Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney Join F1! + Austrian Grand Prix Preview | ESPN F1 UNLAPPED

did you drink a pint and have a hot dog like we would do in Chicago at Wrigley Field who would you say has more pressure to perform Aston or Mercedes in Austria you could bring it forward to say Alex albon here gasly Carlos didn't get the chance they deserved the nature of F1 is that it's not always a straight fight you know things do go wrong

that is that accurate that sounds pretty accurate um and also the distance it takes to get from Vienna where he landed this morning I think he landed uh European Time about uh 9 A.M um to his hotel in Gratz where he will then go on to the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend uh that's a long drive and I think he was working waiting for a couple

of journalists for some reason thought that we were recording this podcast in two hours time and uh got it all a bit mixed up so we got a we got a message from him in the car proof as well with a selfie from the passenger seat that he was on his way but um not quite in position yet to record this podcast a really beautiful selfie

a beautiful yeah it's certainly a shame all of Nate selfies are beautiful let's be honest they are very fair very fair I can't gripe and hit him too hard for this because I struggle with time zone changes too really bad at it for some reason I don't know why and it's it's not like I'm going drastic time zones like the two of you it's like minus

one plus one for me and yet I still struggle with that so we'll get Nate Saunders back on the Pod next week when we can react to the Austrian Grand Prix for now you've got me and Lawrence Edmondson quickly though over the weekend I believe the two of you took in some baseball America's past time at the Olympic Stadium it was you in a couple of

Formula One journalists yeah that's right no we um we have a friend Chris medland who is a formal on journalist works for racer and a few other outlets and he's a big Cubs fan so Cubs are in town uh so he went and bought a bunch of tickets and um we uh yeah we all attended it was it was really good actually uh that stadium was

originally built for the Olympics in 2012. uh it's now the West Ham football team soccer team uh it's their home ground uh and they converted it into a baseball stadium it was really quite quite cool um and a really great atmosphere like it had a lot of Americans there um some of which had traveled over a lot of which uh live in the UK live in

London and wanted to go and see uh some baseball and a lot of cubs fans a lot of Cardinal fans as well so yeah it was uh it was really cool to watch did you drink a pint and have a hot dog like we would do in Chicago at Wrigley Field I did I did drink a fine uh maybe more than one pint and uh I

only had one hot dog so there you go um and and they were pretty much up to scratch I think the hot dog wasn't quite up to American Standards but okay the Pines were pretty good yeah can't complain yeah we sadly take hot dogs way too seriously I did see a video of Nate dancing in the stands and honestly I don't think I'll ever unsee it

so it looked like you guys had a great time so I'm glad to hear it well this is a cool thing about American Sports which we don't get so much in in UK Sports is that in every little break every little like intermission in the game they play music and they play it Loud and you know anyone who knows Nate is certainly who knows Nate after

one or two pints knows he likes to dance so yeah he was uh he was been on a show for um for all the cup stands there yeah I say uh professional sports and even now college sports in the states it's sensory overload there's just something constantly going on around the game anyways glad you guys had fun let's dive right into it are you or are

you not a wrexum fc fan I'm not I have what uh at least most of the first series of um welcome to wrexham uh so I'm I'm more aware of them than I was when uh yeah when before uh Rob mcaney and uh Ryan Reynolds uh invested in it yeah it's interesting I bring it up because Ryan Reynolds certainly headlines the group but his partner in

crime Rob mcelhenney who he purchased wrexham FC a few years back and obviously has done a great job from a marketing standpoint certainly with the documentary and then just the fandom far and wide as well as Michael B Jordan have joined a group to invest in Alpine taking a 24 stake of the team the deal is valued around 218 million pushing Alpine's value upwards of close

to a billion dollars at 900 million it feels like at this point Ryan Reynolds and mcelhenney need to be on the 2024 ticket here in the United States to run for president and vice president because they're just kind of taking over everything it seems what did you make of this deal and were you surprised at all to see more people clamoring to get involved in F1

well we knew that Alpine was looking for a bit of investment and uh some of the money that was paid in has gone off to pay off the debt the the Renault group um the basically the F1 team had to the Rena Group which is his parent company so um it was clear that they were looking to uh you know to clear that debt and and

to also have some money to invest forward uh for the team um and not hugely surprised at other people involved I mean I wasn't expecting a couple of Hollywood actors I have to say um and it seems like they came to the deal relatively late um it was led by uh red bird and otro uh to um capital investment funds uh and they bring a lot

of expertise in in the World of Sports the world of marketing and um Alpine felt that actually you know uh marketing uh getting sponsors on board licensing rights all that kind of stuff was an area where they didn't have a huge amount of expertise so they were very keen to point out uh at the launch of all this that it's not just about the money of

