Was Charles Leclerc gifted the British Grand Prix win after late drama?

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0:33It's David. It's Jolie. It's Naomi. Welcome to Up to Speed. Well, live audience over here. We are in the BRDC campsite. David has, oh David, I'm calling you David now. It was very formal. I wanted to be Jolie. She looks like she was a fun time. We're here in the BRDC campsite and DC has very kindly hosted us for this episode. We are fresh off the back of the British Grand Prix. and we're going to debrief all of that for you guys right now in this incredibly wonderful environment. Yeah, we're at the BRDC campsite. The BRDC, the British Racing Drivers Club, are the owners of Silverstone, and the Silverstone management team do a brilliant job of putting on this festival of motorsport.

1:17Now, you've been around the world. That sounds maybe a bit worse. It doesn't sound great. Sounds great. We're well-traveled. You're well-traveled. We are well-traveled. You've been to many different sports events. But we've got to say over half a million people here at Silverstone. I've been camping in the Love Bus all weekend. It's been a wonderful time. And we've got the BRC campsite there with the farm. Are you doing an advertisement here? No, I'm just setting the scene for our audience that anyone who's never been to Silverstone, you have to do it once. But what we're going to do is get into talking about the Grand Prix.

1:48So you've come with fresh eyes. Before we start, I have to say it's so nice to all be back together. I mean, we're missing Will, but it feels just very happy, doesn't it? I know, and in a new environment, we did say we were going to take this podcast on tour. I think this is kind of the beginning of that. And DC, you are absolutely right. I mean, every year we come back to Silverstone, you think it can't get better, and it does. I mean, you come into this place, it's filled with fans, lots of great energy. As you said, over half a million people, and I truly feel like if Formula One had a spiritual home, it would be here.

2:17And the weather, we were so lucky. It wasn't too boiling. Last year, I got so drenched. and it just it feels like vibes all around 10 out of 10. Yeah, we've done very well. And now have you been sucking a blue sweetie? I was gonna say you've got a blue tongue. Your tongue is really blue. I mean this is just telling you if you don't watch our podcast on YouTube, you should go and look at it. I can't believe my tongue's still blue. I had like a bonbon about an hour ago but from the bonbon to an hour ago, about an hour ago Charles Leclerc won the British Grand Prix. Woo! Should have been a red bonbon.

2:48It should have been a red bonbon but I feel like we've got to give him the credit he deserves. I feel like you know, he's had a tough few races obviously what happened in Monaco It's good to see him back and I feel like we can dive into what happened at the end of the race Little bit later on but I think he deserves credit, right? Shall we start at the beginning? Brilliant start. Great place to start the beginning. The beginning. Brilliant start. What we saw Charles owned it from the beginning Kimi had to fight back Lewis off the back of an amazing pole on Friday didn't quite manage to convert on the Saturday, but as a Grand Prix, I've got to say, Ferrari have performed, they have turned up, and that gives us a lot of hope going forward, but for Kimi Antonelli, reliability once again.

3:31So where are we going to start going through the winners and losers? So I think, winners and losers, well, clearly the winner, Charles Leclerc, as you guys rightfully pointed out, yes, he maybe did have a little bit of a helping hand at the end there with the safety car staying out right till the end, but I have to say he did a great job turning it around this weekend. I mean, on these sprint weekends, the drivers don't have a lot of time to get their setup dialed in and he got it wrong for Friday, but come Saturday he knew exactly what he needed to change and I think that's been one of the things we've seen with him this year so far is that he's not been that happy in the car.

4:03It hasn't been all bad because even though he put it in the wall in Monaco twice, before that, throughout all the free practices, he was quick. So he hasn't been lacking pace all year long. It's not that that's the issue, but came right today didn't it? And I think it was good to see Ferrari take their learnings from the sprint on Saturday and then on you know you know really perform on Sunday. I mean I feel like we have to touch on Lewis's pit under the safety car at the end. I mean like in my head I'm like what's going through Ferrari's mind you guys might be able to offer more of an insight but they were obviously assuming George was going to pit and then that he would need to defend but I think they thought the race was going to restart.

