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00:00:00I
00:01:44They certainly are.
00:01:45We waited 91 days then and we've got going.
00:01:49We're off and running in 2026.
00:01:52New era, new rules, new regs.
00:01:55George Russell, new championship leader.
00:01:57He's never been on top before.
00:01:59There's going to be a lot of pressure on that man's shoulders to see if he can win a championship
00:02:03in 2026.
00:02:05Why don't you follow us along for the ride?
00:02:07There is plenty to come.
00:02:13But I wonder if Ferrari will be kicking themselves.
00:02:16Why didn't they pick at least one of the cars when Mercedes did?
00:02:20Well done to George Russell.
00:02:21He leads the championship for the first time in his career.
00:02:25But Kimi Antonelli is going to keep him sweet.
00:02:27What do you think finishing within three seconds of his teammate?
00:02:31It was wacky races at the start.
00:02:33It was entertaining stuff.
00:02:35And we hope for more next weekend in China.
00:03:24Yeah, off to Shanghai.
00:03:27Next weekend, the first sprint weekend of the new season.
00:03:31Even more chaos, you'd think, live for the Chinese Grand Prix.
00:03:35Join us then, Sky Sports F1.
00:03:39Now, there's plenty of sport across Sky Sports platforms.
00:03:43It is, of course, International Women's Day tonight.
00:03:45The Indian Wells Open, WTA 1000, day five, six o'clock, Sky Sports and tennis.
00:03:50There's some netball super league next weekend, March the 14th.
00:03:54Panthers, Mavericks, and four WSL games.
00:03:57You're brought against Harper on Sunday, April the 5th, and Friday, June the 12th.
00:04:01The ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
00:04:06To follow in the footsteps of the men's, which is between New Zealand and India.
00:04:11One o'clock this afternoon, Sky Sports cricket.
00:04:13The players from Sawgrass, March the 12th to the 15th.
00:04:16And the Carabao Cup final, March the 22nd, between Arsenal and Manchester City.
00:04:24The comedy prequel series, Ted, returns for season two, starring Seth MacFarlane at the foul-mouthed teddy bear.
00:04:31Ted has all episodes available right now on Sky.
00:04:35We're hanging down, hanging out at the back here, waiting for George Russell.
00:04:41We're hoping we're going to be able to steal him and walk the length of the paddock with him.
00:04:44Bernie, come on then.
00:04:46First impressions of Formula One in 2026.
00:04:49Well, that was good, wasn't it?
00:04:50We talked so much about the Australian Grand Prix, how difficult it is to overtake.
00:04:53We had lots of overtakings there today.
00:04:55We had lots of different strategies going on as well.
00:04:57Lots happening with the safety cars.
00:04:59There's more finishers than maybe we all expected going into it.
00:05:03Desperately disappointing for Oscar Piastre.
00:05:05It's just not what we wanted for any of the drivers to start the first Grand Prix.
00:05:10But especially the home favourite with so much opportunity ahead.
00:05:13Why didn't Ferrari pit one of their drivers at least?
00:05:16Well, yeah, Lewis Hamilton was quite strong on the radio for particularly that first VSE to say,
00:05:20why didn't we do one car at least?
00:05:23I was surprised actually initially that Mercedes start because they were quite close together.
00:05:28But they were pretty confident in what they thought they wanted to do.
00:05:32And then at the second VSE, where I tried to go through the numbers quickly,
00:05:36Charles Leclerc was just at the safety car line when it was released.
00:05:40And Lewis Hamilton a bit further back.
00:05:43But the yellow flag had been out for 19 seconds at that point.
00:05:46So potentially for Lewis, there was time for Ferrari to react.
00:05:51And that will raise some questions.
00:05:52And then of course the pit entry was blocked.
00:05:54So a little bit of poor luck there as well.
00:05:56But with regards to George, I mean, he's talking about the yo-yo effect there
00:06:00and, you know, not being able to stay ahead.
00:06:02I mean, I hope we're going to get lots of that this year
00:06:04because there has been criticism definitely from the drivers
00:06:07about what they're like to drive.
00:06:09But from the outset, all the fans are going to care about, aren't they?
00:06:11As we get great racing.
00:06:12Well, we see them, they kept each other together for a long time.
00:06:15Those top four were very, very, very close.
00:06:17And we were concerned, not even about the new regs,
00:06:21about that Mercedes, given what we've seen in qualifying,
00:06:23would just drive off into the distance.
00:06:25And I think the only reason they've finished with any of the gap
00:06:28is because they took that VSC.
00:06:30Ferrari were right there with them through this whole Grand Prix.
00:06:33Ferrari starts, oh, really kept George on us, didn't it?
00:06:36And I think that, you know, that Mercedes,
00:06:40George had a fantastic drive
00:06:41and they have learnt so much through this race,
00:06:45how to use these cars, how to get the best out of the tyres.
00:06:48But you can't take a lot away from that drive from George.
00:06:51He really kept his cool after losing that position so early on,
00:06:54made the strategy stick,
00:06:55was one of the first people on the radio to the pit wall to say,
00:06:58we can make this one-stop work,
00:06:59which you've heard before from George.
00:07:01Yeah, I mean, it seems to me, look, on the evidence,
00:07:03it's just one race and we won't really know till we get to Europe.
00:07:06I mean, it may be a track dependent,
00:07:07but it feels to me like there's the tier at the top,
00:07:10which is those two, Ferrari and Mercedes.
00:07:12It looks like Red Bull and McLaren fairly evenly matched as well.
00:07:16About four in the midfield,
00:07:17Williams just off the back of the pack.
00:07:19I probably can lack an Aston Martin, you know, lagging at the moment.
00:07:23But, yeah, I just wonder about this.
00:07:25You see, like, the thing with...
00:07:27It just had that sort of sense that this could be a thrilling season
00:07:31if we just give it time as well.
00:07:32Yeah, and I think, you know, the two...
00:07:35The advantage that Mercedes and Ferrari had this week
00:07:37may not be the right of the same advantage next week.
00:07:40And like you said at the top there, Simon,
00:07:42sprint weekend next weekend.
00:07:43They've even got less time to learn.
00:07:45More chaos.
00:07:45They're going to be straight into it.
00:07:47They're going to be suffering a bit from any damage
00:07:49they've achieved this week.
00:07:51Any lack of parts is going to really hurt in the sprint weekend.
00:07:53So it's going to be real next...
00:07:55And we're going to push these drivers hard.
00:07:57Okay, we're going to take a break
00:07:58because we're waiting for George Russell.
00:08:01So we'll get a breakaway in the meantime.
00:08:03Drive the day, Max Verstappen.
00:08:05One of the overtakes he performed
00:08:08around the outside of turn nine.
00:08:10It's unbelievable.
00:08:10We're going to have a look at that a little bit later.
00:08:11What a great drive from the back of the grid to sixth.
00:08:14He was DHL's fastest lap winner.
00:08:17The only one of the season.
00:08:22But your race winner, George Russell,
00:08:25sixth of his career.
00:08:27And we'll hope to meet him in a couple of moments, Ty.
00:08:29But the smile very much back on Toto Wolff's face
00:08:32and the rest of the team.
00:08:33They are happy.
00:08:34Down at Mercedes.
00:08:45Welcome back.
00:08:46Sixth career victory for George Russell.