course the money is very important but it's also about what the new investors are bringing to the team and um and so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out how much of a change we see how much of a shift we see and whether we see any kind of Ryan Reynolds uh Rob mcelhenney um involvement I don't think you can expect a whole docu-series

and I don't think it's quite the same investment but um there was talk um at the launch that you know perhaps there's something they can do with the visibility of the team uh that was the work that was used by uh Alpine CEO Lauren Rossi about what they would bring and how they would basically make this Alpine brand uh a bit bigger than it already is

and of course the whole reason we talk about Alpine in F1 I mean a lot of people especially in the United States may not be aware of the Alpine brand at all because at the moment you cannot buy Alpine cars in the United States so the whole reason that that brand is in F1 we have a company that's owned so with a team that's owned by

Renault it's because they want to promote that brand they want to make it bigger they do eventually want to start selling uh cars in the United States and so all of this involvement all of this promotion uh getting big names involved in the team is part of that and it's part of their wider strategy to essentially sell broadcast also good news for for Alpine you know

they've got some uh some big plans uh like almost every team in the F1 Midfield when we talk about Aston Martin they made the step over the winter we talked about McLaren wanting to fight for championships of course Alpine wants to do that too if anything they have massively underperformed in recent years because they are a Works team so they have their own uh engine Department

it's based in France but you know only supplies the Alpine F1 team and works directly with them so really you know they should be up there with the likes of Ferrari Red Bull and Mercedes and they're not and they haven't been for some time so it's been very clear and Lauren Rossi referenced this um at the at this launch of of the announcement of the investment

uh that they're on this hundred race plan they're about two-thirds to three quarters of the way into it and by the end of that they need to make sure they have absolutely everything and no more excuses uh you know absolutely everything in terms of the factory and the facilities and no more excuses for uh for not being up the front and fighting so they're targeting around

20 25 20 26 to be regular Podium finishers and eventually uh Championship contenders I think you have a really interesting article it's a great piece on espn.com you can find it now under the Formula One tab but you outline how Aston Martin's success recently may have impacted this decision for Alpine can you kind of expand upon that yeah so this is something that Lauren Rossi the

CEO Alpine uh said you know he was talking about all these aspirations that they have and how this investment is going to help them get up there but it it doesn't kind of explain the fact that one of their main Rivals a team they finished ahead of last year LeapFrog them and I've done exactly what Alpine have been talking about for the last three years which

has join the top three teams and of course yeah we're talking about Aston Martin and you know you can look at Aston Martin and say well look there's all this investment that's gone in there's the new Factory and everything well the car that they're racing now wasn't built in the new Factory it was actually built out of Eddie Jordan's old place with a bunch of Porter

cabins around it and really it was done with by employing the right people they brought in some big technical signings they also brought in Fernando Alonso of course from Alpine which um you know doesn't it it's still I think a bit of a sore spot at Alpine um and and they've been able to do that and fight for regular podiums this year and of course like

I said that's exactly what album want to do so Rosie admitted that it was um it was a bit of a wake-up call for them uh reality check uh that uh you know that they they need to up their game and they need to be able to compete on that level these aren't the only guys that obviously want to get involved in Formula One we know

that people are trying to present applications to join the grid um the most recent news is that British racing team high tech have applied to enter a team even Formula One in 2026 um with investment from billionaire businessmen Vladimir Kim how long has this deal or this application process been in the works well we've known high tech have been interested for some time uh they were

initially interested in making it into F1 we're backing from um uh Nikki's Madison's father um and you know that uh obviously it didn't come together and and uh the mads pins actually pulled out of high-tech um as uh as a result of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions that have come in since and so uh high-tech um have not lost their aspirations to get into

Formula One we know there's this um process at the moment the FI is vetting potential applicants with the possibility of adding two more teams potentially no more teams but uh two more teams they're in that process right now and high tech have basically said look we are one of those teams we have submitted an application and uh and we're interested in getting there and then obviously

having the backing of uh Vladimir Kim who has uh huge amounts of wealth as many as a result of uh copper mining um is is significant because it means that there is at least the money there to make this process work they've also been doing bits behind the scenes you know that they've got a um I understand they've got some kind of Applied Technologies uh company

alongside the racing teams that run in uh junior series because of course when you're racing in those Junior series even up to the level of Formula 2 you're doing it with a what we call a spec chassis so it's a single car you buy it after Lara everyone has the same car of course there's lots you can do with it in terms of preparing it and

setup and everything but you're basically dealing with with a car that you're buying off the shelf you're not in-house designing in-house making the car and of course that's what you require for formula one so it is a huge step for a team to go from formula two where high tech are now up to formula one but it seems like they've already started to put some of

