Who can stop Mercedes in Miami?

0:01This is a Global Player Original Podcast.

0:30the advantage they've had through the last 70 odd years of motor racing. I think it's a bit of a reset. Now we start the season.

0:50It's Naomi. It's David. Welcome to Up to Speed. Well, well, well, this is the moment we've all been waiting for ladies and gentlemen it is race week in miami yeah you see how excited are you oh thank goodness we're back racing um and miami what a great place to come you know you've got the famous sort of south beach area a lot of the teams and drivers stay down there a lot of the partners they want to be part of that whole vibe the energy the restaurants the clubs the pubs and then you've got the short drive out to the racetrack which uh the paddock sits within the football stadium so it's got a it's got his own unique feel of you know just how all the teams interact and then of course you've got the the sprawling circuit around and there's so so much going on there as well so it feels that we're really getting a foothold for Formula One here in Miami and uh yeah in the build-up to it I get to get my swim shorts on and go to the beach sorry that's probably a scary thought for people no no no don't worry I think there's much scarier things that you've said and done before.

1:53So that doesn't scare us too much. No, but listen, I'm feeling very excited to head over to Miami one, because I'm being let out again for the first time after being on maternity leave back on track for action. So there's that, but also we've been trying to fill the gap in these five weeks, bringing you guys interesting, entertaining podcasts, but let's be real. I mean, there's nothing better to talk about than actual racing. So let's get back to it. I'm excited for it. And Miami, as you mentioned, what a, what a location to come back to. But today we are going to be answering your questions. So thank you to everybody who sent in questions.

2:26We're going to read off some of them. DC, are you ready to share all your wisdom with us on these questions? Yeah, absolutely. Fantastic. Okay, well, the first question is from Ocean S. Matley. And the question is, do you think McLaren and Ferrari can bring the fight to Mercedes and possibly win? Yeah, look, it felt, especially McLaren in Japan, it felt like they'd taken a step forward. And it wouldn't take much for them in terms of better understanding of how to use their power units. That was something that were very vocal at the beginning of the year. And actually, I was surprised how sort of pointing the finger at Mercedes that they were, because given they've had a working relationship the last couple of years, they've won the World Championship, of course, using the Mercedes engine, they were very clearly saying, we haven't been given all of the operational manual for this new power unit.

3:20And as the Grand Prix have unfolded, they've started to understand more about that on their own. So it feels that they're now coming to Miami as a, let's say, where they would have wanted to have been in Australia. Ferrari, there's much been said about some of the upgrades that they have planned to bring to this race. We've seen their car out doing their filming days, which allows the teams to do up to 50 kilometers. which, you know, 50k of well deployed testing can be very useful. So the jury is out who has done the best job in terms of unlocking performance from the package. So I think it's a bit of a reset, literally a reset of right now we start the season.

4:03And so the answer to the question is potentially both Ferrari and McLaren could be race winners. Well, it's an interesting one. I mean, I, you know, if I had to say between McLaren and Ferrari, who I think could probably have a better chance in Miami to take the competition to Mercedes, I would honestly say McLaren. And I'll explain why. I would say, first of all, if we look back at Japan, McLaren seemed to already be making real strides in terms of their performance. That performance that they were able to finally understand and work on with their car in terms of the engine was clearly coming together.

4:37And we've also historically seen so many times that McLaren are one of the teams that do have great correlation between their simulators and on track. So if we're expecting a host of upgrades in Miami, then I would say that McLaren are in a good position to bring the competition to Mercedes. I think Alex Albin actually mentioned also that it's quite tricky with these customer engines that they're working with a power unit, as you mentioned, that Mercedes knows much better than its customers. But they also build an engine that suits their car and that suits their driver's driving style. So they're also having to adapt to that.

5:10But the reason I say that I still think it's McLaren more so than Ferrari is that Ferrari's major concern this season so far has been their power unit. They seem to have a sort of 20 horsepower deficit to Mercedes. And I believe that they are waiting for the ADUO, which is just another lovely acronym we have this year in Formula One, which stands for, if I'm not mistaken, Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities, which will come in after Miami, unfortunately for them, where if you have a 2 % deficit on power, you can make additional upgrades to your engine. So if there is any respite for them, it's probably coming after Miami because it seems like their chassis seems to be pretty good and actually one of the quickest out there in terms of corner speed.