4:38Yeah but it felt. In which case he would have been really in a good place because the two in front of him would have had older tires and yes it would have been a one lap shootout but a little bit of PTSD from Abu Dhabi there maybe don't make that mistake twice yeah you know also yes there's two in front of him and obviously you know he wants to beat Charles but it's they're thinking kind of more of us as a team and it just felt like was that risk worth what the reward could potentially be I'm not sure it was I don't know DC I don't know what you think but Lewis has raised here 19 times he's won it nine times and I I think even though they played the team game to start with, they were going to do whatever they could to make sure they could get the advantage to the Mercedes.

5:18But at the end of the race, I think Lewis was just focusing 100 % on the victory. And that's what he wanted in front of his home crowd. A 10th Grand Prix victory around here would have been amazing for Lewis. Yeah, look, it would have been incredible. But what I also find incredible at Lewis, you see how sort of happy he was for Charles, for Ferrari. He wasn't there going, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's a little bit like when he lost the world championship to Max in Abu Dhabi 21. Thought about it, walked up, shook his hand. He's very good. He's very gracious. That was the word I couldn't find.

5:50Thank you. I got you. Thank you, Blue Tongue. You found it for us. Has it gone yet? It has. Oh, hey. God, my God. People on YouTube have just gone crazy again. So I think there's a lot of really great things to come out of this weekend. The negative, of course, is that Kimi did nothing wrong. Yeah. Had that reliability issue. Mercedes must be worried that even though it wasn't an engine related issue, they're quick, but they're vulnerable. Well, I want to touch on Kimi. He's obviously still leading the championship. Is he still your favorite? Always. He's going to be her favorite until he wins this championship.

6:25Which he will do. And she won't let us forget it. Yeah, exactly that. I called it from day dot. He's still 25 points clear. What I love to see today is even after the team came on and they said, you know, retire the car, he was like, no, I can keep going. I can keep driving. and I love that. I mean, from any athlete, you know, they're competing at the highest level and when I think of Kimi and his determination and the way he drives and his just attitude, I kind of see a big similarity to Max. You know, there is, he is here to race, you know. They all are, but you know what I'm trying to say here.

6:59Oh, he's feisty. He's feisty and I love to see that. We see sweet, innocent, wonderful Kimi and I still think he's all of that, by the way, but today I love to see a slightly different side to him. And I was gutted for him. There's no hiding. Kimi is my favourite. I am rooting for him. But this is now where he's got to keep his head up. It's where he's got to think, I'm still leading this by 25 points. You know, mindset is everything in any sport, in any walk of life. So I'm just like, Kimi, if you're listening to this, don't give up. Yeah, no, and you're 100 % right. I think we saw the beginning of that in Canada when he was coming back on the radio and really isn't going to let any little thing go, which is the attitude you need if you want to win this championship like he was worried about one single point he didn't care if it was just one point that he was going to get he wanted to score it and you know the mercedes team did a fantastic job the strategy team leaving him out there a lot longer than the others he had a 10 lap offset to the others and he was reeling them in i mean he was two and a half seconds quicker than charles when he was closing that gap and then that very unfortunate what was it the interior wheel front right arch what is it what is it it was like a wheel shield yeah A wheel shield, that's the one.

8:05Which is basically an aero part just to stop the wind passing in through the wheel. Were you surprised at how much that affected him, though, in terms of keeping it on track? I think it was blocking his steering, so he couldn't actually turn, which was the issue. Once he removed it, he was then going pretty quickly. I think George will feel like he got away with it this weekend. And you can tell he's still not really settled in his mind. He knows that was fortunate. And I think he knows that at the moment, every time they pretty much go on track, Kimi's getting something out of the car that he's struggling to do and I thought it was very telling when he was on the radio saying look you know tough weekend we need to try and figure out where we were on straight line speed and Toto comes on the radio and goes straight line speed was fine that's kind of like yeah I mean after quality when they came on and they were interviewing and they interviewed George first uh you know ahead of Lewis and they didn't mention anything about about this being his home race.

