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00:26ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА
00:52Well, that's it.
00:54The chase is in motion.
00:56Chapter 1 of 2026 filed away.
01:00But here's the thing about the great ones.
01:02The stories people remember.
01:04You don't size them up off the first page.
01:07You let it breathe.
01:09F-Zero battery.
01:10You cannot do this.
01:11We need to afford it.
01:12It's not charging.
01:13I don't know.
01:14Keep pushing.
01:15I don't know.
01:16No.
01:17It's chaos.
01:18You know, it's clean.
01:20Dancing around the outside.
01:22Charlotte Clare.
01:22Four swaps of these we had.
01:24This is the way we wanted it to be.
01:27There is plenty to come.
01:29So next stop, Shanghai, China.
01:33Big city, tall shadows.
01:36The kind of place that doesn't hand you opportunity.
01:39It tests whether you can take it.
01:44Round two.
01:45And we're in Shanghai for our first sprint weekend of the new campaign.
01:49A campaign to which Mercedes have had the perfect start.
01:53A one-two in Melbourne.
01:54An extremely strong car to enter the new set of regulations.
01:57But the Shanghai International Circuit is an entirely different prospect in terms of the all-important energy requirements.
02:05Will it shake things up?
02:06One session to get your car set up right.
02:08Half an hour away from opening practice.
02:14Yes, good morning, everybody.
02:17Welcome to Shanghai.
02:18Round two.
02:19The sun is shining.
02:20But it's been a chilly start to the day and temperatures not expected really to get anywhere into the mid
02:27-teens.
02:27Delighted to say, joining me, I have fresh faces after Australia.
02:32Jamie Chadwick, three times W Series winner, is here in the 1997 World Champion, Jacques Villeneuve, too.
02:38First things first.
02:39Okay, Mercedes won two, but I need to get your view, Jacques, on the new rules and regulations.
02:46What is your take?
02:48Depends who you ask.
02:50You ask the purist, you know, the racer, or did we see a good show?
02:55We had an amazing race.
02:56And at the end of the day, that's what we want to see.
02:59You still see the drivers with the best skill set for, according to the rule set, which is how do
03:05they think about the race.
03:07How do they adapt to the energy?
03:09And that was a lot of fun to see.
03:10So, at the end of the day, you saw Leclerc was amazing at it because he was ahead of Russell
03:16and he should never have been.
03:17So, he really figured it out on the spot.
03:20That was great.
03:20And then Russell, as the race was progressing, adapted to it.
03:23So, I'm not sure this will carry on like this for many races because they'll all start figuring it out.
03:28But we saw great skill sets.
03:29I do want to come back to you on this one, though.
03:31I mean, you were never a great fan of DRS.
03:33And a lot of the drivers claiming that it's kind of artificial.
03:36So, I'm saying a little bit like Scale Electric.
03:38So, I'm just playing devil's advocate here because, as you said, it depends on the viewpoint.
03:43But it's a constant where DRS wasn't.
03:45DRS was you're behind someone, you get extra advantage.
03:49That's wrong.
03:49It's like video gaming.
03:50Now, they have the deployment whenever they want.
03:53They have to figure it out, how to best use it and catch the other drivers out.
03:57And that makes it fun.
03:58And, Jamie, Shanghai completely different, as we were saying.
04:00I mean, you're going to get the regen here.
04:02There's going to be more energy available, if you look at it like that, compared to Australia.
04:06I think that's the reality.
04:07So much was made of the new regulations and you go somewhere like Australia and it's,
04:10I don't want to say worst-case scenario, but I think if you look at the energy deployment
04:14and the way that it is across the lap, it's the kind of most extreme scenario.
04:18Whereas here's going to be the opposite.
04:19I think that's going to lend itself to a bit more exciting opportunities in the racing.
04:23And I think also the teams are going to get on top of it.
04:25And what we want to see is close racing action.
04:27If you're Mercedes right now, you're pretty happy about it.
04:29If you're Ferrari, you're maybe feeling a bit on the fence.
04:31You want to get a bit more.
04:33And I think that's potentially what we're going to see this weekend.
04:35Come here, though.
04:36It's a sprint weekend.
04:37Lewis Hamilton, we all know what happened last year.
04:38This was his absolute high in winning the sprint.
04:42Yeah, he was on a high.
04:43And it seems that when Lewis is on a high, he drives well.
04:45When he's not, it goes downhill.
04:47And he seemed to be quite pumped up last weekend.
04:51The end of the race was faster than Leclerc on lower fuel, getting closer and closer.
04:55And he comes here knowing, oh, I won last year's sprint race.
04:58This is going to be good.
05:00I think this sort of strategic element suits Lewis.
05:02And as well, the lighter, smaller cars for Lewis, it seems to sort of adapt well.
05:06His driving style seems to have adapted well to it already.
05:09He's got a one-lap master in Charles.
05:11But in the race, he was right there.
05:12And if they didn't make that strategy blunder, it would have been interesting to see if he
05:16could have done something about those Mercedes last weekend.
05:18Yeah.
05:19We shall find out whether they can do anything different this weekend.
05:21But first of all, let's get the views from both the Ferrari and Mercedes caps.
05:26Now, I do think we've got the quickest car at the moment.
05:29And I think the power unit's really good.
05:32But we've got to keep on improving.
05:34I was positively surprised by actually the battles that I've had with George.
05:39And I had quite a lot of, I enjoyed quite a lot this battle more than I had thought before
05:46the race.
05:47The cons, I think, are known.
05:49And it's no point for me to go over and over.
05:52But for sure, in qualifying, it's less enjoyable.
05:55You have got more clipping.
05:56And it's just a bit of a different feeling.
05:59But the racing, I kind of enjoyed that strategic approach that you had to think of when I was
06:09racing against George.
06:10After FP3, of course, the team did an incredible job.
06:13And I think they saved the weekend.
06:14They definitely saved the weekend by putting the car back together.
06:17And despite not being able to set it up or anything, the car was still very quick.
06:23And, you know, I was able to drive it without any issue.
06:29And, you know, it gave me a lot of confidence as well during the race.
06:34And, yeah, it was the best way to start the season, of course.
06:38We need to keep our head down because Ferrari in the race was much closer than where they
06:45were in qualifying.
06:46So, yeah, just need to keep our head down and keep pushing.
06:49We knew that Mercedes was looking very strong.
06:51And little did we know it was as big a gap that we saw.
06:57But not an impossible gap to close.
07:00Just going to take all hands on deck.
07:02And that I'm confident in my team doing absolutely everything back at the factory to try and close
07:07that gap.
07:09Okay, quick look after round one for what it's worth.
07:13The drivers have constructed at least the top ten.
07:15This is how they finished, obviously, in Melbourne with a one-two.
07:1883rd one-two for Mercedes in their history.
07:21Russell leads the way from his teammate Kimi Antonelli.
07:24Then Charles Leclerc, followed by Lewis Hamilton.