5:57So for those reasons alone, I would say more likely to be McLaren to take the fight to Mercedes in Miami. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right in terms of the correlation that we've seen from McLaren in the last couple of years when they've brought upgrades is what for them. And that's actually been one of the difficulties, I think, for Red Bull, even though they amazingly fought for the Drivers' Championship right to the very end last year. There was some upgrades that came that didn't quite give them what they expected, but the underlying performance of the car enabled them to get the lap time out of it.

6:31So, yeah, I think Miami is, as I say, a bit of a, it feels like now the championship starts, which not to take anything away from the brilliant start that Mercedes have had. And of course, Kimi Antonelli getting those two back-to-back victories. But yeah, they'll be very mindful of their competition. Another thing we didn't mention is obviously that it's a sprint weekend. So more on track action, more competitive sessions, but also less practice time. So we've got 90 minutes practice only. I think we're going to talk about that in a little bit. But DC, in terms of starts, there has been a tweak to the start regulations in that, you know, kind of takes away advantage from Ferrari.

7:08How do you think they're going to be feeling about that? And do you think they will really feel that difference? Yeah, actually, I had, as I'm sure you get occasionally as well, you get other members of the general public who follow Formula 1 will come up to you and ask a question, but with a statement loaded into it. So one of the questions that I got from clearly a Ferrari fan was, what do you think of the FIA changing the rules to disadvantaged Ferrari at the start? And I was like, yeah, I understand where your mind's at with that. But actually, on the grounds of safety, they've tweaked the potential for a massive sort of D rate, if we call it that, as the cars go off the grid.

7:48So if you have big variation in speeds, then we could have a dangerous situation. You could argue that if somebody was to stall the engine on the grid, there's always the potential for that. But over the years of development of Formula One, they've developed anti-stall systems that make it incredibly unlikely that that would ever be the case. So effectively, what they've done is help the teams that have, for various reasons, designed a power unit that is more tricky to get off the line using the internal combustion engine turbo combination. They've allowed a power deployment there if it drops below a certain torque level, which will then enable the car to keep moving at a predetermined speed.

8:27so yeah look Ferrari could arguably go well that's that's not kind of entirely fair because we we made a choice when we designed our engine but on the other side the flip side and this is where actually Formula One does come together in the interest of safety no one can argue that it's not the right thing to do you know these cars are incredibly strong incredibly safe but if you have a standing car on the grid and another one arriving at 100 miles an hour there's a lot of weight, a lot of mass and a lot of potential there. So that's the beginning and end of it. The change has been made. That should mean we're not seeing big closing speeds off the start.

9:03And it still comes down to the same thing. You know, you don't win the race at the start. You can certainly lose it. You win the race at the checker flag, which is, you know, an hour and 20 minutes or an hour and 30 minutes after the start. 100%. But I have to say in the past, race starts have always been some sort of an opportunity to jump a couple of places, But we were seeing sort of less and less of that, whereas now we kind of saw drivers, you know, making real strides in the start and in the first lap, which kind of made things a little bit exciting. But I agree with you that it's, you know, necessary for safety reasons.

9:34And I think everyone at home can be reassured that it's not necessarily just going to be like a get out of jail free card for drivers who take bad starts. Right. If you still have terrible clutch control, not mentioning any names, you're still going to suffer. It's not going to help you in that scenario. So I'm not sure exactly where the sensors are going to be, how they're going to be managing that in real time. But we will get two race starts in Miami so we can get down to the bottom of how exactly all of that is going to work. Yeah, it's quite a short run, isn't it, in Miami from the start finish line to the first corner.

10:03And as you know, as a racer, that gives maybe less opportunity to sort of get an advantage or if you make a mistake, you maybe lose less as well. So, yeah, anyway, it's just the quirks of Formula One. Some Grand Prix's like Monza, you've got a long run before a big stop. And here in Miami, it's probably only getting just over 100 miles an hour before they break into turn one. As I said, two races, we're going to get plenty of action and we're going to get to see what those starts are going to be worth. So thank you, Ocean, for your question. So our next question is from islike10 underscore. And the question is, how quickly will the drivers adjust to the tweaks in the rules?