9:01And then it gets to Lewis, Lewis, your home race, what do you have to say? You know, this was George's first podium at Silverstone and it feels like it's really been overlooked. This is his home race as well. And I feel like there's some sort of, I don't know if energy is the right word, but it's George seems to be overlooked. I mean, in all angles. Is Norfolk closer to Paris? Possibly. I don't know, maybe I'm trying to think why they might not think it's his home race. Yeah, it's interesting when you go into the fan zones, I'm sure you've seen that when you mention the drivers names Lewis of course gets the biggest cheer because he's a living legend of the sport Yeah, absolutely Anyone who's here has heard of Lewis Hamilton and it feels that you know Lando got a world championship last year George He's got seven victories.

9:45So he's still trying to find his fan base in many ways I also think that that's very personality led I mean George is a very different character to the others Lewis makes sure that every single time he's in front of a camera He thanks the fans and I have seen a lot of that from George, but you see Lando engaging with his fans in ways that not many of the drivers do. And I think that that's what keeps them so close to him. And that's why he has this massive Lando stand with 16 ,000 fans in it. But just to talk about George, I mean, absolutely. It feels like at the beginning of the season, we were saying Kimi's raw.

10:18He's got the speed, but he's going to make mistakes. Starting to look a little bit different. Well, yeah, I know. It's starting to look very different to that. And I have to say Kimi has really come onto form. If you think about where he was this time last year, completely different picture. He's a different driver. He's able to, you know, make changes very quickly, adapt to any mistakes he's been making. And George, unfortunately, right now is just struggling with this new era of cars. I feel like he's just lacking that little bit of pace, but still did a wonderful job. I mean, to think, I mean, what a roller coaster it was for that Mercedes pit bull.

10:49I mean, slow puncture, then everything that happened with Antonelli, but George was able to climb back. He scored some very important points today, George did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, talking of mistakes, I think the biggest one of all, Max Verstappen. I mean, on the closing laps to see him go into the gravel, he was clearly, I mean, we all know how Max was going to react. We know how any driver would react at that point, you know, throwing his steering wheel. I'm sure there'll probably be a fine for that. Oh, did he do that? I think I saw him throw his steering wheel. Oh, did he? I didn't see that.

11:18I didn't see that, yeah. But he explained, did you hear the interview where he said that the rear wing didn't reattach? Didn't close, yeah. So like what happened in Austria, but he said it was a different issue this time. So clearly he's frustrated. He acknowledged that even though he was going to the podium, it was because of other people having issues. Look, he pushes himself hard. He pushes the team hard. That's not going to change. And I think, you know what, on the positive side, as Isaac Hadjar rightfully pointed out in the after-race interviews, if Max is unhappy with what's going on and they're still able to be within striking distance of those podiums, let's not forget, a week ago he was on the podium in Austria.

11:53We know what Max is like he's not here to just make up the field and yes, they're got they've got some competitiveness But he wants to be right at the sharp end of the field and that's why he's Unhappy with the experience that he's having right now in the car, right? That's that's the thing for Max He wants to be enjoying what he's doing in the car I mean when you're seeing how well the car the performing and then you look at Red Bull it's like What happens here if this keeps going if you know be car but outperforming rebel, what do we do? I mean that's a whole nother conversation for another podcast but you can see and understand Max's frustration and exactly what you said I love that he he's not just happy to make up the pack you know we whether you love or hate Max Verstappen you have to admire his mentality and like you know how he you know speaks out and how important and integral he is for the sport I mean there was like uproar when there was a thought of him leaving so I was I was gutted for Max when that happened yeah Max is a standout personality and yes we want to admire the drivers for the speed he's got that But he also you know, he's gonna be very quotable.