the pieces in place and obviously they're very serious about this because they've now gone public with with their desire to do it whether whether they make it or not it's it's almost impossible to say without knowing exactly what they've submitted to the FIA and and what they've got there potentially the the one thing which I would say is that um throughout this process Formula One especially

which also has a say on the new teams that come in so you have the fia the governing body which is really checking out you know the sporting side making sure they've got the facilities making sure the funding is in place but then there's also a commercial agreement that any new team would have to come to with formula one to be one of the teams that

uh basically receives prize money at the end of each year and the one thing from one has always said is that any new team has to bring value it has to bring value to the um to the brand of Formula One it has to bring something special and so when Andretti and Cadillac put forward their names there were still questions about whether that was enough and

so whether high-tech GP um and uh you know a billionaire businessman sure but you know uh not really a brand that people associate with uh with formula one uh sorry with Motorsport and and with car racing you know is that enough to to to Warrant a place on the grid I don't know I'm I've got some questions about that but again it all depends what high

tech put forward to the FIA informal one what do you think is is more apt to happen here that Andretti and high tech both get approved and we see two more teams on the grid and we go from 10 to 12 or do you see it's more likely that just one team gets entry or none at all I mean all of those are possibilities and again

it just it just depends on on what they can bring and how convincing and compelling those arguments are I think you know it's hard to argue that the sport wouldn't benefit from an extra two really well-funded competitive teams uh you know at the moment okay we've got a championship that's currently being dominated by one team in Red Bull but behind that all the teams are actually

quite closely matched now we don't really have the case where we have a team that that's a long way off the back and so there's no real um you know it wouldn't really benefit the sport to bring in two teams that are in their own private battle at the back and the last time we had new teams come into F1 well there was Hass but prior

to that there was uh three teams there was a thing called hispania uh there was team Lotus which later changed to Caterham and there was the Virgin F1 team which later became Arusha in their Mana um and and the whole time they were in F1 uh they just weren't able to compete with even you know the back of the Midfield they're in their own private battle

at the back and F1 does doesn't need that it doesn't add a huge amount and of course there's this question over um however then that they would justify a share of f1's revenues which is what the teams get as prize money at the end of each year and of course if you add two more teams to that you dilute the amounts of prize money available and

so and this is why we also talk about this 200 million entrance fee and whether um you know and that is what teams have to pay currently under the regulations but there's a lot of talk about increasing that increasing that significantly on the basis of the valuations that we've just seen of Alpine are 900 million dollars uh 200 million dollars to get into F1 actually seems

relatively cheap considering to buy a whole lot will cost 900 million right so um so there's all of those Balance next all of those equations uh to do behind the scenes and um I don't think anybody outside of the FIA and F1 can say confidently whether any of the current proposal you know proposed F1 teams are going to meet those those criteria so uh we'll have

to sit out and wait there's no no deadline on when exactly we're going to hear but um yeah hopefully it won't be too long because of course the other thing remember is that you know the these are likely teams coming in 2026 and um you know even if uh you found out today it would still be a rush I believe to be able to get a

team ready in time and of course you're not going to commit too much investment until you know for certain you have a space on the grid so a lot of moving Parts at the moment over over how it's going to play out and yeah I'm not confident enough to predict exactly how many teams and which ones we'll get here's a question and you mentioned we're talking

about 2026 we're not talking about next season here but we've already had our fair share of doubts about certain rookies on the current grid are there enough drivers are there 24 capable drivers out there to get the job done that's an interesting question um because yeah you're right there has been some some questions about some of the rookies on the grid this year but I personally

think a lot of those questions are a little bit unfair and certainly when you compare it to some of the drivers we've had in f1's recent past I think the current crop are actually some of some of the best out there um you know and again it's the thing about having competitive teams isn't it if you've got competitive teams that can that can go and fight

right at the front of um of F1 uh you know a guy like Daniel Ricardo probably would have found a team and you know I think personally he is still good enough to be an F1 but uh all of a sudden his his options of competitive teams narrowed down and he was out once McLaren decided they were going to replace him so um it does depend

slightly on you know who's in F2 the drivers coming through I'd have to say the moment you know it would be interesting to see who would end up in the in those spaces if they if they occur but um but I don't think it's a bad thing at all and quite often it's the argument goes the other way is that we're not having enough Young Drivers

coming through getting a chance um you know too often older drivers um you know as holding onto seats far too long they're preventing Young Drivers coming through and so um actually I think it would be a very positive thing to have two extra seats uh to fill and look you know if you get a super license um and that exists within that point system that we

talked about on this podcast before where you have to basically prove yourself in other series to get enough points to put yourself in a position to get a super license if you've done that you are a pretty good driver now lots of people have opinions about how good those drivers are relative to the very best so the max just happens and the Fernando Lancers but you're

still a pretty good driver and it's very rare that you get someone with a super license who isn't actually capable at least of of driving an F1 car and race and F1 car you mentioned unfair evaluations so I'm going to hit you with this quote that came from helmet Marco the gift that keeps on giving he was asked on the inside line podcast if he and