07:27Lando Norris and Max Verstappen almost a minute behind.
07:30Yes, they had an extra pit stop.
07:32But they've got a lot of work to do.
07:33They know that.
07:34It was actually five Brits inside the top eight, including Oli Behrman and Arvid Lindblad,
07:39becoming the 70th driver to score on debut.
07:41Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi, again on debut points for them.
07:45And Pierre Gasly picking up the final point.
07:50Constructors, Mercedes lead the way by 16 for Ferrari.
07:53Only one McLaren driver finishing.
07:55In fact, one starting because Oscar Piastri crashing on the formation lap.
07:58Same for Red Bull with Isakad Jars engine going on lap 11.
08:03Haas, the best of the rest.
08:05Right, on the subject of Ferrari.
08:07Looks like we might see their fancy new wing for the first time.
08:11Here's Ted and Bernie to explain.
08:16Yes, thank you very much, Simon, and welcome to Ferrari's Formula One Ideas Factory.
08:20And to the rear wing, they're calling the Macarena wing.
08:23Too long a story to explain why, but Ferrari are already trolling us, Bernie.
08:30I think they're trolling Red Bull next door.
08:33They're really getting their hopes up on it.
08:34Okay, it's the rear wing.
08:36It's the rotational rear wing.
08:37Explain to us how it works and what benefit it gives them.
08:40Lee, come around the other side and we'll have a look.
08:42Because they replaced the central actuator, which puts up the rear wing flap,
08:48by these two actuators, which are covered by this carbon fibre either side,
08:53and flips the rear wing right over.
08:55Yeah, so that's the easiest way to identify it, is it doesn't have that actuator.
08:58And then, obviously, it's got this very distinctive movement on the straight,
09:02where the entire wing flips 180 degrees over.
09:05Now, they reckon that's going to gain them around 5 kph end of straight.
09:09So, it's actually significant gain at the end of straight,
09:12compared to the normal sort of DRS type wing.
09:15Okay, so it's just purely a low drag solution.
09:21Why are they running it here and they didn't run it in Australia?
09:24So, I think the wing itself, the base wing, is a bit higher downforce than what they had in Australia.
09:30And then, it drops more of that downforce on the straight.
09:34So, it's more of a balance here.
09:36Like, it's better in corners and then better on the straights as well.
09:39Okay, when it closes, it actually presents quite a bluff front, quite a big front to the air.
09:46Does that do anything? Does it slow it down more?
09:48Is there any drawback in that area?
09:50I think it'll temporarily have more drag at that point when they're getting towards the braking zone.
09:56But there is a time limit in the regulation as to how quickly it closes.
10:00So, as long as they comply with that, it's okay.
10:02I don't think there's any advantage to how slowly that closes.
10:06But maybe a slight disadvantage in braking.
10:09All right, and it's completely legal.
10:10There's nothing in the regulations which says how you should open your active area rear wing.
10:15Yeah, it's completely legal.
10:16They tested it during the Borean test, as we know.
10:19There's a few question marks over the reliability of it.
10:22That's why some other teams, I believe, haven't gone down the route.
10:25They're going to test it this morning in P1.
10:28And then, they're going to hopefully keep it on the car for the rest of the weekend.
10:31Okay, thank you very much, Bernie.
10:32And the other thing we spotted is this little white plastic extra winglet that's been added to the halo.
10:38Gives a little bit more downforce.
10:40Can't imagine it's that much.
10:41But it's going to clear some airflow over the blockage that is the halo and cleanly to the back.
10:46So, Simon, just another one in Ferrari's ideas factory.
10:51Indeed, very clever.
10:53No guarantee they're going to run it over the weekend.
10:54But we understand that they may give it a go.
10:58Another innovation is obviously the small turbo.
11:00We saw what an advantage that was off the line, Jamie, last weekend.
11:04However, with it comes a lot of problems.
11:07We knew there were going to be big differentials when it came to starting speeds.
11:12Speeds off the line.
11:12And we saw that particularly with Colopinto and with Lawson.
11:18The others want changes to it.
11:19Ferrari don't.
11:20They've got an advantage.
11:21Can you understand why?
11:22It's always the way, isn't it?
11:23Whoever's got a good start or whatever wants it to be the same.
11:26I think the small turbo is working well for them at the start.
11:28That was something that they brought to the table.
11:30We saw it in Bahrain when they did the practice starts in testing.
11:35However, the difference in Australia was that there were certain drivers or teams turning up on the grid with zero
11:41battery,
11:42unable to get sort of really even away much of a launch.
11:46And I think that's the bit that the teams will be scratching their heads to find out what is it
11:49that they can do with the current rules
11:51and allow them to get on top of it, which is where I think they're asking for some slight differences
11:56in what they do on the formation lap.
11:57There's also the fact that the lights went out so quickly, and that also caught a few drivers out just
12:02in terms of bad starts.
12:03But the incident we saw with Colopinto, that's like the worst-case scenario.
12:06We can't have drivers stalling on the grid, not because of anything they've done on their formation lap,
12:10but just because the system's saying no.
12:12You know, good on Ferrari.
12:14They found a tree.
12:16There's nothing illegal.
12:17Anybody else could have made a small turbo.
12:19So you should not change the rule that would then suddenly penalize what they've discovered
12:24because they might be lacking somewhere else because of that.
12:28So good for them.
12:29So already that they added a five-second on the grid to help everybody else, that's a little bit pushing
12:33it.
12:34It's not cool.
12:34It's not fair.
12:36And ultimately, like Lawson's bad start, he had a wheel spin anyway, so it wasn't fully related to that.
12:41And the problem is not off the line.
12:43It's once they get going, that suddenly they run out of battery.
12:46And we saw the Mercedes run out of battery before hitting the brakes.
12:49That gave an advantage to Ferrari, and they should keep that advantage.
12:52Two at the top from last year.
12:54Let's hear from the McLaren and Red Bull drivers, because obviously both of those teams are a long way.
13:01Almost a minute off George Russell last weekend.
13:04A weekend full of learnings.
13:07Some good things, some not-so-good things.
13:09But all things that we need to, we want to improve on.
13:12So it's been a busy week for the whole team, both the team that are here traveling, but also the
13:17team back in MTC.
13:19Trying to step it up as much as possible.
13:22Learn what we could from others, learn what we could from ourselves, and do a much better job all around
13:28here in Shanghai.
13:29I mean, for sure there is a lot of potential.
13:33It's just going to depend, of course, on if we can extract that, I guess, throughout the year.
13:40The gap, of course, was quite big.
13:44And also in the race, I think, if I would have started, let's say, a little bit up front,
13:49I think the best that I could have done was one spot higher.
13:53Because we didn't have the pace of the top four cars.
13:56We also had a lot of degradation and graining.
13:58I think our chances, you know, I'm not expecting it to be dramatically different to Melbourne.