00:08:49I'm happy to have won the opener here.
00:08:51He's done it in some style.
00:08:52We're going to hear from him very, very shortly.
00:08:54Seventh, different winner, by the way,
00:08:55in the last seven Australian Grand Prix.
00:08:58He was ably supported.
00:09:00Good comeback drive, actually,
00:09:01by his teammate, Kimi Antonelli,
00:09:03who finished within three seconds.
00:09:05But Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton,
00:09:08I should imagine, in the debrief,
00:09:10will be thinking, yes, why didn't we pick?
00:09:12That will be the message coming from them.
00:09:14And if they had at the same time,
00:09:16as I say, these gents,
00:09:18and it might have been a different story.
00:09:19They actually looked really well matched
00:09:21in the early laps.
00:09:23They did, but when I asked Charles,
00:09:24he said, no, I don't think we would have had it.
00:09:28That's from Charles himself.
00:09:29So, I don't know.
00:09:30I'd like to think otherwise,
00:09:31because I think we had a really good battle on our hands.
00:09:33It was so nice to see that fight
00:09:35for the first few laps of the race.
00:09:37And they seemed very evenly paced.
00:09:38So, yeah, it's a shame that they didn't at least
00:09:40pit one of them, the virtual safety guy.
00:09:42At this point of the season,
00:09:43I think it's a good idea to split, right?
00:09:44Don't you think, Bernie?
00:09:45Yeah, I think it was definitely worth the risk
00:09:47when George arrives.
00:09:48I think I'm going to have to hold my answer for later.
00:09:52Here he comes.
00:09:53Here comes your race winner.
00:09:54And we are going to walk with him
00:09:56and say many, many congratulations, George.
00:10:00Shall I come this side?
00:10:01So, we'll sandwich you.
00:10:03We'll sandwich you.
00:10:04Come on, give us your emotions right now.
00:10:06No, I'm mega happy.
00:10:08It was kind of the race that we were expecting,
00:10:12like chaotic start, difficult to manage the battery,
00:10:16yo-yoing a bit with the overtakes.
00:10:19So, I don't know how it looked on TV, but it was...
00:10:22Well, it looked great on TV.
00:10:23It didn't look good on TV.
00:10:24All right, good.
00:10:25And, yeah, I just mean the closing speeds
00:10:27are so big with these new cars.
00:10:29But it was mega.
00:10:30What about that start, though, from the Ferrari, George?
00:10:32I was looking at my mirrors at Hajar.
00:10:34Yeah.
00:10:35And then I had him covered,
00:10:36and then he just came out of nowhere.
00:10:37So, yeah, fair play to him.
00:10:41And, yeah, I thought I had him at one point,
00:10:43passed him, he passed me.
00:10:45But, yeah, good rage.
00:10:47I didn't use my boost button here,
00:10:48and he got me.
00:10:50That was a mistake on my side.
00:10:52So, yeah, interesting one.
00:10:54Well, well done from all of us.
00:10:56Congratulations.
00:10:57First win of the season in the bag.
00:10:58Must have been pretty good.
00:10:59But given the qualifying we had yesterday,
00:11:02I didn't expect Ferrari to push you so close in the race.
00:11:05No.
00:11:05What was your opinion?
00:11:07The same, to be honest.
00:11:08I don't think we expected that.
00:11:09And I think it's like we said yesterday,
00:11:11I think we over...
00:11:12I don't think we overachieved.
00:11:13I think a lot of teams underperformed in qualifying,
00:11:16didn't probably adapt to the conditions well enough,
00:11:18and we just sort of nailed it.
00:11:20Today was more aligned to what we thought.
00:11:23Like, we maybe had a tenth or two pace advantage,
00:11:24but not the seven tenths that we saw yesterday.
00:11:27And just to give people at home a feel,
00:11:29like, we unfortunately lost Oscar Piastri,
00:11:32very early on that lobster grid.
00:11:35How tricky was it out there to learn these cars,
00:11:38to learn these regs,
00:11:39to get the best out of it as you were going?
00:11:41Because you've not done this before.
00:11:43Incredibly difficult.
00:11:44This circuit, along with probably Monza and Spa,
00:11:48are going to be the most challenging tracks of the year.
00:11:51I think next race in China,
00:11:52things will be much more straightforward for us to manage.
00:11:55So I think, obviously, in hindsight,
00:11:58maybe here wasn't the best place to start the season,
00:12:00even though Melbourne, in my eyes,
00:12:02is the best place to start the year.
00:12:05But, in turn, it created some decent racing.
00:12:07George, from the fans' perspective,
00:12:10I mean, obviously, we would like to see it be
00:12:12more than just an intrateam battle in Ferrari,
00:12:14as you say.
00:12:15I mean, how worried are you about this little turbo
00:12:17that they've got that seems to get them off the line?
00:12:20Well, yeah.
00:12:21Yeah, well, I think it was more of a sense of
00:12:23we all just had horrendous starts,
00:12:25and they had a sensible start.
00:12:28And, you know, Kimmy and I both rocked up on the grid,
00:12:31and we were at 0% on our battery.
00:12:34So that was really concerning,
00:12:35and probably contributed to our bad start.
00:12:39But, you know, these are all part of the learnings,
00:12:41and, as I said, I probably took more margin than I needed
00:12:44because I knew, well, I thought we had the pace
00:12:46just to cruise by and win the race.
00:12:49But Charles made it more challenging than I would have liked.
00:12:52Just quickly, George,
00:12:54to go to a more normal question for me, I guess.
00:12:56That one-stop strategy,
00:12:58we've had this George Russell strategy before,
00:13:01early stop under a safety car.
00:13:03I can make it to the end on these tyres.
00:13:05I know you don't believe me.
00:13:08How confident were you in that
00:13:10when you were doing that very early stop lap?
00:13:13I thought the tyre,
00:13:16it wouldn't drop until I got to, like, 0%.
00:13:20tyre wear, like, all the tyre rubber disappearing.
00:13:23So that's why the last couple of laps
00:13:25I was a bit concerned, I must say.
00:13:27But I just felt confident in the car,
00:13:29and I felt confident in the car,
00:13:33knew where to push, where to save.
00:13:36And, yeah, fortunately, it just brought it home.
00:13:38Also valuable to a team, isn't it?
00:13:40Yeah, I haven't seen Toto smiling so much
00:13:43for a good few years.
00:13:44I think that's good if his son won his first heat
00:13:46and go past it yesterday as well.
00:13:47So it's been a hell of a weekend for him.
00:13:50We're just going to follow you down there.
00:13:51After you, after you.
00:13:53I just want to know, from inside,
00:13:55there have been some grumblings
00:13:57from some of the drivers about, you know,
00:13:59the way that you've got to drive these cars.
00:14:01It's not 100% all the time,
00:14:02because you've got to manage
00:14:03the harvesting and the deployment.
00:14:05And Alex was saying,
00:14:07it just, like, exploded in his mind
00:14:08there's so much information.
00:14:09Have you changed your style?
00:14:12I mean, you have to, don't you?
00:14:13You have to, you have to.
00:14:15But the same way as last year
00:14:17when we had the paupers in,
00:14:18I had to change my driving style
00:14:19at high speed,
00:14:20otherwise the car would bounce off the track.
00:14:22You know, there's, you know,
00:14:24is it perfect right now?