Red Bull team boss Horner Christian Horner often disagree about signings Marco said not often but sometimes we do the last one I would say DeVries basically it's al-fatari but we're a big family and we get opinions he being Horner was not a fan of DeVries I would say at the moment it looks like he was right I always find it interesting when someone talks or speaks

for another individual now obviously helmet Marco and Christian Horner seem to be in most senses in lockstep with what they they do at Red Bull what did you make of that comment very interesting and and clearly put in a bit of a bit of pressure on nictivrees who has already had a fair amount of pressure I mean we've already heard about potential ultimatums of various races

this year by which he had to improve and I think he has gradually improved but clearly the pressure is is not being released and um look I mean yeah I'm always slightly skeptical when you have one person saying the other person said this but um I can't believe that you know what Marco has said is that wide of the Mark um you know there were plenty

of people that if what Marco is saying Horner believes uh held a similar opinion uh Nick de Reese was very impressive in that one race at the Italian Grand Prix last year and that's basically what got him an alpha Towery Drive um of course he did have a lot of experience in formulary uh he was a champion there he was also a champion in Formula two

uh quite a few years ago now but all of those things added up to a fairly good uh resume but there was that one factor that he'd never made F1 the first time around when he was younger and when he had got out of F2 and everyone you know a lot of people in F1 kind of felt well there was a reason for that um look

I you know I I think it is is a case of Marco putting pressure on there and uh this is also nothing new within within the Red Bull driver program I feel if you sign a contract to drive for won the Red Bull teams either in Formula One or even as a junior driver in Formula 2 or Formula 3 you're signing up to a huge amount

of pressure and there are so many examples in uh form one history Formula 2 history Formula Three history of drivers who um have had a lot of natural talent but when they come under the pressure of uh basically donning a helmet with the Red Bull on the side and the you know and and the competitiveness of that structure and everything that comes with it uh things

can start to go wrong and I think a lot of that pressure does come from helmet Marco and lots of people are critical about that you know they feel like guys like Brendan Hartley perhaps um John Eric Fern uh you could go back to Jaime agashwari you could bring it forward to say Alex albon Pierre gasly uh Carlos science didn't get the chance they deserved uh

given clearly how good they are as racing drivers but at the end of the day helmet Marco is really looking for the next Max for staff and prior to that he was looking for the next Sebastian Vettel guys who were going to go and win Red Bull multiple World Championships and if you're not one of them then you're kind of taking up space for potentially somebody

else who could come through and do it and so I think this is probably the way that Marco is looking at it now he thought right let's give Nick DeVries a go they ended up in that position last year where Pierre gasly was very keen to get out of the the Red Bull kind of family and and wanted to go to Alpine that made a lot

of sense on a lot of levels but of course Rebel then needed to find a replacement for gasoline they saw Nick DeVries they saw how good he was in in Italy and I think Marco thought right we'll give it a pump but it was always going to be with that Proviso if you don't perform then you're basically taking up space for somebody else who could come

through and uh and and take that position speaking of somebody else to come through fair or not these assessments I often wonder if these comments twice now are politically motivated because you have a Daniel Ricardo who you believe is still a very capable driver as you said earlier on the pod could fill that seat if Nick DeVries gets the boot is that a fair assessment yeah

I think that is exactly the other side to to you know to the story is that Daniel Ricardo is there at Red Bull as a third driver he took on that role at the start of this year not really knowing where it would take him but I would say within the space of three races I remember I talked to him with the Australian Grand Prix and

there he was already set on returning to the F1 grid uh since then uh Nate did an interview with him in Canada uh very recently and he said the fairy tale ending would be to make it back to the Red Bull team and we've also um heard that from reliable sources that he's he'd be okay with making that step into Alpha Towery next year to then

go on and and drive for Red Bull and you know that is a bit of a turnaround from where he was at the end of last year where he clearly could have entertained some offers he clearly could have gone deeper into negotiations with the likes of Hass uh maybe even Alvin Towery uh Williams you know there were there were teams lower down the grid that were

interested in him yet he didn't take up any of those because at that time of you know that mind space that he had coming out of McLaren he wanted to go and just you know have a bit of time to collect himself think about his options the Red Bull uh third driver deal was a perfect way to do that and already he's talking about about next