14:04I think we've identified, you know, quite a lot of areas where we can improve and where we could have
14:09done better.
14:10But I think most people will have those opportunities.
14:13So I think it'll be a similar picture, but hopefully we can get a bit closer.
14:18Honestly, it's such a jungle out there at the moment, I think, that it's very hard to really know.
14:24I mean, I would hope that it gets a bit closer, not even bigger than the gap that it was
14:28in Melbourne.
14:30But it's clear that at the moment we cannot fight.
14:36And therein lies Max's issue, isn't it?
14:39Number one, he's not the biggest fan of these new rules and regulations, and he's a minute off at the
14:45moment.
14:45He's not. I mean, I don't want to be unfair to Max, but perhaps he's not unfair for his patience
14:51if his car isn't particularly good.
14:52So where does that leave things going forward for him?
14:55Well, it looks like the regulations put him in a bad mood.
14:59And that's not when you drive at your best.
15:02And even last year, when he was a little bit slower, he always thought,
15:06OK, I can get in there, I can get some points, I can still bring the fight to them.
15:09And he was still happy.
15:10But it looks like he's just a little bit too far off now that he doesn't have that feeling.
15:14Plus, not being happy about the regulations.
15:17Just, you know, it makes him moody, it makes him take the plane, get to the racetrack,
15:20and think, ah, it's just a day in the office instead of, I'm having fun on a racetrack.
15:24It's become a bit of a job for him.
15:26But equally, I think things can change quickly.
15:29He gets a podium this weekend, he wins the race.
15:31I mean, he's only going to be happy if he's winning.
15:33And he's more on top of, or they're more on top of the car themselves.
15:36Because their power unit doesn't look too bad.
15:38I know they feel like they're missing to Mercedes.
15:40But it's efficient, it's a new power unit.
15:42If you think of the rate of development that they have the potential to have,
15:44if you look at last year, where they were around this time,
15:47by the end of the year, I think that's going to be what motivates Max.
15:50But we all know he's motivated by pure racing.
15:53And I think we want to see that.
15:55And hopefully, later in the year, he has the opportunity to show that.
15:58McLaren back down to earth with the bump.
15:59We talked about this last weekend, Jacques.
16:01They've showed it before over the last few years,
16:03that they can turn it around in a set of regulations, development-wise.
16:07They're going to need to do it again.
16:08Is this going to be more difficult?
16:09It's surprising how far they were from Mercedes.
16:13Because it's supposed to be the same engine,
16:14so we all believe it's the same engine.
16:16And they're, what, a second half for the chassis?
16:19Or 8th, 10th?
16:20That seems a lot when they were so far ahead last year.
16:23But it could be that they spent all their time and energy
16:26in winning the championship last year
16:27and got the eye off the ball of preparing this year.
16:30I think the thing this year is it's not plug-in' and play with the engines.
16:34You know, you don't just get given an engine, put it in the car,
16:36and that's that service provided.
16:37With the deployment, there are so many systems.
16:39So much optimisation that's required that I think at the moment
16:43that's the head-scratcher for a lot of the teams.
16:45And Mercedes are obviously on top of it.
16:47They've had that engine and knowledge of that engine throughout.
16:50The customer team's got given it just before the first race.
16:52I think they're sort of getting up to speed with what they can get out of it.
16:55This weekend's going to be tough.
16:56It's only one practice session.
16:57But every session they get under their belts,
16:59they're going to work out how to get the most out of that engine,
17:02like the factory team of Mercedes.
17:03To that point, actually, because of the nature of a sprint weekend,
17:07reliability, actually, it wasn't too bad, was it,
17:10for an opening race in a new set of rules and regulations?
17:1316 of the 22 cars finishing.
17:15And I wonder if that would be the case here,
17:17because a lot to get through in this one hour of practice.
17:20Let's go to Ant at the Skypad.
17:23Shanghai International Circuit's a very different circuit layout
17:25compared to Albert Park, where you were last weekend.
17:28So it poses new challenges for these new regulations
17:31and these new cars.
17:33So, I mean, looking at the circuit,
17:35there's a lot more going on,
17:36a lot more tight corners like Turn 6,
17:39and you've got Turn 2 into Turn 3 as well.
17:43Turn 11 and 12 is another slow-speed part of the track,
17:46and obviously the tightest corner on the track down at Turn 14.
17:49And all of these corners mean more harvesting of energy.
17:53So hopefully, fingers crossed,
17:55we won't be seeing so many super clips
17:57and the cars painfully running out of speed.
18:00This would be quite a different track to look at
18:02and to drive from a driver's point of view.
18:04So that should all be good.
18:06And then you've got other good challenges as well,
18:08like Turn 8 through into the double left-hander of Turns 9 and 10,
18:12places on the circuit where you really need to work with the car balance.
18:15So, yeah, a good combination of high-speed and slow-speed.
18:18But reliability is still going to be key,
18:21and even more so for this session coming up in FP1.
18:24And we saw this play out in Melbourne.
18:28Lindblad working his way out of the pits,
18:29and the car goes into a horrible kind of stall situation,
18:34pulling over to the right-hand side.
18:36He did eventually get the car going again.
18:39Lando Norris comes into the pits and had to abort the session,
18:42the car ending up on the high stands for the remainder.
18:44And this kind of situation is terrible
18:47when you're missing out on such valuable track time.
18:50Alex Albon in the Williams had a hydraulics issue.
18:54He lost power steering,
18:56came to a grinding halt and had to get out of the car.
18:59And, obviously, this kind of situation is exactly what you don't need in FP1.
19:05Aston Martin's woes continued,
19:07and nobody seems completely immune to this reliability problem
19:12in these early days of the new regulations.
19:13Fernando Alonso is sitting out,
19:15not even getting into his race suit,
19:16sitting out the entire session.
19:18So, if any of this kind of stuff plays out in FP1 here,
19:21you're immediately in to sprint qualifying.
19:27Hence the thrill of a sprint weekend,
19:29particularly under these rules.
19:31I love sprint weekends.
19:33We have a good Friday, which makes the difference.
19:36It doesn't really change Saturday.
19:37We have a good Friday.
19:38And with the new rules now, nobody still...
19:39They won't have time to really figure out
19:41when's the best time to harvest the energy or not.
19:44But then they'll have the sprint race
19:45to get prepared for the main race.
19:47It's fun.
19:47Is it going to increase the jeopardy, do you think?
19:49I think a little bit.
19:50I think we're all talking about the deployment,
19:52but the mechanical balance as well.
19:54Last year, we saw the two Ferraris get it wrong
19:55with the ride heights.
19:56I think there's a lot to do in this very short period of time
19:59ahead of, well, qualifying later this afternoon.
20:01Very quickly on Aston and the start.
20:03Can you believe where they are
20:05or how they've started this season?
20:07They did better than expected in that first race.
20:09They did the first race, didn't they?
20:10Put it around, but yeah.
20:11And we hear it's vibrations.