10:41And will the 90 minutes in FP1 help or be enough? Now, a traditional Formula One weekend has three practice sessions of 60 minutes. A traditional sprint weekend has one practice session of 60 minutes. Whereas for this weekend, a special occasion with all the tweaks that have come to Formula One, that has been extended by 30 minutes to make a free practice of 90 minutes. DC, what do you reckon? Will that be enough? Yeah, I don't think it'll take them long at all. I think that's what the modern Formula One tools enable them to do. all of the drivers would have been at the factory at some point over the last few weeks.

11:18They for sure would have tried whatever the upgrades, whether it be electronic, whether it be physical, what the teams believe the effects of that will be on track. But as you know, Naomi, irrespective of what it says on paper, there's nothing quite like getting out on track to find out where on that day in history the performance is. because a racetrack from one day to the next, if you get a wind change or a temperature change, it's fundamentally different in feeling. Everything changes. So I try and explain it to people that haven't ever driven a race car but may have played golf or may have been skiing.

11:55If you play golf in the morning when there's more water on the grass, then you have to putt harder to get the ball to roll because it's getting all wet. Or skiing in the morning when the snow is really nice and fresh, you have a different feeling than if you do the same putt or the same slope in the afternoon when temperature's higher. You know, the grass is dry, the ball will roll faster coming down the ski slope. The snow is not quite so good, so it gets a bit sticky. So a racetrack, as I've always said, is like a living thing. You don't physically see it change unless there's rain. But as you and I both know, through the seat of our pants, through our hands, we feel that racetrack, don't we?

12:32It's the most amazing thing. Yeah, you do. I just wanted to say I'm really terrible at golf, regardless of what the conditions are. So I don't think dry grass is going to make anything better for me. But no, you're right. And it's especially prevalent in Formula Racing. I mean, I remember when I sort of had been racing GT cars for six years and then made the step back into Formula Cars with W Series. And we were at a test day. And it was sort of like a very exposed circuit where there was a lot of wind. And honestly, when we got back in the cars after lunch and the wind direction had changed, it almost felt like we were driving in totally different conditions.

13:09Like I'd go as far as extreme to say, like we'd lost all grip. That's how much of a difference and how sensitive those wing cars are to wind conditions as well. So yeah, not enjoyable for the drivers when the conditions change like that. But DC, just, you know, I know we're talking a little bit from a mechanical perspective and what the drivers are feeling from a driver's feeling and from that, you know, the reading you get, and we often describe it as like a feeling you get in your bottom from you know you're feeling the grip in the car that's one thing but we've got to park that because again I'm going to refer back to Alex's interview it was really interesting to hear him say that he had been in the simulator earlier in the week and then a couple of days later he got back in the simulator at base and everything would had basically I don't want to go as far as to say gone back to the drawing board but things changed so dramatically from a software perspective with this new engine management and energy management situation that we're in, that actually majority of their run plan is focused towards deployment, recharge, you know, all of that stuff.

14:11So is 90 minutes enough for them to get an understanding of all of these mechanical upgrades that we're expecting, as well as these tweaks to the regulations and how, you know, there's less lifting costs and all of these things? How will they adapt to all of that in 90 minutes? Yeah, it doesn't sound like a lot, but I believe in the power of the preparation of these teams. I have to always go back to believing that if these are the best drivers, and there's always that sort of sweeping statement, Formula 1 is the best 22 drivers. Of course, we both know there will be someone in sports cars or there may be someone in Formula E that has the right to be considered within that group.

14:51But right now, those 22 drivers who've been given the opportunity, if they're not as best prepared as they can and if they're not capable of exploiting and adapting, then quite frankly, that's kind of that answers the question on their quest to be the best. They're probably lacking something. So adaptability is so important. And that's one of the key things, I think, that if you look at the best drivers in the history of the sport, you haven't really heard them saying, oh, I'm really struggling with these new regulations. And that's where my jury is still out on Lewis, because undoubtedly having a much better start to this year.

