race, a brilliant drive. If you've not seen it, head to YouTube, see the highlights because we won't make you sit through all four hours of it. But my God, what a what a brilliant, brilliant race. It was just stunning. A four hour race. And Jensen, I mean, you never would have imagined that he would come out on top in that race. At any point in that race, you never would have thought he's going to win the Grand Prix. and I think it just goes to show I mean I don't know how you were DC but I personally always enjoyed a comeback drive like once I something happened or you know maybe sometimes you have a crash at the start of the race and you've kind of got to get back through the field those for me were my favorite drives and I feel like there was like an additional fire lit inside of me to get back through and I always drove at my absolute best when I was coming back through the field but it just is another example of how it ain't over until the checkered flag drops.
29:19I mean, you've got to hold on to hope until the very end, even if there is a nut floating around in your cockpit. Can I jump in very quickly? Because you just reminded me when you mentioned Fernando, Jensen made contact with Fernando and got a puncture. So it's drive-through penalties and punctures and six pit stops and like everything. It's mental. Anything you can think of, it happened. It was crazy. I remember walking back to my hotel. It wasn't a hotel. It was kind of like an airbnb that i was staying in that year in montreal and just i was literally drenched from head to foot there wasn't a part of me that wasn't soaking so i i took off my clothes and uh and chucked them into the the tumble dryer in the the little apartment but my trainers i was like how am i going to get these things dry um and they had a microwave so i thought i'll put them in the microwave and no i just thought i'll just i'll whack them on for you will yeah i'll whack them on for 30 seconds and i'll go and have a shower anyway i didn't realize and i i know now that a lot of houses in the united states and in canada they don't really do microwaves what they do is convection ovens and um and the 30 wasn't seconds it was minutes and i got out of the shower and my lovely trainers were on fire.
30:40Oh my days. I am never going to accept an invitation to eat at your house. I'm glad that the oven was on fire because I was a little concerned about the poor next visitor to the apartment having to heat up their lunch where you'd heated up your shoes. With my shoes. Gross, Will. Shame on you. But that is a great conclusion, I have to say. Shall we go from that silliness and go to a really serious one here from Camilla. what's with the groundhogs everywhere at the Grand Prix in Canada? Well, Camilla, the circuit is built inside the St. Lawrence Seaway on an island and that island was first sort of commissioned and developed for the Expo back in the 80s, I think it was.
31:25Ah, yeah, 70s, I think. So a lot of the sort of infrastructure on the island is still going way back to when the Expo was in Montreal and they've built this Grand Prix track around it. So it's actually a nature reserve and it's a place that's used for people to go running and rollerblading and all that sort of thing in the summer. Because of course, for six months of the year, Montreal is below zero degrees and normally under snow. So I don't know where the groundhogs go during the winter. Maybe they head off to the Caribbean. Underground, I think. Well, that makes sense actually, doesn't it? But when it's the summer...
Read the full transcript
32:01Or the casino. There's a great casino there. They've all got a gambling habit. Yeah, exactly. So the groundhogs come out when the Grand Prix's on and sadly we have lost a couple of groundhogs. And whether it was just, you know, them doing their equivalent of Indignitas or whatever it's called, that place in Switzerland, where you can go and end your life or whether it's just unfortunate, but it's a risk and a hazard of the Canadian Grand Prix. I also think that they should really at this point be making the groundhogs kind of like an unofficial, or they should actually make them an official mascot of the Grand Prix.
32:37It's sort of unfair that they've just been left to die. Before we get in trouble with Peter, they do have obviously holes in the bottom of the walls so that the water can run off the track because otherwise the whole thing would build up like a swimming pool. So how do you stop the groundhogs or marmots as they're sort of officially termed from running on? There is, as I understand it, there's a mesh behind that so that the water can still run out, but the Marmots can't run on. So hopefully we won't see a situation where the wildlife is on track. Yes, let's hope the groundhogs will be safe this weekend.
33:14Whilst we get back to racing, I mean, I for one am very excited about this race weekend. I don't know about you two, but yeah, it's what, race five? It's already May, I mean, mid-May, we should say. And we're only on race five. So let's get more racing done and we cannot wait to see what's going to happen on track. and we will be back on Monday to debrief all of what happened in Montreal with you all. Thank you everybody for watching, for listening. Please, will you head over to your social media platforms and follow us. It's at UpToSpeedShow. If you want to send us an email, it's uptospeedatglobal.com and you can leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
33:52We have episodes coming out every Monday and every Thursday as usual. Thank you, gentlemen. And thank you, everyone, for all of the positive messages. I think you guys touched on the fan message from our lovely fan in Melbourne. I mean, we have great fans. It's been a short while that this podcast has existed. And so far, you guys are already the best fans yet. So thank you and keep sending in your messages.
34:16This has been a Global Player original production.
From the publisher
It’s the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend! So we’re answering all your questions…
Is this a must-win for George Russell after the early success of his teenage teammate Kimi Antonelli? Will Mercedes’ big upgrades push them further in front? And will any drivers crash into Canada's famous ‘Wall of Champions’?
Socials & YouTube: @uptospeedshow
Email: uptospeed@global.com
Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides
Producer: Sophie Penney
Video Content Producer: Daniel Aihie and Martin Croser
Social Media Producer: Jasmine Wissart
Head of Video for Podcasts: Samson Falodun
Director of Podcasts: Vicky Etchells