12:52He's not gonna say come you know, toe the company line He's gonna tell you how he feels Which don't talk to your feelings Tell us I have a man crush in Charles Leclerc. So let's go back to our race winner What a great great victory for him and what a comeback as well because we were amazingly Starting to talk about him being the sort of off-form man at Ferrari bang back with a win Yeah, I think the whole internet is with you with the man crush. I'm gonna be honest. So it's not just you I can concur He is universally Exceptionally good looking The producers I mean how is it possible To be that symmetrically perfect Have you seen his brother?

13:28I have seen his brother It's a family thing It's a family thing Great genes Great genes And fast Super fast Well look I mean yeah Absolutely Great And you know what Even though we're saying That he did get a helping hand From the safety car He did pull a very big gap To Lewis During that You know First and even second stint So he did There was something He managed to turn around And I don't know I think in this sport we have a very short-term memory and we forget very quickly what drivers have done and Charles hasn't been slow this season He's had a lot of bad luck often caused by himself. He does tow that limit a lot.

14:02I mean, that's the way he goes racing He's like raggedy. He wants to throw the car in and often it does go wrong But when it does go right he's very quick and it's not been not the case this season We've seen him be quick this season so far. So I I feel like I'm nodding along to you to the beat of the music. I definitely am. And I can't help myself. This is Silverstone after party. We found every podcast here. Like this is so fun. Good day for Alpine? Yeah, good day. Well, no, well. Good day for Alpine but smashing day for the RBs. I mean, they closed the gap to Alpine to only two points. But we expect that.

14:37We expect RB now. The last few races they've been getting both cars on the points. It must be because Lindblad was on up to speed with Will. but he's just performed so well. But, I mean, what a great event for them, and particularly for Arvid Lindblad. I mean, he's only 18 years young, living out his childhood dream in Formula 1 and racing for the first time ever in Formula 1 in front of his home crowd and scoring points. I mean, he finished seventh today. It's a fantastic job from them. It's so good to see. It's really nice to see such a young grid doing so well. I mean, it gives us great hope for the future and the next generation, and it's probably super inspiring for the younger drivers in the younger series, seeing that's how close you could be to achieving your dreams.

15:18It's great. The next decade, we're going to have a lot of these faces around because they're still in their mid-20s. Of course, eventually, we're going to lose Luis, we're going to lose Fernando because they're into their 40s. What a sad thought. Well, maybe they'll join us on the pod. I think that that's a sad thought. The thought of losing Fernando Alonso, although I can understand why he might not want to stick around. I mean, what a dismal weekend for him. But the thought of losing Luis, I mean, what would this be without Luis? I know we have this great new wave of this new generation, but yeah, hopefully they'll just hang on.

15:48I mean, they're aging youthfully, right? So maybe they'll stick around for a couple of years. I said that in commentary. I want to know what anti-aging pills is. Literally, what is Lewis's skincare routine? I know, I know. We want to know, Lewis. We want to know. Yeah, it's Naomi, it's DC, it's Will, it's Shirley. It's Lewis, and you're listening to Up to Speed. That'll be the day. Okay, so putting Lewis's beautiful skincare aside, we talked about Charles turning it around, but let's focus a little bit on Lewis for a second because Lewis this year is a very different man to what he was last year I mean what a turnaround for him as well and you know he obviously had the victory in Barcelona and then he had the pole this weekend for the sprint shootout and Yeah, I mean he's obviously a much happier man.

16:29They're taking him some time to embed in the culture make some changes He said that they've been listening to him. They changed his team He's he's a race engineer and it seems like it's paying off, right? I think it's remarkable that he's still got the motivation to still want to do this. You don't need to prove anything to anyone. But I think actually when you see him interviewed, there's still a sort of little boy inside in a way that's looking for validation, looking for that thrill of the competition. And we had an interview with him on Channel 4 this weekend, but he was really talking about all of the adversity he's gone through.