00:14:26No.
00:14:26But it's race one
00:14:29of a long set of regulations,
00:14:32and it's probably the worst track for it.
00:14:36So I think we've just got to give it,
00:14:37give it some time
00:14:38before everyone's kicking off.
00:14:40And even though it wasn't maybe
00:14:42the most fun to drive,
00:14:43it actually made some pretty good drama on TV.
00:14:46So you can't have it all.
00:14:48Yeah.
00:14:49It looked fantastic on TV,
00:14:50but I just want to think,
00:14:51it's obviously too early to ask
00:14:53too many questions this season,
00:14:55but how confident are you
00:14:56for the rest of the season at this stage?
00:14:58That recedes looks unstoppable, isn't it?
00:14:59It's way too early to say,
00:15:00because right now we're obviously
00:15:02the team to beat.
00:15:02However,
00:15:04things change very quick,
00:15:06teams develop very quick,
00:15:07so I'm going to enjoy the moment.
00:15:08Thank you, George.
00:15:09Many, many congratulations.
00:15:11It was nice to get an extended talk
00:15:12with him, wasn't it?
00:15:13Right.
00:15:14Lewis Hamilton,
00:15:15not sure he's particularly happy
00:15:16about the strategic decisions
00:15:18taken today.
00:15:21Moved slow,
00:15:22and cool the car.
00:15:24Mega race,
00:15:26very solid.
00:15:27Second string towards super fast.
00:15:30Great effort, guys.
00:15:32Really great job.
00:15:34Really proud of all the work.
00:15:36Gracias, everyone.
00:15:37Back to the factory.
00:15:39Stop the result.
00:15:41Solid points.
00:15:42Team, let's keep pushing.
00:15:46hi Lewis is there a feeling of what if right now no good okay so you don't feel a missed
00:15:52opportunities not pitting under the BSC I don't I really don't know I have to go back and have a
00:15:58look but I'm generally really proud of the team I think we've done an amazing job to get the car
00:16:02to where where it is of course we're not as fast as Mercedes we've got work to do but we're
00:16:08right
00:16:08in the fight and it was a really really fun race and it felt good for me also you know
00:16:15a couple
00:16:15more laps I would have had child so I had great pace lots and lots of positives to take from
00:16:20today still smiling yes I think good yes yesterday after qualifying you remain positive did you know
00:16:30your performance wasn't what it was yesterday that you could show something better during the race
00:16:38today after the qualifying result you maintain your positivity yeah did you know that your real
00:16:46potential was what you show you have shown today all weekend I've been really really strong and
00:16:51qualifying really didn't didn't show the true pace I think we had a few problems through qualifying
00:16:56which meant that I was further back than I should have been and anyways went into today of course none
00:17:05of us really knew what the true pace was going to be but I felt great from the get-go
00:17:09and was
00:17:10obviously closing the gap right at the end to Charles a couple more laps that I think I would
00:17:14have had Charles so maybe one or two more laps so there's lots and lots of positives positives to
00:17:20take from it we've got a lot of work to do to to catch to catch Mercedes but it's not
00:17:25impossible so
00:17:25really to to a big gracias tutti to everyone back at the factory I'm really really proud of everybody for
00:17:32the
00:17:32work that we've got but we still got to keep pushing keep digging deep and I'm excited for I'll keep
00:17:37pushing into the next race it's just the sunrise of this new era new season so what sunrise what do
00:17:44you mean sunrise when the sun sunrise yes do you think that this gap with Mercedes is possible to
00:17:54close it that's what I said yeah I do believe we can close the gap I think we've got it's
00:17:59not going
00:17:59to be easy it's got a lot of work to do to close it because it's quite significant particularly on
00:18:02a
00:18:02single lap we need to find out whether it's power or it's battery power but the car is just as
00:18:08quick
00:18:08through the corner so we just gotta gotta keep keep pushing yes really good to see Lewis Hamilton looking
00:18:17much more comfortable in these cars Bernie than he was in the last iteration that last generation of
00:18:23F1 cars ground effects but a good day for Lewis let's get stuck into the race start first and all
00:18:28the all the racy stuff I can cover that then we'll get into the strategy and Bernie's gonna take over
00:18:34so here we go so this is what it'll be like from Lewis and one thing to look out for
00:18:37as well is Lando
00:18:38Norris to his right hand side everyone talking about oh the Ferrari's so good at the start and the
00:18:43Mercedes power unit struggling compared only based on what we see from George keep an eye
00:18:47on Lando here and the gap and this gap as well but just keep watching Lando equally good start
00:18:59that's Charles in front of him he gets boxed in of course does Lando from that so he was obviously
00:19:04much
00:19:04better off the line than Russell so it proves that it can be done the two Mercedes had a bad
00:19:10start
00:19:10Lewis tries to go around the outside gets overtaken by cars left right center uh because
00:19:14he's just ran out a bit wide there out of position Lando comes flying back past again Lindblad's
00:19:19involved as well Lewis really having to try and keep his nose clean here in this scenario later on in
00:19:25the lap we get to the fight with uh in front of the two people that overturned before with Hadjar
00:19:31and Lindblad and look at this the two were racing there we didn't see this on board before
00:19:36Hadjar's boxed in and that allows Lewis's lovely clean track to just switch back and get watch this
00:19:43on it they bang wheels I mean what could have happened to Lewis's left front there I'll just
00:19:48rewind that if we can um I mean just what what could have that his head's all over the place
00:19:55it's lucky
00:19:55that was wheel on wheel there to be honest yeah but with any other component it's quite vulnerable in
00:19:59that area so after that we had all the the George versus uh uh Leclerc moments so then it will
00:20:06calm
00:20:06down a bit until we get to the Hadjar retirement am I right there Bernie is that's the next thing
00:20:12that
00:20:12happened in we're talking now strategy okay right I'm on it so let's listen to the the retirement
00:20:24that's just sounds awful and that had been coming they'd been discussing the power unit on the radio
00:20:29for quite a long time so we saw the Mercedes at this point pitting uh we got their pit stops
00:20:36here
00:20:37the double stack so they reacted to that virtual safety car and so why would they double stack in
00:20:44this situation yeah so they obviously had in their model that they could either from this point I
00:20:49think do a one or two stop they could decide they stacked both cars on lap one despite George's really
00:20:54was actually really good at this point George comes on the radio and he says that's going to take a
00:20:58long
00:20:58time and what the pit wall what he's telling the pit wall is you have time to stop me and
00:21:03the VSC
00:21:04will still be out he's basically given the pit wall a very clear indication of how long he thinks the
00:21:09VSC will last it's safe to do a pit stop and that's why they thought it was safe to stack
00:21:13both cars
00:21:13so it's that teamwork says driver yes he knows that he's gone past the accident he knows where
00:21:19it is on track he knows the pit wall might not see that if we're not covering it on our
00:21:22screens
00:21:23so he's given them all the information he has and so this six seconds that Kimi lots to the set
00:21:28the
00:21:28driver to stop second always loses out to the car in for that stopped ahead so that six seconds
00:21:34gap that opened up between Kimi and George pretty much for the rest of the race happened right there yes
00:21:39yeah so some of it happens in that under the VSC you you're running to um a lap time profile
00:21:44he opens
00:21:45up the little gap just to make sure to give the crew a bit of margin to get both pit
00:21:49stops done so
00:21:49if I didn't respond then could they have responded here this is lined up in time sync so Bottas about
00:21:55to retire and Leclerc is there on track yeah so what you're sitting on the pit wall yeah done it
00:22:02many
00:22:02times before what would you do based on where is he's out of turn 10 yeah before we even start