15:32But when people refer to, oh, the previous generation of cars didn't suit Lewis, I struggle with that because Lewis is a game changer driver. He's someone that redefined an era of the sport and, you know, had that amazing run to multiple championships. And it feels right now at the beginning of this generation of cars that drivers that historically have had bigger gaps relative to their teammates, like Max relative to Hadjir, for instance, it feels that the super talents have been neutralized a little bit. And that's maybe helping others that maybe are either, you know, not as good as they were or just never been that good to average out their performances.

16:16is I'm curious to see because we're always looking and I'm going to get to the point here we're always looking at the inter-team comparisons aren't we that's the holy grail of whether you've performed or not right now there hasn't been a very clear split across any of the drivers and teams that historically we've you know there's been Fernando in the past has dominated teammates or Lewis has done that or Max has done that so I'm curious to see how the year unfolds with this new set of regulations. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think when it comes to driving styles and certain drivers, I mean, as you said, the super talents, as I would describe as someone who could drive a wheelbarrow fast, whereas you need other drivers who need everything to sort of be exactly the way that they want, the way that they needed to respond, et cetera, for them to be able to unlock almost potentially exactly the same amount of lap time, but all the conditions need to be in the right places.

17:09That's sort of the difference between a driver who can do everything and a driver who needs things the way they need them. But this year, it just feels slightly different in the sense that it's not just what you feel and what you can deliver as a driver, but there's this additional cognitive load of like, okay, what does typically come second nature to a driver is not necessarily the case right now. So I don't know, do you think that that still fits into that same category of adaptation? Or is this sort of something different? And does that maybe make one of the best you know and obviously i'm not referring to anyone here but if you take a driver who's traditionally can drive anything really quickly but maybe doesn't always manage things from a cognitive load as well does that take an advantage away from them potentially yeah i think the guys that are just able to to be on the edge of adhesion closer to the edge of going beyond I think for those guys right now, it feels that maybe they've been slightly neutralized.

18:09Of course, George and Kimi, I'm sure in his own language, are saying that, yeah, we are driving these cars flat out. As people that race at Le Mans in the past have said, oh, you know, Le Mans is a sprint from start to finish. I'm not disagreeing with their statement per se. but I think what is it that makes one driver slightly better than another? What makes a Lewis at his peak or a Michael at his peak or a Max or a Nairton? They feel grip and are able to go through the corner, the corner more quickly than their teammate. It's not their ability to shift gear nicer and therefore have less, you know, going back to the days of a shifter.

18:54It's not their ability to, you know, to whatever, or adjust a setting to fine-tune the car. It's just their inherent feeling of where the grip is. So right now, if we think that with a lift and coast it's changing the dynamic of how they drive the corner and it's putting more emphasis on that energy harvesting and that energy deployment, and it's taking the emphasis of absolutely being on the edge of adhesion, then therefore the classic, let's say, best drivers are not able to exploit the advantage they've had through the last 70 odd years of motor racing. Totally agree. Well, look, listen, we are going slightly away from the original question is whether 90 minutes will be enough for them to come to adapt to all of the changes.

19:39And I think the answer there is it will be enough. And one thing is for sure is that it's going to be the same for everybody. So boohoo if you think it's not enough for you. The next question we have is from Harry.sharp10. Ken, how good will the new upgrades be on these cars? Yeah, so we had that great interview that Will did with Alex Albon at Silverson on Monday. That gives a real insight to just how the teams are attacking their development race. They clearly did not have the start to the season that they would have hoped for. And certainly what was sort of being promised over the last couple of years of, you know, we're focused on these new regulations.

20:18well they had issues with not passing the crash test that usually means that you're gaining weight when you try and you know beef the car up for the next one but apparently they've managed to put on a bit of a diet i can imagine it's it's going to be a huge amount of weight saving because you've got to take that weight from somewhere and if you think about it you're fixed with your tires and wheels you're fixed with your power unit and gearbox so it really comes down to the chassis itself and the bits you hang off it, the bodywork, the nose, the wings and things like that. So it remains to be seen how much that improves their performance.