year so I think um it seems pretty clear that it's not really in the interest of Ricardo to try and make that step this year uh but yeah Marco is putting that that pressure on victories and look if Nick DeVries turned around and his second half to the year is is one of the best on the grid you know he's got multiple points out of nowhere

that no one was expecting given the performance of the car and you know he outperforms Yuki sonoda who is his teammate to to a decent level then they'll have to think again they have to think again you know one if we are definitely bringing in Ricardo which driver do we replace but at the moment that answer is kind of obvious to everyone because Yuki is doing

a very good job in in one of the alpha towers and Nick DeVries is falling short and like I said before F1 is brutal like that and especially the Red Bull driver program is Bruce like that so yeah as long as Ricardo's there as long as he's saying look I'm interested in going back he's got that test in the uh in the rebel after Silverstone where

he's going to work through uh Tire program with Pirelli but he's going to get his first taste of what it's like to be in a Red Bull of this new regulation era and um I think you know if he does what um everyone expects him to do there you know he's been doing it long enough that I think he will and he impresses and he kind

of clicks with that car that really could be um the step that then makes everyone decide right Ricardo is our man um you know to to replace one of the Alpha Tower drivers next year Max verstappen clearly dominating the sport but a smaller storyline within Red Bull's organization to certainly monitor as we continue on with the season as you and I sit here Nate Saunders is

uh traveling by car to his hotel in preparation for the Austrian Grand Prix so let's hit our preview shall we thank you another Sprint race okay so a little bit different of a format to keep your eye on qualities are on Friday then we've got the Sprint race on Saturday and then the Austrian Grand Prix of course on Sunday given that it's a Sprint weekend how

do you think that that plays into team strategies for qualifying Sprint and then obviously the race so this is the second time we've had this new Sprint format um there was the original Sprint format and then the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this year they kind of shaked it up again so you've essentially got Friday qualifying for Sunday then you've got Saturday morning qualify for um for the

Sprint race on Saturday afternoon and uh the one thing it does do is limits and restricts practice time even more and so uh drivers have to be very comfortable with their setups after a single practice session um when the track is it's least representative of how it's going to be in the race because no cars have really run on it you know uh prior to that

in the weekend and they've got to get it all nailed down and be completely happy with it and of course we you know we saw that trip up a lot of drivers um in in Baku uh to the point that I think Nico hulkenberg and Logan Sargent went back and changed parts of their setup which meant they start from the pit Lane but you know they

did it because they hadn't got it right in that single practice session and therefore by the time they rode around to the race on Sunday they needed to make some changes and you you know sacrificing grid positions was was well worth it because they need to get the car in the right place and so um yeah a huge amount of pressure even more so if you're

bringing upgrades and we're expecting a big upgrade from McLaren uh this is I'm not you know we had that other one in Baku so they have weirdly coincided it with sprint races which is not what you would normally choose to do but I think just shows how hard they are pushing to get these pieces to the car and they're bringing the first part of this of

this B spec upgrade so a complete overhaul of the car and the way it generates downforce um much like we've seen with Mercedes in in Monaco this year but I think it's only going to be applied to Lando Norris's uh car this weekend before more parts come for for both teams for both cars in Silverstone so and that's a lot of pressure that is a lot

of pressure for and for a driver to deal with because one you've got to start to understand those upgrades you've got validation to do on them and then uh you have one practice session to decide how you're going to run the car on the setup around it and so um that is not easy so all of that to keep an eye on but you know personally

I don't know how you for about skating but I think these sprint races are they're certainly more exciting there's more going on if you're like me and you're going to end up with three days of Formula One I'd much rather have competitive sessions than practice sessions but um yeah I don't know how you feel about it I I would agree at face value however I would

say that we have lucked out with qualifying the last three races have been unbelievably entertaining and now obviously that's in part due to weather but I like that there's more competitiveness throughout the entirety of the weekend but I will say I don't take it for granted because qualities of the last three races have been Mega and been a lot a lot like I've been on the

edge of my seat especially when we were talking about Canada and everybody trying to decide what to do with the rain with intermediates or not that was absolutely fascinating I'm curious It's a shorter track how would you describe this circuit um I think it's only nine proper Corners um so it's it's very unusual and um it's it's basically built into the side of a hill which

then leads up to a mountain so it's it's a beautiful place to visit I'm actually quite I've seen a jealous of Nate uh working his way through the Austrian Countryside right now because you get some amazing views and mountains as as you get closer to the track um so it's it's pretty special and it is you know unique in in F1 in that it's it's a