00:22:07it
00:22:08as soon as someone's done a different strategy you're on your pit wall your question on the pit
00:22:12wall should be what happens if there is a safety car now how would we react that's the continuous
00:22:19question on the pit wall as soon as Mercedes have done a different strategy every lap you should be
00:22:23asking that we've got to move on so right Bottas is about to pull over the Claire coming down towards
00:22:29turn 11 time is ticking what do you do on this on the pit wall so the yellow flags are
00:22:34thrown 19
00:22:34seconds before Leclerc gets before the VSC comes out those 19 seconds I think you should be said if
00:22:41there's a VSC I come in box do I come in there's a VSC box do I come in box
00:22:45yeah he doesn't box he
00:22:48doesn't box that's how that's the time they had to box him yeah that's the talk would have been going
00:22:52on 19 seconds you need to have decided on the pit wall pre the accident when it happens you've got
00:22:5819
00:22:58seconds to tell your driver if the VSC is out you are boxing but would Ferrari know he wasn't going
00:23:04to continue he could have carried on you tell him if VSC is active you box and it's that's the
00:23:10decision
00:23:11because he stopped there he could have got going again they might have cleared the VSC so there was
00:23:16obviously more time for Hamilton as well so Hamilton was behind there's more time then to react as well
00:23:21there you go strategies has spoken back to you Simon yeah good combo you pair well done uh but an
00:23:30even bigger well done to Arvid Lindblad points on your debut how are you feeling right now I'm uh I'm
00:23:36pretty speechless to be honest it's uh it was a pretty nuts race coming into the weekend um points
00:23:41were not on the expectation um I had hopes after yesterday but yeah I'm extremely happy I'm extremely
00:23:49grateful to everyone from the team from RB PT and Ford for for giving me the package to fight but
00:23:54to
00:23:54be honest I think saying points on debut doesn't really summarize the race uh you know being p3 at
00:24:01one point on lap one was um was a lot more than I expected and I think it I showed
00:24:07people a bit of
00:24:08what I'm here to do I think also the fights that we yeah the fights that we saw out on
00:24:12track Max came
00:24:13up behind you and he's done a bit Max um but your defense was amazing and just seeing you two
00:24:18race
00:24:19together uh was pretty special yeah I mean in the end I've been working my whole life to get to
00:24:23Formula
00:24:24One and this weekend's been a very special moment for me and I have a lot of respect for the
00:24:30you know
00:24:30for the senior guys in the sport who've done an amazing job but I'm not also going to roll over
00:24:35and
00:24:35you know give them the place you know I'm here to fight I'm you know when I'm in the car
00:24:39I'm I'm I'm a
00:24:43inch that I can get and I think I showed that on lap one you know why don't you have
00:24:46a look at it
00:24:47do you want to have a have a quick look at your start here and you can talk us through
00:24:50because
00:24:50there are a few that came off the line quickly the Ferraris but look at yours
00:24:58he's he's I think we want you to talk about it yeah yeah he's speechless he's speechless yeah we're here
00:25:04yeah it's a bit bit loose there but here's there's Kimi yeah Lando I remember this now I was getting
00:25:09a bit
00:25:09excited at this point I was like oh my god and I don't know what happened to Charles I hear
00:25:14us
00:25:14thinking about going yeah yeah I didn't want to crash at this point I'm P4 and I'm just like oh
00:25:18my how is this even possible I'm P4 and then they pull away a little bit here but we had
00:25:26a bit of
00:25:26deployment left to turn nine that I knew about so I think here just waiting get a good exit
00:25:36is it and I start coming like a steam train now yeah I mean that's what we saw we saw
00:25:40a lot of
00:25:40George was talking about it yo-yoing so you get ahead and then someone's gonna come back at you
00:25:44because that's the way things were that was what was happening to me I mean I was so here I'm
00:25:49like a
00:25:49rocket but then I kept getting passed into turn turn one like I was standing still I couldn't even it
00:25:56wasn't even worth defending they were just driving past me so I think that's yeah that's that's what these
00:26:01new regulations are and it's something for for I and the teams to get to grips with you know there's
00:26:05no point complaining about it it is what it is um and it's it's something hey I'm side by side
00:26:10I
00:26:10think actually made a bit of contact me and that's you with Lewis Hamilton by the way you're battling
00:26:13it was pretty cool I mean yeah I fell in love with the sport watching Lewis on the TV he
00:26:19was a big
00:26:19reason why I wanted to be here today and him yeah and him too old Jensen was a little bit
00:26:24before my
00:26:24time I mean well I was two when Jensen was world champion so god that doesn't remember it was good
00:26:30wasn't it it was good yeah you did really well thank you thank you but um no I mean it
00:26:34was pretty nuts
00:26:35to to race with him and it was a lot of pinch me moments today yeah I mean eight you're
00:26:4018 yeah
00:26:41uh you you know how to race a racing car we see that it's amazing to watch but what is
00:26:47this world
00:26:47like the f1 world you've obviously been in f2 but this is something different altogether the pressures
00:26:52it brings it is very different and to be honest it's hard for me to really answer that now because
00:26:56I've only done a weekend I don't really know what what it's all like but I think it's an interesting
00:27:00point you make on on pressure because a lot of people told me and you know I've done one weekend
00:27:04I
00:27:05don't want to talk too much but coming into this weekend a lot of people said there's going to be
00:27:11a
00:27:11lot of pressure and all this and that in the end I'm here for myself I worked my whole life
00:27:15to get
00:27:16to formula one I don't have to do it for anyone I'm here for myself because when I was five
00:27:20years
00:27:20old I had a dream and my dream was to be in formula one and I was living my dream
00:27:24today and
00:27:24I just wanted to do as best as I possibly could you know and yeah for number one yourself yeah
00:27:30yeah
00:27:30you did extremely I can sense you're emotional but the thing is when you've had a performance like
00:27:34that not long till you get back in the cars again in China yeah sprint weekends yeah even more
00:27:39chaos well it's going to be exciting isn't it and I think that's what we love about formula one we
00:27:43like we like excitement we like challenges uh that's what I like so we've had a lot of fun
00:27:48this weekend we had a more normal format but uh China will be a sprint weekend we only have one
00:27:53practice before we're straight into more competitive running um so yeah let's see I think there's a lot
00:27:59of work for I and the team to go through tonight I think there's a lot of positive to take
00:28:02away
00:28:03there's also a lot of things for me to work on um so yeah let's see I can't wait for
00:28:08China from us all
00:28:08many many congratulations pinch yourself and then go and enjoy it thank you thank you very much uh
00:28:13good stuff amazing from Arvid Lindblad one of five frits by the way inside the top 10 every single
00:28:20British driver scoring points today the one who scored the most was George Russell winning the opening
00:28:25race of 2026 I'm sure you'll enjoy that one this evening as well
00:28:39Max Verstappen was your driver of the day today started right at the back of the grid with three
00:28:44starting from the pit lane Oscar Piastri not starting at all worked his way up to six very tight between
00:28:49him and Nano Norris at the end they both had a couple of pit stops but what will worry them
00:28:54is that they're
00:28:55almost a minute behind George Russell let's hear from the Dutchman this is what he said to say
00:29:03hi Max um we're having a VT put together of your overtakes today because you had some fantastic ones
00:29:08I know you wouldn't have wanted to start where you did but did you enjoy it
00:29:13no not really no it's no it's just no I mean yeah of course the overtakes were fun but I
00:29:21mean