17:00Remember a year ago in one of the Penn interviews, he said when asked what are the problems, he said, well, maybe they should change the driver. Change the driver, I know. So we get criticism sometimes if we question Lewis's performance because he has achieved so much. But when he's questioning himself, it doesn't matter really what we say. But what he has done, gone away, done whatever he does in the winter to simplify his life, and he's come back. And to be as quick as he is alongside Charles, who we know is a bit of a benchmark qualifier, it's really inspiring and lovely to see. Yeah, I think you said it perfectly.

17:37like he seems happier he seems more relaxed and you know i talk a lot about mentality but you know maybe the less pressure on himself obviously he's got a better car he's got a better team you know he's performing better but it just shows the less pressure on himself you know maybe as he feels less pressure so he's performing better i mean there'll be loads of things that that go towards his performance but it's exactly what you said i mean there's such longevity in this sport and i think like f1 is one of the sports one of the only sports that you know he came in such a young age We've got drivers that are 18 and you know, you've got Lewis, he's 40 plus.

18:10It's so good to see because it appeals to so many different age ranges. And earlier I went around with the Up to Speed Social gang and we were going up to fans asking them their most controversial opinion on F1. And someone came out and was like Lewis Hamilton's crap. I mean, sorry, they loved they loved Max. I assume we're taking it back to 2021. But I think if you were to do a poll, you would have 0.111111111 % people that would actually agree that would yeah not very good at maths jet lag all sorts that would that would think that whereas you look at any other sport and there could be more of a you know argument over it there's very few athletes that have got goated states you know states you've got Messi Ronaldo Muhammad Ali Lewis Hamilton and then it kind of you know I mean I'm definitely missing few David Coulthard obviously that jawline the world is aware of it he is you know the greatest ever in my opinion and he's gonna be very very hard to beat and I don't know where I was going on this long tangent but look it's not just your opinion it's statistically he is the greatest of all time and let's not make any mistake about that I mean Lewis is the only household name in Formula One like obviously the sport is growing we're starting to have more superstars max is a very clearly one of those but Lewis is the only household name and he transcends the sport and besides all that the seven-time world champion I give The person who said that he's crap needs to have their brain checked.

19:34I mean, besides the 0.11111%, like, come on, you know. And obviously, he's had a tough time. And I wonder if a lot of that has to do with this ground effect era of cars that we've left behind us. And maybe those cars didn't really suit his driving style very much. And it makes me think back to Daniel Ricciardo, you know. There was such a mystery around what happened to Daniel Ricciardo. Like, he was a great driver, and then all of a sudden, he wasn't. but nobody just doesn't, like, sort of one day becomes not a good driver, you know? And we're seeing it this year that there's a few drivers, George included, that maybe this new era of cars doesn't suit as much as the others did.

20:11So I wonder if that's playing into it as well. Well, look, it's definitely a possibility, but having driven through different eras, I went from active to passive, wide track to narrow, slick tires to groove. Yeah. The best rise above it, don't they? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think maybe Lewis, it just took a while to recover from 21, the disappointment of that. Fatigue. Nobody tours. Not even the Rolling Stones tour every year. Who? The Rolling Stones. Nibble. Is that too easy to bring you? Anyway, but these guys, he's been touring every year, so maybe he was just a bit fatigued. Anyway, he's not now.

20:49He's back. And we're set up for a really good battle between Ferrari, of course, and Mercedes. Mercedes-Benz is going to sort out the reliability. Ferrari just need an upgrade to bring them into that hunt. And then, of course, we know Red Bull and McLaren are going to do their thing as they try and come back from finishing their battle for their World Championship last year. Well, before we move on from Lewis, I feel like the ending of his race, I touched upon it earlier. Got hair in my mouth. There we go. Don't get that in the studio. A bit of Silverstone wind. But the safety car ending. There was a bit of disappointment in the stands.