race track in in the Alps um so uh yeah that's cool but it it is an unusual Challenge and what we tend to see because it's such a short track and such a fast track uh the margins between drivers you know in qualifying and um to some extent with race laps as well but especially in qualifying are very very small because um once everybody gives it

everything and the lap is over in about a minute naturally the the margins between each car are are even smaller which means mistakes are also punished very heavily because you can't really make up the time around the rest of the lap so um it's uh it's always a fun one for qualifying and you know we've had some good races there there's there's possibility for overtaking there

you know there's um the DRS zones which uh which often need to overtake and either up into turn three which if you look at a track map looks like it should be turned two but that's at the very top of um the hill as they go up and then again into uh turn four which Loops background and that's where um I think quite famously and quite

unfortunately for Alex Alban he was taken out by Lewis Hamilton a few years ago just as it looked like he might actually be on for a race Victory early on His Rebel career but anyway um we won't dwell on that but yeah good track for it I hope on fans are it's reminiscing With Tears in their eyes from that moment um after what was a really

strong performance in Canada for Ferrari okay let's give credit where credit's due the team finished fourth and fifth uh second most Constructor points on the weekend do you feel as if that momentum will be carried on to Australia where I believe it was last year we saw Charles and Max battling to the end in the Austrian Grand Prix and it made for for good TV yeah

the Ferrari was very competitive here uh last year so I think that's um yeah I mean I you know suddenly the rebel wasn't as competitive at this stage of the season and the Ferrari had made a much better start to the season so we can't guarantee that means that they're going to be uh in any kind of uh fight right at the front but Ferrari's a

hard one to uh to judge at the moment because they had a fairly big upgrade in Spain that changed the look of the side pods and they had a really mixed weekend there where Carlos science qualified quite well the clerk had an awful qualifying session and then in the race they both kind of met somewhere in between um neither of which were very happy with the

way the car was performing in the race uh then we went to Canada again two pretty poor qualifying sessions uh of course the clerk falling out slightly with his race engineer over went to Pitt for intermediate tires and I still don't think that was the deal and end all in that session I think he still could have made it through he got his lap together and

but then in the race they nailed the strategy but you know how much of that was performance of the car well clearly there was performance there but it was also that they did go for a One-Stop strategy while so many other drivers went for a two-stop and that allowed them to move up through the field the very positive thing about that is that for most of

this year the Ferrari has really struggled to look after its tires so the idea of doing one less pit stop than everyone else would have been quite daunting yeah they were able with confidence uh to pull off that strategy so if that's anything to go by then I think they are making progress but look you know the others just are not standing still I mean Max

has happened obviously and Red Bull obviously but also Aston Martin and Mercedes who have really been Ferrari's main competitors this year and then you know we look back at it and I think I'm right saying you know the Ferraris on podiums are really rare this year we've had uh the only one I think of it is Baku which was the last Sprint race incidentally um but

other than that you know it just it just hasn't been clicking for them so uh they really need something this weekend I think yeah yeah no doubt about it and there's always a race with in the race and right now I think one of the most interesting storylines is who's going to finish the second the Constructors Championship behind Red Bull and right now that's between Aston

Martin and Mercedes as you say his Ferrari tries to continue to get its act together and we see more consistency there who would you say has more pressure to perform Aston or Mercedes in Austria well I think throughout this year there's way more pressure on Mercedes because what us and Martin have done already what they've got in the bank is a big step from whatever it

was p7 in the constructors last year to challenge him for P2 is significant so I think uh you know at all times more pressure is on Mercedes because they themselves admit that they are not where they want to be okay they're making progress as they get back but the reality was they went into this year thinking that you know they could be able to be able

to fight for a world championship and and they're clearly not there so I think the pressure is always more more on Mercedes but um but in terms of who's going to come out on top on that I think it's you know that that's that's a really interesting one because um you know the uh the Mercedes seemed very good in high-speed Corners in Spain uh it's got

an upgrade which has kind of targeted uh overall um performance uh boost but uh also you know trying to tackle some of those low speed issues uh there's a few low speed bits in in uh in Austria not many it's mainly high speed um but anyway so I feel like on paper probably suits Mercedes more um and uh and you know and that could mean that

you know Lewis and and Georgia are up there you know the front of that kind of chasing pack I don't think they'll be quite with uh Rebel but uh but they'll be up there uh whereas Aston Martin you know I think uh they had a reason upgrade package as well but I think they're still trying to get the very best out of that and um yeah

we'll see how it fans out I mean with Fernando Alonso around you know a lot of Podium is always possible isn't it uh he says so he actually guarantees that I'm here on to the rest of the season and I think it's been fun watching he and Lewis Hamilton battle throughout these races do you think that second place in the constructors ultimately comes down to the