00:29:21I'm also racing cars that are two seconds slower you know so for me it's it's just clearing the
00:29:26traffic sounds it sounds maybe weird but it's just how I see it it's not really a fair fight you
00:29:32know
00:29:32so I just tried to go through as clean as possible and try to get into the into my rhythm
00:29:37at one point
00:29:38when I cleared the midfield but we had too much tech we were just really graining a lot on the
00:29:44tires
00:29:45and then compromised a lot the rest of the race we thought with a with a hard compound that it
00:29:50would be better today for us but unfortunately that compound somehow yeah didn't work today
00:29:55Lando thinks your your car's definitely quicker than theirs at the moment um but he I mean where
00:30:01do you think it is in terms of the Ferrari and the Mercedes Mercedes look like they've got this edge
00:30:05over everyone at least around here could change track to track they will be quick everywhere
00:30:09do you think so yeah sure but uh with McLaren I don't know I mean in Bahrain it looked like
00:30:15they
00:30:15were faster it's very hard to say I think we just need to see track by track but I mean
00:30:20at the end of
00:30:21the day it also doesn't really matter if you're third fastest or fourth fastest um we are aiming for
00:30:26the top right so we just try to work to that uh steadily I hope of course throughout the season
00:30:31we
00:30:31can close that gap because at the moment it's it's still a decent gap all right thank you thanks
00:30:38well Max has he's not hidden his displeasure he he's not enjoying these cars to drive from the
00:30:44outside it was fun to watch obviously we've all agreed on that but you know I mean everyone's
00:30:49going to have their own opinion on it and he wants to go 100 flat out all the time he
00:30:52doesn't want to
00:30:52have to manage his energy does he Jensen yeah and he's also saying that it wasn't a fair fight with
00:30:56the cars he was racing a couple of seconds so but I mean F1's never a fair fight is it
00:31:00you know it's uh
00:31:01it is what it is but um I I think when he's racing at the front with cars that are
00:31:06around the same
00:31:07pace as him he's gonna have a lot more fun I think come Shanghai or his team will be knocking
00:31:11on
00:31:11Toto's door sorry it's quite early to do that at the moment but but at the same time we know
00:31:16that
00:31:16there is I mean it feels to me that he knows they've got work to do right um they they
00:31:20are behind
00:31:21but it looks like they're tight with McLaren yeah he's maybe a little bit upset let's say with how much
00:31:26work to do I guess maybe through tests and they thought that it might be so so detriment or such
00:31:32a deficit in pace let's say and I agree with Jensen that if he was in the leading car if
00:31:38he had just
00:31:38won he maybe been mightn't feel so negatively about it and we did see some good overtakes but there is
00:31:44a
00:31:44big field spread that always happens at the beginning of a new set of regulations and the other thing to
00:31:49say is it's been a long long time since in these cars you've pushed every lap of a reach you've
00:31:55always
00:31:55been managing fuel managing tires whatever that was the one by the way that was the one that you
00:32:00talked about that's nine no he just like he put his foot down and said you might have seen actually
00:32:06the
00:32:06main cover is just in the box but that was there was some breathtaking stuff but obviously a lot does
00:32:11depend on the state of your battery state of charge it does and you can see that by the difference
00:32:15in
00:32:15speed on some of the straights but yeah we said the same thing with DRS didn't we it wasn't proper
00:32:19racing but it made some great racing and I think this is made for some great racing as well um
00:32:24and
00:32:24it will continue when they you know they're still learning the drivers are still learning the the
00:32:28systems and the packs and how to use the boost and what have you so they're going to fine tune
00:32:32it and
00:32:33I think then the racing is a little bit tighter a little bit tougher yeah and I think all the
00:32:36drivers
00:32:36learned a lot out there as Jensen said how to get the most out of the cars how to overtake
00:32:40they'll be
00:32:41learning a lot about their competitors as well so you know he spent a lot of today just behind
00:32:46Lando Norris and the first thing that will happen when he goes into his debrief is he'll be talking
00:32:50about what he could see from Lando Norris's car what he could see from behind how it's taken certain
00:32:54corners where it's debriefing by how much but the management of something has been happening in
00:33:00racing for a very long time be it tires fuel whatever sometimes it's brake temperatures you know or
00:33:06cooling or whatever there's always something that requires an aspect of management and
00:33:12we've got the best drivers in the world that can hopefully get the most out of his teammate might
00:33:15think that uh Albert Park is cursed though remember didn't get to the start last year and was in tears
00:33:21on the formation lap he crashed today it was an engine issue and a retirement uh for Isakacho started
00:33:29in third let's uh let's uh let's hear from the Frenchman again talk to Rachel
00:33:37is that is like what problem have you had since uh you start these are difficult to understand it
00:33:42try to explain to us i think temperatures problem no battery
00:33:52uh and then the engine sound was terrible and i knew it was going to explode at some point uh
00:33:59so yeah
00:34:03it's a shame we i did everything perfect on the procedures everything up until the start and uh yeah
00:34:11that's it what do you save from this weekend
00:34:23i don't know let's see okay
00:34:30i just disappointed for him obviously he didn't have a a great start either and then the retirement but
00:34:36with regards to his opening weekend he could take an enormous amount of positives kind of out of it
00:34:40because he wasn't that far away from his teammate in the practice sessions and a great qualifying
00:34:45obviously what red ball have needed for a long time is a number two driver who can step up when
00:34:50max isn't there and had your did that in qualifying you know max went out very very early on had
00:34:55you
00:34:55just got it done got himself all the way to q3 got himself p3 on the grid and then that
00:35:00what happened
00:35:01i think throughout the entire race was related to the power unit i think from very very early on they
00:35:07were trying to manage something in that power unit and that may be affected the start as well so he
00:35:11can take a lot from it yeah exactly it's always disappointing when you don't finish the race and
00:35:14you're you're running pretty well inside the points but it's been a good weekend for him and there's a
00:35:19lot to take away for that team and uh it's going to be fun for us seeing the fight between
00:35:23him and max
00:35:24yeah it really is i mean no one's taking it to him for well possibly the history i mean daniel
00:35:27ricardo did
00:35:28but yeah that'd be great if we saw uh someone stepping up as bernie quite rightly pointed out it was
00:35:33a
00:35:33disappointing day for mclaren all round uh let's hear from lando norris and from oscar piastri of
00:35:38course uh didn't start crashing on the way to the grid hi lando how did that pan out in the
00:35:45end
00:35:46i know you finished fifth and the mercedes and ferrari are ahead which is maybe where you thought the
00:35:49pace was but how did it pan out um uh yeah i mean we we finished pretty where we deserve
00:35:58to i think
00:35:58it was really quite clear the red bull was a lot quicker uh just because max came from last and
00:36:03almost beat us so not the best race in terms of pace but um we struggled with some things on
00:36:09the
00:36:09car at the beginning we made some tweaks and that certainly improved things i saw we're nowhere near
00:36:15where we need to be clearly um but probably more so from a car perspective i think today showed a
00:36:20lot
00:36:20more from a car that uh we're a long way off like a very very long way off and um
00:36:24we have a lot of work
00:36:25to do with the team cautious did they change anything before the start because of what happened
00:36:29to oscar or were you running the same car okay um so work to do then by the time we've
00:36:35only got a