20:14When you have vibrations coming from the engine,
20:15it's not something you fix.
20:17Absolutely.
20:18Okay, what are we expecting then?
20:19Are we expecting a fast and furious session here?
20:22Has to be.
20:23I think they've all got to get on it pretty quickly now.
20:25Okay, there we go.
20:26That is the scenes.
20:27I think Fernando Alonso leaning against the wall.
20:29As we're saying, you know,
20:31I don't think they're expecting to finish this race.
20:33They've still got a lot of work to do,
20:35but they managed to get some laps in last time round,
20:38which is more than can be said.
20:40Finneka Hochberg and Aldi, though, getting a point.
20:43Lando Norris, as I mentioned, with a bit of catch-up.
20:46So, to Williams, our practice is next.
20:49Don't go anywhere.
20:59If you're watching us, great commitment overnight in the UK.
21:02We're live with practice one.
21:04Sprint qualify, much more sociable time at breakfast time, 6.50.
21:08Then on Saturday, busy as always on sprint weekends.
21:12The sprint itself at 25 past two.
21:15Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix is at 6.30.
21:18The details for Sunday morning look like this.
21:225.30 on air.
21:23Race starts at 7 o'clock.
21:25Let's head up to David Croft and Friends.
21:57We'll see you next time.
22:23We'll see you next time.
22:26We'll start the Formula One season in 2026.
22:29And we've moved from Australia all the way up to Shanghai.
22:32Population approximately 25 million people.
22:35There's a healthy attendance here for practice and sprint qualifying day.
22:40Yeah, it's a sprint weekend.
22:41Just one practice session for the drivers and teams coming up.
22:4556 laps on Sunday.
22:473.39 miles this circuit.
22:49And there are 16 corners.
22:527 to the left and 9 to the right.
22:54Top speed around about 210 miles an hour.
22:58There's your corners.
22:58There's your layout.
22:59Plenty of chances to harvest your energy around this lap.
23:03It is very different to Melbourne.
23:05The tyre compounds pretty much the same as we've had the last two years.
23:08They've changed a bit.
23:09The tyres are narrower in 2026.
23:11But it is the C2 hard, C3 medium and C4 soft.
23:15And look at that.
23:16What a beautiful day it is here in Shanghai.
23:18But it's chilly.
23:20Track temperature only 14.5 degrees at the moment.
23:23Air temperature 12 degrees.
23:26There is a chill in the air.
23:28But here we are huddled in the commentary box keeping nice and warm.
23:31Bernie Collins and Anthony Davidson alongside me.
23:35What a weekend this could be then.
23:37No sooner have the teams got a slight handle on the new rules and regs
23:40than we're throwing a sprint race their way.
23:43And hardly any time to get practicing.
23:45I'm looking forward to this one, Crofty.
23:47Great to be back here in China in the Shanghai International Circuit.
23:50I haven't been here personally since before COVID time.
23:52So, yeah, a lot has changed in and around the track.
23:56And, yeah, and the cars on the track as well have changed this time around.
23:59So, yeah, they're really up against it in FP1 to get down to work
24:03and gather all that information before that valuable sprint qualifying coming up next.
24:08I told you we were huddled together in the commentary box.
24:10There was barely any room to swing a cat, even if we had one, to be honest.
24:14Bernie Collins, what interested you down in the pit lane today?
24:17You and Ted were patrolling and seeing some upgrades?
24:19Yeah, we've seen some upgrades.
24:20We've seen the Ferrari, the Macarena wing, as it's called.
24:23Go on, do it.
24:24Yeah, Macarena.
24:25And the best bit about that is we have a different Ferrari this year than last year.
24:30And I don't just mean the car.
24:32They are blasting out the Macarena music in the Ferrari garage,
24:36I think, to upset the Red Bull garage next door.
24:39Red Bull are notorious for it.
24:40They're always the ones playing music the loudest.
24:42But I think it just shows a confidence in Ferrari that we've not seen in the last few years.
24:49They're feeling they're up for it.
24:51They could be quick here.
24:52They will be quick here.
24:53I'm putting...
24:54Why will they be quick here?
24:55I'm putting two and two together here, Crofty.
24:57All right.
24:57So bear with me.
24:59So the small turbo, right?
25:01Yeah.
25:01They were quick in Bahrain.
25:02Yes.
25:03You need, in the winter testing, you need the small turbo for slow speed corners.
25:07It spools up quicker.
25:08It uses less of your battery in the process as it's spooling up.
25:12So I'm using that information based on what we saw in race pace in Melbourne.
25:19And I just think the two combined for this track here in Shanghai,
25:23where you're definitely going to need a smaller turbo for a lot more slow speed corners than we had in
25:29Melbourne.
25:29Yeah.
25:30And I really think they can be a genuine threat.
25:33Maybe even the fastest team here.
25:35The year of the prancing horse.
25:37Oh, and there's one more thing as well.
25:39What?
25:39They seem to be able to get up to speed rapidly compared to the Mercedes power unit runners and many
25:45others.
25:45Red Bull are pretty good as well in that regard.
25:47We've seen it all the way through testing.
25:49And we saw it again in FP1 in Melbourne.
25:51They topped the timesheets and Red Bull went too far away.
25:54So you need to, like I say, to really get down to business early here in FP1.
26:00And that's going to be their friend.
26:02Franco Colopinto, Ted Kravitz, doesn't seem to have any friends down in the pit lane.
26:06He's desperately trying to barge in.
26:07And no one's letting him through.
26:10Hello, Crofty.
26:11Hello, Anthony.
26:11Hello, everybody.
26:12Yes, morning from the bright, breezy pit lane.
26:14I'm not sure what you're talking about about the weather.
26:16It's perfectly warm, Crofty.
26:18Look, no shorts, but I do have the shirt out.
26:20So no problem here.
26:21But I'm interested in this man, the four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
26:26And it's a funny one, Crofty, because you know this Shanghai international circuit was built on a swamp.
26:32Yes.
26:32That's not a joke.
26:33It was built back in 2003, 2004 on swampland.
26:37But Max called it earlier in the weekend.
26:39He said that F1 is a jungle out there at the moment.
26:43But what interests me is that, as you know, Crofty, the king of the jungle is the lion.
26:48And who sports the Dutch lion on the top of his crash helmet?
26:51Max Verstappen.
26:52Max Verstappen, exactly.
26:53So we're expecting to see a bit more of a showing from Verstappen,
26:57who was compromised by that crash in qualifying just a few days ago in Melbourne
27:02to challenge the Ferrari you're talking about and the pace-setting Mercedes,
27:07which only leaves us to say where will the world champion Lando Norris be this weekend?
27:11Another storyline I'll be keeping on top of down here in the pit lane.
27:15Thank you very much.
27:16If I can then misquote Axel Rose, welcome to the jungle.
27:20We've got fun and games.
27:22And straight out onto the track, there is George Russell,
27:24championship leader from his teammate Kimi Antonelli.
