The Spanish Grand Prix felt like the weekend when Max Verstappen showed the true extent of his dominance over the 2023 Formula 1 season, winning by a margin that could have been anything he pleased.
In the Barcelona episode of The Race F1 Podcast, Mark Hughes, Edd Straw and Scott Mitchell-Malm explain the factors that allowed Verstappen to extend his advantage this weekend, and why Sergio Perez wasn’t capable of doing the same in the other Red Bull.
They also imagine the race without Verstappen, and it would have been a glorious one for Mercedes. They look into the breakthrough result for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and what it means for the rest of the season, as well as Aston Martin and Ferrari’s struggles.
0:00 – Intro
2:34 – Verstappen’s dominance
5:43 – Perez’s struggles
11:40 – How Mercedes beat Ferrari and Aston Martin
14:21 – Have Mercedes made a step?
19:37 – Will Mercedes close the gap to Red Bull?
22:29 – Ferrari’s upgrades
29:57 – Aston’s worst weekend
32:54 – Alpine underachieve
34:20 – Norris’s bizarre swing
35:59 – Tsunoda vs Zhou
39:17 – Hulkenberg falls back
41:20 – How far in front of the grid box can you be?
43:10 – Record-chasing Verstappen
45:10 – Will anyone challenge Red Bull?
46:06 – Will Zhou keep his seat?
46:51 – Does F1 need professional stewards?
48:08 – Final chicane axed
49:30 – Should all three tyre compounds be mandatory?
50:39 – Ocon vs Alonso
51:40 – Tsunoda’s form
53:55 – Where was Bottas?
54:42 – Williams’s basic floor
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40 Comments
Some people just love to hate on Williams, if you flipped those two photos they'd say how clean and refined the RB looked 🤷♂️
41:19 The response to Hannah ab out grid boxes are not only wrong, but also incredibly undetailed.
"As long as there's a part of the wheel basically making contact with that white box, you're safe" <— Wrong. The wheel cannot touch outside of the white box. If the wheel touches the white box but also the ground outside, you'll get a penalty.
Also you didn't answer anything about the yellow line which she specifically asked about. The answer is that it's just a reference line for drivers visually, and it isn't used to judge anything.
I know checo was not good , but I still think he could have taken 3rd if rb wouldn’t have kept checo on for yards for those extra laps , as soon as George went for softs , next lap checo should have been called for it too .
I’d maybe watch a video that wasn’t about the top 3 teams repeatedly
2:09 ED SNORE!
I have always said Zhou is an absolute grinder. Yuki great driver but tries too hard. He is very emotional.
Bring back the old T10!
Perez giving Max a good race in Miami? What? Max obliterated him… And that's probably where Perez cracked…
Oh so its the driver now. It's not all the car anymore. Hmm
"… because you have a good car…" I think lance has been showing how trash he is compared to Fernando, every damn step of the way
Of course! You mean Max Bull. He is a great driver, but shame of a person
Russell should have been given 2 penalties and both Mercedes could have been disqualified for breaking parc ferme. But of course they got away with everything l. There is way too much bias within f1, favoring 1 team.
Sergio Perez needs to be dropped, he's lost the edge and his balls. Having kids always pulls drivers back from the limit a few notches. Get some young blood in the team before RB loses the constructors…
Even if we ignore Ferrari making bad calls on tires (hards instead of softs) Sainz fvcked up too. He was on radio while #2 saying he still had more performance available, but took it easy with mercedes 4 seconds behind. Sure he wished he would have pushed every lap instead.
Is one of the guys commenting TT on manx Radio? The voice is so familiar to me.
If Redbull can leave a weekend with Verstappen winning and their team scoring the most points, that’s good enough to keep Perez.
More 1-2s would be nice, but not if that leads to more infighting
Mercedes will do great at Spain and Brazil as they did last year, it’s still not clear yet if they have the 2nd best car or not overall yet. But it has got better and adding on sidepods and whatnot does seem to be working
Only now people realize. Perez wanted a fight for the championship, Max fans tried to warm checo fans, this will not end well. Max is an all time great, we saw it coming, and checo will ruin any good repuration he has, battling with Max. And along the way the checo fanbase wil be looking like the most delusional fans ever.. I find it pretty cringe to see checo drown in his own unrealistic expectations. Max is not the compassionate when it comes to winning. He is simply not build that way….
Yuki got screwed, to hell with those who disagree. Max didn't get penalized last year for the same thing.
Just give me the Haas seat , let me beat Verstappen myself in a midfield car since no one else can
How is the offending action Yuki took into turn 1 different than what Max did at the start of the race?
Zhou was never on front of tsunofa to claim that corner, hence penalty was harsh for tsunofa
DON'T Y'ALL SLANDER THE ALONSO HYPE TRAIN.
Perez fan boys, cover your ears. 🤣
The most funny thing in RB is to guess the next shitty thing that vwill affect Sergio Perez car.
At the end of the Azerbaijan race, Max seemed unusually positive about his second place, and he said "I learned some good things today." I really took note of that moment.
After Miami, Monaco, and Spain, I can now see why Max was so cheery in Baku.
I honestly think Verstappen is getting bored and losing interest in this WDC. There is no challenge, no fun. I think he's starting to enjoy his sim-racing activities more. Really need the other teams to step up.
Lewis will win this years Championship. Max is going to expirience DNFS and with Lewis preasure behind him hes going to loose some Races.
Why is this episode not on Spotify?
Red bull should be dominating the CHEATED blowing cost cap in all
Red bull should be dominating the CHEATED blowing cost cap in all
The question I'm most keen on is, has Mercedes stepped up or have Aston Martin and Ferrari stepped down? De difference between Max and the number 2 was about the same, right? I feel we need to wait until the next few races.
Should not forget that in this particular track last year, ferrari is the one that can win dominantly until lecrair turbo failure. So it might be that mercedes cars do not significantly improve due to it's track specific suit them, but the ferrari is actually far worse than last year if this year result showed what their car is capable of.
No driver has ever been close to Verstappen only Riccardo in the beginning of Verstappens career
55:30 "i don't think it is down to inferior personal" 20 seconds later "… they loose some people as well" proceeds the team is on the back foot on aero and that they are hiring to combat that problem". So basically the answer is "yes you hit the nail ion the head but I don't want to publicly discredit the people working there.
You forgot to talk about Russell's side escape in the start of the race.
I don't get it. Checo in 7 races has 4 podiums including two wins and only one finish lower than 5th, and yet he's being painted as some sort of boat anchor dragging Red Bull down. Ridiculous.
Max and Alonso are in a class of One no other driver has come close for the last 10 years and so far.. ignore the cars..
question is could Danial step back into it and do better?
Max is what you call a risky driver and that can both hurt and benefit you. Max in q3 at Monaco was a perfect example of how hard he’s willing to push, bumping several walls to pick up the last sector over Alonso. Checo is a very talented driver, but he lacks the willingness to take risks or trust his car/instincts. That’s the difference between a good driver and a great driver.