00:36:35week till we're in china again so it's going to take take some time i guess uh yeah this is
00:36:40nothing
00:36:40that's going to happen overnight or in one week or two weeks time um i mean i don't know what
00:36:46the gap
00:36:46gap was 50 almost a second lap off so not quite like that um but you say at least five
00:36:52tenths
00:36:52six tenths lap off and then um some of that is still understanding the pu uh some of it's just
00:36:58a better car i think you know ferrari from from what we see quite clearly have the best car um
00:37:04the
00:37:04cornering speeds are unbelievable um so for us to match that is uh zero chance at the minute and we
00:37:11have to work very hard to to understand things and and learn as much as we can from this this
00:37:15part of
00:37:16the season because this season this part of the season now sets up the rest of it basically so the
00:37:21more we can learn the more we can understand um the better we'll be at the end of the season
00:37:27but uh yeah it's looking like it's going to be a long long one a tough one um but i
00:37:32was happy with p5
00:37:32today thank you oscar sorry to see you standing here can you tell us what was going on in the
00:37:39car
00:37:39and what you felt um yeah we we had a bit of a an issue out of the pits um
00:37:47with with no battery
00:37:50basically and um then yeah with the actual crash there was a combination of a couple of things you
00:37:59know i think it's a large element of just me um you know cold tires with the exit curb but
00:38:09i also had
00:38:09100 kilowatts more power than i expected um so you put all of those together and unfortunately it
00:38:18ends in the result we got but um yeah it's obviously just disappointing and a scenario that that shouldn't
00:38:24be happening we're hearing a lot about torque spike and this extra power you get can you just
00:38:28explain that for us and for the people watching into what you're dealing with this year
00:38:35um i i mean in mine specifically you know there's there's a lot of rules about how the power units
00:38:41have to work and essentially i was at less throttle than what i was in qualifying and the way the
00:38:50rules
00:38:50kind of stipulate how the torque demand has to work i actually got 100 kilowatts more power than if i
00:38:57would have been at full throttle so um it's it's yeah something to get used to yes thanks thank you
00:39:11i can only imagine what it feels like to be oscar piastro in your home race and uh and not
00:39:15even make
00:39:16the start and um like you said you know some battery issues the car didn't do what he was expecting
00:39:21but
00:39:21i've been my i've been there myself a few times as a driver and you you really kick yourself even
00:39:26though
00:39:26the car's not doing what you expect it to ultimately you're the one with the controls and the one
00:39:32controlling it so yeah it's it's a day to forget for for oscar but also it's a great learning experience
00:39:39for the whole team and for all of the drivers as well actually that they all know that this could
00:39:43have
00:39:44been them uh so we can pick him up actually on the way out of the pits he said it
00:39:48didn't feel right
00:39:48you can hear it doesn't sound right listen to that very clunky upshifts
00:39:55and downshift as well he's clearly on cold tires early upshift into fourth on the exit of turn two
00:40:02and now he's got no power he's just sitting there with nothing happening his foot to the floor
00:40:08probably he's on the radio to the team saying something doesn't feel right so he limps around
00:40:14turn three comes through turn four and then suddenly he gets almost full beans with an upshift over the
00:40:20curb and he was not expecting the power to be there and in these kind of moments as a driver
00:40:27you
00:40:27you you when you're unsure of what the equipment's going to do you you have to you you have to
00:40:32kind
00:40:32of drive well within the car um it's kind of like driving in the snow that's the best uh analogy
00:40:39i can
00:40:39come up with for any driver that's driven in snowy conditions you have to take more margin um because
00:40:45you're in an unsure kind of uncharted territory so that was his day over so unfortunate we can look
00:40:50at norris's start we mentioned it before with bernie that it was actually a good one revs high
00:40:59and as the lights go out his initial launch was really good the reaction was good that ferrari of
00:41:04leclerc in front of him following him and he's got the ferrari of hamilton on the left-hand side as
00:41:09he's boxed in he's on and off the throttle had jar on the right hand side lewis goes wide gets
00:41:14boxed
00:41:15in again and then he's full throttle thinks about going to the outside does but then linblad on his
00:41:22boost button probably flies around the outside in free air and overtakes him and then he can't get
00:41:28past lewis so that was the start of uh of lando's race so it's you can see how these drivers
00:41:33using uh
00:41:34tactically their their boost button uh in those kind of moments and linblad won one out from that
00:41:40so well done to him uh then you've got the fight with norris and bearman on lap 38
00:41:47and that's out of the uh yeah look i mean already you can hear the revs go up very quickly
00:41:52here
00:41:52before turn three and uh yeah that was a nice pass actually for lando there and then norris versus
00:42:00linblad on lap 39 free turn 12 he goes and now for the drivers now you're looking at the rain
00:42:08light
00:42:08flashes because that stipulates the the uh the super clip that's coming it makes you realize that the
00:42:14car in front is starting to harvest energy so you're watching that he's like right he's not so i'm on
00:42:19the
00:42:19boost button there and uh with a better car under him and better tires at that stage in the race
00:42:24as well
00:42:25that was another fairly easy pass for lando and he and he maintained that track position uh in that moment
00:42:30so it looked to me like lando suffered with a lot of tire graining uh the first uh two sets
00:42:36of tires
00:42:37that went on his car really having to nurse that and the performance wasn't there but on the final
00:42:41stint of the race with verstappen behind him it looked like they were all starting to learn more and
00:42:46more and the tires looked in better shape as well on the mclaren so uh yeah a different story to
00:42:50where
00:42:51they were last year obviously but if one team's going to improve rapidly it's going to be these
00:42:56guys so keep an eye on them in future races very soon thanks and yeah but back down to earth
00:43:02with a
00:43:02bit of a bang today wasn't it philando norris it was a world champion he knows they've got a lot
00:43:06of
00:43:06work to do yeah there's a lot of work 50 seconds is uh is a big margin as he said
00:43:10almost a second a lap
00:43:11uh it's uh it's painful and uh i'm sure they can tweak things here and there with this car to
00:43:17make it
00:43:17a little bit quicker but it's upgrades that they needed really to take it any any closer to mercedes
00:43:21they've done it before i'm sure they can do it again 125 overtakes by the way today and they're
00:43:25only 45 last year so if you like overtaking then then maybe this is the formula for you very much
00:43:33so
00:43:33yeah i know but this is amazing isn't it the kind of difference between what a lot of drivers are
00:43:40saying
00:43:40and what we're seeing on on tv yeah we've only seen one race and this race may or may not
00:43:45be an
00:43:45example of what we're going to see for the rest of the year but you know i went into barbie
00:43:49and and
00:43:49watching the cars on track there they look way better than i thought they were going to do the
00:43:54way they were fit to push through some of the corners we came here qualifying was exciting today
00:43:59was exciting with lots of overtakes still lots of strategy and decisions going on lots of different
00:44:04tires being used at different points so it seemed a good little bit of everything if if the cars were
00:44:09nice to drive we wouldn't get anyone making mistakes we wouldn't have any complications and the race
00:44:14would be boring because the quickest car would win and the slowest car would finish last now it's it's
00:44:19complicated it's complex this car to understand and to get the best out of it we see more overtaking