27:27First time we've had an English driver lead an Italian driver in the championship
27:32since Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese for Williams back in 1992.
27:37More spurious stats coming your way throughout the weekend.
27:40And we can ride on board with the Mercedes now.
27:44The sad truth is, Crofty, I remember that season quite vividly.
27:48So he's showing my age.
27:51And George Russell here.
27:52I think, you know, so far this season, showing his maturity, showing his quest for performance.
27:59Oh, Franco Colopinto, has he had a bit of a spin?
28:01It looks like it through the tricky section of turns two and three.
28:07No, he's actually, that's down at nine and ten.
28:09He was facing the wrong way.
28:11That's what caught you out a little bit there.
28:13Oh, yes.
28:13Oh, right over that curb as well.
28:15Good measure.
28:15Well done, Franco.
28:17To be honest, Franco Colopinto, whatever he does this weekend, he excelled himself at the start last weekend.
28:24And that's near escape.
28:28Every time I see it, I still wonder how he managed to avoid Liam Lawson.
28:32And I was chatting to Franco yesterday, and he was like, yeah, yeah, I still don't want to watch it
28:37too much
28:38because it was a lot closer than I ever thought it was.
28:41Let's have a little look at what happened with Franco here.
28:43Whoa.
28:44Nah, let's not drive it error.
28:45It's an idle-up as well.
28:47Yeah.
28:47Brake-by-wire type issue or one of these where all the braking energy goes straight to the rear brakes
28:53and the engine doesn't do the braking for you.
28:55That's exactly what we saw happen to Verstappen, wasn't it?
28:57We'll be at a much higher speed into turn one.
28:59So that's just one of these complexities with these modern power units
29:05where as soon as the electric motor hands over to the actual mechanical rear brakes,
29:12it can have you point in the opposite direction.
29:17Now, Lando Norris is right behind Lewis Hamilton down at the hairpin,
29:23and I think just trying to make himself a little bit of a gap so he can go on a
29:26lap.
29:26But there's no gap there whatsoever, is there?
29:29Because I think Lewis was trying to make a bit of a gap.
29:31Let's have a look at, well, he's just gone out of shot there at the Ferrari rear wing.
29:37We're focusing on the McLaren, but everyone wants to see the flippy 180 Ferrari rear wing,
29:42which I'm going to call the Luke Littler rear wing, because it goes 180, yeah?
29:49Yeah, you do that.
29:53What happened here?
29:54Lewis, Lando was going to overtake him, and Lewis was like, no, no, no, no, no.
29:58That got a bit close, didn't it?
30:00Did they even touch?
30:01Did they even touch?
30:02I saw some, and it's just maybe some debris on the track, but how is that?
30:08I think they did touch, you know.
30:10I think maybe Lewis has got some floor damage from that.
30:15Feisty at the start of a bit.
30:16Lewis has now gone off the track.
30:20That was a bit more feisty than you would expect.
30:23I think he's had more than just an off-crust.
30:26I think he might have spun around.
30:28He's got flat spots on his tyres there.
30:30Yeah, he has.
30:32Front right, front left.
30:32Down into turns, all of them.
30:34He must have spun around.
30:35He must have, to get all four, he must have spun around in turn six.
30:38Let's have a watch.
30:41Whoa.
30:44Wow.
30:45And again, not drive the error.
30:47He was quite wide over to the left-hand side on the white line,
30:52but I don't think it was that.
30:54Oh, I'm just wondering.
30:56It happens just as his rear wing was closing.
31:02He's locked up.
31:04Yeah, it's more of a MGUK problem than an aero problem, I should imagine.
31:11So, yeah, I mean, it's completely locked up.
31:13He's right.
31:14Valtteri Bottas, formerly of Mercedes, now of Cadillac,
31:18and George Russell going wheel to wheel around that banked corner
31:22at the start of the back straight.
31:25And you can see George Russell with the active aero there.
31:28He's got a bit more pace.
31:29There's a lot of cars as they come into the end of their push lap,
31:33all trying to make a little bit of space here,
31:36and they're all tripping over each other.
31:38Yeah, the driver tracker's gone down,
31:40so we can't actually see the positions of the cars on track.
31:43But there's quite a lot, and I wonder if that's a problem for the teams.
31:46I wonder if the teams are struggling with GPS out there
31:48and therefore not giving the drivers the right sort of gaps
31:51for beginning their laps.
31:53But you can see there Lando Norris trying to get...
31:56He thought that Lewis was going so slow
31:58that he would take the position from him and open his lap
32:01and have a nice gap, and Lewis wasn't having that.
32:04So maybe that aerole begins to gain some of that sequence.
32:07But, Bernie, so, you know, with all this action going on relatively early
32:12and drivers having spins and flat spots on their tyres,
32:16what are the knock-on effects then, therefore?
32:17What do you do now if you're Ferrari
32:19and you've got four flat-spotted tyres, for example?
32:22Yeah, so it's really detrimental, I think,
32:24because in this session you're trying to run two sets of tyres.
32:27The majority of the field are running a medium tyre.
32:30That's good learning for SQ1 and SQ2 that we go into this afternoon.
32:35By flat-spotting the tyres, they'll look at the vibration of that tyre
32:39as it comes back into the garage,
32:41decide if it's good enough to go again.
32:43Sometimes they can rebalance it.
32:44That's enough to get some more running on it.
32:46But they'd have wanted to get a bit of a long run
32:48to get a start of a feel for the sprint
32:51that we're going to have tomorrow morning,
32:53how the cars react and how the balance is.
32:55They've basically got no read on those tyres now,
32:57and they might need to go to their second set earlier
33:00than they would have done.
33:01If that set was a soft in preparation for SQ3 later on today,
33:05it won't do as many laps.
33:07So it does become very restrictive on your programme.
33:09You can hear the floor of the McLaren really scraping on the tarmac
33:16as Piastri puts in a 1.36-0.
33:19Alex Albon goes seventh fastest.
33:21Here's Charles Leclerc picking up a lovely toe
33:23behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton
33:25and second fastest as he crosses the line.
33:28About half a second behind Kimi Antonelli,
33:31who's got the fastest laps so far.
33:33Hamilton continues on his way,
33:34even with those flat spots on the tyres.
33:37I think whatever Leclerc gained in slipstream there, Crofty,
33:41he would have definitely lost out more so
33:43into the final corner.
33:45Hamilton clearly struggling on those flat-spotted tyres.
33:48We're going to see another replay.
33:57And that won't give you much confidence,
34:00even if you are the seven-time world champion.
34:03There is your 180-degree Luke Littler Macarena rear wing.
34:08So it deactivates, the straight mode deactivates
34:12as soon as you lift fully off the throttle
34:13or if you hit the brakes.
34:15So that was just coming into the braking zone.
34:17In a straight line, you would say
34:19you don't have to deactivate it manually
34:21via the button on the steering wheel,
34:23which they use to open it in the first place.