second drivers on these teams between George Russell and landstroll and their performances for the rest of the season yeah and if it does then Mercedes are going to win that battle like no doubt because Georgia K had a bit of Misfortune in there maybe Misfortune isn't the right word in in Canada he made a mistake in Canada but um he's more consistent than straw and I

think just fundamentally uh shown better performance and stroll this year um but you know stroll has his reasons there have been you know issues along the way broken flaws and qualifying things like that and uh you know missed opportunities in Miami with how many tires they used in in qualifying and so look you know there's part of me which thinks that if stroll can get it

all together then he'll at least be where Aston Martin need him to be which is you know in the fight in the mix with Mercedes and and ahead of the Red Bulls and he's done that you know once or twice this year but uh yeah consistency is absolutely the key to that and I think um you know if anything Mercedes look like they're accelerating a bit

more with their progress on the car so more than ever Aston Martin needs troll to step up yeah no doubt about it it's uh the Red Bull Ring for a reason so um we're obviously gonna have a great welcome for Max verstappen and Co but I want to start with Co because Sergio Perez um obviously has had his fair share of mistakes or um misfortunes if

you want to call it that in Canada with the rain do you feel that this is a race where Sergio Perez gets back into form and we see a full weekend from him it's what he needs 100 um and I think we've been saying that going into basically every race even Monaco going in there we say well you know this is the street track because we

always consider him better at Street Track King of the streets his strength exactly and even then we were saying right he needs to perform put it in the wall then Spain obviously he needs to come back from that makes a mistake in qualifying Canada gets caught out in the rain and you know it doesn't really make the progress that perhaps you'd expect afterwards so it's um

yeah it's not been a good spell for for checo and I think any hope of the championship is pretty much dead I mean I'm sure they'll be checkered fans screaming at me right now that you know of course he's still in it mathematically it's still possible but when you're up against someone as good as Max verstappen you just cannot afford to make as many mistakes as

you have made and you know we're not even halfway through the season so um yeah he he does need to step up um and I I guess there's there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be here in in Austria you know it's uh there's no reason why you should be able to with this circuit but I do think it's one where Max has been consistently strong

uh even when the Red Bull hasn't always been the strongest car around here and it very often is but even when it hasn't been uh Max has always seemed to get um something extra out of it so um I think for Checker to beat Max it's going to be incredibly tough around here but of course he needs to start somewhere and you know if Max finishes

does win and is unbeatable he needs to make sure he's second pin checko challenge Max not I'm talking about driver standings here just in a race for the rest of the season do you think that there is a possibility that he can get back to where he was at the beginning of the Season challenging Max and ultimately winning races again yeah absolutely too and for the

same reason that when we talk about will Red Bull win all the races this year um I'm all I'm still skeptical about them being able to do that just because Misfortune does come along and you know uh time badly time safety car or an engine going at the wrong time uh you know we saw early on of course um uh in Saudi Arabia Max had a

drive shaft um issuing qualifying left and down the grid he made it back up to second place which was hugely impressive but checo had the edge on him from that point onwards because um you know he managed it very well so um in a straight fight your money would absolutely always be on Max but the nature of F1 is that it's not always a straight fight

you know things do go wrong and for that reason I'd be very surprised if Checker didn't win another race this year um but you know that's not enough is it compared to what he needs to be doing which is winning multiple races in a row to get at least some of the points back on on Max's tap when's the last time a team won every single

race in a season 50s never happened never happened no the closest any team came was 1988 McLaren uh 16 races that year they won 15. uh they were leading uh Edson Center was leading in the McLaren uh mons of the One race they didn't win but was taken out by a bank marker and then Ferrari went on to win which was obviously very popular among the

home crowd but did kind of slightly plot that that record and but it was uh okay it was a bit before my time I was two years old so I'm not gonna pretend that I remember it well but um but from everything that I've read about it um you know it was a similar kind of car this car turned up um when they first tested it

uh I was listening to a podcast with Neil lately um the beyond the group podcast and he was talking about it recently he was one of the guys behind the design of it and uh apparently Allen Prost the other driver that year got out of the car after testing in it and said we can win the championship and you'd probably believe that after the first day

in Bahrain when Max Staffing got out of this year's Red Bull same thing in his mind even if he didn't vocalize it so yeah it's um it fit very similar thing where you know huge margins in in races uh that they were winning by and so um you know that kind of suggests that it's it is almost possible but it's just never quite happened even Mercedes

during their their dominant period in in the more recent past um could never quite get it together they I think they missed out on three races in 2014 and I think 2016 as well and then perhaps 20 well I can't remember what one of the seasons that they were just a couple races off but yeah it's it's just so hard to get it all together and