00:44:24maneuvers so i'm happy about it yeah need to be as clever as bernie if you're to understand uh how
00:44:30to
00:44:30drive these cars uh we're taking a short break uh but welcome to mercedes uh a one two for them
00:44:36uh and the smiles are very much back on the team from brackley and bricksworth and for the fans as
00:44:43well
00:44:43that's what toto thinks about it more in a couple of moments time
00:44:54ready to check ready to check yeah learnings clear yep
00:45:02oscar are you okay yeah
00:45:08especially yeah we learn a lot it's lights out away we go oh wow that wasn't the start we've seen
00:45:16before but it was from isaac hadjar george russell under pressure charl leclerc coming to join him in the
00:45:21first corner charl leclerc leads the grand prix from george russell lewis happens on the grass
00:45:28man what's going on i will see how we're going to finish this race mate
00:45:33it's uh it's chaos here comes charl leclerc for the lead of the race that was very dangerous by leclerc
00:45:40because that's what we spoke about every clip a lot of smoke coming from the rear of that red ball
00:45:45come on
00:45:47it is like a murder in marioca
00:45:53george russell retakes the lead
00:45:56debris on the right hand side going into turn nine okay i think the one stop is viable
00:46:03and verstappen is pushing hard he knows now is his best chance on me
00:46:08wait i'll go to the end you have overtake so does verstappen
00:46:13the staff told to lift it to three and six people shoot you know that no
00:46:18george russell wins the australian grand prix
00:46:24very nice very nice i like this car i like this engine
00:46:29new boy nice work there kimmy great recovery
00:46:39perfect start for mercedes george russell claiming his sixth career race victory leads the world
00:46:44championship for the first time kimmy antonelli though pushed him close and a good recovery drive
00:46:48for him to stay within three seconds of his teammate chaleclerc and lewis hamilton will probably be
00:46:53questioning why they didn't pick the same time got a little bit unlucky as well but a bit of a
00:46:57questionable strategic call there uh for lando norris well uh he finishes uh it's his fifth consecutive
00:47:04top six finish in melbourne verstappen in p6 ends his 10 race podium streak which was the second
00:47:10longest of his f1 career but a great drive and driver for the day all five brits in the points
00:47:16including ollie behrman who finished in seventh on the 10th anniversary of their debut and so too
00:47:22armin limblad on debut the 70th drive to score points on debut portoletto and pia gasly making
00:47:28up the rest of the points you see big gaps between the front two and everybody but probably not as
00:47:34big
00:47:34a gap as there was uh to lance stroll 15 laps back he finished and at one stage fan alonso
00:47:39was 12
00:47:40laps behind as well because they stopped well he did and then started again oscar piastro niko
00:47:45hulkenberg didn't start 16 of the 22 drivers finished the race though for what it's worth this
00:47:52is the top of the drivers the top 10 anyway and obviously those points just in the order that the
00:47:57top 10 finished so george leading the way in the constructors mercedes uh leading the way and again
00:48:04because they finished one two uh they're 16 clear of ferrari aston martin though rooted to the bottom
00:48:10they have an inordinate amount of work to do neither finished as expected let's hear from them both
00:48:16starting with lance stroll
00:48:19lance there must have been points this weekend where you wouldn't have thought you've been able
00:48:22to do that many laps today so has it been a good afternoon when you actually consider everything
00:48:27no it hasn't been a good afternoon i mean we've finished like 15 laps down um problems all weekend and
00:48:35even today in the race so uh not good but uh at least we got to do some laps what
00:48:42were the vibrations
00:48:43like because you both came in and had a bit of a rest while they changed some things on the
00:48:46car and
00:48:47went back out again how are you yeah we still have problems with the vibrations so yeah i'm fine
00:48:52physically i mean uh yeah i can drive the car it's just not good for the engine and stuff like
00:48:59that all
00:48:59right thank you lance thanks fernando how are you first of all i'm good i'm here good you're here and
00:49:07you managed to do quite a lot of laps today in the end so can the team take any positives
00:49:12from that
00:49:12considering where you thought you were at points this weekend uh we have to i mean there is no other
00:49:17way uh we need to take the positives and we need to move forward um yeah i think everyone is
00:49:22determined
00:49:23to change the situation and uh working really hard and i think uh probably from the situation we had
00:49:29in bahrain or thursday here we are in a in a better position now we tested a few things we
00:49:34discovered
00:49:35a little bit the window on the car and the chassis more than we we did in bahrain thanks to
00:49:40the labs we
00:49:40did in the free practice and today with both cars we managed to do the formation lab start p-stops
00:49:45all
00:49:45these kind of things probably sound normal for everyone we were never at 7 p.m in bahrain on track
00:49:52so we
00:49:53never practiced any of the formation or start procedures so i think it was good data
00:49:58uh and we will be more prepared into china for sure do you think you'll be able to do the
00:50:03whole
00:50:03race in china or is that too much i think that will be optimistic but uh i think we can
00:50:09try at least
00:50:10um obviously we are still short on parts uh into china it's only next week but for bahrain apparently
00:50:17there will come more batteries and more stocks so china we can take more risk on sunday thank you thanks
00:50:25um smiling through gritted teeth but being the genius that fernando alonso is at one stage he
00:50:29wrestled it in the opening lap to 10th yeah it was so fernando alonso yeah it was impressive he went
00:50:36back a little bit yeah every lap but uh it was impressive it's a good start well i mean they've
00:50:40got to be they are where they are as you said they've got to be pragmatic now don't they i
00:50:43mean
00:50:43you know we could stand here being critical but that's not what they want to hear they've got to take
00:50:49the steps in the right direction it's your old team uh you know them well what will they do well
00:50:54i think they got on with it today that's the first thing they got both cars to the grid and
00:50:58they got
00:50:59them out running you know lance actually did quite a long run into the race if anything probably the
00:51:03longest consecutive laps that they have done all winter season so far and then they brought both cars
00:51:08into the into the pits made some changes and got them back out again which you know isn't racing
00:51:14racing but it is learning they're made made the changes got some laps on those cars which they've
00:51:20not had in winter tests and they've not had three baryen and they've not had through fp2 so at least
00:51:25they are beginning to learn about these cars and that's very important they need to keep that up
00:51:30we're talking to amanda newey i can't remember the name she said for it but it's the same problem that
00:51:35you get if you're operating a pneumatic drill and you can imagine it right they still not got to the
00:51:39bottom of what the vibration is but if you're holding on to a steering wheel that's going like that for
00:51:4325
00:51:43laps it's going to hurt your hands i think a pneumatic drill is probably a little bit harder
00:51:47i think so but i mean i for me it's yeah they did everything that they set out to do
00:51:52really in the
00:51:52race you know it was to gain information and they went about it in the right way so yeah there's
00:51:57still
00:51:57a long way to go before they finish a race and are competitive but um today was a big day
00:52:02for them i
00:52:02think big year for ollie bearman he was really encouraging uh last year in his debut season obviously
00:52:09he wants to stay very much on ferrari's radar and he's had the perfect start really uh elevating his
00:52:14house to seventh let's hear from him
00:52:19ollie as you swap places with arvid you had some pretty big battles on track as well today you two