34:27So it should be one of those corners,
34:29as it's turned 14 after the long back straight,
34:33one of those corners where you can just brake
34:35in a straight line and rely on it doing its thing.
34:38But it could be one of the complexities
34:41of running a wing like that
34:42is that it may be slower to reattach the airflow.
34:46So it's one thing for Frey to consider
34:49in all of this as well.
34:50And one of the things that sort of Ted and I were like,
34:52I don't remember what he kept saying earlier is,
34:54because of the movement of it,
34:56actually the full face of the wing is in the airflow.
35:00Other wings don't go that.
35:01They go from flat to up a little bit.
35:03It goes all the way around.
35:04Let's have a listen to that.
35:05I just wanted to hear the super clip kicking in,
35:08what we would have called the derate
35:10or clipping back in the day.
35:12He will get it.
35:13It'll come.
35:14Don't worry about that.
35:15George Russell continues on his way.
35:17You might want to ride on board with George Russell
35:18on what I think is going to be the fastest lap
35:21of the session so far.
35:22And if you do decide to do that,
35:24well, you can.
35:25Kimi Antonelli was the fastest.
35:28George Russell goes ahead of him
35:30by about three one-hundredths of a second.
35:32All 22 drivers on board and the team radio
35:36go to your Sky Sports app,
35:39your Sky Sports login,
35:40and away you go.
35:41There's a QR code to help you on your way
35:44if you're watching on SkyQ, Skyglass, Skystream,
35:47or now use the interactive button on your remote control.
35:51I'll tell you what,
35:52George Russell is not going to stay fastest
35:54for very much longer.
35:55Kimi Antonelli,
35:57finding some pace,
35:59was about to go about seven-tenths faster,
36:01but I've absolutely cursed it.
36:03We've got a virtual safety car
36:05and I wonder if we've got some debris on the track.
36:08Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile,
36:09has been noted for causing a collision
36:12with Lando Norris.
36:14It hasn't gone to the stewards yet,
36:15but it has been reported by race control.
36:18I mean, obviously he didn't see him
36:21and if we have got GPS problems
36:24and the team wouldn't have warned him,
36:25but yeah, you're absolutely right, Crofty.
36:26We do have damage.
36:29Yeah, and as small as that may be,
36:32that could pick up a punch.
36:34Oh, you've got a car.
36:36You've got a car just about to go past the marshals there
36:38and I know it's under VSC,
36:40but I'm with Martin Brundle on this.
36:42I never like to see marshals running onto a track
36:45when cars are going past.
36:47Gabriel Bortoleto,
36:48is it from his alley?
36:49He had another lockup, didn't he?
36:51Oh yeah, I think that was more driver error
36:54just approaching the corner with great speed.
36:56Probably faster than he's been into that corner before
36:58with different deployment,
36:59but yeah, from the moment we started riding on board,
37:03I thought, you're coming up to the braking zone.
37:05You're going to have to brake at some point,
37:07but I'm not surprised that it ended up in a double lock
37:10and what's Hajar been up to through turn seven.
37:14Oh, a car right in the way.
37:17What the f*** is going on, man?
37:20The traffic is unbelievable.
37:22Might have been a Cadillac to his left-hand side.
37:25He reminds me of Yuki Tsunoda in many ways
37:28and his overreactions to traffic
37:30or any kind of misdemeanor that's out there.
37:34And I do feel like young Isaac has to measure that emotion
37:41to get more out of himself as an athlete
37:43because you can't go carrying that hot-headedness
37:49into future laps.
37:51I think it is a delicate process driving an F1 car.
37:55You have to carry speed, of course,
37:57but you also have to drive the car
37:59with your fingertips in many corners
38:01and really feel, obviously, the balance of that car.
38:03And, yeah, it's not...
38:05You shouldn't drive these cars with constant road rage.
38:08That's, you know, it's not like that.
38:10I could understand if it was qualifying,
38:12but this is practice.
38:13And as frustrating as it might be,
38:15it's not necessarily the end of the world
38:18if you have that incident in a practice session.
38:21And he's going to have to...
38:23Oh, look at that, Verstappen.
38:24Great control there as the back end got away from him.
38:27Absolutely, Crofty.
38:28And he's going to have to toughen up mentally
38:30to deal with somebody like Verstappen this year
38:32because the blows are going to come thick and fast.
38:35And if you react like that every single time,
38:38anything remotely bad goes wrong,
38:41you're in for a really long season of misery.
38:44That is true.
38:45Right, so let's head down to Ted Kravitz.
38:47What do you got for us, Ted?
38:48Well, we've underlined how important it is
38:50to be out running in these sprint weekends
38:53in free practice one.
38:54And I was kind of surprised to see Carlos Sainz
38:56come into the garage after just one lap, Crofty,
38:59and expecting to see him back out again.
39:01He hasn't been anywhere for the last five or six minutes.
39:04Only done one run.
39:06They had to put the electrical safety rubber gloves on
39:09when he came in.
39:10I think the car is okay,
39:11but he's just sitting there,
39:12not going anywhere at the moment.
39:14The car is now fixed already
39:16from whatever issue it had before
39:18that meant that caution.
39:20But, yeah, just not getting the laps in
39:23that Williams so desperately need.
39:25And they do.
39:26Not the best start to the season
39:28for a Williams team.
39:30Team principal James Vowell
39:31says the car is overweight
39:33and they've got all the solutions
39:35on his desk, he said,
39:36to fix the problems.
39:38But in this cost cap era,
39:41you can't go spending a huge amount of money.
39:43And that is the racing balls there
39:45of Arvid Lindblad down at the hairpin.
39:49Parked to one side.
39:50That's why we got the yellow flag.
39:52Kimi Antonelli is going to have to lift off again.
39:54It's the second lap in a row.
39:56A push lap in a row
39:57where he's been a bit thwarted here
39:59by either a virtual safety car
40:01or by the double-waved yellow.
40:04See, well, the yellow flags.
40:05He's lifted.
40:06He's ended up six-tenths behind George Russell.
40:10But once again,
40:10he would have gone faster than George Russell
40:12were those yellow flags not out there.
40:14And, right, what's happened to the racing balls?
40:17And, oh, this is very bad news.
40:19If Arvid Lindblad is getting out of the car,
40:22virtual safety car's been deployed.
40:25This is potentially...
40:27And I would have...
40:28Yeah, they're not going to get the car
40:29back to the pit lane.
40:31This could be season...
40:32session ending for Arvid Lindblad here
40:35who might be going into his first-ever
40:37qualifying session
40:38at the Shanghai International Circuit
40:41having had little or no practice.
40:43How many laps has Arvid Lindblad done?
40:46Five.
40:47That was his sixth lap.
40:49Oh, is that the air...
40:50the fire extinguisher?
40:53You might be right there, Crofty.
40:55It's fairly short-lived, isn't it?