you know to to put all of that in place especially when you're dealing with Seasons as long as they are now you know you just increase that chance of Just One race being there where it doesn't all fit together I'll just say if I was an older driver and I'm watching Max verstappen pick people off on the all times win list I would have a little

bit of a gripe of I mean now you're talking about 23-24 races that's a lot more opportunity to some of those guys in the past have but nonetheless still very very impressive you mentioned Alpine trying to raise their standard McLaren bringing upgrades to Austria Alex Alban had a great performance in Canada when you look at Best of the rest who's maybe somebody you're gonna keep your

eye on this weekend um I've been increasingly impressed by Esteban okon um uh Alpine um and I think you know he also got that podium in in Monaco which was a real high point but he's consistently been been putting it together and Alpine you know we we've written bits about the money this year and how upset Laura Rossi was after the Miami Grand Prix that they

were making kind of mistakes over and over again uh when we asked him about that on on Monday at the launch of this uh investment news uh he basically said look you know he was disappointed with with mistakes being repeated with some of the things that were going on specifically and he kind of maybe didn't wrote back on the comments but he certainly suggested that a

lot of those issues have been addressed and I think you're starting to see that and the results are Alpine um but the one thing that's clear is that okon is is more comfortable with that car than than Pierre gasly perhaps not surprising considering this is Pierre's first season at Alpine but yeah espanol I think is is not going to give us some some pretty good results

so right now pretty much any track we go to just because of the way the competitiveness of the cars is and how it's balanced out over over the season I feel like outside your top four Alpena the next best bet and of those two drivers okon is a guy who's usually coming out on top fair enough uh because there are smarter Minds out there than I

uh and because I couldn't even really handle or digest the scoring system that I created for our predictions thus far of the Season Zach our lovely producer has decided to rearrange the point system so here's how we stand if you get the first place P1 winner accurately predicted you get three points second place two points third place one point if you hit them all three in

a row you get an extra point for hitting the trifecta okay so here's where we stand with our new point system after eight rounds Lawrence you are at the top of the table with 20 points congratulations Nate is at 12 points okay so eight behind you and I'm at 10 points but I would like an asterisk next to my score because I did not compete in

the first two weekends but I believe that I'm gonna make a strong push here in the middle part of the season I've done a better job this this week around because I've gotten Nate's predictions for Austria here's what he's texting from the car as he gets to the hotel Max verstappen Fernando Alonso Sergio Perez on the podium with his teammate at the Red Bull Ring how

do you feel about that yeah it's pretty solid prediction uh Fernando Alonso is always a fairly safe bet at the moment isn't he propodium and uh yeah I think I I for the last few rounds I've put checo in the top three thinking that he'll bounce back and like we were talking about earlier you know he's had so many bad races you kind of feel that's

gonna happen at some point but yeah pretty solid pretty solid and I think Nate Nate's been the pressure a bit he's gone very very conservative there no no big surprises that's basically been my Approach the whole season which is the only reason I'm leading because I just keep doing boring predictions but um yeah fair enough pretty good how about you Katie what you got I'm gonna

so are you sticking with his exact predictions sorry say again are you sticking with Nate's predictions you're doing the same three oh no no no I'm gonna go different but I was gonna let you go first thank you a gentleman I am gonna go with Max verstappen Tucker after that I think I've gotten messed up because I've put a Mercedes at two and then Fernando Alonso

at three oh and then it's always a gamble if you try to put Ferrari up there and I'm behind you know I need a sure thing here all right I'm gonna go Max verstappen Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton which is exactly what we saw in Canada and I'm hoping that we see something a little bit different but I feel like that's a safe bet I think I

think that'd still be a good race I mean we said so many times haven't we that Max just happens almost a given to win so it's like that's everyone's uh number one so yeah behind that at least yeah you've got an exciting exciting race going on I'm gonna go slightly different mix it up a little bit I'm still gonna go with Max the staff at number

one okay because that's basically how I've scored on more points this year uh then I'm gonna go with um Lewis Hamilton number two nice that's a clerk number three good for you Ferrari back into it um we should probably also point out this is this is for the race not the Sprint we're not doing Sprint yes uh suggestions because I would just add a disclaimer and

Nate hasn't given us one so uh yeah we'll stick with that but yeah that's where we stand I think that's fair awesome as always we appreciate your analysis we also appreciate you watching listening remember if you're watching us on YouTube like this video leave us a comment and subscribe to ESPN for more F1 content and if you're listening certainly hit us with a five star review

wherever you get your podcast enjoy the race while I see you on the ESPN post ratio after you will looking forward to it lovely as am I have a great weekend and we'll see you Sunday cheers