20:55I think that in the short term, it's difficult for teams to make big weight savings. So therefore, the best way that you can gain performance is load, aerodynamic load. So whoever has been able to unlock some of the potential, as you mentioned before, using their simulation tools, if they've got good correlation, then, you know, we could see someone take a few tenths of a second step forward in Miami. Yeah, 100%. It's exactly one of the thoughts that I had as well the other day while listening to Alex is how do they map out when these upgrades come from a financial perspective? And then if they have a couple of crashes, then how do they tweak that?

21:32I mean, it must be an ongoing headache for the teams back at base to know when to bring things, how to bring them. And yeah, it's all within that cost cap that restricts them so much in so many senses. Now, whilst we talk about some of the teams like Aston Martin, and as we mentioned, Williams, who are clearly overweight, we haven't made much mention for the team who's leading the championship. And that's Mercedes, which, you know, they by no means would have been standing still in these five weeks. They too will be making major upgrades. So have you heard anything behind the scenes, DC, of what we can expect from them?

22:06Will they be running away with it again? Well, they've actually been relatively quiet, haven't they, during that period. They've put more energy behind likes of Dorian Pan, had her run in a Formula One car. That was great to see. And George was there with both Toto and Susie on track as well. So, you know, there's one, there's the publicity that's associated with that, which is going to be huge and so important for, you know, women in motorsports. As you know well, that has grown so much over the last few years. But we haven't heard so much from them in terms of what their upgrades might be. So I think that they are, you know, they know they have an advantage right now.

22:47and they're probably just keeping a low profile and trying to, like we said, focus on where is their biggest gains going to come. They can't do anything with the engine. They've already established the advantage they can get from that over the other customer teams. So it's all going to be down to chassis and aerodynamic development. Do you think that they will be game playing going on behind the scenes with regards to the ADUO? We've said that the teams will be able to bring upgrades to the engines if they have a 2 % deficit on power. So do we think Mercedes will be potentially lifting off in certain areas, trying to hide the fact that they have an advantage to maintain that that gap is less than 2 % between them and the likes of a Ferrari and the others?

23:30That decision could only have been made before entering the first Grand Prix. Once you've entered the first Grand Prix and you're effectively, you know, you're in a locked scenario of the power unit. And FIA have all of the data from the power units, from all of the teams. They have torque sensors that will tell you what the output is across the rear axle. So I don't believe there's anywhere that they could hide. Now, is there little software upgrades that they can do which are outside of what is the sealed power unit that may help? You know, for argument's sake, drivability or a tool that enables the drivers to more quickly tune what is allowed within the regulations.

24:11but other than that I think you know it's that's the nature of being in this era of Formula One where you're restricted on the amount of power units per year when when I raced in Formula One we had over a hundred engines during the course of the year because we'd have a new engine on Friday a new engine on Saturday a qualifying engine then we would have the race engine on the Sunday which good old days good old days exactly it sounds wasteful but it was awesome as a driver because you knew that you were pushing, pushing, pushing the RPMs, pushing the engine during the course of the year. But of course, from a budget control point of view, it made it very difficult for the smaller teams to compete.

24:49Well, we'll have to wait and see. I think one thing for sure for Mercedes anyway is that one of their Achilles heels has been their race start. So let's see if the tweaks that have been made to the regulations will help them in that space. And maybe Antonelli has been doing some practice starts because I know he said that Toto was on his back about getting better clutch control. So let's see how things go for him in Miami. OK, well, we are going to take a short break. And in the meantime, I'm going to ask you all to head over to your social media platforms and follow us at Up to Speed Show. If you guys are watching this on YouTube and you're not subscribed, please, please, please hit that subscribe button because we are almost at 50 ,000 subscribers and we would love you to push us past the mark.

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25:39Welcome back. We are diving into some of your questions. And for those of you who sent us questions, thank you so much. If you want to send us questions for future podcasts, please do that. Leave us a comment with your question. Our next question is from Gary Welsh, 1990. And his question is, what are your favorite memories from the Miami Grand Prix? Gosh, where do we begin? You know, it's where Lando got his first Grand Prix victory, which was great to see. You know, that was the beginning of his wonderful journey to being a world champion. A lot of the off track stories on my behalf probably should not even just have mentioned it because I'm just teasing you all.