40:58And I did assume
41:00when I saw the angle of the car
41:01on the inside of the corner there
41:02that it obviously wasn't driver error
41:05and it could be a session-ending moment.
41:09He would have been told by the team
41:11to pull over there, do you think?
41:12That smoke...
41:13I mean, maybe he shut the engine off
41:15as soon as that smoke started to...
41:19started to fill the cockpit too much.
41:21But, wow, that's...
41:22that's exactly what we were talking about.
41:24And he featured on my Skypad hit
41:27pre-session as well from Melbourne.
41:29So, two FP1s two weeks in a row
41:31he's been plagued with issues.
41:34But this time around
41:35it's going to hit them much harder.
41:37And using that Red Bull powertrain engine
41:39which I think has power
41:41and it has performance
41:42but is reliability a bit of a question?
41:45Especially after what happened to Isaac Hadjar
41:47in the race in Melbourne.
41:50I'm told the power unit
41:51has just got back to Milton Keynes.
41:53They're looking at it
41:54to see if it can be salvageable.
41:56And also, Bernie, what went wrong?
41:57Yeah, exactly.
41:59I think I spoke to some of the Red Bull guys
42:00leaving the paddock in Australia
42:02and they were saying
42:03they tried really, really hard
42:05to break the engine intestine
42:06and couldn't get it done.
42:08And then race one, you know,
42:10unfortunately for Isaac
42:11who was having...
42:12it's such a good qualifying
42:13it was a bit disappointing to see that.
42:16And, you know, now again
42:16we don't know what this issue is
42:18but that's the problem
42:20is that even with having
42:22the test in Barcelona
42:24then the two tests in Bahrain
42:25you've not got the mileage
42:27on these engines
42:28the reliability that you had
42:30of the end of last season
42:32for example
42:32on an engine that you've been running
42:34for almost 10 years basically.
42:37So the teams are all learning out there
42:39and that's...
42:40you know, we've not talked about Aston
42:42but that's the difficulty
42:42for a team like Aston or Audi
42:45that they've only got two cars
42:47running the engine.
42:47You're just not adding the mileage
42:49you're not getting
42:50the little reliability niggles.
42:51and as well as that
42:53you know, we talk about
42:54that Red Bull team
42:56having this new engine
42:57again when I spoke to
42:58one of the engineers
42:59in Australia
42:59they were saying
43:00the whole background team is new
43:02the people in Milton Keynes
43:04that are looking through
43:04all the data
43:05how they're working
43:06with the people at the track
43:07there'll be people
43:08that are specifically looking
43:09at different parameters
43:10on the engine
43:11and trying to work out
43:12like what's wrong
43:13when to stop the car
43:14if there's a potential issue
43:16that whole team is new
43:18and all working together
43:19for the first time as well.
43:20Right, the marshals
43:21are pushing away
43:22the racing bulls
43:23who are under
43:24a virtual safety car
43:25Lewis Hamilton
43:26has said
43:26these tyres are so bad
43:27I might need to come in
43:29and change them
43:29and that's not a surprise
43:30after his big lock-up
43:32right at the start
43:32there's been a lot
43:33going on here
43:34in this only practice session
43:43Lando Norris
43:44completes another lap
43:46his latest lap
43:48on a race simulation
43:51I would hope
43:52because he was
43:531.3 seconds off the pace
43:55but a 1.35.5
43:57for Lando Norris
43:58is his best so far
44:00this morning
44:01right
44:02let's head trackside
44:03shall we
44:04down to turn 3
44:05always a place
44:07full of incidents
44:08Jamie Chadwick
44:09is down there
44:10and has been
44:11watching the cars
44:12Jamie
44:15thanks Crofton
44:16yeah it's been a busy session
44:17busy start to the session
44:18which we expected
44:18but down at turn 3
44:20it's an interesting
44:21sort of complex here
44:22because
44:22if you've got that
44:23long tightening radius
44:24of turn 2
44:25you can see
44:26turn 1 actually
44:27directly opposite me
44:28and then it comes
44:28straight into turn 3
44:29which is actually
44:30quite a downhill
44:31left-hander
44:32and quite big differences
44:33in the lines
44:34that drivers are taking here
44:35it's the Mercedes
44:36that seems to be able
44:37to keep the car
44:39just a car width
44:40half a car width
44:40over to the right
44:41to open up turn 3
44:42a little bit more
44:43and I think
44:44all the drivers
44:45are just trying to get
44:46laps under their belt
44:47get used to the deployment
44:48but mechanically
44:49the drivers are going to be
44:50searching for that
44:51big corner rotation
44:52in the low speed
44:53corners like this
44:54they're tight
44:55they're downhill
44:55it's hard to get the car
44:56rotated and turned
44:57and ultimately get it straight
44:59because it's a huge amount
45:00of deployment
45:01that the drivers
45:02are now experiencing
45:02on the corner exit
45:03so it's interesting
45:05it's now a little bit
45:05of a moment apiece
45:06we've not got so many
45:07cars out
45:07but yeah
45:08at the beginning
45:09of the session
45:09there was a lot
45:10of different drivers
45:10experimenting with
45:11with different lines
45:12and also gear usage
45:14Alpine trying a higher
45:15gear usage
45:16which sounded a little
45:17bit weird
45:17but yeah
45:18maybe something to try
45:19there
45:20Jamie thanks ever
45:21so much indeed
45:22that first sequence
45:23of corners ants
45:24perfect for topping up
45:26your battery
45:26if nothing else
45:28it's definitely
45:29one of the corners
45:30on the track
45:30or the complexes
45:32on the circuit
45:33where you can do
45:34a lot of regen
45:35yeah
45:35because obviously
45:37you don't just regen
45:38on the brakes
45:38you regen when you're
45:40off the throttle
45:40and when you're
45:41off the throttle
45:42you can get a full
45:42350 kilowatt
45:44of regen
45:44if you want
45:45and so that's
45:47a great part of the track
45:48to top up your
45:49battery like you say
45:50but driving wise
45:52it's a really challenging
45:54part of the track
45:55and that still remains
45:56very much so
45:57this year
45:58with these new regulations
45:59you will ignore
46:01all of that
46:02kind of battery
46:02management stuff
46:03through turns one
46:05two
46:05where we're looking at
46:06now down the hill
46:07and towards turn three
46:08and the exit as well
46:09you ignore all of that
46:11because it happens
46:11naturally
46:12so it's more about
46:14fighting the car
46:15like always
46:16monitoring your front left
46:18because it always
46:19starts to slip
46:20at some point
46:20and that's what
46:21contributes to the
46:22front graining
46:22which looks like
46:23absolute torturous
46:25graining on front
46:26of the