00:52:23yeah we're going for that guy was uh was doing an excellent job um and really really tough to
00:52:29overtake i think um you know one thing we've seen over the weekend is that that that uh car and
00:52:34also the
00:52:34red bull they have what feels like a bigger battery than the rest of us and to overtake is incredibly
00:52:40challenging um yeah it was a shame i really felt like i had a lot more pace than him at
00:52:45the start
00:52:46but he did a great job defending and i was trying to overtake and when you don't have a take
00:52:50you have
00:52:50to spend like five laps for charging and it's a bit of a nightmare um finally i managed to um
00:52:57after he did
00:52:58a small mistake but really without that small mistake i don't think i would have passed him just because
00:53:02of how strong they were in terms of efficiency on on battery so um yeah i was was happy with
00:53:08the
00:53:08race once i got ahead i then could kind of find my rhythm a bit better but definitely my ties
00:53:13were
00:53:13a bit damaged after after pushing that hard to overtake him um but arvid did a great job on his
00:53:18first weekend and i was uh happy to fight with him the last time we raced on check together was
00:53:22in
00:53:22cadets when we were like 10 years old so it's funny great um we've only got a week and i
00:53:26know china's
00:53:27a different circuit what would you like the team to find some answers to between now and then from what
00:53:31you experienced today um i think it's quite a specific track this one you know combats china
00:53:36we don't expect to really suffer the same issues or difficulties on on energy and deployment and
00:53:41all of these things um but there's been a lot of things we've learned today regardless and like i've
00:53:47been saying really this whole weekend this is kind of the worst case scenario because it's the the most
00:53:52demanding on on the nguk and the most demanding on recovery and energy so um you know when we get
00:53:58to
00:53:59when we get to china i expect to have an easier time of it anyway um but still all of
00:54:04the learnings
00:54:04that we will have taken this weekend uh need to be digested well and then put into practice next week
00:54:13yeah great racing up and down the field and beerman was definitely one of those drivers getting stuck
00:54:17in uh with the rookie arvid linblad so let's have a look at that moment he was describing through the
00:54:23final corner they go with the racing balls driver in front in the dirty air is beerman he he seizes
00:54:30an
00:54:31opportunity here and is clearly on that boost button you can see on the rear view the attack comes
00:54:37linblad's way and normally you'd say that beerman's got it done there and uh is going to disappear off
00:54:44into the distance but linblad has got other ideas here he comes back down on the outside towards turn
00:54:50three beerman goes a little bit wide deep on the brakes and now surely you're thinking
00:54:57i must have the job done uh because linblad obviously used his in retaliation uh down towards
00:55:03three and you're now desperate to try and get your battery back up because you've both been abusing
00:55:09your battery state of charge up to this point in the lap now linblad is in the slipstream they're both
00:55:15in the straight mode activation point and watch this on the right hand side linblad tries to go
00:55:22around the outside beerman's looking to the right and it's just not enough to get back past and now
00:55:27that understeer really kicking in on the racing ball so great racing up and down the field like i say
00:55:32and what we're learning is these overtaking moves don't they don't finally play out until way later on in
00:55:40the lap like it did there so the driver's really having to think on their feet it's a very different
00:55:45way of racing i must say um some will like it some won't i personally i really like it because
00:55:51it kind
00:55:52of tests the intelligence of the drivers as well at the same times i'm having to fight a 200 mile
00:55:57an
00:55:57hour racing car around the track so it just opens up this kind of opportunity for overtaking and dicing with
00:56:04with your competitors um this circuit because it's so energy limited is one of the circuits that's
00:56:11going to it's going to be like you've got more opportunities on a track like this than where we
00:56:15will be next week in china just to bear that in mind so it might be a bit more kind
00:56:19of traditional
00:56:19racing in china than what we we have here but um yeah so far this uh this circuit proved to
00:56:26have more
00:56:26overtaking more overtaking uh opportunities than it did last year at least ah hello oh yeah yeah hey
00:56:36i'm big yeah okay okay message me colopinto start i'm being told okay right let's do that then let's do
00:56:42that so here we go yeah right watch this so i'm just going to play at full speed and see
00:56:47how you react
00:56:48at home or wherever you're watching because i almost fell over wow i mean really it's like
00:57:02he's got cat-like reactions here i mean if i now play in slow motion watch what he does on
00:57:08the wheel
00:57:09how on earth does he avoid the rear wheel and the wall is beyond me it's amazing i could watch
00:57:15that
00:57:15a thousand times over i'll never get over that how there wasn't the crash there i mean we all
00:57:21expected some poor getaways but well he was completely blinded by what happened there with
00:57:26poor old liam lawson we can ride on board with now i mean i haven't actually seen this clip so
00:57:31let's
00:57:31have a listen to this
00:57:41oh dear so he was actually moving eyes everywhere he's looking in the left and right mirrors but
00:57:47i mean martin brundle called it at the start of the race that that's the most fearful time for a
00:57:52driver
00:57:52is knowing that your car may not get off the line and you could be just a standstill and a
00:57:58roadblock
00:57:58for other cars thundering up behind you so really glad we didn't see and many thanks to colopinto's
00:58:04reactions like i say that we didn't see a a huge crash there at the start so very lucky drivers
00:58:11and
00:58:12yeah a lot of it was down to skill as well finally back to you yeah yeah uh that is
00:58:18unreal i mean when
00:58:19you look at that there as you said cat like there's a serious point let's have another look at it
00:58:23get
00:58:23your reaction to it as you said you can watch this a thousand times it's incredible yeah the amazing
00:58:28thing is you don't see it until he's on top of the car how does he slow it down so
00:58:33much i mean from a
00:58:34driver's point of view i i don't know how that just happened there's a serious point here though in that
00:58:40we did expect there to be a variety of different getaways this year and and it could be a problem
00:58:48i would
00:58:49don't know what's to see anything nasty but the the speed differential there is it sounded like
00:58:54he lifted yeah yeah before the start didn't it lawson i think he sort of bogged out a little bit
00:58:59but it sounded like he lifted and then went back on okay it was it was strange but um obviously
00:59:03then
00:59:03you don't spool up the turbo yeah um but um that was proper scary hopefully that's the last time we
00:59:08see
00:59:08that but yeah it can happen okay um let's finish with conclusions from this weekend and looking ahead to
00:59:14to china please bernie well much tighter in racing between mercedes and ferrari than i ever expected
00:59:20so hopefully they can carry that forward to china it's going to be there's going to be a lot to
00:59:24learn
00:59:24for sprint weekend yesterday we were thinking oh mercedes are down the road here but it you know the
00:59:29race pace looked similar at least here we don't know until we get to china but um that that was
00:59:34one of
00:59:35the encouraging things right it was we had a good fight at the front uh which uh which has hampered
00:59:39a
00:59:39little bit by the virtual safety car but i think we have four cars there that can can win a
00:59:42race in uh in
00:59:43china uh and then we got the likes of max who did a great job fighting through from the back
00:59:47linblad amazing job and bearman probably the driver of the day for me uh and audi got points yeah they
00:59:53did yeah we didn't discuss that but well done to audi uh we enjoyed it i hope you did at
00:59:58home this new set
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