21:23I was with the Mercedes guys at the time when it happened. And it was kind of like, oh, really? This is how it's going to end? Everyone was expecting the safety car to go in and to at least get a lap of racing. Ferrari were obviously expecting that with pitting Hamilton. We're all here for entertainment. We're all here for good racing. I understand. I can't imagine the pressure in that FIA room. They're thinking, God, we do not want a repeat of 2021, even though the stakes weren't as high. but do you think we should have ended on that safety car? I prefer not, you know, yes there's rules, regulations but we're entertainment and we should really try and keep that as a focal point and of course there's a rule that states that you cannot now restart the race if the cars have only been released from the back of the field within a lap of the finish but I think that process could be speeded up, I really do you know, once the safety car's out, the cars are neutralised yes, the safety car has to pick up the leader But once that's done, no one's overtaking.

22:24You're not allowed to overtake. So very quickly they can be doing that So I think that we live and we learn It was a bit disappointing not to finish a one-lap sprint that would have been so much better Than just sort of running it to the the line I don't think it would have changed the winner, but it might no I don't think so he had fresh tires on but I think that George would have struggled to keep Lewis behind Yeah, I mean, I agree with you look it felt like a real anti-climax shall I say because the hopes I mean, what we saw at the start of the sprint race, I mean, when those batteries are charged up, all these extra new modes that they have, like things swap and change around a lot.

22:59So we were expecting a smasher of a last lap. But unfortunately, that's not what we got. I mean, I totally agree with you. I think the issue is they don't allow those cars to like unlap themselves earlier. But they have to follow the regulations. And I know that, yes, we are entertainment. But remember that in the past, when we focused on entertainment, sometimes it felt like match fixing. Not match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, whatever you want to call it. And I agree with you, though, that sometimes when you look at the track status today, at that point, when they got trigger happy, they said, safety car's coming in this lap.

23:36Then they remembered, uh-oh, we have this regulation that says we can't do that. Safety car stayed out. At that point, the track was clear. there was no reason from a safety perspective why those cars couldn't have gone racing. So maybe there is some tweaking to be done there, but you know, we can't always engineer the finish we want, can we? I mean, had that safety car come out earlier, it would have been a completely different scenario. So unfortunately it's just the cars we got dealt today, wasn't it? And just on that, as the Ferrari swooped around Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, we found out, got a five second penalty for a jumpstart.

24:09I think that's harsh because yes, the car kind of sneezed, But as a racer, he didn't gain an advantage. The car wasn't rolling at the start. So, look, rules are rules. But I think sometimes we need to apply a little bit more of was there an advantage, which we can come on to with Kimi Antonelli and his penalty later in the show. A bit of common sense, right? Just a little bit of common sense. We've got to be careful. The guys that are doing their particular job of stewarding, they've got a lot more information than we have. It's a bit Little Britain. Computer says no if you get that reference.

24:41Yeah, absolutely. I think there's an element of that. But look, it was still a great Grand Prix weekend as far as I'm concerned. I've come off the back of the disappointment of seeing Scotland lose to Brazil. I went there. I didn't see you. I didn't see you out there. How many matches have you been to? I came home for the British Grand Prix. I got back on Thursday and I fly back out. This comes out on Monday. I fly out. This morning, I'll be on the plane on my way back to America. Wait, this morning? So are you going to stay up tonight and watch England play? I go from here to Box Park to watch the game.

25:10It'll finish about 4 a.m. and then I go on a flight three hours later. Busy, busy gal. But we're not done here yet because coming up, we're going to be discussing a familiar face in the paddock. But right now, make sure you're following us on our socials at Up To Speed Show. I've made DC film another silly video. I'm telling you, you don't want to miss that. Can't wait to see it. You're next. Oh, gosh.