46:27well of all cars
46:28really have done
46:29enough laps
46:29the Ferrari
46:30and the McLaren
46:30so this is
46:31running on board
46:32with Norris
46:32so down through
46:33the gears
46:34turning more
46:34and it can also
46:36snap as well
46:37if you get your
46:38balance wrong
46:38when you go up
46:39and through that
46:40corner
46:40the wind direction
46:41can change
46:42because you're in
46:42it for so long
46:43Norris is running
46:45out a bit wide
46:45a bit bumpy
46:46there as well
46:47because you're on
46:48the brakes
46:48and turning
46:49and downshifting
46:50it's all going on
46:52and it's a corner
46:53that you kind of
46:54love to hate
46:55you appreciate
46:56how difficult
46:56it is
46:57but you really
46:59respect the
47:00challenge of that
47:01I would say
47:02a brilliant piece
47:04of circuit design
47:05I couldn't agree
47:08more
47:08and I love it
47:09at the start
47:10when there's a lot
47:11of cars going
47:12side by side
47:13through those
47:13first few corners
47:14you can make
47:15places up
47:16you can easily
47:17lose places too
47:18and you can lose
47:19bits of bodywork
47:20as they'll get
47:21a bit close
47:22Russell on a
47:23flying lap
47:23but he lost
47:24the rear as well
47:25almost did
47:26Orlando Norris
47:27in that part
47:28of the track
47:28and sort of
47:29backed out of it
47:30earlier
47:30he felt it
47:31happening earlier
47:32so not the best
47:33of first sectors
47:35for Russell
47:35yeah
47:35and there you go
47:36it's over
47:37seven tenths
47:38down already
47:38as Marcus Dudley
47:40as race engineer
47:41you see that
47:42right inside
47:43of your screen
47:44now this is
47:45another great
47:46piece of circuit
47:47design
47:47through turn seven
47:48hug the inside
47:49good opportunity
47:50to save your
47:52battery through here
47:53and carry that
47:54energy somewhere
47:55else
47:55and that somewhere
47:56else is on the
47:57exit of this
47:58corner here
47:59turn 10
47:59now you deploy
48:00more there
48:01and that's what
48:02the system under
48:03you will be
48:03learning every
48:04lap that you do
48:05so being
48:06consistent as a
48:07driver Crofty
48:08right now
48:09is to your
48:10benefit
48:11because the system
48:12will learn how
48:13you're driving
48:13and work out
48:15those places
48:15of deployment
48:16around the lap
48:16if you keep
48:17messing up
48:18locking up
48:19giving it too
48:20much here
48:20or not enough
48:21there
48:21and you're
48:22inconsistent
48:23you confuse it
48:24all
48:24and then it's
48:26not optimised
48:27so the more
48:28consistent you
48:28can be
48:28at this stage
48:29the more
48:30the engineers
48:31can start to
48:32home in on
48:33where you need
48:33everything to be
48:34working for that
48:36critical qualifying
48:37session
48:37yes it's
48:38absolutely
48:38fascinating
48:39but the drivers
48:40need then
48:40consistency
48:41and to not
48:42make errors
48:43in a practice
48:44session like this
48:45when they've only
48:45got 60 minutes
48:46and I guess you
48:47sorry Crofty
48:48and I guess you
48:48Bernie needed that
48:49as a strategist
48:50you needed drivers
48:51to be consistent
48:52as well
48:52there's no point
48:53them delivering you
48:54topsy turvy lap
48:55times all the time
48:56well yeah
48:57not even as a strategist
48:58but these cars are all
48:59testing different things
49:00maybe a different
49:01front wing element
49:02Ferrari for example
49:03have got their
49:03different rear wing
49:04this weekend
49:05there'll be little
49:06changes they make
49:07in between the runs
49:07and the worst thing
49:08is the driver comes in
49:09and he goes
49:10oh I just found
49:11I just went
49:11three times faster
49:13and then you no idea
49:14what the component
49:14brings you know
49:15so if they found
49:16time within themselves
49:17yeah exactly
49:18like obviously
49:19they're building up
49:19to it
49:20but you are trying
49:21to get certain
49:22tests on certain
49:23information
49:24thanks Bernie
49:25cheers Ant
49:26let's head down
49:26to Ted
49:26what have you spotted
49:28well thank you Crofty
49:29I was just on my way
49:29back to Williams
49:30to find out why
49:30Carlos Sainz
49:31is still in the garage
49:32when I spotted
49:33that Mercedes
49:34have made a change
49:34to their garage
49:35equipment
49:36do you remember
49:36the air fan
49:37that went into
49:38Kimi Antonelli's
49:39side pods in Australia
49:40that came out
49:41because they didn't
49:42notice it
49:42well they have
49:43indeed changed
49:44the colour
49:44of the high vis tape
49:46from green
49:47you can see
49:48it's still green
49:48on the side
49:49but they've changed
49:50it to yellow
49:50which stands out
49:51now much more
49:53against the
49:53some of the green
49:54flashes on the car
49:56so there's a
49:56there's a preponderance
49:57of yellow high vis tape
49:59all around this garage
50:00now look the stands
50:01all the air filters
50:02all the fans
50:03and everything
50:04they're all bedecked
50:05in this yellow
50:06high vis
50:08day glow
50:09tape
50:10to make sure
50:11that no mechanic
50:12now can let the car
50:13go without it
50:15so yeah
50:15before green
50:16which they seem
50:18to blend in
50:18with some of the
50:19Petronas branding
50:20now yellow
50:21nice little change
50:22there
50:23fixed
50:23to make sure
50:24that doesn't happen
50:24again what happened
50:25in Australia
50:25for Kimi
50:26love it
50:27thank you Ted
50:27Lewis Hamilton
50:28back out on soft tyres
50:30those mediums
50:31that he was running
50:33weren't worth running
50:34for much longer
50:35to be honest
50:36but it hasn't been
50:37a great lap so far
50:38is it
50:39over eight tenths away
50:41and it looks like
50:42he's been right on edge
50:43maybe running a bit
50:44more fuel in the car
50:45I don't know
50:45but yeah
50:46only good enough
50:47for P5 at this stage
50:48pole last year
50:50for the sprint race
50:51victory last year
50:52in the sprint race
50:53his only victory
50:54last year
50:55for Ferrari
50:57Gabriel Bortoletto
50:58down at Audi
51:00I need some help
51:00with the engine
51:01it's getting undrivable
51:02he said
51:02to which his engineer
51:03replied
51:05can't help you
51:06right now
51:06which is not
51:07what you want
51:07that is Lewis Hamilton's
51:09temporary race engineer
51:11they'll find another one
51:12soon enough
51:13at Ferrari
51:14and Joe Guanyu
51:15the reserve driver
51:16at Cadillac
51:17yeah we wish
51:18you were out there
51:18as well Joe
51:19and I'm sure
51:20he really wishes
51:21he was out there
51:21in his home city
51:23racing as he did
51:24a couple of years ago
51:25on his home track
51:26Ollie Bearman meanwhile
51:27he's not waiting
51:29for anyone
51:31not sure why
51:32we got that
51:33no
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